Pod System Reviews

OXVA Origin X

New kid on the block OXVA got in touch and asked if we’d like to take a look at their new Origin X pod system which included the rebuildable dual coil rdta pod

by Antony Lord
Oct 22, 2020

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OXVA Origin X

New kid on the block OXVA got in touch and asked if we’d like to take a look at their new Origin X pod system including the rebuildable dual coil rdta pod. Let me tell you there was a mad scramble amongst the regular reviewers to see who would get their hands on this one first!

The OXVA Origin X pod system comes very well presented in a box that opens up like a book. You can see the pod kit under a clear inner lid with bullet points about the available coil options. Underneath, there’s a second box containing the usual paperwork, a usb-c charging cable and a 1.0Ohm coil. The box has “designed by Justin Lai” proudly emblazoned down its spine and for those that aren’t aware, Justin used to work at Geekvape but has moved away to start up his own company OXVA.

OXVA Origin X packaging and contents

Specifications

Size/Weight 102.9 x 25 x 34.5mm 100grams
Zinc alloy, ABS & PCTG construction
Output 5~60watts / 3.3~4.2volts
Resistance range 0.15~2.0Ohms
External 18650 battery
Charging 2.0amps
3.0ml pod / 2ml for TPD regions (optional 510 plate and rdta atomizer available)

OXVA Origin X all angles

The OXVA Origin X pod system is really compact for an 18650 pod kit, it’s a little tall but no more so than similar systems. It’s available in several colour combinations, and mine came in the black carbon fibre option.

The main chassis is zinc alloy which gives it a decent weight, and the outer panels are made from ABS plastic. There’s a large metal(?) OXVA logo inlaid on one side, and the opposite panel lifts off to reveal the battery compartment which is neatly laid out featuring a spring loaded contact at the top and a battery ribbon to aid in removal. The battery panel is held in place with a combination of four magnets and two small lugs. There is a tiny amount of panel movement from side to side, particularly near the top edge, it’s in no danger of falling off, but I do occasionally feel it shifting slightly in my hand. I’ve been impressed with the gloss black paint finish on the chassis which seems to be fairly durable despite having been in jacket pockets and thrown around in the car at work.

Up top, there’s the recess for the pod with a rather chunky magnet and two contacts for the coil. You’ll find the usb-c charge point on the bottom which means the Origin X needs to be laid on its side to charge, and in my charge test, it peaked at just over 1.4amps with everything remaining cool should you need to use the on board charging.

The thin front panel has just two small buttons either side of a small lcd screen. The main button is surrounded by a LED ring which lights up blue in use or red when your battery is flat. This is pretty small but easy to locate due to its raised position. It’s well positioned for either finger or thumb firing, but care should be taken not to cover the airflow holes which are positioned just above it. I found it better when thumb firing, and this has the added advantage of tipping the coil down in use keeping it bathed in eliquid. The teardrop shape makes it very comfortable in the hand as well.

This is a wattage only device and this is selected with the lower button, adjustments are made in one watt increments and maxes out at 60W. Push it again and it will round robin to 5W. Pressing the power button three times will lock the buttons, including the power button, and holding power and select buttons down together will clear the puff counter. Although the control screen is small, it is well laid out and bright so no issues in use there. This control system seemed a little alien at first but it works extremely well with a well judged accelerometer when holding the button down and I quickly got used to it. One minor issue I did encounter though was that you have to push the select button to confirm the coil resistance every time you reinsert the pod, and this occasionally dropped the wattage down to 5W if I was running at the 60W maximum. On the plus side, if you’re using multiple pods with different coils, it will remember the wattage you were using for each coil, a nice touch.

OXVA Origin X pod and stock coils

The pod itself is 3ml (2ml for TPD regions) with an integrated drip tip, and it utilises the OXVA Unicoil system from their previous kits. It’s nice to see that they’re continuing to support a single coil ecosystem across their range. Coils are press fit from the bottom and are touted as being leak proof which seems to be the case in use as I’ve had no leaking and only very minimal condensation. The fill port is a different matter however, it’s a little on the small side and, try as I might, I always ended up with a little e-liquid around the bung when I closed it, so be sure to give things a wipe down before replacing the pod.

Two coils are included in the kit, a 0.2 Ohm mesh coil for direct lung, and a 1.0 Ohm round wire coil for mouth to lung. The material is not stated for the mesh coils, but I haven’t ended up with a mouth full of ulcers so I think they’re possibly kanthal or stainless steel? The 1.0 Ohm coil is a simple kanthal round wire with a narrow bore.

I thought I’d kick off my testing of the Origin X with the 0.2 Ohm coil that came preinstalled in the pod. This is rated for 55 to 60 watts, however I found it operated much better between 40 and 50 watts with no discernible improvement beyond that. There’s no adjustable airflow on this particular coil and it gives a lightly restricted direct lung hit with absolutely bags of flavour. I settled in at 45 watts and enjoyed this coil immensely. Coil life was strictly average though, and I started getting the occasional burnt hit after just five days, although it should be noted that I was using a very sweet e-liquid at the time which could well have shortened the coils longevity. There was also a distinct pulse width modulation (PWM) buzz from the Origin X using this coil as well.

Next it was onto the 1.0 Ohm coil. Take note when inserting this as the airflow control ring is only on one side. Don’t do what I did initially and have have it facing the back with a full tank of elquid! This is rated for 10 to 15 watts and has a really narrow bore for mouth to lung vaping. The ratings seemed much more accurate this time, giving a loose MTL vape with the airflow control open. Much of the restriction seems to be coming from the coil itself as there was little change until the afc was almost closed, at which point it became far too uncomfortable for me as I prefer a looser MTL anyway. The PWM buzz was much less evident here as well.

Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water once you’re done with the 1.0 Ohm coil as you’ll need the AFC ring off the bottom of that for any replacement Unicoils! This was challenging as mine was tightly bound to the coil out of the box, rubber gloves and a small amount of swearing were needed to budge it!

OXVA Origin X coils

OXVA also sent out a box of their 0.3 Ohm Unicoils for me to try. These are supplied in boxes of five, with each coil in a sealed bubble pack. This is another mesh coil and you’ll need the afc from the 1.0 Ohm coil to use them. The 0.3 Ohm coil is rated for 30 to 40 watts, but as with the other mesh coil, this seemed more than a little over optimistic! In use, I found it was best at 20 to 30 watts and it definitely felt like it was struggling at 35 watts. Stick to that lower power range though, and you’ll be rewarded with a really flavourful, restricted direct lung vape. That PWM buzz from the mod does rear its head again though.

OXVA Origin X RBA

Don’t fancy another stock coil pod/aio system? Well OXVA have you covered with the optional dual coil rba tank. This looks like a small dual coil dripper grafted onto one of the pods, and comes with a bag of spares and some pre build coils and cotton.

This has a dual coil postless deck design which is extremely easy to build on with the included coils which have been pre cut with 6mm legs. This looked a little long to me on a test fitting, so I shortened these to around 5mm. Wicking was easy as well, although I did have to comb out and trim the wicks quite a bit, but this has wicked very consistently in use, possibly thanks to the unique L shaped tank.

OXVA Origin X rba build

The top cap has direct side airflow which reduces the chamber size, and also has a small amount of doming on the top. Airflow is adjusted with the control ring on the outside of the top cap.

Using the included coils, which are nichrome, the build came out to 0.17 Ohms, and I found it needed the full 60 watts available from the Origin X. The first puff always feels a bit weedy, but subsequent puffs are rich and flavourful, so this feels like it would perform better with slightly more power. As most of you are aware, I have problems using nichrome coils for long due to the high nickel content, so I’ll be replacing this build with something that hopefully has lower power requirements, but this initial “out of the box” experience has been stellar.

What hasn’t been quite as good here is the filling experience. The fill port has been moved to the outside of the pod for convenience, but the fill port is only just big enough for the tips of most modern e-liquid bottles to fit, and as you fill it, all that air in the tank has to go somewhere. Watching the tank with the top cap off, I could visibly see the wicks being moved by the air pressure, and as the e-liquid reaches the top of the “L” in the tank, this air is replaced by a flood of liquid!

I did eventually find a way of filling it up without the inevitable flood, tip the tank at 45 degrees so the fill port is down below the deck, and fill until it appears to be full, then tip it the other way until you see the air escape and the liquid disappears, then tip the other way again to fill it up. Either the fill hole needs to be larger, or an air relief hole needs to be milled into the deck to prevent this. Bring tissues because you’ll flood the deck at least once a day! If you can live with this, or find a work around, the rebuildable pod is superb and it is something I will continue to use.

OXVA also have an optional 510 adapter for the Origin X which works exactly as you would expect. You can fit up to 24mm atomizers without any overhang, but you will obviously have to work within the 60 watt and 4.2 volt limits of the mod. As with most similar systems, there’s a bit of wobbling if you grab the tank, but it’s held in place well enough and works well

OXVA Origin X 510 adapter

Pros

Good build quality
Compact size with removable 18650 battery
Lots of options with stock coils
Rebuildable rdta pod/tank is great

Cons

Wattage ratings on coils are bunkum, start low and find your sweet spot!
Rdta pod regularly floods when filling

Conclusion

It’s always nice to see a new manufacturer enter the market, and OXVA certainly seem to have hit the ground running if the Origin X pod system is anything to go by. This is definitely something I will continue to use, I’m especially taken by the optional rdta pod despite the flooding issues when filling, and this will probably be the default mode I’ll use it in. The stock coils are very flavourful and give a great restricted, direct lung vape, but if my experience is anything to go by, I’d ignore the suggested wattage ratings as they seem overly optimistic.

Many thanks to OXVA for sending the Origin X pod system out for review, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.

OXVA Origin X with all the trimmings

Antony Lord

Reviewer at POTV

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I was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.