IVG Starter Kit Review

Product intro and specs

The IVG starter kit is an affordable lightweight beginner vape that takes prefilled pods. IVG, whose acronym stands for “I Vape Great”, is a company that’s known for a large catalog of awarded e-liquid flavors, and four of them have been chosen to be featured in this starter kit.

With many great-performing beginner vapes on the market right now, flavors are usually what can make or break a recommendation. Keep reading to find out if IVG’s flavor recipes are enough to set this starter kit apart from its competition.

Price: £19.99 (starter kit), £9.95 (pack of 4 pods)
Colors: Black, blue, silver, red rose gold

Size, weight, and feel

The IVG starter kit is very lightweight, but it is a tiny bit larger than your average super compact beginner vape. But you do get a larger battery than most of the competition, and the pods hold 2 mL of e-liquid, so that’s not a bad concession all things considered.

Another thing that sets the IVG apart is the fact that it is button operated—most beginner vapes are draw-activated. The button is clicky and firm, but you’ll have to make sure that you turn the device off before putting it in your pocket as it may get pressed accidentally.

Overall build quality is good, but the IVG starter kit does feel a bit cheaper when compared to other products like the Bo One or the Vype ePod. Part of it has to do with the fact that you have to push the pods in the battery and there’s no magnet to secure it there—magnets often lend a premium feel to beginner vapes. But all things considered, it is not a badly built device by any means.

Getting started

The IVG kit is pretty easy to operate, but there is one thing you need to be careful about. The pods feature a leak-proofing mechanism at the point that they connect to the battery; the coil of the pod is not in contact with the juice before you insert the pod in the battery opening. This means that you should give the pod 3-5 minutes before using it, to allow for the wicks to saturate (IVG says it's good after one minute, but we recommend a bit of extra time to be on the safe side). Make sure you remember that—we kept forgetting it and ended up burning more than a couple of pods during our testing.

Other than that, operation is straightforward. Five clicks of the button turn the device on and off, and you need to push the button while inhaling to vape. When the pod is empty, discard it and replace it with a new one. There’s also a tiny cutout at the side of the device, which allows you to monitor juice levels.

One important thing to note is that the coils of the IVG pods are made out of nichrome (an alloy of nickel, chromium, and other metals). If you have a nickel allergy (or sensitivity) we do not suggest using this kit, as nichrome alloys are primarily composed of nickel.

How does it hit?

The IVG starter kit has an advantage over most similar beginner vapes; it is button operated. This helps a lot in the warmth department, as it allows you to preheat your vape before hitting it. That, combined with the fact that the IVG pods contain a mix of regular nicotine and nicotine salts (as IVG informed our team at the Dortmund InterTabac expo), make the IVG starter kit one of the strongest-hitting nic salt based beginner vapes available in the EU.

The draw is tight enough to resemble the draw of a cigarette, but it is not the tightest beginner vape around. But IVG has sure managed to strike a good balance between the tightness of the draw and the amount of vapor produced. The IVG kit produces a very satisfying amount of vapor, especially during the first two-thirds of a battery charge. Performance drops noticeably when the battery is getting low, as does vapor production and overall performance.

The device vapes silently without annoying pops or crackling. We didn’t experience any spitting, but we did notice a bit of leaking on the surface of the device a couple of times when left overnight. It didn’t interfere with vaping in any way, but e-liquid may find its way into the device’s electronics so make sure you wipe it off if it happens to you.

Are the flavors any good?

A great thing about the IVG starter kit is that it comes bundled with all four available flavors in the box. We wished all companies did that—flavor profiles and descriptions are not always reliable, and you may often get disappointed from a flavor you expected to be right up your alley.

Mango
A refreshing and sweet mango flavor that seems to have some citrusy undertones. It’s not very realistic- imagine sweet mango candy with a bit of sourness on the exhale- but that’s not always a bad thing. Some of us loved it, others preferred one of the other two fruity flavors, but no one thought it was bad.

Iced Berry Lemonade
A very refreshing berry lemonade flavor with a fair amount of menthol for a cooling effect. Some of us thought it was a touch too sweet and wished for a bit more of a tangy profile, but others appreciated the extra sweetness. All in all, this flavor is great, and can be an all-day vape if you enjoy the “iced” part.

Blue Raspberry Ice
A blueberry and raspberry mix with a touch of menthol that transforms it into a slush. It’s not as iced as the Lemonade flavor, and the fruity part is very balanced. That’s also a pretty sweet flavor, but it is a slush, so its sweetness fits the profile. Our Blue Raspberry pods emptied pretty fast and it’s fair to say that this one was the team’s favorite.

Tobacco
That’s IVG’s weakest flavor, which is unfortunate as most beginners would appreciate a solid tobacco option. That’s “weakest” from a quality perspective, as the IVG Tobacco is actually a pretty strong flavor. The company categorizes it as American tobacco, but there is also a cigar taste there, along with a lot of sweetness. See if you like it, but none of us were a big fan.

All in all, the fruity pods of the IVG starter kit were great and the tobacco was a bit disappointing. We wished there were more options, as IVG obviously knows its way around e-liquid. A dessert profile would have been a great addition, but a drier, beginner friendly tobacco should be a priority if IVG decides to add to their catalog.

Battery life and charging

The IVG starter kit houses a 450 mAh battery, which is above average for this product category—most devices come with 300-350 mAh. With the low power requirements of the pods, you should expect to go through around one and a third of a pod under one charge. Factoring in the 2 mL capacity of the pods, that’s top tier battery life. You’ll be hard pressed to fully deplete it in one day.

With the battery charged, the LED light will glow white while you press the button. When the battery empties, the light will flash red. We wished it had a more detailed battery indication system, but the lower performance on a depleted battery was a reliable signal that the device needed to be charged soon. The light will also flash red when the device is plugged in and charging, and turn white when the charge is over.

We timed the full charge at 45’, which is great, as most similar devices we have tested needed close to an hour. On top of that, the IVG kit supports pass-thru, so you can vape while it’s plugged in.

All in all, the IVG starter kit charges fast and lasts for long, and we were more than happy with its battery performance.

Pros / Cons

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Verdict

The IVG starter kit checks most of the boxes when it comes to beginner vapes. It is very easy to use, lightweight, and three out of the four available flavors are great. It also hits hard for an EU prefilled vape, which is kinda rare ever since the TPD came to be.

We wished there were some more flavor options, and the tobacco didn’t live up to our team’s standards, but chances are you’ll be able to find an all-day vape flavor out of the ones currently available. We also believe that IVG will keep adding to the flavor catalog—after all, that’s what they’re best at.

All in all, at the price that the IVG starter kit is currently offered, it is certainly worth a try. Just make sure that the nickel-containing nichrome coils are suitable for you.

IVG Starter Kit

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