You reasons for disliking the ego are well-known and also well-founded but most come here to seek an
alternative to analogs and not to acquire a ton of technical knowledge right away. That will come later should they have the interest, time, money etc. and a friendly (not critical) person to show them the way.
I'm actually a pretty friendly guy. It doesn't take technical knowledge to buy the right thing... it takes good advice.
Now here we have a person that loves her eGo, in certain circumstances when it works well with a narrow range of choices. With no technical knowledge at all, she has found her way to the narrow combination of circumstances that the eGo will do "well". What she has YET to see is how much better it can be, because the eGo-maniacs have pushed thier particular agenda on her, and she purchased it.
Had she been given other advice she may have ended up with a 3.7v device that outperforms the eGo in absolutely every way!
See... here's the thing.
The 510 is a nice little e-cig, ~3.2V, makes good vapor, nice TH and the flavor is just OK, nothing too exceptional there, but it works. The eGo is the exact same thing with a longer lasting battery. Same voltage, samevapor, same TH, same flavor. It's a 3.2v 510.
Does it do LR particularly well? Not exactly, though a lot of the baseline performance comes from the lower resistance of the native atomizer, which is 2.5ish Ohms, so it's already a relatively low resistance device from the get go.
The SAME carto/atty on a 3.7v device will jump through hoops. It takes NO technical knowledge to see how this all comes together. A longer lasting battery (eGo) is NOT the same thing as a Higher Voltage battery.
So, when a newb learns that the eGo is out there, and they have been told how much BETTER it is, they buy it. That part makes sense. The part that DOESN'T make sense is when these suggestions prevent a person that is truly looking for a superior vape from getting both longer battery life AND increased vapor production, TH and flavor. When the eGo user is not satisfied with the performance (as was promised by the well intentioned, but misinformed eGo Maniac), they go for LR atty/cartos which severely threaten the function of the eGo/Riva/FatBat device.
I have heard arguments that the eGo is a GREAT value...
It is not. When you look at the cost over a couple of years as batteries are replaced, etc, a 14500 device is MUCH cheaper to own, and only SLIGHTLY more expensive to initially acquire. And the performance is not even CLOSE, in reality. Truth be known, I can experience WAY better vapor,TH, and flavor using an 801 Pen Style... Battery life is shorter, but the vape is MUCH better. I quit smoking using a pen style 801, two batteries lasted all day.
I would LOVE to see people come on this forum and be greeted by friendly folks that actually know what they are talking about that are willing to take the time to explain the options. I have been known to do that, only to be flat-out attacked for being "anti-eGo". If I am anti-eGo it is ONLY because I am PRO Performance, and we ALL agree that the better an eCig performs, the more likely a person is to succeed at the transition to being smoke free! Doesn't that make sense?
Now, with that all being said... I KNOW the eGo is "good enough" for many people. So is the 510. So is the 901,801,306 and 808... But I have YET to see ANYBODY ask for an eCig that is "just good enough". They ask for analog looking devices that perform well, and hopefully better than the mall junk that they have been exposed to. The eGo is NOT what they are asking for! Telling them they will FAIL if they don't buy an eGo is simply idiotic! I FINALLY bought an eGo after I quit smoking, just to see what the hype was all about! I had ALREADY owned a Pen Style, and there is no way on Gods Green Earth that the eGo outperformed an 801 in the critical areas of TH,Flavor and Vapor production. Battery Life... yes... everything else... Not a chance. Not even close!
I also purchased a 10440 mod from Totally Wicked... It was my forst Mod, and it KILLED the eGo. Flat-out killed it... AND the battery life was pretty darned good... not eGo good... but since the device was ALSO a passthrough, that pretty much solved that issue.
Then I got into 14500 devices. OMG... Battery Life galore, and all the vapor I could want, great flavor... everything.
At absolutely NO POINT has an eGo EVER outperformed any other device I have owned. Except in battery life.
Well, here's my opinion, as though I have not voiced it enough...
The eGo is a longer lasting 510, nothing more. It performs EXACTLY like a stock 510, and I have owned many stock 510s (20 at one time, to be exact...) The eGo has ONE benefit over the lowly 510... Battery Life... plain and simple. That's all there is.
There are tens of THOUSANDS of combinations that can be assembled that will so far and away outperfom an eGo that it boggles the MIND how anybody could even THINK the eGo is the best eCig on the market. It's so far from "the best" it's actually comical to me that anybody could ever say "It's the best for most people".
The eGo is a cheap, FatBat eCig that is popular because it is so accessible and because so many people are hung up on battery life they forget to see what ELSE is out there. To me... Flavor matters... a lot. Vapor matters... a lot. TH matters, a little. Battery life is EASY. The other three are not, and I would absolutely never trade Flavot for battery life because I can BUY more batteries. If there was an eCig the lasted 30 minutes and had the absolute BEST TH,FLAVOR and Vapor... I would buy as many batteries it takes to make it through the day. If that was the ONLY option... I would own 20 batteries if thats what it took. (Thankfully, theres other solutions)
When I smoked analogs, I left my home with over 20 cigarettes. I never once complained that I had to take a new one out of the pack when I wanted to smoke. I never ONCE complained that I had to carry a whole pack or more with me everywhere I went. I had cigs, and I had a lighter... if I ran out of either, I replaced them, and in NY that translates to 10 bucks a day... 300 bucks or more per month. ANYBODY that smokes, can afford to buy the best PV on the market... each and every month if they so choose.
When an analog burned out... that was it... over... move on... smoke some more later. I didn't ever feel the need to have a cigarette last me 8 hours. It's silly when we look at it this way isn't it?
The eGo solves the battery life problem for some people... not all people... but it's lame in the other, more important areas of performance.
To Me.
.
