Eleaf Iore Qube
Don't be a smoking square, check out Antony's review of the new Eleaf iore Qube kit for a great starter kit
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by Antony Lord
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The Electronic Cigarette Company has sent over the latest ultra-budget starter kit from Eleaf for us to take a look at. Marketed as the Eleaf Iore crayon in international markets, this has been called the Eleaf Iore Qube here in the U.K. presumably so it doesn’t appear to be targeted at children. Putting that aside let's take a look at how it performs.
Specifications
- 26 x 26 x 101mm
- 58 grams
- 1000mAh internal battery
- 1 Amp charging via USB-C
- 2ml pod with 0.8ohm mesh coil
The Eleaf Iore Qube comes in a range of pastel colours (grey, pink, white, blue, and green) with a two tone finish, and I was sent the grey version for testing. Inside the compact box, you’ll find the Iore Qube with a pod installed, a brief user guide and warranty card, and a USB-C charge cable. Whilst this is aimed at the budget end of the market at just £14.99 to tempt people away from disposables, I think I would have preferred to see a second pod included here rather than a USB-C cable as I’m sure in this day and age most people have a small box full of cables laying around the house somewhere.
The Iore Qube is made from a soft touch plastic with nicely rounded corners and whilst it’s a little bigger than many starter kits, it still remains lightweight at just 58 grams. This has both its pros and cons; the larger size makes it much more comfortable in the hand, and whilst the weight isn’t an issue, the size makes it much more noticeable if placed in a shirt pocket for example. There’s minimal branding on display which gives the kit a nice, understated appearance, and the controls are kept to a minimum with a simple power button on one side made from the same soft touch plastic.
The included Qube pod is hidden under the removable top cap, this is a refillable pod system but it is an entirely disposable item with a 2ml capacity and an integrated drip tip which means that once the coil burns out, you throw this away and start with a fresh pod. These are available in packs of two for just £6.99 which makes them relatively inexpensive, and you should get a good one to two weeks use out of the integrated 0.8ohm Kanthal mesh coil.
Out of the box, you’ll find a large warning sticker attached to the base of the pod to prevent accidental activation in transit and as this is aimed at the starter market, it’s nice to see the printed warning on here to let the pod sit a few minutes after filling before use. Filling is easy via the large plug on one side of the pod, and this is held very securely in place by magnets which have a satisfying snap as they grab a hold. Please note that despite the square shape, that this will only fit into the device one way to ensure that the contacts are properly aligned (the magnets won’t allow you to insert the pod the wrong way around).
The top cap with its small viewing windows on the side is likewise held in place with a magnet, and with this removed, the pod can be filled in place thanks to the position on the side of the pod. In use I found those viewing windows to be of fairly limited use and often resorted to simply removing the cap to check my e-liquid levels. Be warned that if you’re the type that tends to fidget with things, this top cap quickly becomes a target. I’ve been driving everyone at work bonkers with this all through testing as it makes rather a loud snapping noise as that magnet grabs hold and pulls the top cap down into place.
The Iore Qube features a draw activation system and can also be activated by pressing the power button which doubles as an on/off switch with the usual five clicks. The draw activation system has worked perfectly every time so I’ve found myself using that, and I would say this has a medium mouth to lung draw roughly comparable to many disposable kits on the market making it ideal for someone looking to move away from those. That integrated drip tip is really comfortable to use and suits the kit perfectly well.
As is always the case with every Eleaf product I’ve tried in the past, the flavour from the integrated 0.8ohm Kanthal mesh coil has been superb with my favourite peppermint flavour coming through loud and clear. I even got adventurous and tried some blueberry menthol which tasted rather nice with the crisp sweet fruit flavours popping nicely backed by a lovely cooling menthol. This has been an entirely mess free affair as well with zero condensation forming under the pod, any mess has been from me not paying attention whilst filling the pod.
The ELeaf Iore Qube has a built in 1000mAh battery, and the low 15 watt output means that this can be used as an all-day device. One niggle that I did have here is that the small LED indicator at the base of the device which glows white in use gives you absolutely no indication of your remaining battery life, this will simply blink ten times once the battery is depleted. This is very easy to miss, I’ve only seen this happen once so far as it’s literally a “blink and you’ll miss it” thing and more annoyingly, once it’s happened the device acts to all intents and purposes like it’s dead!
In this state you can’t vape, there are no error flashes from the led, nor can you turn the device on or off. The only way you can tell that there’s still life is by removing the pod and reinserting it which will give a single white flash from the led or by charging the battery via the USB-C port at the base of the device at which point the led will turn red to indicate that it’s charging. The first time I ran the battery down to zero, I thought that the thing had died completely, and I would hazard a guess that more than one of these either gets mistakenly returned as broken or thrown away!
With the battery fully depleted like this, I also found that it took around five minutes of charge time before you could actually vape again. Charging peaked at around 0.83 amps in my test, taking 1 hour and 22 minutes to fully recharge with a final recorded capacity of 947mAh.
Pros
- Flavourful refillable pods
- Soft touch finish
- All day battery
- Reliable and leak free draw activation
Cons
- Poor battery life indication
- Only one pod included
Conclusion
Looking to make the switch from disposables but don’t know where to start or just put off by the cost of more advanced kits? The Eleaf Iore Qube makes a great stepping stone on your vaping journey. Just be sure not to throw the baby out with the bath water once your battery is flat and give it a good five to ten minutes on a charger before declaring it dead!
Many thanks to The Electronic Cigarette Company for sending the Eleaf Iore Qube out for review.
Antony Lord
Reviewer at POTVI was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.
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