Starter Kit Reviews

Aspire Nexi One Pod Kit

The Aspire Nexi One Pod kit drags the basic cigalike kicking and screaming into the modern age, and Stephen went hands on to see how it vapes

by Stephen Gitsham
Dec 5, 2024

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Vape Club have very generously sent over the Aspire Nexi One, a cigalike that’s been upgraded for modern vapers.

Here we go with a personal story again, yawn.

My old mum stopped smoking many years ago using one of these types of vapes, pretty much because that’s all you could get back in the old days of yore when vaping started off. The draw was horrible and wispy, the liquid was disgusting, and the battery barely lasted. I’d always thought it’d be great if I could replicate the smoking experience somehow and was quite excited to try it out, only to be highly disappointed and put off vapes altogether for a good number of years. I never did try any of the following cigalike vapes, or the ego style ones. My journey started with box mods and tanks as I’m young and adventurous (haha).

The Aspire Nexi One is a throwback to those days of yore but with a 60mAh battery, backed up by a power bank that holds 400mAh of power in it as well. The prefilled pods (they look like filters) are filled with 1.2ml of nicotine salt juice and they screw into the battery unit then away you go. There are no functions, no buttons (apart from one on the power bank to turn it on) and no fuss. Aspire claim that the power bank will be good for 6 charges, but I’ve found I just fire the device in when I’m finished with it, and it tops it up until I’m ready to go again.

In the box you get:

Aspire Nexi One Device
Nexi One Power Bank
Nexi Prefilled Pod
USB-C Cable
User Manual

I can’t really comment much on the style as it looks like a cigarette. I suppose I could say it’s cigarette style. The charging pack is small and discrete, and I’ve found I prefer to keep the device in it when not in use as it feels weird for me to have a loose fag rolling about in my pocket. And on the subject of the power bank, it has a button on the bottom that’s five clicks to turn on, then it’ll cycle through a few lights to let you know how much power is in there and will turn red when it’s charging the device then green when it’s all powered up. To put the device in the charger, you just lift a plastic flap on one end and slide it in. It’s that simple.

The only function of the Aspire Nexi One is to let you have a smoke like experience. It’s auto draw so you pop it in your gob and puff away.

In general use it works. It just works. The Nexi One is the closest I’ve come to replicating smoking since I started vaping in 2017. It looks like a smoke, tastes like a smoke (if you liked toasted tobacco smokes), and smokes like a smoke. SMOKE. I think this is going to be a very good device for me to use when I have a pint or two as that’s when the craving still hits for real tobacco. Luckily, I don’t drink that often nowadays but when I do, I’ll be trying this out for sure as the design also scratches that psychological itch brilliantly.

The nicotine salt softens the throat hit but it’s still there and feels similar to a real cigarette. I did have a little cough when I first drew on it, but I get that with most MTL devices anyway as I am mainly a RDL vaper who dabbles with DTL as well, and I do realise that it might also not be strong enough of a throat hit for some people, but for me, it was perfect. I thought I’d get about five to ten draws then have to recharge (like those daft heat not burn tobacco devices), but it lasts surprisingly well for such a low powered battery. I’d say you get more than several cigarettes worth from the 60mAh. You can take a good amount of draws and then pop it back in the power pack for a charge then go again, like a real cigarette (do you get that it’s meant to be like a real smoke yet?). It also doesn’t get hot or taste burnt when you chain vape on it, so that’s another plus.

I’ll admit that I didn’t get into counting how many puffs you get from a pod or a full charge, I just don’t vape like, that but Aspire claim that three of the pods will give you approx. 1200 puffs so going on basic maths, you’ll likely get approx. 400 puffs per pod. Now the little power bank holds 400mAh so it’s unlikely that you’ll get the full day out of both the device and the power bank if you’re tanning the thing, and most disposable users I know can get through a standard 600 puff device in a day so you’d probably use close to two pods a day. The beauty is that you can recharge the power bank (funny that) and it’s still so much cheaper than the fags and the disposables as three pods are £5.99 so it’s worth a look if you are still struggling to beat the cravings.

I have found that it tastes a bit burnt when you get to the end of a pod, hard not to when there’s no way to see the liquid level, but it’s just not that kind of device so I’m not counting that as a con.

Aspire have also released several different flavours for this device, most of them tobacco oriented for those who are struggling to stop smoking and Vape Club were kind enough to send me them all in the 20mg per ml version (you can also get 12mg) to try out so I’ll go through them for you now.

Classic Tobacco

This is the one you get when you buy the device. It’s an American style toasted tobacco and tastes like an American style toasted tobacco. It’s not too ashy like some can be and gives a decent throat hit as well so it’s probably the best for those who are still struggling to stop smoking.

Caramel Tobacco

To me this one was quite ashy tasting, and the caramel didn’t come through too well. It does taste like a caramel tobacco but just doesn’t hit the spot like a good RY4 with the vanilla as well. It’s the only one out of them all that I didn’t like and that’s a shame as I was quite looking forward to it.

Fresh Menthol

I like this as it’s the only non-tobacco flavour that’s available. It’s a simple menthol that’s like a menthol cigarette but without the cigarette taste. There’s a light sweetness but nothing compared to, say, a bar juice or a disposable. The throat hit is ok, and it hits the spot well. Nice

Vanilla Tobacco

I like this one as well. It has the vanilla flavour with a background of toasted tobacco that just works well. There’s no ashiness like in the caramel and the tobacco goes nicely with the vanilla leading it.

Menthol Tobacco

Again, the tobacco goes well with the menthol. It’s similar to the plain menthol but with a nice woody aftertaste and the flavours mix in well together.

Bluemint Tobacco

I was surprised by this one as I was kind of expecting just a different mint than the menthol but it’s fruity. Explains the blue then. It’s a blueberry with a hint of mint and a tobacco undertone and it is really quite nice. Probably my favourite of them all.

Final Thoughts

Aspire have done well to bring an old design back to life by introducing nic salts into the mix. The whole experience is the one I was hoping for back in the day when I tried my mum’s horrible vape and if this had been about then I might have stopped smoking a lot sooner.

For people who are trying to stop smoking this would be a great way to do it but with the limitations of the power in the device and the power bank it might be better to have a couple on the go as I remember myself how much I’d vape when I first started myself.

For those like me this is a great addition to the arsenal, especially when I’m going to have a beer. The psychological aspect itself is worth the price for me and the flavours are quite good for prefilled tobacco pods, and I’m not usually a fan of tobaccos.

If you like the look of the Aspire Nexi One kit, then you can buy it for £18.99 at Vape Club, the pods are £5.99 for 3.

Pros

It’s really like a cigarette
Flavours are decent for what it is
Small and compact

Cons

Heavy vapers will need at least 2 on the go

Stephen Gitsham

Reviewer at POTV

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I was a very militant smoker for many years…why would I stop doing the only thing I had left that I liked doing? Then I fell into vaping in 2017. My wife bought a cheap kit off from Amazon that stopped working and I took it to a local vape shop to see what they could do with it. An hour later and full of new knowledge about watts, ohms, and juice strength, I headed home with a new nautilus mini tank for her and raved to her about the helpful guy in the shop. I must have bored her with all my new found information. I tried her vape that night, and a week later bought my own kit. Then I found POTV and the amazingly helpful and generous people on it. A month later I was making my own (disgusting) vape juice, and a month after that I was winding coils for my new RDA. Six years on and I'm much better at making juice, and I now have no money but lots of shiny mods and tanks