Mr Fog Max Air 8500 (MA8500) Review

Design & Build Quality

The Max Air 8500 is a throwback to the way that the first disposable vapes were designed. It’s a pen-shaped device, tall with a tubular casing. But where the MAX8500 differs from disposables of the past is its sheer size and weight. Back in the day, disposables had a couple milliliters of ejuice and were maybe a few times thicker than a pen. That’s not the case here.

The MA8500 is a beast of a device with its 32mm diameter. Although tall, it appears stocky at 105mm in height. It’s a chubby-looking disposable and at 66g in weight it isn’t exactly light either.

However, while the height and weight may not suit vapers with portability as their most important factor, the thick tube shape feels natural to hold. And while these definitely have some weight to them, they feel ‘solid’ rather than too heavy to carry around.

The body appears to be made of a plastic-resin with a shiny finish. The ‘wispy’ pattern that is common with resin is different on each of my devices, giving each a slightly different look. Each flavor is a different color, making it easy to tell them apart from each other.

Mr Fog went a bit overboard with branding on these devices. It’s as if they wanted to ensure that you wouldn’t forget what they are or who they are made by. MAX AIR MA8500 is printed in large white font that spans nearly the entire height of the body. The flavor is printed below in a slightly smaller font. On the back, MR FOG is printed in gold reflective lettering, again in a huge font that takes up a lot of space.

The gold MR FOG on a few of my units has started to chip and fade away, well before they’ve been used to completion. On the other hand, the white MAX AIR logo on the other side has held up perfectly well with no signs of fading.

The mouthpiece section of the MA8500 is huge. It accounts for about a third of the overall height of the device and the drip tip itself is wide with a large opening. I like the size of the drip tip because it conforms nicely to my lips, however the size of the airflow hole leads to lint and pocket dust getting trapped inside quite easily.

The entire mouthpiece section is finished in a layer of food-grade TPU which essentially feels like silicone, giving it a soft and slightly squishy feel. It’s still quite firm due to having a plastic casing underneath, so it’s a great feel overall.

Separating the mouthpiece section and the body is a gold airflow control ring. It features knurling to make adjustments easy and it is able to be rotated 360 degrees due to the lack of a stopper. The airflow slot itself is quite small, measuring just 6mm by 1mm. The airflow can be adjusted to however you wish, from fully open to completely closed off. There is the perfect amount of resistance to the airflow control, allowing you to easily make adjustments but also staying where it is positioned.

Each MA8500 also comes with a lanyard, which I thought was a nice inclusion. The color of the lanyard matches the color of the device, so it’s nice that they aren’t all the same color. Despite the 66g weight, I found it more convenient to wear the MA8500 around my neck than to burden my pocket with the size. Use it or don’t use it, it’s up to you.

Features

The MA8500 is a high-puff count disposable, so it goes without saying that it is rechargeable. There’s a 600mAh battery that is built-in to each one, with the Type-C charging port located on the bottom of the device. 

There’s also adjustable airflow, as I touched on in the previous section. The airflow can be set for a direct lung draw when wide open, or for a loose mouth to lung draw when nearly closed. It’s a weird airflow setup for a disposable device, especially one with 50mg/ml ejuice and a 1.0Ω coil. These are specifications more suited towards a MTL device and DL vaping this device will make most vapers feel ‘nic-sick’ fast. 

The MA8500 comes filled with 17ml of ejuice and offers up to 8500 puffs per device. This firmly places it in the ‘high-puff count’ category of disposable vapes and makes it best suited for vapers who don’t mind a larger device that can last for a longer period of time.

Aside from the above mentioned features, there’s nothing else to the MA8500. You simply draw on the mouthpiece to vape and recharge it when the battery dies.

Flavors

The worst part of the MA8500 has nothing to do with the device itself, but instead with the amount of flavors that are available. At the time of writing this review there are only eight flavors available. At minimum I expect to see at least fifteen flavors at launch so eight is just unacceptable. Fortunately, this is a problem that can be easily remedied by Mr Fog releasing more flavors but we just have to wait and see if they do.

The flavors that are out right now are all ‘double’ flavors like Double Grape, Double Strawberry, and Double Apple. They’re all also mostly fruit flavors, with one espresso flavor and one spearmint flavor. The full list of flavors is:

• Double Grape
• Double Strawberry
• Double Apple
• Double Berry
• Double Razz
• Double Spearmint
• Double Peach
• Double Espresso

I’m not completely sure what they mean by “Double”. Is it two different varieties of the fruit, or is it double the flavor? I have no idea, even after trying them all, so your guess is as good as mine. In any case, I’m going to describe how five of these flavors taste to me and what I think of them. However, keep in mind that just because I like a flavor that does not mean that you will like it. Similarly, if I don’t like a flavor this does not mean that you will not like it. This is solely my subjective opinion.

Double Razz

If you’re a Blue Razz vaper then you’ll taste a flavor that will be oddly familiar with this vape. It’s a sweet blue raspberry taste, with candy-esque notes that seal the deal. It’s really enjoyable to vape on all day long and I did not find it to be too sweet as an all day vape.

Double Peach

This flavor doesn’t blast you with sweetness and I love it. You can really taste the juiciness of the peach flavor and it comes through as natural and unsweetened. It’s a layered flavor that is stronger on the inhale and followed by lighter notes immediately after and through to the exhale.

Double Apple

This was by-far my favorite flavor for the MA8500. Like Double Peach, the apple flavor tastes unsweetened and natural but it’s still really great tasting. The flavor is like that of an actual apple and not like an apple candy so it’s a nice change from most other apple flavors that I have tried. If you’re not a fan of flavors that are too sweet and you like apple flavors, this is a flavor to try out.

Double Berry

Which two berries are in this flavor? I couldn’t tell you. But I think that one of them is strawberry. There’s more sweetness to this flavor than the other MA8500 flavors, with a strong flavor on the inhale and exhale that lingers afterwards. It’s a touch too sweet for me to vape all day long but I found myself picking it up from time to time for a couple of puffs.

Double Espresso

This is an espresso flavor, that’s for sure! There’s nearly a complete lack of sweetness. The majority of this flavor is authentic coffee/espresso that is complete with the slightly bitter taste that you would get from the real thing. The vapor is heavy and super strong so this isn’t a flavor for the weak hearted.

How do they vape?

I mentioned earlier that you can adjust the airflow on the MA8500 from a direct lung draw to a loose mouth to lung draw, which is strange for a 50mg/ml disposable. Throughout my testing period of three weeks, I haven’t changed my mind on this. I’ve found no good reason or situation where I would want a DL draw that is going to instantly make me nic sick.

If you want to have a good experience with these disposables, forget leaving the airflow fully open. You’ll want to close it at least mid-way, if not closer to fully closed. Vaping in any other way will produce way too much vapor and deliver way too much nicotine. Sure, you can pull a vape trick or two with the airflow open but you’ll see the room spinning shortly after.

If you’re a mouth-to-lung vaper that wants a tight draw then you’ll want to look at other devices. Even with the airflow nearly closed, the MA8500 is still a loose MTL draw. I personally prefer my draw to be on the tighter side so it was a little too loose for me to fully embrace. But I still enjoyed using these, even if I wished for a tighter draw the entire time.

Due to the 50mg/ml (5%) nicotine content, these are very satisfying to vape on. This also has to do with the 1.0Ω coil and what feels like a high wattage output. After taking only one or two puffs I was good, so these are not disposables that you’ll want to chain-vape. 

I easily got two days of vaping from a charge, although near the end of the second day I could feel that the battery was dying. The puff strength takes a noticeable dive once the battery gets low, so I had to take longer draws to compensate.

Verdict

While there are a few points that need to be addressed with the MA8500, overall it’s a good high-puff count disposable. Having the option of DL vaping on a 5% disposable is strange, but not the first time that I’ve seen this done. I would have liked if the airflow range was slated more towards MTL vaping and offered the option of a tight MTL draw but the MA8500 is still enjoyable to use with the airflow closed down for a loose MTL draw.

The flavor options are the main reason to pick the MA8500 over another high-puff disposable. Although there are only eight flavors available, I really liked the natural and ‘unsweetened’ taste that their fruit flavors offered. This makes them great as all day vapes and ensures that you won’t get sick of the sweetness when you use them for (potentially) weeks before they run out of ejuice.

There’s room for improvement but I think that the MA8500 is a good disposable vape overall.

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