myblu Review

Introduction

The myblu is a super-lightweight and compact beginner vape that comes with pre-filled pods. It is made by blu, an e-cigarette company owned by Fontem, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco. The device was originally released as the my. Von Erl by the Von Erl company. A series of acquisitions have led to the myblu brand name, but not much has changed from a design perspective since the my. Von Erl hit the stores. What has changed is the flavors the are available for it, as blu has released a wide array of flavor options for the myblu.

There are currently two main lines of pods for the myblu—your options may vary depending on where you buy from, but to keep things simple, we will call them the US and the UK lines. The lines come with a somewhat different flavor catalogue and at different nicotine strengths. Another difference between the US and UK versions is that the myblu is available in four more color options in the UK—blue, red, purple and gold.

Blu has set websites in 11 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, and many countries of the EU. It is also available in many physical locations—you can find stores that carry the myblu on blu’s websites.

Price:

UK: £9.99 (for the device in black & one Tobacco 1.6% pod), £19.99 (for the device in blue, red, gold or purple without pods), £5.99 (for a pack of two pods) (at blu)

US: $22.99 (for the device in black & one Gold Leaf 2.4% pod), $9.99 (for a pack of two pods) (at blu)

Size, weight, and feel

The myblu is a super-lightweight vape. The battery weighs in at 16.5 grams, which goes up to 21 grams with a full pod inserted. At 106 mm x 18 mm it is also one of the most compact vapes around, and significantly smaller than the likes of the Logic Compact or Vype’s ePens. In fact, it is only slightly bigger than the JUUL, and weighs just 5-6 grams more.

Even with its lightweight construction, the myblu feels like a solid and well-made e-cig. The myblu has a slick and gadgety design, branding is relatively discreet, and it just feels good in the hand. From a build quality perspective, it’s at the same league as the Logic Compact, and far ahead of all the Vype products we have tried.

The only drawback: some pods may don’t click securely into place—although this will not prevent you from going through them. Thankfully this happened only with a couple of the pods we tried (and we tried a lot) and it a relatively minor con as a pod will usually last a day or two before it needs to be replaced.

Getting started

The kit comes with the myblu battery, a USB cable, a user manual and, depending on the version, either a Gold Leaf pod (US) or a Tobacco pod (EU/UK). To get started, make sure your device is fully charged and then take a pod out of its plastic packaging, insert it in the opening of the battery, and inhale on the mouthpiece. When the pod is empty just replace it with a new one. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

The battery comes with two U-shaped cutouts that will allow you to monitor how much juice is left inside the pod. Unfortunately, the lower part of the pod is not visible, so when your juice is running low you will have to remove the pod to check.

How does it hit?

The draw on the myblu pods is very comfortable and mimics that of a cigarette. The pods also produce a surprising amount of warm vapor, especially considering the size of the device.

As mentioned in the introduction, the US and UK editions of the myblu come with different nicotine strengths:

US version

UK version

The regular nicotine pods will hit hard all across the line. Even the 1.2% pods are hard hitters, which came as a surprise considering that the myblu is not a high-powered device. The only pods from the regular line that felt relatively underpowered were the 0.8% pods from their UK selection, but even those were much better than most of the competition’s 1.2% pods. If it was up to us, the regular line would have been named “INTENSE” instead of the nicotine salt line.

The pods of the INTENSE line use nicotine salts and, as a result, they don’t hit as hard on the throat—nicotine salts tend to smoothen the hit significantly. But if you take many hits in succession from the higher nicotine ones from the US line, you will certainly feel the fatigue building up. Which is actually a good thing, as higher nicotine pods are not supposed to be chain-vaped to begin with. Going lower in the INTENSE line will take away even more of the throat sensation and allow you to vape more, if that’s what you’re after.

We didn’t test any of the 0% nicotine pods but having them as an option is always a good thing. Truth is that not many companies offer 0% nicotine pods. And while transitioning smokers don’t have much use for them, those who have been vaping for a while can use them as the final step before quitting nicotine altogether.

We didn’t run across many issues with the pods. There was occasionally some minor spitting and some condensation accumulating in the connection when the pods were left unused for longer periods, but it didn’t really interfere with our testing. And while some of us remembered that older myblu pods would sometimes leak through the mouthpiece, we didn’t encounter it in the pods we tried for the review. The pods may have been redesigned, or we might have just been lucky with the pods we tested—which were quite a few, as you will read in the following section.

Are the flavors any good?

US flavors

Gold Leaf (regular)

A great tobacco flavor and, along with the tobacco flavor of the Logic Compact, the best we’ve ever had in a beginner vape till now. A smooth, flavorful tobacco without the extra sweetness that we oftentimes see infused in tobacco vapes. An excellent all-day vape that goes with everything, really. As a bonus, you get the satisfying throat hit of the myblu regular nicotine line. Two thumbs up.

Tobacco Chill (INTENSE)

A mix of tobacco with a menthol sensation, without the upfront minty flavor that comes with most menthol vapes, Tobacco Chill scored really high in our boards. While menthol isn’t loved by everybody on the team, we agreed that it is a great flavor for smokers of menthol cigarettes.

Green Apple (regular)

A juicy and realistic green apple flavor that was in most of our top three lists and especially appreciated by those of us who enjoy fruity vapes. Our Green Apple pods emptied pretty quickly, and we enjoyed the fact that it was not too strong of a flavor.

Neon Dream (INTENSE)

A mix of citrus fruit flavors with a dash of cream, this one will not be for everybody, but it does work. The cream part is rounding the edges of the citrus and the result is a very refreshing flavor without the fragrance undertones that we see in similar profiles from other companies.

UK flavors

Blueberry (INTENSE)

A well-made blueberry flavor that’s also available for US customers. More of a juicy and realistic blueberry than an artificial candy one, almost all of us agreed that that’s the best UK flavor out of the five we tried.

Mango Apricot (regular)

Our second favorite out of the UK line is another fruity flavor. Mango Apricot is a very balanced mix, with none of its two ingredients overpowering the other. Some of us found it to be a little bit artificial, which may not be a bad thing depending on your taste buds.

The flavors that didn’t make it to the list were the Classic Tobacco (regular), Vanilla (regular), Citra Zing (INTENSE), Mintsation (INTENSE) and Honeymoon (INTENSE) from the US lines, and the Tobacco (INTENSE), Strawberry Mint (INTENSE) and Blue Ice (regular) from the UK lines. Out of these, the Mintsation and Vanilla flavors from the US line received the highest ratings—in fact, the Mintsation may be a good one to try if you enjoy peppermint or spearmint flavors.

Battery life and charging

The myblu comes with a 350 mAh battery, which may not sound like much, but it is actually surprisingly large for a device of its size. Expect to go through close to a full pod before you need to charge the myblu, which, depending on how often you hit it, may take you well over a full day.

The LED will light up while you are inhaling, and the color of the light will indicate the battery levels:

The light will also stay red while the battery is charging and turn off when it reaches 100%. A full charge takes between 25 and 30 minutes, which is very fast compared to most of its competition. Finally, the device charges through its micro USB port, unlike the proprietary chargers that many of its direct competitors are using.

Pros / Cons

Verdict

From a performance perspective, the myblu is a great product. It hits hard, the battery lasts longer than we expected, and it charges faster than most pod systems out there. It is also pretty cheap—especially in the UK, with the device coming at £9.99 and a two-pod pack at £5.99.

The only drawback we found was that the US flavors we tried were much better than the UK ones. We didn’t try the full selection of UK flavors, but out of the ones we tried there was no flavor that came even close to the Gold Leaf and Green Apple from the US line, which were our favorites of the bunch. But flavor is subjective, and with a device that performs like the myblu it may be worth checking for yourself—you may find a UK flavor that does the trick for you.

As it stands, the US edition comes highly recommended, and the UK edition comes with an asterisk. Please blu, make the Gold Leaf flavor available in the UK. If that ever happens, we will update this review in a heartbeat!