Pod System Reviews

VapX Art Pod Kit

The VapX Art Pod system offers form and function with added hygiene features which definitely make this dinky little kit well worth a closer look

by Si Davies
Oct 28, 2021

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Supplied by VapX for review
https://vapx.com/Art.html
£43.59 from their online store https://store.vapx.com/products/vapx-art-pod-kit#

VapX ART Pod System boxed

The Art from VapX is one of the most interesting kits I’ve tested in 2021, and it impressed me throughout its use. The cherry on top was the built in UV mouthpiece cleaning which is the first I’ve come across in the vaping market. VapX are one to watch if the Art is anything to go by.

Here’s the official description:

"VapX ART Pod Kit is consists of one Charging Case, one ART Body, and two Pods. The battery capacity of the Charging Case is 800mAh, it's the built-in Li-Polymer battery and can be fully charged within 10 minutes via Type-C interface. The VapX ART Body is powered by 300mAh built-in battery with 18W max Type-C input power. The ART Pod Tank holds 1.4ml nic juice, together with the use of violet tank, you can carry an extra pod tank that totals up to 2.8ml of nic juice. This allows constant vaping for a whole day with no compromise in portability and size."

It’s rare I ‘copy & paste’ the official description but this one is spot on and has no bloated upselling bits added – nice one!

Unboxing

The Art comes in quite a large box for a pod kit but it’s well laid out and easy to get to everything. A little cheesy perhaps, but I did like the printed “Keep Vaping…” top cover, and it serves a purpose to add protection during shipping. Underneath that is the instruction manual.

VapX ART Pod System Keep Vaping
Q: What do you call a young, male Art Student without a girlfriend?
A: Homeless

The top layer holds the charging case with one pod inside and has a convenient little ribbon to lift it out, on the bottom layer is the actual pod and a decent sized USB-C cable.

VapX ART Pod System unboxing

First Impressions

I started off looking at the vape part, small vapes really grab my attention and the little pen type pod is one of the smallest I’ve tried, the design of it is just superb with interesting styling.

VapX ART Pod System tiny!

The pod cartridge is a magnetic fit and the juice window doubles as a thumb grip to slide the pod out which works a charm. The fitting is firm and has almost no play in it.

Q: How does an artist get around?
A: Well quite easel-y.

VapX ART Pod System two parts

It feels really nice and discreet in the hand and is easy to hide for sly vaping. The weight is impressive and at 23g makes it handy for a shirt pocket. The length is 87mm and the oval body is 16.7mm at the widest point and 14.6mm at the narrowest.

VapX ART Pod System close up

The pods are well designed and easy to fill, they have a metal drip tip which feels comfortable while vaping, the drip-tip is removable but much smaller than a 510 fitting. The bore is narrow and perfect for MTL. The coil inside is 1.2ohm and the wicking ports are large which should help prolong the coil lifespan. There’s a small tabbed bung to refill and I found it mess free to fill up. The downside is that they only hold 1.4ml each but you have a spare one in the dock so you end up with 2.8ml and they takes a couple of seconds to swap. Another downside is that the pods are disposable which is quite wasteful, these almost feel too good to throw away, especially the drip-tip. All that said, they are very small which means they produce around half the waste of many other disposable pods.

Q: Why can’t you trust artists?
A: Because they are always a bit sketchy, a bit shady, and they will always try to frame you. I think you get the picture.

VapX ART Pod System with charging case

Moving onto the portable charging dock, this bit of kit is excellent in many ways. The size looks a bit big at first but they have made it very pocket/bag friendly and the shape makes it discreet in a trouser pocket. Compared to something like the Uwell Tripod, it is far more convenient. I have been carrying it around for days and the size and shape is something I really like, it is also easy to grab in a hurry. Size wise: 58mm x 20mm x 100mm and weighs a total of 94g fully filled.

I was going to make a joke about a broken pencil… but it’s pointless.

The charging case is made from durable plastic and has a semi matt finish to it which feels smooth, part of me would have preferred something a bit snazzier or metal, but the other part appreciates that it is light weight plastic as I don’t feel as precious about throwing it around or in my pocket with other stuff. The pod itself is also protected inside.

VapX ART Pod System fitted together

It has two bays inside, one is to store a spare pod and the other is a charging port for the battery/pod. They sit in securely and slide in easily, the spare pod is held in place with a magnet so doesn’t fall out. The lid closes solidly and there’s a silver button on the side to open it up, this is spring loaded and pops open rather pleasingly. But it is when you close the lid that the magic happens.

VapX ART Pod System UV light

As soon as you close the lid, a 10 seconds burst of UV light fires onto the metal mouthpieces to cleanse them, the lid has a transparent piece so you can see the light in action though I’m not sure if you can use that edge as an external UV lamp?

VapX ART Pod System internal UV

You can see the little UV lamps in the lid but they will only operate with the battery pod inside so you don’t waste the battery, I love the innovation of this feature, and it seems the benefits are obvious. However, I’m clueless as to how effective this is or how much I need it in my life?

Once I tried to paint the sky but I blue it.

Do we need UV?

Here’s what VapX have to say in their official product page:

"It comes with a combination of an enclosed UV system designed into the bank which emits 10s of strong UV burst on every close lid action, and a food-grade antimicrobial steel mouth tip inte-grated with the Pod tank. Both cores contribute to a 99.9% protection against bacteria, mold, fungi, and even viruses. Enjoy constant whole day safe-vaping with no compromise in risk & health concerns."

I’ve lived without UV in my vaping life until now, but now it’s here it does make sense, for example I tried 3D printing drip tips which lead me to looking into the safety of them and it turned out they were unsafe due to the bacteria and germs that drip tips hold on to, and the porous structure meant they couldn’t be deep cleaned. It just made me very aware of the everyday bacteria etc. that vapes accumulate. I clean my stuff as much as possible but not during use, so this has to be a good thing right? I’m going with that, it’s a welcome feature and I commend VapX for coming up with it.

VapX ART Pod System twin UV

Onto the main purpose of the charging case; the actual charging. The case automatically charges the pod every time you pop it in and close the lid, and the LEDs on the side of the case pulse to indicate charging. Since the pod battery is only 300mAh, it never takes long to top up the charge. Ideally you need to pop it back into the case in between vape sessions so it will always be fully charged. The case itself has an 800mAh LiPo battery and supports USB-C fast charging (support Type-C Input Protocol: PD3.0/PD2.0/QC3.0/QC2.0). I used a 2 Amp charger and it took around 20 minutes per day which is very handy. For optimal performance, I often topped it up when the opportunity arrived.

VapX ART Pod System single

Performance

At this point I was really impressed with this kit. Since I had never tried any VapX products, I was half dreading that the flavour would be its downfall, but fortunately this wasn’t the case, far from it, and I’m very happy with the vape that this little beauty produces, though it wasn’t immediately obvious as the coil has a short break in period but after only 10 puffs or so, the flavour really pops through.

There’s no controls as it is draw activated (auto-draw) which is responsive and fast firing. The vape is a medium warmth and the airflow feels smooth without spit-back. Pleasingly it is a proper MTL (Mouth To Lung), it’s not the tightest I’ve tried but meets my fussy needs. Using DeeDee’s Drawometer scale (1 being tight and 10 being loose), I would say it is around a 3.

When you’re colour-blind in an art gallery, everything is a pigment of imagination.

Battery life was a mixed bag and very much depended on how often you vape; the 300mAh will easily last a ‘vape-break’ but only lasted a couple of hours before it needed recharging, but that is where the habit of using the charging case comes in handy. If you vape like you used to smoke and have longer gaps in between, then popping it into the charging dock in between will always give you a full powered vape and will last most of a working day. I needed to adjust my habit to get the most from this kit but it was worth it, top up charging was far more convenient that letting the battery run out.

VapX ART Pod System fully loaded

The convenience of the case system made the Art a pleasure to use, and the vape quality was very satisfying. Having the spare pod prefilled in the case was very handy as a backup or an alternate flavour, and the shape of the case never looked obtrusive in my pockets but was big enough to grab it when required. The coil lifespan has surprised me as it stated “7-12 tanks of juice refill (depending on the juice type)” so I was expecting the lower end, but I am on refill number 15 and am only just starting to notice the flavour drop off a bit, I’m pretty happy with that!

One thing well worth pointing out is the lack of leakage, this has impressed me no end and I’m impressed that it doesn’t even condensate inside, I know it shouldn’t be a feature as we should expect that, but it has been the downfall of many pods and ruined the Tripod.

The Art Of The Deal

I had to come up with at least one ‘Art’ wordplay/pun so why not choose the words of a ****, but back on track I would recommend buying some pods when buying this kit as it’s only natural to rotate the spare pod so I found they both expired close together. Fortunately I had some new pods, but at that point I imagined how annoyed I would be if I had none. A spare battery/pod would also come in handy, but I’m not sure if VapX will be selling those separately.

Conclusion

I’m very impressed with this pod system, I love how interesting it all is but it’s how handy and essential it has become for me, shiny new toy and all that, but the convenience and vape quality has me reaching for this every time I leave the house. I’ve tried the Suorin Air charging kit and the Uwell Tripod and they just didn’t hold up in everyday use and soon got retired, but the Art kit is far better than those two and is one I will continue to use long after the review period.

Pros

UV mouthpiece cleaning
Very compact pod
Flavour is very good
Charging case is very convenient
Decent pod lifespan
Good MTL airflow

Cons

I always feel like a review isn’t complete without some cons, but I don’t really have any. I tend to hold up the device at this point and try to find things I either don’t like or that could be improved, but I think they have nailed this kit overall and have kept the pod compact with the battery trade-off. I can only point out some potential niggles that others might find; the 1.4ml pod capacity (though the spare 1.2ml pod negated this in use), and the metal mouthpiece might be off putting.

Final Thoughts

If this was just the pod, I would have loved how it looked and felt in the hand but I would have criticised the 300mAh battery and 1.4ml capacity. But as a charging kit, this all adds up to a superbly compact and convenient kit that stands out in the crowd. The UV is the cherry on top.

Score: 9/10 – Wherefore ART though? (oh it’s in me pocket!)

VapX ART Pod System side by side

Si Davies

Reviewer at POTV

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My background is Engineering and Professional Photography. Mostly from POTV users knowledge I learned so much about pretty much all styles of vaping and equipment, Cloud Chasing, Squonking, Mouth To Lung, Direct To Lung, Pods, Mechs, Rebuild-able tanks and atomisers etc, and have experience with many many devices and atomisers, it's become a hobby and enjoy trying out the latest gear. I like to think my reviews are plain speaking and informative without getting too technical, if I have to resort to reading the manual then I don't consider it user friendly!