A product made by Big Tobacco
Vype is a brand of Nicoventures, a subsidiary of the Big Tobacco company, British American Tobacco (Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Kent, Winfield, Vogue, Pall Mall …). Testing and reviewing a product manufactured by a tobacco major is tricky for The Vaping Post that has committed itself alongside the independent vaping industry. Nevertheless, political concerns are not necessarily the focus of every vaper’s purchase, we decided to provide our readers willing to try it with an objective review of the Pebble. Let’s set aside partisan differences and move ahead in this review that will probably be useful to some of you.
First thing, unlike with independent e-cigarette manufacturers, battery size, weight and capacity, the PG:VG ratio in juices and many other aspects are not communicated to the public. Is it a repercussion of the lack of transparency that characterizes the tobacco industry? Let’s introduce the device.
A pebble with flashy colours
Pebble is shaped like… a pebble. The specimen I had in test was pistachio green, 77 mm long and 44 mm wide with a thickness of 17 mm to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. Made of plastic, it only weights 33 g and its soft skin finish confers a pleasant touch. Laughing is allowed when you discover the stickers “Vapour tested by scientists“.
Pebble is composed of a battery and a sealed cartridge: 2 ml of liquid, no more. The battery has a capacity of 380 mAh and loads with a micro-USB cable (included). A passthrough mode allows you to vape while the Pebble is plugged in.
No drip-tip, here, the cartridge is the mouthpiece through which you inhale the vapor. Inside the cartridge is a resistance coil whose value, not indicated by the manufacturer, must not be smaller than 1.5 Ω. From an ecological point of view, it is a weakness because the cartridge is disposable when empty. The cartridge is a mix of plastic and steel and, even if Vype informs customers about disposal of the products, the best waste is the one taht hasn’t been produced.
Technical features of Vype’s Pebble:
- Dimensions: 77x44x17 mm
- Weight: 33 g
- Battery: 380 mAh
- Voltage: Non available
- Resistance: Non available
- Charge: micro-USB
- Colors: Black, Green, Yellow, Red, Blue and Yellow
Pebble’s package includes:
- A Pebble battery
- A 2 ml e-liquid cartridge
- A USB cable
- A user manual
User-friendly but limited use
Using the Pebble is extremely simple: Click & Vape. The cartridge inserted in the battery, Pebble is switched on by clicking on the ON/OFF button. A green LED indicates that the battery is full, orange when the battery is weak and red when you need to charge it. To switch it off, just click on the ON/OFF button or leave it unused for 10 minutes.
Pebble comes with six flavors (two fruity juices, two tobacco juices, menthol and vanilla). The choice is limited and not all the flavors are available in all the nicotine strengths (0, 6, 12 and 18 mg/ml). The availability depends on the country where the cartridge is purchased.
The manufacturer lets us know that the cartridges contain water, flavorings, PG and VG of pharmaceutic grade but the detail of their concentration is not communicated. A pack of two cartridges can be purchased for £5.99 in the UK (6.85 €), 4.95 € in Germany, 5.90 € in France and 9.90 € in Italy. It is expensive even if the manufacturer guarantees about 700 puffs per cartridge, this term does not generally require changing the coil with other types of devices.
The Pebble device comes with the Golden Tobacco flavor in 18 mg/ml of nicotine. Puffing is the only action required to vaporise the liquid. For a strength of 18 mg/ml, the throat hit is present but weak. Not sure it would be enough for a hard smoker. The volume of vapor is also weak but almost equivalent to a puff on a tobacco cigarette. The vapor is rather tasty and close to Grandmaster by Five Pawns.
In summary
The “+”:
- Excellent usability
- Compactness and lightweight
- Easy going
- Fun design
- Passthrough mode
The “-“:
- Low volume of vapor
- Limited choice of flavors
- High price of e-liquids
- Non adjustable voltage
- Non adjustable airflow
- Disposable cartridges not ecological
- Manufactured by the Big Tobacco industry
- Lack of information on the formulation
Conclusions
Rating of 3.1/5. Vype’s Pebble by British American Tobacco is fun, nomad and easy-going. It is probably efficient to reduce or to stop smoking but I found it limited, not only with regard to vaping performance but also for the availability of flavorings. Prices of cartridges is also high, making the use of Pebble quite expensive. This starter kit is however a very accessible purchase before switching to something more performant. For an equivalent price, the eGo AIO is much more performant than Vype’s Pebble and your money will not go to Big Tobacco’s pocket.
I started vaping with the VYPE pebble. I really loved it to begin with, it was different, really neat and small – easy to use…BUT
…then I started getting all sorts of trouble.
*3/5 Cartridges were leaking, even as I took them from their packaging before I even plugged one in!
*The mouth piece leaks nicotine juice/e-liquid …sometimes some would seep up through and it would be on my lips and tongue. (not ideal since e-liquid is a harmful liquid, they advise washing it off your skin right away) …it tasted like I was licking a vanilla flavour ashtray – YUK!
*…and the third thing that would happen after one or two weeks – the pebble would just BRICK! (that means it just stopped working). No power, no on no off, charging didn’t work…it just went POOF!
Anyway, I went through five of them in around 1-2 months, then I gave up!… I got refunds for them all from the very popular but ‘dumb’ UK pharmacy that I got them from.
If it did work correctly, it was a really nice little device. TERRIBLE for the environment since there is so much WASTE with the empty cartridges! (how did they get permission to go ahead with this project?!)
VYPE IS DEAD. Long live the vape.
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Great portable device for on the go and good build quality (still going strong after a few drops). I managed to get 10% off mine with code: CMP9B3D on the go vype website. Portability is the key so if you’re active and travel around a bit it’s perfect and not the end of the world if you drop or lose it.?!