OXBAR NIC-SWITCH Review: From Nicotine-Free to 50mg

OXBAR NIC-SWITCH

4.5

Outstanding

PROS

Mature and professional design
Feels comfortable to hold
Buttons are tactile and responsive
Crisp display shows nicotine and flavor levels
Nicotine adjustment works well and can be adjusted from 0-50mg
Can be used to lower nicotine consumption, all from a single disposable
Flavor adjustment makes a difference from subtle to powerful flavor
Both flavors that I tried are enjoyable
Two-mode airflow is great; MTL to tight MTL
Charges in 1hr

CONS

The bottom line

There’s no ice adjustment here, but OXBAR got the nicotine adjustment right with the NIC-SWITCH. For a vaper like myself who likes to vape at 25-35mg/ml, the nicotine adjustability isn’t very useful because I would prefer to just keep it at 30. But if you’re looking to reduce or eliminate your nicotine intake, that’s where the NIC-SWITCH will come in handy.

Instead of having to purchase different nicotine strength disposables, a single NIC-SWITCH device can be used to adjust your nicotine intake on-the-go. For vapers looking to cut down on nicotine, the NIC-SWITCH is a disposable vape that I think could be an indispensable tool for accomplishing that goal.

On top of the nicotine and flavor adjustability, the NIC-SWITCH is an excellent disposable. It offers lots of puffs, good flavors, and it’s easy to use. Overall, the NIC-SWITCH gets my recommendation.

A few months ago, OXBAR released the ICENIC, the world’s first disposable vape with individually adjustable ice and nicotine levels. While reviewing them, I was blown away by just how effective the ice adjustment was, offering a clear and different experience between the four ice levels.

What I wasn’t impressed by was the nicotine adjustability. The three nicotine levels seemed more similar than different, leaving OXBAR, and the ICENIC, in an awkward position.

But instead of giving up, OXBAR has doubled down and has just released the OXBAR NIC-SWITCH which features adjustable nicotine from 0-5% and adjustable flavor levels.

The NIC-SWITCH is otherwise incredibly similar to the OXBAR ICENIC. It features an identical design, the same 35000 puff rating, and the same 900mAh battery.

After the less than stellar nicotine adjustability of the OXBAR ICENIC, has OXBAR gotten things right with the NIC-SWITCH? I used it for three weeks to find out.

Specifications

Size: 109mm x 52mm x 29mm
Weight: 112g
900mAh Rechargeable battery
2A Type-C Charging
Three-level Flavor Adjustment
Four-level Nicotine Adjustment
Up to 35,000 Puffs
0-5% Nicotine content
Two-mode adjustable airflow
Draw activated
MTL draw
12 Flavor options

Design & Build Quality

The OXBAR NIC-SWITCH is basically identical to the OXBAR ICENIC. There are some minor changes to reflect that this is a flavor and nicotine adjustment vape rather than a nicotine and ice adjustment vape, but otherwise it’s the same device.

On the NIC-SWITCH, the icons on the buttons and the display are different, and there is no zodiac sign imagery (thank goodness). The back of the device says “Switch your nic ON/OFF”.

The NIC-SWITCH is a big disposable at 109mm tall, 52mm wide, and 29mm thick. It’s larger than most disposables with a similar puff count, and it weighs 112g, so it’s heavy as well.

Despite its size, it boasts a comfortable shape with rounded sides and corners, making it pleasant to hold and use. While it’s too large to conceal, the large size feels natural to grip, allowing me to hold it comfortably without straining my hand.

The color schemes for the NIC-SWITCH are something that I like a lot. Instead of a candy-paint finish like the ICENIC, all of the flavors for the NIC-SWITCH come with a white plastic shell. Branding on the device, like the OXBAR logo and “POD”, are printed in different colors, depending on the flavor, with a semi-reflective finish.

This touch of color on top of the white plastic shell looks excellent; much better than the candy paint on the ICENIC. The NIC-SWITCH looks clean, mature, and professional, which I think is ideally suited to vapers looking to use the NIC-SWITCH to reduce or eliminate their nicotine intake.

The plastic shell has proven to be durable and scratch resistant, but the same can’t be said about the display, which gets scratched up quite quickly.

The flavor is prominently displayed in large font on one side of the NIC-SWITCH for easy readability. Coupled with the differently colored logos for each flavor, differentiating between flavors is easy, even at a glance.

The side of the NIC-SWITCH is where the nicotine and flavor adjustment buttons are located. The nicotine adjustment button is above, and the flavor adjustment button is below. Both buttons are tactile, responsive, and produce a nice click when depressed.

The bottom of the device has an ON/OFF switch and the Type-C charging port. The ON/OFF switch functions as the adjustable airflow and can be set to two settings: three-holes open or five-holes open. The former delivers a tight MTL draw while the latter provides a MTL draw.

Features

Like the design, the NIC-SWITCH has features identical to the ICE-NIC, except for nicotine and flavor adjustments instead of nicotine and ice adjustments. The specs aren’t the best I’ve ever seen, but they’re not average either. Each NIC-SWITCH device offers up to 35,000 puffs and a 900mAh battery.

The display is nice, bright, and easy on the eyes. The UI is a bit different than the one on the ICENIC, and understandably so. It displays the nicotine level output, remaining nicotine, flavor level output, and remaining flavor (presumably ejuice).

The output levels are displayed as bars, while the ‘remaining’ levels are displayed as percentages. There are three levels of flavor adjustment, and four levels of nicotine adjustment: 0, 10, 30, and 50mg/ml. Because these can be set to 0 nicotine, they can be used as nicotine-free vapes. Even better, a single NIC-SWITCH device can be used to taper down your nicotine intake, which is perfect for those looking to reduce or quit nicotine/vaping altogether.

The battery life display is a battery icon with six bars, but it would have been better as a percentage display. The six bars give a vague idea of where battery life is at, but an exact readout would have been more accurate.

So, nicotine and flavor adjustment! Pretty cool, right? I think so, but it would be even cooler if I knew how it worked. Like the ICENIC, there is zero information available about how the nicotine adjustment and flavor adjustments work, which is disappointing to say the least.

But even though I don’t know how they work, I can happily say that the nicotine and flavor adjustments do work. I’ll get into more detail in this review’s “How do they vape?” section.

How long do they last?

I’ve been using two NIC-SWITCH devices and during my testing, I’ve been using them at the 10 and 30mg/ml nicotine levels nearly exclusively. I have switched to the 50mg/ml output here and there, but I wouldn’t say that I vaped at 50mg/ml a lot. I’ve also been using the highest (three) flavor output level for nearly the entire time.

When used as I did, each charge uses 21-22% of the nicotine level, and 23-24% of the flavor level. It looks like the flavor will run out before the nicotine does, after about four full charge uses, but I haven’t completely used one out yet.

The NIC-SWITCH doesn’t take too long to charge and I timed a charge at just over an hour.

OXBAR rates the NIC-SWITCH for 35,000 puffs, but I’m not confident it will reach this number, at least not with the long puffs I take. If you take short draws, it might be possible, but I can’t say that with confidence.

Flavors

It looks like the NIC-SWITCH is available in the same flavors as the ICENIC. These are mostly fruit flavors, but there are also some mint and candy flavors. Sadly, I only received two flavors to test: Rocket Pop and Blue Razz Lolly.

I’m going to describe how 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.

Rocket Pop

This flavor is very sweet and has that rocket popsicle flavor that you would expect from the name. The sweetness is strong, but the rocket popsicle flavor isn’t as strong as I would like. Very sugary and candied. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you like your vapes.

Blue Razz Lolly

This blue razz flavor tastes like what I expect from a blue razz vape, but with an added candy flavor that is really unique. The candy flavor comes in secondary to the sweet blueberry and raspberry notes, which makes this flavor different from other candy blue razz vapes. Fair warning, this flavor is very sweet so unless you have a strong sweet tooth, be warned!

How do they vape?

This is my second experience with an adjustable level vape from OXBAR. The first, the ICENIC, was disappointing in the nicotine adjustability because it didn’t really seem to work. The nicotine levels just felt too similar to one another, with no clear discernible difference between them. Lucky for OXBAR, and anyone looking for a nicotine adjustable disposable, it seems like they fixed this issue with the NIC-SWITCH.

Vaping at the 0 nicotine and 50 nicotine level is a big difference. I don’t even need to be looking at the screen to see the level, and I can tell which one I’m vaping at. The difference between 10 and 30 is more slight, but as someone who is used to vaping around 30mg/ml, I can feel the difference in satisfaction if I vape at the 10 level long enough.

So the nicotine adjustability works, but what about the flavor adjustability? According to my taste buds, this works too. From what I understand, the NIC-SWITCH has dual mesh coils and I think that the lower flavor levels use one of the mesh coils, while the highest flavor level uses both.

The flavor and vapor are way more full and prominent on the highest flavor level, whereas the lowest flavor level outputs weaker and more subtle flavor that doesn’t deliver all of the notes of the ejuice.