Vaporesso XROS 4 Pod Kit

This is where the XROS 4 earns its keep. The pod is empty when you get it, and you top-fill it: pull the mouthpiece off, drip your juice into the port and push it back on, no prising the pod out of the device. Inside is the Corex 2.0 mesh coil, a refined version of Vaporesso's heating tech with a tweaked mesh grid that heats faster and matches temperature better, so the flavour comes through cleaner and the pod lasts longer before it tires.

Vaporesso put the gains at roughly 30 percent more aroma, 30 percent more pod life and 15 percent more vapour against the first Corex pods, helped by an upgraded cotton that wicks better and resists dry, burnt hits. In practice that means a pod you refill many times over before swapping, which keeps the running cost right down. You fill it with any nic salt or freebase to suit the coil.

There is very little to it, and getting the first pod right is the only thing worth slowing down for. Fill it, let it soak, set the power and airflow, and you are away. A fresh coil that has not wicked is the one way to get a burnt first puff, so give it a couple of minutes.

This is the XROS 4 trump card. The kit is £17.99, and after that you only buy juice and the odd pod. A 10ml bottle of nic salt is a few pounds and refills a 2ml pod five times over, so your day-to-day cost drops to pennies a fill once the kit is paid for. Set against a disposable every couple of days, the XROS 4 pays for itself in a week or two and then keeps saving.

The Corex 2.0 pod stretches it further again. The longer-life coil means one pod handles a good run of bottles before it needs swapping, so you are not constantly buying pods either. Add the rechargeable battery, and the only thing you ever throw away is a small pod now and then, never a whole device. Per puff it is a long way under any prefilled or disposable option, which is the case for a refillable like this or the Elf Bar ELFX.

The XROS 4 is reliable once it is set up, but a refillable asks slightly more than a prefilled bar. Most snags trace back to a coil that has not soaked, the airflow or power setting, or a juice that does not suit the pod.

Within the XROS line the choice is mostly about the screen and the niceties. The XROS 4 gives you the Corex 2.0 pods, adjustable wattage and the aluminium build at a keen price. The newer XROS 5 refines the formula with a larger display and a few tweaks, while the XROS Pro 2 pushes the battery and power further. All share the same XROS pods, so whichever you pick the pods carry over, and the XROS 4 is the value sweet spot.

Against a disposable it is no contest on cost or waste: you buy the device once and then only pay for juice, where a bar gets binned every couple of days. It is not the kit for you if you want big sub-ohm clouds or never want to refill, in which case a bigger mod or a closed prefilled system suits better. As a compact, flexible, properly adjustable refillable, though, the XROS 4 is one of the easiest pod kits to recommend, and it sits alongside our wider refillable kits.