Elf Bar Mate 500 Vape Device

The Mate 500 runs P1 pods, which hold 2ml and use a 1.2ohm coil for a tight mouth-to-lung draw. They come as refillable pods you fill yourself, and Elf Bar also makes prefilled P1 pods if you would rather not. A pod gives around 600 puffs of juice before a refill, and the pod itself lasts for many refills before the coil tires, which is where the savings come from.

Because they take any 50/50 or higher-PG e-liquid, the flavour choice is wide open, unlike a sealed disposable. Fill a pod, give it a moment to soak, and you are away. When a pod's coil finally fades, you swap in a fresh P1 pod rather than the whole device.

Being refillable, the Mate 500 takes the juice you choose, and a 50/50 nic salt is the natural fit for its tight MTL coil. Salts stay smooth at higher strength, which is what you want off disposables. Elf Bar's own ELFLIQ is the obvious pairing, but anything in our nic salt range works: Hayati Pro, IVG Intense or MaryLiq. A 50/50 freebase like IVG 50/50 suits it too.

If you want a fuller-featured refillable with a screen and more power, a kit like the Elf Bar ELFX or a Vaporesso XROS 5 steps things up. But for the simplest, most disposable-like refillable, the Mate 500 is hard to beat, and it is a world cheaper to run than buying disposables.

The Mate 500 takes P1 pods, and there are two sorts, which is part of what makes it flexible. The prefilled P1 pods are the no-effort option: sealed 2ml pods of 20mg salt in a wide flavour range, sold in small multipacks, that you just click on and vape. They use Elf Bar's coil-separation design, which keeps the e-liquid apart from the coil until you activate it, so a pod stays fresh on the shelf and tastes clean from the first puff.

The refillable P1 pods are the cheap, flexible option: empty 2ml pods with a side fill port that you top up with any 50/50 or higher-PG juice you like. A refillable pod takes roughly ten fills before the coil tires, so a single pod stretches a long way. Mixing the two suits a lot of people: keep a refillable on the go for everyday juice, and a prefilled or two for convenience when you are out.

Setting up takes a minute, and getting it right is the difference between a clean draw and a dry, harsh one. With a refillable pod, you open the small rubber bung on the side, drip your juice in slowly to avoid air pockets, close the bung and leave the pod to soak for about five minutes before the first vape so the coil wicks fully. With a prefilled pod, you push the activation tab on the base to release the liquid onto the coil, then give it two to three minutes to settle before you draw.

Charging is over USB-C and takes around an hour from flat. One thing worth knowing: the pod only seats one way round, and the orientation is not always obvious, so if a fresh pod will not click home, turn it and try again rather than forcing it. Once it is in, the Mate 500 is draw-activated, so there is no button, you just inhale.

For a cheap pod pen the Mate 500 feels a cut above. The body is aircraft-grade aluminium rather than the plastic of a throwaway bar, it weighs only around 21 grams, and at roughly 105 by 19 by 11mm it is genuinely slim and pocketable. It comes in a spread of finishes, mostly metallic gradients and a black, so it does not look like a disposable even though it carries like one.

The 500mAh battery is the one compromise, and it is an honest one. It gives roughly 600 puffs a charge, which is fine for a light vaper but means a heavier user is reaching for the cable daily. There is a single LED rather than a percentage readout, so it can run flat without much warning, which is the main thing to watch. For a device this small and this cheap, though, a recharge over USB-C beats binning a whole disposable every other day.

This is where the Mate 500 makes its case. You pay £12.99 once for the device, then only for juice and the odd pod. Filling a refillable pod from a 10ml bottle works out at pennies, and a pod lasts around ten fills, so the running cost is a fraction of a disposable. Set against a bar-a-day habit, the saving runs into the tens of pounds a month, with a fraction of the plastic and lithium in the bin.

Even the prefilled P1 pods, the convenient route, come in well below buying disposables for the same number of puffs, because you are not paying for a new battery and casing every time. Whichever pod you use, the maths is the same one that drives every move from disposables to a refillable pod kit: buy the hardware once, then pay only for what you actually vape.