Darwin at the ATL Vape Meet: My Impressions

[ChaosAffect]

Bear with me, y'all. I've never written a review before, and am pretty new to vaping (About a month in).

So, tonight at the ATL Vape Meet Brandon from Evolv brought along some Darwins for us to try out. Now, before tonight I'd never hit anything more than a Riva, so I admit that my horizons are pretty narrow, but here's my impressions.

First off, I had seen a video review of the Darwin before, and decided it was hideous. Seeing it in person didn't change my feelings. vaping it did. You ever known a woman (or man, ladies) that was so COMPETENT at something that it made them more attractive? That's the Darwin. It's so darn good it becomes beautiful.

Build quality is incredible, and these are prototype units. Solid anodized case, love the screen, button placement and usb charger outlet are in the perfect spot. Brandon said they they put it through rigorous quality testing, and that the swivel atty connector is pretty much bulletproof. I believe him.

My first hit was a piece of heaven. The flavor was INTENSE. Massive clouds of vapor. I was using a LR cartomizer, and had it cranked to 10. I'm still trying to get a grasp on all the ohms and wattage and stuff, but that seemed to be the sweet spot for LR.

The price may be high, but in my opinion it's worth it. Beautiful device, and it'll do a lot for vaping in general. By moving away from the cigarette form so drastically Evolv is attempting to distance itself from the image of PVs as cigarette replacements, and instead position them as an entirely seperate entity. They should definitely be supported in this endeavor.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review!

 

[TaylorMade]

Nice review Lodzin. I'll definitely be looking into this further. Sounds like there may finally be a PV that has all the characteristics that I want.

 

[Sojourner]

I'm loving mine. This is the newest generation smart PV. It comes with a 510 connection but takes adapters for any combo. It doesn't call for a certain type of atty for the vaping sweet spot; it will take ANY atty/carto and make it vape perfectly. This is a whole new ball game. First time I left my house with one device only and felt totally confident and no special carrier/bag full of extras. I just put on a carto, folded down the arm and left...a couple extra cartos in the purse. I've never experienced such great, consistent heavenly hits.

 

[clyde2801]

Disagree with your review...8.5w is the sweet spot for a LR510 carto!

Seriously, nice review for a quick impression. I'm trying the carto on it this morning, Sojurner. Are you redripping the carto from the top, and what technique are you using?

 

[MrsJaaxx]

Brandon let me try one as well. Like Lodzin, I never would have set out to buy a big rectangular mod.. But this thing is pretty darn cool. I hooked my atty up and was quite surprised at the heat and vapor! I'm accustomed to 3.7 volts, so I think I tried it at 6.5 and 8.5. Very nifty to be able to pick your "vape number."

It's really well made too. You can tell when you use the dial, push the button, even flip the atomizer connector that turns it on. Everything is solid, not flimsy and light.

Yep, I was impressed.

 

[ChaosAffect]

I'm sorry I didn't try any of your juices last night, MrsJaxx. Between it being my first Vape Meet, being overwhelmed, and that freaking Darwin I just wasn't able to focus on anything. LoL.

 

[VaporNebula]

I tried a couple of cartos on mine and all it did was blow them immediately. So now I have to wait until I can get some regular attys before I can even use it.

 

[MrsJaaxx]

I'm sorry I didn't try any of your juices last night, MrsJaxx. Between it being my first Vape Meet, being overwhelmed, and that freaking Darwin I just wasn't able to focus on anything. LoL.

No worries! Believe me, I understand! I really wanted to go to the meet, but I am incredibly nervous in crowds.. the first 15 minutes or so that I was there I was quivering like a leaf, so I'm sure my focus was all over the place as well! Everyone was so nice, though, and after the first little while, I was able to calm down and have a great time. But yes, a lot going on in a small amount of space!

 

[ChaosAffect]

I tried a couple of cartos on mine and all it did was blow them immediately. So now I have to wait until I can get some regular attys before I can even use it.

At LR I had them at 10 and they were working great. Did you have them cranked up higher?

 

[VaporNebula]

With mine being a prototype I can only see the voltage when i hit the button with an atty attached. without the atty it just displays .2-.3 But I did have it turned up pretty high.

 

[ChaosAffect]

That's probably what happened. I know next to nothing about ohms and such, but they told me, with a LR carto, to turn it to 10. I did, and saw the face of god.

 

[WomanOfHeart]

That's probably what happened. I know next to nothing about ohms and such, but they told me, with a LR carto, to turn it to 10. I did, and saw the face of god.

Now I want one just so I can see the face of god, too. Damn it. Why can't March come sooner so I can have my bonus?

 

[oldsoldier]

Lodzin after reading your initial impressions I am really considering coughing up the cash for one. Argh! Too many mods not enough cash...

 

[ChaosAffect]

I'm just gonna bump this up one more time so others can read it. Hope it encourages people to consider the Darwin. It's exspensive, but worth the money.

 

[IOU]

Thanks a lot Lodzin! Now just one more mod it sounds like I gotta have!
No, really, your excitement is contagious.

 

[Jair]

I'm going to have to +1 Lod here. I'm an uber n00b, only vapin for a few weeks, and last night at the vape meet was the first time I've vaped anything other then my starter kit and vape I did. Got to try out all sorts of gear and I can't even remember the names of half the stuff I tried.

I had never even heard of the darwin until yesterday and my first thought was that it's kinda ugly but obviously built like a tank. After a while though the looks grew on me and are pretty much a non issue. It's slim and a little longer and overall seems pretty pocket friendly. I got a hold of one early in the night and took a few hits. I was completely blown away.

Now, seeing as how this was my first time over 3.7V I imagine my initial reaction would have been similar from many of the other great pvs out there. As the night drew on I finally got to sit down and spend some quality time with it. I got to vape on this bad boy for a couple hours solid and the first word that comes to my mind when I want to describe the darwin is, consistent. Once you find that sweet spot you like you almost forget it's adjustable. Set it, forget it, and vape the heck out of it. Every hit is just like the one before.

Inside it has a couple li-po cells that power the unit. These are the same type of cells that power your cellphone, laptop, ect... The upside to this is they should easily last you a couple of years before battery life starts dropping off. The downside is, they are not intended to be user serviceable. You can send the darwin in and for a small fee they will replace the batteries for you. The cells are not proprietary though so folks familiar with electronics and soldering should have little trouble swapping them out.

Now to the really cool part. The LCD shows you several things while the device is powered on. First, the battery meter is the cellphone style 'bar meter' and is a very handy thing to have. This thing had a ton of battery left (going from memory, and a little guesstimation I believe it was still over 80%) after having it passed around and vaped on non-stop all night. Then it has voltage, ohms, and amp readouts along the top and the main item on the display is the selectable watt level. There is a small wheel near the button that adjusts the wattage. So you dial in the wattage you want (I really enjoyed vaping at about 8.5 most of the night) and the darwin's microprocessor does the rest of the work. As you are vaping, it's monitoring everything and adjusting the voltage on the fly. There's no worrying about what resistance the atty is or what voltage you need. Set it, forget it, and vape it.

Today I've been doing a little bit of reading about VV mods and have decided that as soon as I possibly can I'm buying the darwin. All I've been able to think about today is how bad I want one of these. If Lod gets one before me I'm going to have to go mug him and take his

 

[kevbow]

Drew gave me a demo on skype a while back of the Darwin and I was very impressed. It is pricey but for what it can do it's every penny.

 

[ChaosAffect]

Only addendum I have to add to Jair's comments is that the unit I had STILL had full power bars at the end of the night. Plus, it operates as a passthrough while charging, so no having to go back to lesser mods while you're charging your Darwin.

 

[AngusATAT]

With mine being a prototype I can only see the voltage when i hit the button with an atty attached. without the atty it just displays .2-.3 But I did have it turned up pretty high.

Your prototype most likely has an earlier revision of the circuit board, the same as my beta unit. It destroyed LR atties and cartos. However, the production unit doesn't. I'm loving my LR 801 atties on it.

 

[clyde2801]

Getting ready to place an order shortly, Angus. Ya think LR or HV on the 801's?