The Hcigar Akso kit (affiliate) was sent to me for review from HeavenGifts.com. This is a small stick-style pod-vape device with a really cool design and good flavor.
Specs:
- Draw-activated
- Pod Capacity: 1.5ml
- Resistance: 1.8ohm
- Atomizer Material: Ceramic Coil
- Pod Life: ~300 draws
- Size: 108mm x 20mm x 9.5mm
- Battery Capacity: Built-in 350mah
- Body Material: Aluminum
- Colors: Black, Blue, Gray, Pink
In the Box:
- Akso Device
- USB Cable
- 2 x Filled pods
Design and Size
It probably depends on your own personal style, but for me, I think the design on this device is awesome. I love the graffiti style going on here. This is simply HCigar’s logo all over the place, but it looks really cool. I don’t know what the logo means, but yeah, that’s their logo.
The size of the Akso is another positive. It’s very similar to the Juul in size. It’s thin and very compact, which is really nice. It’s 108mm in height (or about 4 inches), 20mm in width (which is a little less than an inch), and it’s 9.5mm thick (or about 1/4 inch thick).
Pods
The pods are pre-filled with 5% nicotine, which is 50mg nicotine so it’s strong, but it doesn’t have a strong throat hit, so it must be salt nicotine.
The coil in the pod is a ceramic coil and ceramic typically has very good flavor. That’s true for these pods. The flavor is very good.
They say they use environmentally friendly inorganic wire in the pod. I don’t know if that makes any difference as far as performance goes, but I guess it’s a good thing. Every little bit of eco-friendliness helps, right? Or it just a marketing gimmick?
The pre-filled pods are not refillable and they aren’t easy to take apart either. You’re better off buying refillable pods if you want to use your own e-juice.
If you want to order refillable pods, HeavenGifts.com sells packs of four empty pods for about $19.60. As far as getting pre-filled pods in other flavors, I have no idea where to get them. I don’t even see them for sale on the Hcigar website. But I believe this still might be a pre-order item, so hopefully, we’ll see the other pre-filled pods come out soon.
Flavor
The flavor of the pods is actually very good. I have no idea what brand of e-juice they’re using here, but the flavor tastes good and comes out strong.
These kits come with two pre-filled pods, but Hcigar does have 8 different flavors.
- Nutty tobacco
- Ice Mint
- Mango Butter
- Ice Lychee
- Classic Tobacco
- Strawberry
- Ice Tobacco
- Charcoal Coffee
The kit that I got came with ice mint and nutty tobacco.
The nutty tobacco is decent, but it tastes like a pretty average tobacco flavor. There’s nothing special about it, but it’s good and the flavor comes through strong. The ice mint flavor is very minty and strong. I like this one quite a bit.
So like I said, I can’t find these pre-filled pods for sale anywhere. But it might be that these devices are still rolling out and aren’t widely available yet, so maybe they’re still coming. Based on the flavor I got from the two included pods, I’d love to try all of their flavors.
Airflow
This is a draw-activated device, so you don’t have to turn anything on here. Just take a hit and it fires. According to the Hcigar website, the airflow comes in from the bottom near the USB, but if I cover all areas of the bottom, it doesn’t seem to get plugged. So I don’t know if it’s really coming in from there, but I guess it has to come in from somewhere and I don’t see any reason for them to lie about it.
The draw on this device is extremely tight. I don’t think I’ve ever vaped anything that had this tight of a draw. At first, I thought it was plugged, but after I inhaled I felt the throat hit and tasted the flavor. A good amount of vapor and flavor too. So if you want a ton of restriction, that’s what you’ll get with the Akso.
Battery and LED
The battery in the Akso is an internal 350mAh battery. It’s not big, but pretty average for devices like this. The battery life is okay. I would have liked for it to last a little longer, but I think you should be able to get through the day and charge it before bed.
You charge the device with a micro-USB port and it will fully charge from a dead battery in about 1.5 hours.
The LED light on the bottom near the USB port lights up when you’re firing and also when you’re charging. It’ll also indicate battery life. When it’s green it has a good charge and when it’s red the battery is close to dying.
Final Thoughts
That’s the Akso from Hcigar. It looks great, it performs well, and the pod flavors taste pretty good too. I also like that the pods are refillable. The key thing to keep in mind if you’re in the market for something like this is that the draw is extremely tight. I never complain about having a really tight draw, but this is so tight that I actually would’ve liked for it to be just slightly looser. But overall, I really like using this device.
If you’re interested, you can pick it up from HeavenGifts.com (affiliate) for about $29.59