OXVA XLIM CRC Edition Review

The Xlim CRC is one of several similar pod vapes available from OXVA, falling somewhere between the Xlim Pro and the Xlim SE in terms of design and features. The Xlim CRC is identical to the original OXVA XLIM, but with the added benefit of using more child-safe pods.

This small, easy-to-use, and lightweight vape uses 1.6ml fixed coil pods, features an LED screen for keeping track of settings and puff count, and has adjustable airflow. Inside is a 900mAh battery, recharged with 2A fast-charging USB-C. It is predominantly aimed at MTL vapers, with the option to use it for RDL vaping if you so desire.

I recently had the chance to try out a few OXVA devices, including the new Xlim CRC vape with child-resistant pods, and was keen to explore the child-safety features. Here’s what I thought of this surprisingly well-made and thoughtfully-designed bit of vaping kit.

Box Contents

• 1 x OXVA Xlim device
• 1 x 0.6Ω refillable CRC pod (pre-installed)
• 1 x 0.8Ω refillable CRC pod
• 1 x USB Type-C charging cable
• 1 x OXVA Lanyard

Specifications

• Dimensions: 111mm x 24mm x 14mm
• Weight: 45g
• E-liquid Capacity: 2ml
• Adjustable Wattage
• Wattage Range: 5W – 25W
• Battery size: 900mAh
• Charging type: Type-C
• Adjustable Airflow
• Pod Connection: Magnetic
• MTL/RDL draw

Design & Build Quality

If you’re looking for a small, sleek, good-looking pod vape that will fit into any pocket or purse, the OXVA Xlim CRC should hit the mark. It isn’t a new or unusual design, even when compared to other OXVA vapes, but it has been put together well and looks good.

There are eight different colors to choose from, ranging from low-key black, gray, or silver, to much more eye-catching red, pink, and green. If you want something even more extravagant the Night and Day versions feature an all-over design of cogs and other mechanical doohickeys. That might sound a bit odd, but it actually looks great.

The body of the device is encased in aluminum alloy and has a nice smooth finish. The base, which is nicely flat to allow the vape to stand upright, is the only place you can see some plastic aside from the pod.

On the front face of the vape is an LED screen with a firing button just below. At the very bottom is a small and discreet OXVA logo. Turn the vape to the side and you’ll find the small airflow slider and the only other piece of branding: a tiny Xlim logo.

Pods

At first glance, the pods for the CRC version of the Xlim look like any number of similar top-fill pods. The major difference with a CRC pod is hidden inside, which we’ll look at more closely in a moment. But it’s worth mentioning at the outset that the CRC pods have slightly less capacity than the standard pods, due to those differences. It’s not much (1.6ml instead of 2ml) but it probably will mean having to top them up slightly more often.

Just like many pods, including those on the non-CRC Xlim, these attach to the battery section using magnets. The magnets are small but not as small as some commonly used in other pod vapes and connect with a solid “thunk” sound when the pod is inserted. You get a 0.6Ω pod pre-installed, and a 0.8Ω pod in the box. That lets you choose, alongside the airflow, between an MTL or RDL-style vaping experience. If 0.8 isn’t a high enough resistance, 1.2Ω pods are also available for the OXVA Xlim.

As has become almost standard with this style of vape, the pods feature fixed coils and are designed to be discarded as a whole when the internal coil fails. You should get a decent two weeks of use out of a single pod, as mine are still going strong after nearly that amount of time.

The standard OXVA Xlim pods are the side-fill type, but the CRC version has a top-fill system that is accessed by removing the drip tip. This reveals two holes on either side of the draw hole. Call me a child if you like, but I admit that filling the pods baffled me for a while.

A simple locking mechanism inside the fill hole, designed to stop the e-liquid from being accessible to children, has to be pressed down by the filling nozzle for vape juice to pass through it. Because the pods are designed to work with large (30ml, 60ml, or 100ml) e-liquid bottles with a wide nozzle, and because I tend to use a small 10ml bottle of juice for refilling, the CRC mechanism didn’t work. Once I’d figured out the problem and used a bottle with a wider nozzle, filling was pretty easy.

The removable drip tip is made from black plastic coated in a silicone or rubberized material. To begin with, I wasn’t sure if I liked the feel of the matte finish on my lips, but decided that I did after a day or so. It’s a nicely shaped duck-bill style mouthpiece and is comfortable to use all day.

Features

Compared to some small pod vapes, although it isn’t overly expensive, the Xlim isn’t cheap to buy. But as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. This device isn’t packed with features, but those features it does have are excellent and include things you aren’t guaranteed to find on all of these tiny MTL/RDL vapes.

First, let’s talk about the LED, which is small but exceptionally bright and crisp. It might not sound like a big deal, but when icons and information are as small as they are here, having a good LED panel makes a big difference. The LED displays information about the battery, the resistance of the installed pod, wattage, and the puff count. The puff count can register up to 9999 puffs but can be reset by pressing the button seven times.

The vape is auto-fire and button fire, so you can choose the method that works for you. The button is also used to change the power level. Press the button three times and you can raise and lower the wattage to suit. The power range is between 5W and 25W, but this is automatically limited based on the resistance of the pod you’re using. The higher the coil resistance, the more reduced the power range will be.

Airflow control is achieved with the slider on the side of the vape. This slides smoothly and feels firm enough that it is unlikely to be accidentally changed in your pocket. With three vent holes, the slider provides a decent range of airflow options, from loose for RDL to pretty tight if you prefer MTL.

Battery Life & Charging

The Xlim is a relatively low-power vape, so the 900mAh battery should be big enough to provide a moderate vaper with a full day of use. Heavy vapers might find it needs topping up throughout the day. You will likely be able to get more out of it if you use the 0.8Ω pod on a low-power setting.

I tested both pods at several power levels and only had to recharge the vape more than once a day if it was at 20-25W. The battery indicator on the LED seems pretty accurate; you get a fair warning when it’s running low, and there’s no problem with it suddenly dropping from three bars to one in a few puffs.

Thanks to USB Type-C and the battery capacity, recharging the vape is fast. I timed a full charge several times during my week or more of testing and it averaged out to around 25-30 minutes. That’s about what I would expect from this type of device.

When the vape is plugged in and starts charging, the battery indicator is displayed large on the LED screen. When charging is complete, the screen goes black. That makes it easy to see, at a glance, how recharging is progressing.

Performance

The Xlim is much more suited to MTL vaping than DL, but RDL is an option if you choose the right pod and airflow. The draw is relatively tight even with the airflow fully open but about average among similar vapes.

It provides a decent throat hit when running it at 25W with the 0.6Ω pod, and can build an impressive cloud of vapor for such a small device. The flavor quality I got from my favorite 50/50 vape juice was good, if unexceptional, at the lower power settings, but definitely better when the power was ramped up.

I don’t know if it was just my perception because I knew I had the smaller CRC pods, but the Xlim seemed to burn through a refill of juice very quickly. I expected that at 25W, but even at 16 or 18W, it felt like I was constantly topping up the tank.

There is a bit of front-to-back movement in the pod, perhaps due to the shallow socket it sits in. If it wasn’t for those strong magnets mentioned earlier, it would have felt a bit less secure than I might have liked. As it is, that strong connection kept the pod in place nicely in my pocket, backpack, etc.

Verdict

I like the standard OXVA Xlim pod vape a lot, and the CRC version almost as much. Aside from those child-safe pods, it doesn’t do anything new, but it’s well put together and feels like a quality device. It would have been nice if the pods had been made slightly larger overall to account for the capacity lost by the locking system, but 0.4ml isn’t a huge loss.

Although light at only 45g, it feels sturdy and capable of surviving a few accidental knocks and drops. The LED is brilliant, is easy to read, and packs a good amount of information into a tiny space. Changing the power level is a simple task, as is adjusting the airflow.

A battery with slightly more capacity would have been nice, especially if you’re planning to run the 0.6Ω pod at 25W, but the 900mAh cell does an averagely good job of keeping the vape running. Thankfully, recharging is fast, so you won’t have to be without the vape for long.

If you’re looking for a beginner pod vape that will let you test out both MTL and RDL, this is a good option. It has everything a new vaper needs to get comfortable with vaping and then experiment with vaping styles to find what works for them. It might not be as cheap to buy as similar-looking devices, but you get a quality bit of kit for your thirty bucks.

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