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Alright, I admit it, the title is a little misleading at present. It's not as in-depth as it could be right now as I've only had the device for a day, but my intention is for this review to grow as I continue to use it and report any further impressions (hence the "organic" part). I simply didn't want any future observations to be scattered about different threads just in case someone should stumble across this review and find it useful.
What are the chances, eh?
I'm not doing a video review, although I did give it some thought. Firstly, I don't have time; secondly, there are already tons of pictures and videos of the kit itself splattered across the Internet; thirdly, I don't personally find images of someone generating huge clouds of vapour against a black background terribly edifying as so much depends on lighting conditions and vaping style, and finally: some of you may be eating when you read this and I don't want my ugly mug to be the cause of a sudden upsurge in choking fatalities...
Besides, I have enough trouble talking to answering machines; if I plonk myself in front of a video camera, you'll just get five solid minutes of me saying "um", and who wants that?
The Obligatory Disclaimer
In stark contrast to most of the professional and semi-professional review videos, let me say this: I paid a lot of my own hard-earned money for this device and it absolutely has had an impact on my assessment of the product. So there.
Right: on with the motley!
In the Box
It seems to be de rigeur to comment on what you see when you get your much-anticipated parcel through the post, and I don't want to be a social pariah as the result of my first ever review, so I'd probably better say something on the subject here.
I ordered my Neo Classic Auto Silver kit from Janty Europe, along with a spare puremizer (is it just me, or does that sound like a machine you'd use to make baby food?), an extra "airflow ring" (because you don't have to detach them when charging the batteries and I therefore wanted one ring for each battery as I am a Very Lazy Person) and an extra mouthpiece (I really can't emphasise the laziness aspect enough).
The main box contained two batteries, the manual (about which more later), a charger (ditto), two puremizers (that word gets sillier every time I write it) and five extra silicone puremizer-window cover things. The box itself was a well-presented two-piece white card affair (nowhere near as funky as the VGo's eminently re-useable black box with a magnetic closure though) with logos in all the right places and a sort of metallic silver wrap-around thing holding it closed.
The spare puremizer came in its own little white box, while the extra ring and the mouthpiece arrived in little crinkly plastic bags inside the main parcel.
Janty use DHL as their courier (to the UK at least) and the whole ensemble arrived wrapped in a rubberised-plastic-and-bubble-wrap shipping bag that must originally have been designed as the main component in knife-proof vests. I can only surmise that it acts as some sort of deterrent to nosy customs officials, what with laser cutting equipment not yet being standard issue at most inspection locations.
Still, I burned off a few calories and they tell me that most of the self-inflicted injuries incurred during the opening will heal without major scarring, so it's not all bad news.
A Closer Look at the Gubbins
Before moving on to the main event, a couple of slightly disappointing things to note: the mains USB charger that arrived was a European two-pin affair without a UK adapter, and the manual is distinctly lacking in useful detail. I'll expand on the latter point as I go.
The puremizers were all sopping wet in their plastic sleeves, and I confess to a drawn-out "what the hell" moment before guessing (correctly, as it turned out) that they were pre-soaked with something in order to prep them and prevent possible dry-burn issues. Naturally I consulted the manual, which had this to say on the subject of why the puremizers were supplied in such a state (and what to do as a result):
" "
Or in other words, nothing.
I found out later, by stumbling across some posts from Janty representatives on the ECF forum, that the liquid is "primer fluid" and should be expelled by removing the silicone side-cover and blowing through the battery end of the puremizer. You might think that this is something it would be worthwhile including in the manual, but apparently not. Ho-hum.
The main components of the device - puremizers and batteries - are fetching, well-constructed and have a surprising heft to them for all their slimness. As anyone who has browsed for photos of it will know, this is a hell of a good-looking piece of kit, which I confess was a major reason for buying it in the first place. What the finish and logos will look like after a few months' cohabitation with the keys and coins in my pockets is anyone's guess, but brand-new it all really looks the business. All the bits connect smoothly with no rough edges or hesitancy to the screw threads, and overall you really do get the impression that you're in possession of a well-engineered doohickey.
The mouthpiece... not so much. It's a hard ABS plastic whistle-tip, and it seems out of place on such sexy hardware; it looks wrong and it feels wrong, like getting into a vintage Bentley and finding it equipped with a naff plastic steering wheel from the old Pole Position arcade game. I'd have expected either something soft-feel for comfort or brushed metal to fit with the overall design, but instead you end up with something that looks like a high-tech penny whistle, which is a shame.
Enough about form, let's look at function...
First Use
Filling the puremizer is easy, although the aperture could usefully be wider. Knowing when to stop filling the puremizer is less so. The manual says: "To refill your e-cigarette open the silicon cover of the puremizer and carefully drip e-liquid inside until full. NOTE: Do not overfill."
Useful stuff.
Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you what constitutes "full" or "overfull", and that's where I experienced my first real problem. Having already read (but not from the manual, which gives you NO clue as to volumes) that the puremizers hold 2ml of liquid, I filled a 2ml (0.05ml-graduated) syringe and started filling the narrow aperture slowly. It started overflowing at 1.75ml, probably because I hadn't blown out the primer fluid, which was in turn because the manual doesn't mention it and I'd never come across such a thing before.
Mopping up the residue (thankfully very little, as I was being quite careful), I attached the puremizer to the battery (being very sure there was nothing leaking out of the bottom) and gave it a whirl.
Well, all I can say is that vaped primer fluid tastes like burning polythene smells. It wasn't the most pleasant experience of my life and I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that nobody else is likely to enjoy it terribly much either.
NB: Just so anyone who has read this doesn't have the same experience, the correct amount to put in (once you've blown out the primer fluid as described earlier) will be not less than half a centimetre from the top or bottom of the window when you hold the puremizer upright. The recommended procedure for filling it to put about 20 drops in, stand it up, put another 20 drops in, stand it up and check the level, then put more in if it's still not within half a centimetre of the top of the window. Again, you'd think this could go in the manual, but I only found out by searching ECF.
The good part is that the automatic switch works pretty well when you've found the optimal "tightness" for the puremizer. In my experience, this is achieved by screwing it on until it's finger-tight, then undoing by maybe a
The up-side is that because it doesn't matter where you put the ring, you can cheerfully line all the bits up so the pretty logos are in a row. Of course - to return to an automotive metaphor for a moment - that's a little bit like saying you can keep the decal on your steering wheel nicely upright because the wheels don't turn anyway, but it's a minor bonus and therefore getting a mention.
Back to the vaping...
The mouthpiece, well, I don't like it. This is very much a matter of personal taste, but I feel it's too wide across the lips, not deep enough to feel like you're gripping something, too angular (it's a thin rectangular cross-section at the point you use it) and not shaped enough for comfort. Personally I'd have preferred something more like a pipestem mouthpiece or even just a standard cartridge/carto design. I fully appreciate, though, that these things are entirely down to individual preference and that the previous statement is purely subjective. What isn't subjective is that these things are proprietary, so hard luck fitting anything else onto the end unless you're in the mood for machining something yourself.
The automatic battery - as I started saying earlier before I so rudely interrupted myself - is good; damn near as good as a decent mini-cig, but three times the size. It has almost the tightness of draw that I'd like (when properly adjusted), doesn't go off accidentally when you're waving it around, and thanks to the good design of the puremizer - damn silly word or not - doesn't seem to be vulnerable to anything dripping down into the airhole. Naturally, I've heard lots of less-than-great reports of auto batteries but these seem to work exactly as intended from an activation standpoint, so hats off to the designers on that score.
UPDATE: Something I forgot to mention on my first pass is the peculiar noise which results when you draw, if the puremizer is tightened all the way; I actually wondered to begin with whether "whistle tip" was more than just a descriptive term, as I was hearing something that sounded like an old-style kettle in the minute or so before the whistle went off properly. However, the slight loosening of the puremizer seemed to cure that problem.
Also, after a couple of days' use, it seems that this noise goes away no matter how closely you tighten the puremizer to the battery. I have no explanation for this phenomenon!
But, of course, all this is just extended foreplay, not the main event. What about the vapour?
Before I finally put you out of your misery, I should probably point out that I'm not a hardcore vaper (if you'll pardon the expression so soon after mentioning foreplay) and my basis for comparison isn't some mighty high-end variable voltage device. My usual weapon of choice is an ordinary VGo, locked and loaded with a simple standard-sized Kanga bottom-coil low resistance cartomiser. I'd read a lot about how the Neo produces loads of lovely warm vapour and I was expecting such an expensive and well-engineered piece of kit to outperform the VGo on that score.
It doesn't.
Yes, I'll confirm there's lots of vapour. There ought to be; I've burned through damn near twice as much liquid as I'd generally use in 24 hours, although admittedly I've probably quaffed at a higher rate than usual due to trying to get to grips with my new toy. The trouble is that the vapour is cold - what gets into your mouth is mostly arriving at pretty much ambient temperature - and not particularly flavourful. I'm actually sitting here as I type, doing a side-by-side comparison, and this is not a purely subjective viewpoint; the vapour is not at all warm, even if you sit there repeatedly puffing away and spewing great clouds of it before taking a proper hit, and definitely gives less flavour than my 5 day old cartomiser. I haven't been able to bring myself to compare it with a new one.
The throat hit's OK and the trick of opening the silicone side-panel does improve it slightly, but with the vapour temperature so low much of the effect is lost, along with the flavour.
Being of an enquiring mind - not to mention being bloody determined to get my money's worth - I wasn't going to leave it at that. I wondered if maybe the puremizer I tried first-off was faulty and promptly filled another (although this time getting rid of the primer fluid first on the grounds that I didn't want my mouth to taste of toasted bubble-wrap). Same deal.
Next up, I wondered about the battery. I swapped them over as the second one was by now fully-charged, and although the first few draws were a slight improvement, it rapidly became the same disappointing experience. So... was it the fact that I'd got used to a low-res cartomiser?
I swapped the LR carto from the VGo battery to the Neo battery and drew on it as I usually would. Result? Lower temperature than the VGo battery, poorer flavour; better than the puremizer but not as good as the same carto on the VGo battery. I should probably add that the VGo battery is also 650 mAh, same as the Neo, and that reports say they both run at 3.7V. (UPDATE: confirmed by testing; see pmos69 later in this thread). Someone more knowledgeable about vaping gear than I will have to suggest a hypothesis as to how they can be the same on paper yet differ so greatly, but I am prepared to say without fear of contradiction that in a side-by-side comparison, the Neo batteries are simply not delivering the goods compared to the VGo, a much cheaper device. And this, bear in mind, is when the VGo requires an adaptor to work with the 510 cartomisers and the Neo doesn't.
Could it be, after all, because the Neo batteries are auto? Well, perhaps, but here's the real kicker: the Neo delivers a lower temperature of vapour than a Liberro Realis mini-cig, a puny 90 mAh auto device. It just isn't cutting the mustard, no matter how much I want it to.
Finally, I thought I'd give the puremizer a try on the VGo battery, but for some reason it just doesn't work, even though it seems to be a perfect fit to the adaptor. That's probably just my ignorance showing and there's some terribly obvious reason why this is the case, but it does mean that - as I don't have anything else to try it on - my investigations had to end at that point.
I wish I could have brought you a more glowing, positive review, but despite my initial shiny-new-toy joy, I feel like the Neo Classic Auto is a big let-down for the price tag. I can understand why someone would enthuse about it if they'd never tried anything decent, but for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone who was used to even mid-range vaping equipment would be raving about it. All I can imagine is that the manual battery is somehow better... but I think I've spent (wasted?) quite enough of my own money thus far. That said, if anyone with a manual-battery Neo is feeling charitable and wants to do a temporary swap of one of their batteries so two of us could compare notes, I'd be a great big heap of gratitude!
Conclusion
In summing up, I'd have to say that the comments I've read here and elsewhere to the effect of "If Apple made e-cigs..." are perhaps more apt than intended. Like Apple, Janty have put a great deal of thought into design and engineering and come up with a device that feels great in the hand and has oodles of wow-factor. And, like Apple, they've made something that really doesn't live up to the hype in terms of function once the dazzle wears off.
Pro's: Great design, excellent workmanship, auto battery defies all doom-sayers in terms of activation, puremizers seem like an excellent innovation and might well be first-class on a decent battery
Con's: Nasty whistle-tip, airflow ring doesn't do anything on auto batteries, abysmal manual, no UK charger, vapour seems tepid and tasteless, pricey compared to products that out-perform it even if they don't look so good
___
All opinions are of course my own (who else's?!) and if anyone from Janty should happen by, I'd love to hear from you!
___
Three Days On...
As I've been running around like a loon with work, I've been hitting my VGo and the Neo rather heavily over the past three days in an attempt to keep off the stinkies while the pressure's on. I've noticed that from time to time, the Neo - seemingly at random - produces vapour that's a trifle warmer than I first described... it lasts for a few draws, and then we're back to ambient-temperature vapour again. I've no idea why; it's the same juice in the same puremizer on the same battery, but it has taken me by surprise more than once!
The flavour hasn't improved. I do agree with the assessment of many that it's easy to change flavours when the first one runs out, but in my view that's largely down to the fact that juices don't actually taste of a great deal in this device; or at least, to be fair, the flavours that I prefer don't. I daresay something really robust would come through well enough, although this wouldn't overcome the warmth issue for me.
However, a recent thread on UKV has put this into a little perspective. It turns out that I am, quite without my realising it when I wrote the initial review, using cartomisers (the Kanger LR) that give particularly good vapour temperature and flavour, as per this review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVlgbCZbbP0 As such, the auto battery and puremizer combination is being evaluated against a fairly high standard for the things that are most important to me. Nonetheless, this doesn't explain why the same cartomizer on the Neo battery performs less well than on the VGo, and I've yet to hear a theory that would account for it!
Another thing I think may be at least partly guilty with regard to poor vapour temperature is the mouthpiece itself. If you take a look at the whistle-tip, you'll see that there's a short metal tube in there which more-or-less aligns with the "vent" on the top of the puremizer body. (On my kit, neither the tube nor the vent are entirely centred, and I get slightly more vapour if I twist the whistle-tip so that they match more precisely.) I've noticed that if you take a few primer puffs and then draw hard, the *mouthpiece* gets hot whilst the vapour stays tepid and I wonder whether the heat from the vapour isn't being dissipated via the metal insert into the dense plastic body of the rather long whistle-tip. If I were a handier sort, I'd be tempted to hack off the last centimetre or so of the plastic tip to see whether it improved matters.
A Note on Gurgling: A few people have noticed that the puremizers will "gurgle" from time to time; this noise isn't like the (rather satisfying) hiss that you get from a decent cartomizer or atomizer when juice hits the hot coil. It's more like sitting next to a kid who's trying to get the last drops of extra-thick milkshake out with a straw, and it's very off-putting! In my experience, this happens when you get a little juice into the whistle-tip, as happens from time to time, and you need to pop the tip off and clean it out with a tissue or cotton-bud to cure the problem.
I've just noticed that Digicig made the offer to do a temporary swap of a manual battery for an auto: I'll take him up on his kind offer and get back to you when I've made the comparison
Anyway, as promised, I haven't given up on the kit and I've been doing my utmost to settle down into a long-term relationship. However, as is so often the case with the really good-looking types, the superficial attraction doesn't seem to be making up for what's lacking when you try to actually live with them!
Thanks for reading
BigJ
Edited by BigJ, 05 February 2012 - 03:49 PM.
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Either I'll get used to it, or it'll start performing better when it's properly broken-in, or I'll sell it on!
