Vaporesso XROS 5 Pod Kit

The XROS 5 uses Vaporesso's 2ml mesh pods, and the kit comes with two: a 0.6ohm and a 0.8ohm. The 0.8ohm gives a tighter, cooler mouth-to-lung draw, the closest to a cigarette. The 0.6ohm runs a touch warmer and looser, nearer a restricted lung hit, and likes a little more power. Add the airflow slider, which switches between loose and tight, and you can dial the draw in properly.

It takes the wider XROS Corex pod range too, including 1.0ohm and 1.2ohm options for an even tighter draw and a lower-resistance 0.4ohm for a bigger one. The newer Corex 3.0 pods bring cleaner flavour and fewer dry hits. When a pod tires after a week or two, you swap the pod, not the kit.

Most pod kits fire at a fixed power. The XROS 5 lets you tune it. With the 0.4ohm pod it runs a precise 15W to 30W in half-watt steps; with the other pods it offers three quick modes, Power, Normal and ECO, so you can trade a bigger hit for longer battery life. The 0.88-inch colour screen shows the wattage, battery level and puff count at a glance.

For most people on a salt, ECO or Normal on the 0.8ohm pod is plenty and stretches the battery furthest. If you want a warmer, fuller vape, bump the power up. It is the kind of control you simply do not get on a prefilled bar.

The 1500mAh battery is large for a device this slim, and most people get a full day or more from it on a salt. When it does run down, the 3A USB-C super charging is quick: Vaporesso quote 80 percent in around 20 minutes and a full charge in roughly 26, so a short top-up keeps you going.

Because it recharges and refills, the only running costs are pods and juice, which is what makes a kit like this so much cheaper than a string of disposables over a month.

If you are coming from disposables, the one new habit is filling and priming a pod, and it takes a minute. Pull the pod out of the device, open the rubber bung on the side, and drip your e-liquid in slowly until the window shows full, stopping before it overflows the fill port. Close the bung, drop the pod back in, and let it stand for a minute or two so the cotton inside the coil soaks through. Take two or three gentle pulls without firing to prime it, then vape as normal. Skipping that soak is the single most common cause of an early burnt taste on any refillable pod.

After that there is nothing to learn. The XROS 5 is auto-draw, so it fires when you inhale, and the screen wakes to show wattage, battery and puff count. If you want to change the power mode or theme you tap the button, but most people set it once and forget it. When you refill, top the same pod up before it runs bone dry, since firing a near-empty pod is the other way to scorch a coil. A pod will usually give you a week or two of refills before the flavour starts to fade, at which point you swap in a fresh one.

The case for a refillable kit is mostly about money and waste. The kit is £17.99 once, then your only outlay is pods and e-liquid. A pod lasts a week or two and works out at a couple of pounds, and a 10ml bottle of salt is a pound or two and refills a 2ml pod several times over. Set against a disposable habit, where each device is a few pounds and lasts a day or two, the XROS 5 typically pays for itself within the first week or two and then keeps saving from there.

There is an environmental angle too. Every disposable is a battery and a circuit board in the bin; a refillable kit is one battery you recharge for a year or more, with only the small pod as a consumable. If you are switching off single-use bars for cost or conscience, a kit like this is the obvious next step, and the XROS 5 is one of the friendliest to start on.

For most people leaving disposables behind, it is one of the best first refillable kits going. It is cheap to buy, cheap to run, simple to fill, and the adjustable power and airflow let it grow with you. The big battery and fast charging take the usual pod-kit annoyances away.

It is not for cloud-chasers: it is a mouth-to-lung pod kit, not a sub-ohm mod. And there is a small learning curve over a disposable, since you do have to fill it and pick a coil. But once you have, the savings and the flavour choice are hard to argue with, and the big battery means it keeps up with all-day vaping where smaller kits flag by mid-afternoon. Stock up on XROS Corex pods and a couple of nic salts and you are sorted.