Pleasure in the cube
It just so happened that two new products from Joyetech were presented by the company almost at the same time and we also got a couple of tests. And similar names hint that there is obviously a real connection between the two of them, so we think it would be perfectly acceptable not to separate them during the review. On the agenda, we have a double “cubic” surprise from Joyetech – the Cuboid battery mod and the Cubis clearomizer .
We must say right away that both heroes are interesting in their own way and can cause a pronounced “grasping” reflex, but if the battery mode is the result of the gradual evolution of such devices from Joyetech, then the clearomizer is another small “revolution” made by Joyetech in the vaping market.
So let’s take it in order – first we’ll talk about evolution, and then we’ll make a revolution: first Cuboid, and for dessert – Cubis.
Everything has its time
At this point, you can talk for a long time about the history of battery mods in general, about the history of battery mods manufactured by Joyetech and its satellites, or simply that in recent years, box mods have almost completely replaced “pipes” from the market of more or less advanced vaping devices, but, in fact, I would like to touch on another topic.
The topic is simple, although over time it is becoming more relevant – it is, of course, about autonomy. How good it was before – we knew that on its “battery” a 1000 mAh battery would almost certainly be enough for a day, and if that wasn’t enough, it would be enough to take something on a more or less large battery, and you could hardly worry about charging not a few days. Even if you are an “advanced” vaper and soar at solid power – a watt commercial of 12-15. But then the next phase of the arms race began, which led to the appearance on the market of more and more powerful mods that can confidently give out 50 watts or more. Appropriate evaporators arrived in time, allowing to bring the taste transfer to a qualitatively new level.
And everything would be fine, only from this moment even a full-fledged 2100 mAh battery often ceased to be enough for a whole day of active steam. No one wants to constantly sit at the outlet (provided that it is nearby at all), so gradually the demand for battery modes with two batteries matured in the viper community.
Simply put, the appearance of more and more just dual-battery mods is not a tribute to fashion, but an urgent need, due to the current state of affairs in vaping. And we tell all this because the first hero of our review – the Joyetech Cuboid battery mod – is dual-battery, and this, by today’s standards, is an absolute plus. Well now, let’s get down to business.
Meet by clothes
As you can see, the Cuboid design does not offer much revelation, but the battery pack looks okay and solid. However, another was not expected from Joyetech – these guys have very good designers in their team, and have long learned how to make devices exactly as the designer drew it, and not as the technologist reasoned, based on the capabilities of the production line. The sizes, and this is perhaps the most important thing for a dual-battery mod, will also not make the modern vaper flinch. Of course, this is not the Eleaf iStick 50W double-champion champion “mini-battery”, but the batteries are non-replaceable, which means there is no need to spend precious internal space on the parts, which ensure their fastening inside the case and replacement by the user. It can be seen that during the development, engineers tried to make the device as small as possible, and they did it well. To be honest, we came across single-battery box mods of no smaller, if not bigger size – just remember the “Khan” on DNA40.
Of course, the closest “single-battery” Cuboid relative is the Joyetech eVic VTC Mini- noticeably more compact. But, for example, it also has two interchangeable batteries and, at the same time, less features Eleaf iStick 100W – much, much larger. In general, in terms of size, everything turned out well, the device fits confidently in your pocket, and this is important. In this regard, with three-battery devices, even such compact and “licked” as Wismec Reulaux, there is no comparison – Cuboid is still pocket-sized rather than desktop. Briefly about the body materials: it is very similar to brushed stainless steel, but, perhaps, it is, nevertheless, coated brass. I don’t want to attack the only test copy with the proud inscription “Not for sale”, so we will postpone the clarification of this issue for now. But the case is definitely not aluminum, as it is quite weighty even without batteries installed.
Cuboid came to us for the test in steel color, but there are two more options in the lineup – gray and black. Judging by the photographs, all three are good in their own way. The display is hidden under a black plastic insert to the full height of the device, on it is also a long black plastic rocker button for adjustment. But the main key perched on the right side: it is metal, in color and body material. The button has a slightly free play in the slot and slightly “walks” under the finger, but it does not rattle at all if you shake Cuboid. In general, he is “silent” – as you do not shake him, neither the buttons nor the battery cover rattle.
Speaking of cover. It’s somehow already customary to see magnets on Joyetech mods, but there are no magnets here: the lid is hinged, it is supported by a sliding latch. Done neatly, the lid closes and locks securely. On it, in addition to the already mentioned latch, there are two groups of four openings for a safe exit of gases – safety first!
A micro-USB port for charging was found opposite the main button, on the left side of the box mod. And this is also a plus, because the mod can be charged both lying on its side and “standing”. Well, on the upper edge there is nothing but the 510th connector. It is steel, with a brass central pin, the pin is spring-loaded. There is a “back”, on which there are only two inscriptions – the Joyetech logo on top and the model name on the bottom. The inscriptions are made by laser engraving, they are not particularly striking, and they do not spoil the appearance of our hero. There is nothing more to be said about the appearance, it remains only to look into the battery compartment. Everything is solid there – for each of the batteries a personal plastic “glass” is prepared, into which it easily enters, but it doesn’t hang a single drop. Information on the correct location of the batteries is printed not only on the cover, but also on the bottom of the battery cups, moreover, it is duplicated in color – blue for minus, red for plus. Reverse polarity will be very difficult. Bravo, Joyetech, is a very commendable user concern.
All in work
Well, we installed the batteries (good, high current), you can turn it on. If you thought that turning on traditionally requires five times to press the main button, then … you were not mistaken. The display lights up, and we see that this is our good old acquaintance, one of the best displays of battery mods – exactly the same is installed on the eVic VT, eVic VTC Mini, Presa TC75W. And the interface, in general, is no different from that of the eVic VTC Mini with the latest firmware version 3.0. Five information fields, one above the other, in which at the same time a lot of useful and not very information is displayed. The only thing that immediately catches your eye is immediately two indicators of the battery charge, one for each of the installed in the box mod. Original and unexpected, but perhaps quite convenient. Life will show.
It’s time to talk about the features and capabilities of Cuboid. They must be said to be impressive. Power – up to 150 watts “out of the box”, but the Cuboid did not have time to go on sale, as the manufacturer released a new firmware, in which the maximum speed was raised to 200 watts. Well, the main thing here is that the batteries are mated. In principle, even for “providers”, 150 watts was enough, and a maximum power of 200 watts brings Cuboid in this regard to the level of three-battery Wismec Reuleaux and similar devices.
By the way, with Reuleaux DNA200 the novelty from Joyetech is related not only to the value of maximum power. In one of the modes, you can manually set an arbitrary value of TCR – the temperature coefficient of resistance of the spiral material. This means that, at least theoretically, you can force the thermal control in Cuboid to support spirals made of a wide variety of metals and alloys. For example, from the exotic so far FeNi.
In general, Cuboid’s main operating modes are many: varivatts, nickel thermal control, titanium thermal control, SS316 stainless steel thermal control, and arbitrary TCR mode. The only thing missing is Bypass mode (= mechmod mode), but let’s not forget that we have two batteries here, and it would be a little too much to supply voltage from such a battery directly to the atomizer.
Especially to delve into the jungle of the menu and the Cuboid control features, we think there is no point in this review – simply because in this regard it is practically no different from the well-known eVic VTC Mini with the latest firmware. We still enter the menu by pressing the button three times, all the same, use the left button to move through the lines, and use the right button to change the value. This is how the operating modes switch, so you can change the contents for some of the lines, so you can block the atomizer resistance for thermal control modes. Only the presence of counters of the number of puffs and their total duration is worth mentioning. The counters, however, cannot be displayed on an ongoing basis, but their value can always be viewed by going to the menu.
With TCR mode, things are a little trickier. It is turned on as usual, by selecting the appropriate value in the first line of the menu, but to configure the TCR value, you will have to enter special mode. This is not difficult – you need to turn off the mod by fivefold pressing, and for five seconds, hold down the main button and the right button. In the menu that appears, you can set three different TCR values (M1, M2 or M3), any of which can then be selected for operation in TCR mode. But if you press and hold the left button along with the main button on the switched off device, after a few seconds you will see the voltage values on each of the two installed batteries on the screen. This can be useful to control their “run”. Although, it must be said, separate indicators on the main screen of the device quite cope with this task.
There is also a Stealth mode – in it the display does not light up either when puffed or in standby mode. Although it is very simple to call up the testimonies – just briefly press the main button. Well, in order to turn this mode on and off, you need to hold down the main button and the left button for five seconds already on the switched on device. In general, a good-quality box mod with an excellent electronic “stuffing”, familiar to thousands of vapers from the successful eVic VTC Mini. Relatively small size, solid output power, optimal autonomy, elegant appearance, good “grasp” – it’s really difficult to find fault with Cuboid. We think that at the moment this is an excellent candidate in order to settle in the pocket of any modern smoker.
A fresh look
On this, perhaps, with the “evolutionary” part we ended. It’s time to make a small revolution, which promises us the second “cubic” hero of our review, Cubis Clearomizer. Let’s start traditionally … no, not with appearance, but with another lyrical digression.
If battery mods, as we found out above, often had autonomy as their main problem, then with clearomizers the trouble is different – just because of their design, none of them are safe from fluid leaks. Some flow more, some flow less, some even flow in a stream, but still any vaper knows that in our business it is impossible to do without a napkin for a long time. Of course, one could continue to gradually improve the design of the evaporators, change the density and location of the filler material, build special “baths” around the air ducts to collect the liquid, but this will not help radically solve the problem. The only reasonable solution is to completely redefine the classic clearomizer design, and, cheers – Joyetech found enough courage to do it!
And now let’s move on to the look of Cubis. At first, everything seems familiar and familiar – before us is a pretty large clearomizer on replaceable evaporators.Only if you look closely, it turns out that the lower part under the tank is suspiciously short: not even a hint of air ducts is visible, and there is no air supply control system. That’s right, they really are not there! The liquid tank in our case is just a “glass” with a completely deaf bottom.
It is incredible, but a fact: in the lower part of the clearomizer there is nothing at all, except, in fact, the bottom of the tank and the built-in connector 510. There isn’t even a dozen familiar for dozens of clearomizer models for a replaceable evaporator. Where did all this go? Everything is simple – moved upstairs.
We’ll take a look there, but now the most interesting thing is to understand why this is done. And here everything is simpler than simple: if there is not a single hole below, below the liquid level, this means that, in principle, there can be no leaks through them. In any case, until the clearomizer was put on its side or turned upside down. In fact, it is already turned upside down – the replaceable evaporator is not screwed into the socket on the base, but is lowered together with the duct pipe directly into the liquid poured into the tank. Well, it is attached, of course, to this pipe, screwing onto it by thread. Air enters the duct through the system for adjusting its supply, the ring of which is not located below, as usual, but above, just below the mouthpiece. Well, since the air must not only enter, but also exit in the form of steam, then inside the interchangeable evaporator it rotates 180 degrees and leaves the interchangeable evaporator through a special tube that passes inside the duct and connects directly to the mouthpiece. In general, the design is not that much intricate, but very unusual and unexpected. It seems that they put everything upside down. Or vice versa.
But the ease of refueling is simply colossal. Unscrew the base (as we recall, it is now on top), and observe the open neck of the tank in its entire width. At the same time, the tank is completely empty – at least from a three-liter can. The main thing here is not to overdo it and do not pour liquid above the MAX mark on the tank, otherwise there will be no space left under it for tubes and a replaceable evaporator. It got to the point that on the official website, the manufacturer mentions a certain screw cap with which the Cubis clearomizer tank turns … you will never guess what it is. In a bottle for storing liquid, no more and no less! This, perhaps, we have not seen.
Now about the replaceable evaporators themselves. In the end, no matter how unusual the design of the clearomizer itself is, it is necessary to hover just the replaceable evaporator, and if it is not good, then no tanks can fix it. At Cubis, they have their own, under the name BF, and currently exist in three versions – one cantal, but on a Clapton-type spiral, is intended, according to the manufacturer, for small capacities. The declared maximum speed for him is only 25 watts. Well, on the same team, two steel twin brothers, both from SS316 alloy, but with different resistances, act with him. Both that, and another are intended both for thermal control, and for soaring in the mode of a simple varivatt. True, the declared maximum power here does not make much of an impression – very modest at the present time, 30 watts. True, vaporizers, as we all know, it’s a bargain. The manufacturer has already announced the imminent appearance in the public domain of semi-serviced BF RBA heating elements compatible with both vertical and horizontal coils. And on them the permissible maximum power will be 75 watts – this is already solid.
Instead of totals
What can be said in total? Joyetech has once again proven that market leader status is held for it for a reason. And the point is not only in the ability to combine the best practices in one device, but also in the readiness to radically revise solutions that have already become classic. Both Cuboid and Cubis are the result of long, painstaking and complex work. The result, as is often the case with Joyetech, exceeds expectations. Both models make an indelible impression literally at the first acquaintance and in the process of daily soaring not just do not disappoint, but fall in love with themselves for real.
In general, we really liked the “cubic” news! A good half of Vardex employees are already considering replacing their current devices with them, and this, as you know, says a lot.