Steve K's Vaping World

Metro Electronic Cigarettes recently released its line of Designer Pack e-cigarettes.  The designer packs are designed to be both stylish and low-cost.  The company offers its special line-up in Midnight, “Chick Stick” and Camo.  The company sent one of its Camo designer packs to try out.  And here  you’ll hear my thoughts on this kit in my Metro Camo Designer Pack review.

Who’s it For

• Beginners who just want to try out e-cigarettes
• People who want to make a fashion statement with their ecigs.
• Larry the Cable Guy (camo version only)

What’s in the Box

This being a pretty bare-bones kit, there’s not much in the box.  In fact, this is one of these kits where the box is a feature.

• Hard plastic carry case with spots for your stuff
• 1 Battery
• 1 USB Charger
• 1 empty spacer cartridge
• 1 user guide
• No cartomizers

Yes, you read that last bullet point right.  As I said, it’s bare bones.  You’ll need to bring your own cartomizers to the party.  Nicotek carries 3 packs in tobacco or menthol flavor for $9.99.

Design

First, the case.  The included case is a hard plastic clamshell affair.  Inside there’s a formed mold with a felt-like covering.  Inside the mold are spots for 1 assembled e-cigarette, two cartomizers and the USB charger.

The case is color-coordinated with  the e-cigarette.  The Camo case is green and brown.

The battery is the main attraction in this kit, with the camo battery featuring a sort of woodland camouflage motif.  The pattern is actually essentially a closeup photo of some trees as opposed to a military style camouflage.

Since the pattern is printed very small, it seems to work well for blending in.  I wouldn’t want to drop this e-cigarette in the lawn or in any shrubbery.  The LED light at the end glows green instead of the typical red or orange.

I’m a fan of different color LEDs, so I like this feature.  I’m not so sure the green light would work to fool the local deer population.

Sadly, there are no custom-colored cartomizers in the Metro lineup.  They all come in the same basic cigarette-filter brown.  It sort of throws off the whole hiding in the brush thing.

Then again, this is a manly e-cigarette, so not matching tends to go with the territory.

Technical and Performance

This starter kit uses the somewhat less popular RN4081/DSE 103 thread pattern on the batteries and cartomizers.  This means that there will be fewer choices on the third-party market for replacement cartomizers.

It is worth mentioning that the company has added a couple of nice features to its cartomizer packaging.  Each package is marked with an expiration date and a lot number (similar to what V2 Cigs is doing).  The packaging is also childproof.  It’s almost reviewer proof too.

The cartos are contained in a blister pack and each one not only has the silicone caps to preserve freshness, but they are shrink-wrapped individually and it takes a bit of work to get them open.

Metro’s cartomizers appear to be the slightly larger variety of cartomizers found on many starter kits.  They most likely have a payload of .8ml of e-liquid.  As is typically the case for e-cigarette companies, the stated theoretical puffs per cartomizer (300) is probably considerably exaggerated from the real-world application.

Similarly, the battery during heavy use lasts me around an hour.  I am a notorious chain-vaper, however.  More civilized human beings might get closer to three hours use, more for very light users.

This does however belie an issue with e-cigarette kits like this one.  Once the battery needs recharging, what are you supposed to do while the battery recharges? I would highly recommend you pick up a second battery, or a kit that comes with two batteries (Metro has both available on their website.)

Nicotek’s cartomizer and battery setup does fare pretty well.  It produces a fair amount of vapor and there’s good throat hit.  The setup checks all the boxes.

Since I firmly believe in the subjectivity of the actual flavor of e-cigarettes, I won’t go too far into that one.  I found the flavor to be a sort of garden-variety tobacco.  It didn’t offend, but I probably wouldn’t seek it out independently.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The Metro Designer Pack is a bare-bones inexpensive starter kit that will appeal to people who want an e-cigarette that doesn’t look like a boring cigarette.  The need to purchase cartomizers separately and the single battery in the kit do limit its overall usefulness. The carrying case is a nice touch, but probably won’t last as long as a metal carrying case available from a number of places.  You can pick up your Metro Designer Pack at their website.

Pros:

• Includes carrying case
• Good looking design
• Decent performance
• Low initial purchase price
• Cartomizers come in childproof packaging

Cons:

• Only 1 battery included
• Cartomizers not included
• Cartomizers are on the expensive side
• Carrying case made of plastic
• Green LED may not fool smarter woodland creatures

Details:

Product Name: METRO Electronic Cigarette Designer Packs
Available from: METRO Electronic Cigarettes
Price: $12.99 (cartomizers $9.99 for 3)
Threading: RN4081/DSE103