EVOVE Pod Kit Review — Two Wattage Modes & Dry-Hit Protection

The EVOVE starter kit is a new closed-system pod vape produced by EVOVE. It looks a lot like the JUUL in terms of its form factor and it similarly uses pre-filled, non-refillable pods. The pods come with 1.8ml of salt nicotine eliquid and house a 1.5ohm coil. 

However, the EVOVE pod vape has a few additional features that set it apart from the JUUL. It’s got two wattage modes, standard or performance mode. It’s also got a temperature controlling chip to ensure that you won’t get a dry-hit. Plus, it packs a 460mAh battery hidden inside its small body.

On paper the EVOVE certainly looks attractive. But how good is it in practice?

This device was sent to me for review, directly from EVOVE.

EVOVE Pod Kit Review — Two Wattage Modes & Dry-Hit Protection

Box Contents

• 1 x EVOVE Pod Vape Device
• 1 x Proprietary Magnetic Charger
• 4 x EVOVE Pods (1 Classic Tobacco, 1 Menthol Chill, 1 Creamy Caramel, 1 Summer Strawberry)
• Or
• 4 x EVOVE Pods (Summer Strawberry or Menthol Chill)

When you purchase this kit you’re given two options for pods. You can get it with either 1 pod of each flavor or with 4 pods of Summer Strawberry or Menthol Chill. The device comes in a standalone box by itself and the pods come in their own separate box as well.

Specifications

• Weighs 27g
• Closed System Pods
• Pre-Filled with 1.8ml of Nicotine Salt (20mg or 50mg)
• 1.5ohm Coil Resistance
• 460mAh Battery
• Two Wattage Modes
• LED Battery Life Indicator
• Proprietary Magnetic Charging

Design & Build Quality

The EVOVE has a pretty sleek and modern looking design. It’s really quite attractive in person. It’s got a long rectangular shape with rounded edges that make it comfortable to hold. At the moment it’s available in four colors: Space Grey, Lava Red, Wizard Green or Van Gogh Blue.

I’ve been using the Wizard Green color for my testing and I think that this is the color that I like the most. The paint is a matte-metallic type that not only looks good, but it’s proven to be quite durable as well. I’ve been using it for well over a week now and I’ve thrown it in my pocket with my keys a few times. Still, it doesn’t have any visible wear or scratch marks. It also doesn’t hold any fingerprints so it stays pretty clean.

The EVOVE pod vape weighs just 27g. It’s not quite as light as the JUUL but it’s still very light in the hand. It’s not too heavy to hold with your lips either and this is something I’ve found myself doing very often while using it. It’s easy to hold with your lips because of the ridges on the pod, which also functions as the mouthpiece. These ridges aren’t super comfortable but they do make it easy to hold the device in your mouth without it slipping out.

There are no buttons on the EVOVE, mainly because it uses draw-activated firing. This keeps the body of the device clean and I really like the simplicity of the design. EVOVE is written on the bottom of the device but otherwise there are no logos or buttons.

On the front side of the device is a circular LED. When you take a draw, this LED will light up either white or blue depending on the wattage mode you have set.

Blue LED — Standard Mode, 5W Output

White LED — Performance Mode, 5.5W Output

I know what you’re thinking: “But if there are no buttons, how do you change the wattage?”. The answer is tapping! Tapping on the device four times will change the mode and the LED will light up blue or white to indicate the mode that it’s been set to. Tapping to change modes is very responsive and works better than I thought. Quite innovative I’d say.

The 5W output of Standard Mode (blue LED) seems to be better suited to the 50mg pods while the 5.5W output of Performance Mode seems to be better suited to the 20mg pods.

There’s a small pin sized hole on each side of the device to allow the airflow in. Just from looking at the size of these holes I can tell that this device is going to have a tight MTL draw. 

Pod & Flavors

Pods for the EVOVE come pre-filled with 1.8ml of nicotine salt ejuice in either 20mg or 50mg strengths. As for the coil, it’s standard resistance for a pod vape at 1.5ohm. The pod attaches magnetically to the device and it sits quite deep inside the body. The magnet is nice and strong and it attracts the pod into the device without issue. It holds the pod very securely; it’s not a loose fit. There is a tiny bit of wiggle but it’s a non-issue. The pod definitely won’t come out accidentally, that’s for sure.  

There’s no way of seeing your ejuice level while the pod is inserted so you have to remove the pod from the device in order to check. The tint on the pod is a little dark though so you have to hold it up to the light. I don’t know why manufacturers keep doing this when it’s a common complaint. Make your pods transparent! Please! 

If you choose the variety pod pack with the starter kit you’ll get four flavors: Summer Strawberry, Menthol Chill, Creamy Caramel & Classic Tobacco. Currently, these are the only four flavors available but I’ve checked their website and they look like they’ll be releasing two more flavors sometime soon: Green Breeze and Litchi Ice.

Summer Strawberry: “Fresh strawberries, accompanied by a rich layer of French red wine and fresh menthol. Lively, fresh, and never dull.”

Menthol Chill: “An irresistible blend of refreshing mint and sweet vanilla notes, with a long and cooling finish”

Creamy Caramel: “A sweet blend of cream and caramel mixed with peanut butter, very rich and layered.”

Classic Tobacco: “A pure Virginia tobacco accent with a mixture of butter and malt.”

Those are the site descriptions but I’ll get into my thoughts about these four flavors when I vape on them a little later.

The bottom of the pods are color coded to indicate the flavor inside. The Summer Strawberry and Menthol Chill are easy enough to tell apart but the Caramel and Tobacco pods can be a bit tricky. The Tobacco pod is more of a yellow color while the Caramel pod is more brown. 

Battery

The EVOVE houses a built-in 460mAh battery. For comparison, the JUUL is only 200mAh so you’re getting more than double the battery capacity. 460mAh is quite large for such a small and thin device but it’s not the largest on a pod vape by any means.

The LED that indicates your wattage mode also displays your battery life. Instead of tapping four times to change the wattage you just tap twice to show the battery level. 

Green: 100-30% Charge

Red: Less than 30% charge

100 to 30% is a pretty wide range for a single LED. You might check and it’s green but in reality it’s at 35%. For this reason I wish that there was another color, like for 60-30%. At least you would have more notice of when your battery was starting to die.

Plus, this isn’t a constant output device so the draw does get a bit weaker as the battery dies. It’s not anything serious but it is noticeable below 30%. All the more reason for a third LED.

The EVOVE uses a proprietary charger that attaches magnetically to the bottom of the device. This charger matches the color of the device and actually looks very nice when attached. But this is one extra thing to have to carry around with you and potentially lose. 

Being that it is a unique charger, you have to be extra careful that you don’t lose it or else you’re going to be stuck without a vape. It’s for this reason that I don’t like proprietary chargers. It would have been more convenient if it used Micro USB or USB C charging instead.

Charging times aren’t stellar for such a small battery. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to recharge the device from dead. Bit of a con here.

Battery life on the other hand is a big pro. I got 2 days of pretty heavy usage out of a single charge and this was while using it mostly in performance mode. I’m sure if it was used in standard mode it could last a little bit longer. 

Performance

I knew from the moment I saw the size of the airflow holes that this would be a tight MTL draw and it is. It’s a true, tight MTL that is much tighter than the JUUL but very pleasant to vape on. It produces nice, smooth, warm vapor. And for a device of this type and size, the clouds are decent too.

The draw activated firing works flawlessly and doesn’t require too much effort to pull. It’s natural to take a draw and feels a lot like pulling on a cigarette. 

Their website says that they use their own formula of nicotine salts that is supposed to be more satisfying and I think they might be onto something. WhileI can’t say that it’s any more satisfying than other nic salts, it definitely hits the spot.

You get a nice throat hit with the 50mg nic salt pods but it isn’t too aggressive. If you’re not a heavy vaper or aren’t used to 50mg nic salts though, the 20mg nic salts are nice as well. They give a less pronounced throat hit than the 50mg but it’s definitely still there.

As I mentioned earlier, Performance Mode seems better suited to the 20mg pods because of the higher wattage while Standard Mode is better for use with the 50mg pods. It’s only a 0.5W change (5W to 5.5W) but it makes a noticeably change to the smoothness of the vapor.

The dry burn protection also seems to work well. I took long and repeated draws, basically chain vaping, and I never got a dry hit. The draws, as well as the flavor, were always consistent.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I had no leaking. Although there was a bit of condensation build up on the pod after long vaping sessions, there was no ejuice leakage. 

Pod Flavors

Now for my personal thoughts on the four flavors. I really enjoyed all of them except for the Creamy Caramel which I found to be too rich and creamy. The Strawberry, Menthol, and Tobacco flavors are all great to vape on though and I’ve been switching them out and vaping on them like crazy.

Summer Strawberry

Even though I’m not a menthol fan at all, this flavor has got a light menthol coolness to it that I actually don’t mind. The strawberry flavor isn’t too sweet or strong and instead it tastes almost natural. I can also taste the subtle red wine flavor and it pairs well with the strawberry. This is my favorite flavor of the bunch.  

Menthol Chill

Once again, I’m not a menthol lover, but this and the Strawberry flavor have got me rethinking my preferences. This isn’t as overpoweringly minty as other menthol ejuices I’ve tried though. It gives you a blast of coolness that refreshes your mouth but the vanilla is a nice balancing flavor.  

Creamy Caramel

When they say that this flavor is creamy, they mean it. I didn’t find that to be a good thing though. This is my least favorite flavor of the four and that surprised me because from the description I thought that I would love it. The caramel and peanut butter flavors are there but they just taste weird and too rich. In my opinion, this flavor needs to be toned down.

Classic Tobacco

This is a nice tobacco flavor. It’s almost a sweet tobacco with a mixed malt flavor. The malt gives it a caramelly, almost nutty taste. To be honest, this flavor tastes closer to the description of Creamy Caramel than the actual Creamy Caramel pod.  I’d say that this is a close second to the Summer Strawberry.

Verdict

I’m not usually a fan of closed-system pods because you can’t refill them and I usually don’t like the flavor choices. However, I really liked three of the four flavors here and I could positively vape on them daily. I got smooth, warm, flavorful and satisfying hits that I really enjoyed. The draw was also very nice — something MTL vapers will certainly like.

The form factor of the EVOVE is ultra portable and light. Plus, the two wattage modes are a nice touch as well. For improvements, it could do without the proprietary charging port and instead use USB-C. The charging time could also be improved. Battery life however was extremely long lasting and almost makes up for this fault. All things considered, I think that this is one of the better closed pod systems out there.

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