Osprey Tempest 20 Review

The Osprey Tempest 20 is a reasonably lightweight daypack with some great features for light day hikes and commuting. It's made of 70-Denier and 100-Denier Mini Shadow Brick nylon, with a 420HD nylon packcloth bottom, weighing 31 ounces. It comes in two sizes: XS/S (13 to 17-inch torso length) and S/M (16 to 20-inch torso length), both of which have adjustable torso lengths.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

The frame of the Tempest is very supportive yet flexible enough to move with you - it rides the line between comfort, support, and minimalism - which we love. The AirScape back panel is reasonably breathable, which we appreciate on a summer bike commute. Speaking of breathability, the BioStretch harness is padded with breathable mesh holes that keep you comfortable in the heat. The hip belt is lightly padded but large enough to swaddle a variety of hip sizes. It's integrated into the back panel to provide a continuous wrap around your waist (no seams between the belt and the bag touching you). We also love how soft the whole harness and back panel of this bag are. They're quite pleasant to wear against your skin on a warm day and do a solid job flexing with you as you move. It distributes the load really nicely, and our testers found it to be incredibly comfortable.

Though this pack is loaded with features for your comfort, it wouldn't be the best bag to load up super heavy. If you are looking for a pack to schlep heavy gear around, we suggest a pack with a bit more capacity and support. However, we can't think of another bad thing to say- this small pack provides full support and is ready to take on any adventure comfortably.

Versatility

There are a lot of great features on the Tempest that make this a super versatile bag for commuting, day hiking, or mountain biking. Every time we used it, we noticed something new. The main compartment has one small internal mesh pocket with a key clip for stowing your essentials, and there's a separate top pouch that's rather large for things you'll want quick access to, like snacks or a light layer. Then, there's an external mesh pouch for a rain or wind jacket. This pack has two water bottle pockets and an internal slot for a hydration bladder (with a hook to hang it). There's a small vertical pocket on the left shoulder strap that can hold your GPS unit and an elastic Stow-on-the-Go loop that easily holds sunglasses.

It also features two hip belt pockets and a great commuter feature: the helmet LidLock. This is our favorite feature on this pack, as it's a quick and easy way to secure a bike helmet without having it bang all over the place. You pull the plastic piece vertically through the slots in your helmet and then rotate it to lay flat on top. The bungee cord creates enough tension to hold it in place with no flopping around.

There's also Osprey's “Stow on the Go” attachment for trekking poles, which carries them between your shoulder strap and hip belt. If you plan to hike for a while with your poles stowed like that, we recommend fiddling with the poles to find a comfortable fit. Finally, there's an ice axe loop with a bungee strap holder for the shaft, a bike light loop, and a whistle on the sternum strap clip. There's no rain cover, though, so you'll need to pick one up separately if that's a priority for you. We did find, however, that the thick fabric did a decent job of repelling water during our hose test, and the interior of the pack was one of our drier options.

There were only a couple of potential downsides to this pack. First, the bladder insertion point is between the pack and frame. While we like the idea of not taking up unnecessary space in the main compartment of the bag with a water bladder, the insertion point is very small and stiff. It is a real wrestling match to get that sucker in, especially when full of water. In addition, the exterior water bottle pocket is a bit shallow and slanted back, so it's easy for a Nalgene-style water bottle to fall out. We really noticed this during our drag test. Other packs held the water bottle tightly, but the Osprey models lost their water bottles almost immediately.

The last main downside to this pack is its capacity. This isn't the pack for you if you plan to go on winter adventures where you might bring a ton of extra layers and food. That said, our testers think that 20L is still a very solid size daypack for the needs of most day hikers.

Weight-to-Volume Ratio

At 31 ounces, this pack scored a bit on the low side for our weight-to-volume ratio, coming in at a 4.9. Sometimes, a pack that is more solidly built has the trade-off of being on the heavier side, and we find that to be the case here. The excellent construction and extra features do make up for the extra ounces, in our opinion.

We tested both the XS/S (18 liters) and M/L size (20 liters). The M/L size is 2 liters larger, and in addition to the extra capacity, it's also a bit heavier. This weight doesn't include any extras like a rain cover or hydration bladder. Or, obviously, the things you'll carry with you on your adventures.

Ease of Use

The Tempest is packed with many features that are all surprisingly easy to use. The main compartment zipper has the ability to zip quite far down the sides, making it easy to pack full and find what you need without pulling everything out. This pack has all the adjustments we've come to expect from a more technical daypack and does a great job evenly distributing weight for a comfortable and balanced carry, no matter what you bring along.

One feature we wish was better is the front expandable pocket. It's narrow compared to other daypacks, and we prefer a little extra room to jam a whole puffy and snacks in there if we want. We also wish, as mentioned above, that the bladder insertion point was a bit larger to make it easier to throw in some water and go. However, the Tempest is amongst our favorites overall for how intuitively easy its awesome features are to use.

Construction Quality

This pack earned a great score for construction quality. We didn't experience any issues with this pack during our field testing and couldn't find any durability complaints in online user reviews. It's made with a 70-Denier x 100-Denier Mini Shadow Brick nylon body and a 420HD nylon packcloth bottom.

We like that this pack has beefier 420-Denier nylon on the bottom, but compared to many others we tested, its main body is on the thin and light side. If you live in an area with lots of pokey plants and sharp rocks, like the desert southwest, you might need to be careful what you scrape against. But if your intended usage is more on the “average” side of activities, this pack is a solid choice.

Should You Buy the Osprey Tempest 20L?

There's a lot to love about this daypack that packs a punch. The Osprey Tempest 20 is comfortable to wear and has some great, easy-to-use features. It's on the smaller end of packs, but we think its design ingenuity makes up for that. We like this pack for commuting in the city thanks to the bike helmet attachment point and low-profile design. Oh, and it works great on day hikes as well.

What Other Daypacks Should You Consider?