After a (lot) of research, I bought a joyetech eVic as my first APV. Mostly due to the firmware upgradeability, VV/VW capability, and price vs. other kits, such as the ProVari. I also got to play with it at the Vapure store here in San Diego. Great shop by the way! I was initially impressed with the build quality and ease of use. Here are my thoughts after 30 days of continuous use.
Appearance
Its design is a little more sci-fi, and a little less industrial than many APVs. I have found this to be a benefit when vaping in public, as its less "techy" appearance looks more like a finished, sophisticated product to non-vapers. It doesnt look homebuilt. It doesnt look like some kind of explosives detonator. It kind of looks like Gort from "Day the Earth Stood Still" (the good one from the 50's) And I like that.
Many attys and clearomizers complement its design nicely, and Im sure replacement tubes and caps will come out soon changing the entire look of the device. Pretty excited about that.
Construction
Build quality is higher than I expected, after reading several negative reviews.
- The dial and button rattle is very slight, and I never notice it during use. The weight is good, without being heavy. It feels solid. The battery doesn't rattle in the tube at all. Speaking of the battery, I had to stretch the spring a little, because when I'd lightly thump on the bottom of the tube, the battery would disconnect just long enough to turn the unit off. 3 seconds of work, and over the month, its never happened again.
- The USB door at first felt flimsy because its small and light, but after a month of relatively hard use, it has not posed any problems. snaps in and out easily and hasnt broken off. If it ever does, it wont mar the appearance any, as the USB connection is black. It may be even easier to use after that... The sandblasted finish looks nice and has a nice tactile feeling to it. It extends to the screw threads however, which makes screwing the end cap on feel a little "grindy," but I havent found it to be a deal breaker, because you never unscrew it to charge the battery anyway.
- The display is a little hard to read in direct sunlight. But this problem plagues more APVs than just the eVic. The added capabilities of the display, discussed below, are worth more than a less capable LED display I dont have to cup my hand over to read outside. Believe me, its worth it.
- I have dropped it a couple times, not bad drops mind you, but it has hit the ground a few times, and still looks and performs as new. So far so good on the durability front.
-Joyetech added a nice feature to the packaging to verify its a genuine eVic, not a clone or knock-off. On the back of the box there is a serial number, and a scratch-off section containing another number. On their website, you can enter in this "secret" number and it will display what serial number should be written on the box, and also in the device menu under DEVICE>DEVICE ID. This is an excellent idea in this era of fake products.
Ease of use
A. Firmware
The user interface is MUCH improved in version 1.2. Long rotations of the control dial to the right change the mode of operation from VV to VW, and to the MVR modes. The MVR modes are fun and very "tweaker friendly" but I find I don't use them. Long rotations to the left change the displayed information such as time, number of puffs, and my favorite, the resistance of your atomizer and either voltage or wattage (whichever one you aren't controlling with you wheel) So all applicable info is onscreen at once, without having to go through a menu to view the important info about your system.
I find that I am almost NEVER going through the menu system. Everything is at my fingertips on the home screen.
My only three wishes with the firmware are:
1) Let me lock in the power or voltage so I dont inadvertantly change it with the dial (this rarely happens, but it would be nice)
2) Reverse the up/down in the menus when using the dial. To me left feels like down, and right feels like up, similar to unscrewing a jar lid. I ALWAYS go the wrong way in the menus before I remember to think in reverse. A lifetime of jar opening is hard to unlearn.
3) Add a option in the menu to switch between "Mean" and "RMS" metering. This is geeky, but RMS is really the way to go. Tweekers might appreciate the "Mean" option.
B. Vaping
- Voltage is limited to 5V, and power is limited to 11W. Hopefully this will change in future firmware. This might not apply to many vapers at all, as that' plenty of power for most atomizers, but I do find myself sitting at the upper limit on some of my tanks having a great vape, but wondering what 6V might be like... Again, not really a deal breaker for me. If anything, I'll just pick up a cheap mechanical mod for my "mad scientist" vaping experiments.
- Every clearomizer, cartomizer, RBA, whatever, has fit perfectly and had no airflow problems with the top cone on. Even Kanger T3's fit fine, and a lot of APV's can't say that. and if I ever did find something that didnt fit, I would just unscrew the top cone, leaving a standard eGo top uncovered, and go from there. It's really a great design.
- Vaping while charging is a FANTASTIC built-in feature. plugging a USB charger into the standard micro USB socket lets you charge and vape at the same time. On the ProVari this is a $60 or so additional option that forces you to remove the battery. That WAS a deal breaker as I was shopping around with other kits. Its a feature I actually use all the time, and recharging the eVic at night is the same process I use with my iPhone: Plug it in and go to bed. Easy. The battery lasts me all day, even heavy chain-vaping days. The lowest charge I have gone to bed with at the end of the day was 23%. I'm writing this at lunch, vaping a ton since 6AM and my battery is still at 80%! And yes, that charge level is always continually on the home screen, so I'm never caught out with a dead battery!
- Vape quality has been outstanding. I get the same vape at ~30% charge as I do off of a fresh charge. And I dont get any "rattlesnaking" oth any other weirdness as I have seen reported in other APV's, due to the high frequency of the power output sine wave. If you're a techie, you know what that means. If you're not, just know it's a silent device.
Overall
One month into my ownership of the eVic, and I am still completely happy with this device. Other than the three wishes I mentioned in the beginning, I have been happy with this APV, form, function, and construction. Not having buyers remorse, or other APV envy. I don't find myself still wanting a ProVari, Sigelli, Lava 2, Vamo, what-have-you, and this to me tells me that this was money well spent.
I have recommended this to my best friends, and I can in good faith reccommend this to you, too!
I will of course update immediately if any of this changes!
Appearance
Its design is a little more sci-fi, and a little less industrial than many APVs. I have found this to be a benefit when vaping in public, as its less "techy" appearance looks more like a finished, sophisticated product to non-vapers. It doesnt look homebuilt. It doesnt look like some kind of explosives detonator. It kind of looks like Gort from "Day the Earth Stood Still" (the good one from the 50's) And I like that.
Many attys and clearomizers complement its design nicely, and Im sure replacement tubes and caps will come out soon changing the entire look of the device. Pretty excited about that.
Construction
Build quality is higher than I expected, after reading several negative reviews.
- The dial and button rattle is very slight, and I never notice it during use. The weight is good, without being heavy. It feels solid. The battery doesn't rattle in the tube at all. Speaking of the battery, I had to stretch the spring a little, because when I'd lightly thump on the bottom of the tube, the battery would disconnect just long enough to turn the unit off. 3 seconds of work, and over the month, its never happened again.
- The USB door at first felt flimsy because its small and light, but after a month of relatively hard use, it has not posed any problems. snaps in and out easily and hasnt broken off. If it ever does, it wont mar the appearance any, as the USB connection is black. It may be even easier to use after that... The sandblasted finish looks nice and has a nice tactile feeling to it. It extends to the screw threads however, which makes screwing the end cap on feel a little "grindy," but I havent found it to be a deal breaker, because you never unscrew it to charge the battery anyway.
- The display is a little hard to read in direct sunlight. But this problem plagues more APVs than just the eVic. The added capabilities of the display, discussed below, are worth more than a less capable LED display I dont have to cup my hand over to read outside. Believe me, its worth it.
- I have dropped it a couple times, not bad drops mind you, but it has hit the ground a few times, and still looks and performs as new. So far so good on the durability front.
-Joyetech added a nice feature to the packaging to verify its a genuine eVic, not a clone or knock-off. On the back of the box there is a serial number, and a scratch-off section containing another number. On their website, you can enter in this "secret" number and it will display what serial number should be written on the box, and also in the device menu under DEVICE>DEVICE ID. This is an excellent idea in this era of fake products.
Ease of use
A. Firmware
The user interface is MUCH improved in version 1.2. Long rotations of the control dial to the right change the mode of operation from VV to VW, and to the MVR modes. The MVR modes are fun and very "tweaker friendly" but I find I don't use them. Long rotations to the left change the displayed information such as time, number of puffs, and my favorite, the resistance of your atomizer and either voltage or wattage (whichever one you aren't controlling with you wheel) So all applicable info is onscreen at once, without having to go through a menu to view the important info about your system.
I find that I am almost NEVER going through the menu system. Everything is at my fingertips on the home screen.
My only three wishes with the firmware are:
1) Let me lock in the power or voltage so I dont inadvertantly change it with the dial (this rarely happens, but it would be nice)
2) Reverse the up/down in the menus when using the dial. To me left feels like down, and right feels like up, similar to unscrewing a jar lid. I ALWAYS go the wrong way in the menus before I remember to think in reverse. A lifetime of jar opening is hard to unlearn.
3) Add a option in the menu to switch between "Mean" and "RMS" metering. This is geeky, but RMS is really the way to go. Tweekers might appreciate the "Mean" option.
B. Vaping
- Voltage is limited to 5V, and power is limited to 11W. Hopefully this will change in future firmware. This might not apply to many vapers at all, as that' plenty of power for most atomizers, but I do find myself sitting at the upper limit on some of my tanks having a great vape, but wondering what 6V might be like... Again, not really a deal breaker for me. If anything, I'll just pick up a cheap mechanical mod for my "mad scientist" vaping experiments.
- Every clearomizer, cartomizer, RBA, whatever, has fit perfectly and had no airflow problems with the top cone on. Even Kanger T3's fit fine, and a lot of APV's can't say that. and if I ever did find something that didnt fit, I would just unscrew the top cone, leaving a standard eGo top uncovered, and go from there. It's really a great design.
- Vaping while charging is a FANTASTIC built-in feature. plugging a USB charger into the standard micro USB socket lets you charge and vape at the same time. On the ProVari this is a $60 or so additional option that forces you to remove the battery. That WAS a deal breaker as I was shopping around with other kits. Its a feature I actually use all the time, and recharging the eVic at night is the same process I use with my iPhone: Plug it in and go to bed. Easy. The battery lasts me all day, even heavy chain-vaping days. The lowest charge I have gone to bed with at the end of the day was 23%. I'm writing this at lunch, vaping a ton since 6AM and my battery is still at 80%! And yes, that charge level is always continually on the home screen, so I'm never caught out with a dead battery!
- Vape quality has been outstanding. I get the same vape at ~30% charge as I do off of a fresh charge. And I dont get any "rattlesnaking" oth any other weirdness as I have seen reported in other APV's, due to the high frequency of the power output sine wave. If you're a techie, you know what that means. If you're not, just know it's a silent device.
Overall
One month into my ownership of the eVic, and I am still completely happy with this device. Other than the three wishes I mentioned in the beginning, I have been happy with this APV, form, function, and construction. Not having buyers remorse, or other APV envy. I don't find myself still wanting a ProVari, Sigelli, Lava 2, Vamo, what-have-you, and this to me tells me that this was money well spent.
I have recommended this to my best friends, and I can in good faith reccommend this to you, too!
I will of course update immediately if any of this changes!
