IQOS Iluma Review

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I purchased the IQOS ILUMA on a recent trip to Germany. You can’t get these widely throughout the US yet, but they are available in select places and various pop-ups. See their store locater here.

There are three versions of the IQOS ILUMA but they all perform the same:

  • ILUMA One, which is the most affordable model. This is an all-in-one, so it’s the device and charger built into one piece.
  • ILUMA, which comes in two pieces; a thin device and a charging case. This is more expensive model, and the one that I bought.
  • ILUMA Prime, which is the most expensive model. It’s basically the same as the ILUMA model I bought, but with a more premium look.

These come in 5 colors: Beige, Grey, Red, Blue and Green

Design

This is a sleek and elegant setup. There was a time when vapes from Big Tobacco companies were cheap and ugly. But with the IQOS ILUMA, PMI has made something that looks like an Apple product. It looks modern and high-end.

In the box you get:

  • IQOS ILUMA Holder
  • IQOS ILUMA Pocket Charger
  • Charging cable
  • Power adaptor

When you buy this in a country where they’re sold, they also give you two free packs of heat sticks, which they call TEREA.

IQOS ILUMA Holder

The ILUMA holder is the stick-shaped device that holds and heats the TEREA sticks.

The device has a matte finish, a button, and a hole in the top to insert the tobacco stick. At the bottom is the charging port, which is proprietary and can only be charged in the IQOS charging case.

The button has only one function and that’s to let you know how many uses are left in the device.

There are two tiny white LED lights above the button, which show you how many uses are left in the device. Each full charge gives you two uses (two full TEREA sticks), so depending on how often you need to vape, you may want to keep the charging case with you.

Most heat-not-burn products use a heating blade that inserts directly into the middle of the tobacco stick. The ILUMA is bladeless, which is nice because you don’t have to deal with cleaning out the chamber.

IQOS ILUMA Pocket Charger

The charging case has a soft material that has a sort of sparkly look. It reminds me of the material people use to coat their garage floors. It feels really good in my hand. The side of the charging that opens up is made of shiny plastic. And the back side of the case has a USB-C port.

The Pocket Charger lets you charge the ILUMA device. On the shiny side of the charger, you can see a sort of protruding edge at the bottom. You press below that shiny side to flip open the charging slot. The IQOS drops right into the slot and snaps into place with a magnet.

When you slide the IQOS into the charging case, small white LEDs light up on the top of the case. There are two small round LEDs that show you how much charge the IQOS has, and also a line of four LEDs that show you how much charge the charging case has. When you pull the IQOS out fo the case, only the charging case LEDs light up.

The charger can charge the ILUMA about 20 times before it needs to be recharged.

TEREA Sticks

TEREA sticks only work in IQOS ILUMA devices. They contain tobacco with a metal elements inside that makes it possible for the tobacco to heat via induction.

That also means that you can only use TEREA sticks in the IQOS. You can’t use HEETs or other tobacco sticks because there’s no blade to heat them.

TEREA sticks are made with real tobacco and taste like real tobacco. I’m amazed at how these taste like a real cigarette. But these don’t burn so you don’t get any of the grossness of a cigarette. They don’t release any smoke or vapor while you’re not puffing on it and they show no yellowness in the filter when you’re done. And there’s no ash.

These sticks are affordable too. In Europe, you can get a pack of 20 TEREA sticks for £6, which translates to about $8 USD.

How to Use the ILUMA

This is an extremely simple device to use. All you have to do is insert a TEREA stick into the device and it automatically starts. If you want to stop it, you pull the stick out.

It takes about 20 seconds to warm up and it vibrates when it’s ready to start using. The session lasts for 6 minutes or 14 puffs. You can start taking puffs just like a cigarette. And when you get to the last 30 seconds or when there are two puffs left, the device vibrates with a pulsing light to let you know.

When the session is over, the light turns off.

When you’re done, you pull the stick out and throw it away. It’ll be a little hot though, so watch your fingers.

Final Thoughts

The IQOS is surprisingly satisfying. I enjoyed the experience a lot. It’s so much like smoking a cigarette but far enough removed that I don’t feel like I’m smoking a cigarette. I get the perfect amount of vapor with each hit, the perfect temperature on the inhale, and the perfect amount of flavor. And the full session lasts a few minutes, just like a regular cigarette.

IQOS absolutely nailed the experience. And you don’t get that ongoing smoke filling the room like you do from a lit cigarette.

My experience with the IQOS has been so good that I would absolutely recommend this to smokers looking to move to something with less harm. It’s a perfect middle ground between smoking and vaping, especially for smokers who struggle to get into vaping.

I bought the ILUMA for £59.00, which is about $64 in USD. I feel like that’s a very reasonable price.

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