The appearance of this product is a lot nicer than the old fashioned ones however I found that my son has a very hard time fitting it into the book bag for school. He does have a very large backpack and when he has to remove it or place it back into the book bag it sticks from the rubber that surrounds the folder. I would recommend the old fashioned folders even though the appearance is not quite appealing. It can be very frustrating for the kids when they are in a hurry after class to get to the next or if they have a block schedule like my child and have to change books from day to day.
Rather than circular rings to hold the pages it has backward D shaped rings. So the ring will not be in the way of writing on the left hand side off the paper when the binder is open. My daughter is excited about this feature.
I purchased this binder for my middle school-age granddaughter and I do not know anything about how it will hold up. However since middle school kids are not very careful by nature I chose this one because it seemed so much more durable than the other brands. I like the display window on the spine and the sturdier seams on the edges. I also liked that it had pockets on both inside covers. The colors are nice too. I would rather pay a bit more and have it last throughout the school year!