SKYCIG E-Cigarette Review
Click the link above to view this product at the manufacturer’s website. SKYCIG ships throughout the United Kingdom and Europe and offers a one-year warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Recently, I realized that I haven’t always served my European readers as well as I’d like. Nearly 20 percent of the people who visit eDripping.com live in Europe — mostly the United Kingdom — but I really haven’t taken a great deal of time to learn about what the e-cigarette industry is like overseas. Although many of the companies that I write about do ship outside the United States, I imagine that a lot of e-smokers in Europe would prefer to buy locally and keep the shipping time and costs down. So, I set about looking for the best e-cigarette in the UK and happened upon SKYCIG. I got in touch, and within a few days I had a SKYCIG review sample in my mailbox. So, how does the SKYCIG electronic cigarette measure up? Let’s find out.
SKYCIG E-Cigarette: The Bottom Line
The SKYCIG e-cigarette has a few quirks that I think detract a bit from its overall appeal, such as the requirement to charge batteries using the portable charging case and the fact that you have no way to turn the charging case off when a battery is connected. In addition, although all of the refill flavors in my SKYCIG review kit tasted good, none of the cartomizers with the exception of the Vanilla one produced a significant amount of vapor. Although the SKYCIG e-cigarette has the benefit of being quite small, you have to take into account the fact that products such as the V2 Standard Kit cost just a bit more at £51.98 and produce more vapor, include more and larger refill cartridges and have up to six times the battery life. The SKYCIG e-cigarette is passable, but there are far better values available for the money.
The SKYCIG E-Cigarette Kit
SKYCIG E-Cigarette: General Impressions
The SKYCIG e-cigarette is based on the Chinese L88 design, similar to that used by Volcano and The Safe Cig for their “micro” e-cigarettes. It’s the same size as a king-sized cigarette and light enough that you can just about hold it in your mouth comfortably. Unlike some of the products that the e-cigarette vendors in the UK are still selling, the SKYCIG e-cigarette uses a two-part design in which the e-liquid and heating coil are contained in a single unit called a “cartomizer.” This is far superior to the older three-part design. For £49.99 — a price that’s a little on the high side but still reasonable — the SKYCIG e-cigarette kit includes two batteries, a portable battery charging case, a USB cable, a wall charger and a pack of five cartomizers containing SKYCIG’s Tobacco, Tobacco Gold, Menthol, Vanilla and Cherry flavors.
Upon opening the SKYCIG e-cigarette kit, I was impressed with the presentation but wondered why there wasn’t a USB charger for the batteries. Looking at the instruction manual, I quickly learned the reason: you’re supposed to charge your batteries using the portable charging case. The idea is that you charge the case using the USB cable or wall charger, and you then connect a battery to the case to charge it. Otherwise, the charging case is essentially the same one used by Volcano and Blu, except Volcano’s charging case has a battery meter and buttons that turn it on and off, while Blu’s case has the interesting “Social” feature. The SKYCIG e-cigarette case lacks these and simply has a red LED on the side to tell you the status of the connected battery.
SKYCIG E-Cigarette: Performance
The performance of the SKYCIG e-cigarette battery is about what I’d expect for something in its size range. I averaged just over 50 long puffs per battery charge, and charging a dead battery in the case took about an hour. Unfortunately, I found the performance of the SKYCIG lackluster in terms of vapor production and flavor intensity when I tested it with most of the cartridges. I first tried the Tobacco Gold cartridge, hoping it might be the same flavor as the Green Smoke cartridge of the same name — a tobacco flavor I really liked. Unfortunately, the taste of the vapor really didn’t resemble tobacco at all; I actually detected berry flavor notes, and the cartridge produced just a few faint wisps of vapor.
I switched to the Tobacco cartridge next. Unfortunately, I had a similar experience — very little vapor and a taste that really didn’t resemble tobacco in any way. The only taste I could detect was a sort of non-specific sweetness. Things got better when I switched cartridges again; the Menthol cartridge had some nice menthol coolness and a good peppermint flavor that resembled peppermint tea. The Cherry cartridge resembled cherry candy more than cherry cough syrup — a flavor note found all too often in cherry e-liquids. The Vanilla cartridge was the best of the lot; while it didn’t taste like real vanilla, it did produce more vapor than any of the other cartridges and the taste was pleasant enough.
SKYCIG E-Cigarette: Conclusion
When I requested a SKYCIG review sample, I did so with the hope that I would be getting the best e-cigarette in the UK — something that I could strongly recommend to the many Europeans who visit eDripping.com every day. Unfortunately, I found the SKYCIG e-cigarette lacking in several crucial areas. I don’t understand the requirement to charge batteries from the portable charging case; what happens if charging case’s internal battery fails? The cartridge flavors, while passable, are unlikely to please people looking for a realistic tobacco flavor. With the exception of the Vanilla flavor, I also found the vapor production of the SKYCIG refill cartridges lacking. Based on my experience — which was rather mediocre — I’d have to advise you to avoid the SKYCIG e-cigarette and consider a company such as V2 Cigs instead.
