My mom’s retired, and these days she’s busy traveling with friends or making visits to the Philippines. Most of her trips are long-hauls, so it took her a little while to find luggage she really liked.
It turns out that my mom eventually did her research: One Christmas she asked in the family group chat if her Secret Santa could get her the teal version of Samsonite’s Freeform Hardside Expandable Spinner, which I immediately recognized as a top-tested pick at the Good Housekeeping Institute.
Our Textiles Lab named this Samsonite pick our best overall hardside luggage after seeing it perform consistently well in Lab tests and receive glowing reviews from travel testers. They found it durable in drop tests, noting that the polycarbonate material held up generally well without major dents or scratches.
The luggage was also easy to open and close, thanks to its smooth zippers—so much so that it received perfect scores in this category.
My mom’s a smaller woman at just under 5 feet tall, but she finds the Freeform Hardside easy to roll around on roads and through the airport. Our testers agree, saying they could easily maneuver it around twists and turns (our pros set up a cone obstacle course in our hallway to test this).
Our Lab experts (and my mom) also found that they were able to pack a good amount with room to spare, with or without using the zippered expansion. Plus, one of our product analysts said they particularly loved the handle, saying it “felt sturdy and had a nice grip with a button that was easy to push for adjusting.”
You can get the Freeform Hardside as a carry-on or in medium and large check-in sizes. The carry-on is on sale in various colors today at 36% off, bringing the original price of $220 down to $140. (The other sizes are not on sale.)
If your carry-on needs an upgrade, this one’s it—and today’s the day to get it if you want to save money.
