Hey Folks!

A few weeks back while I was on vacation the folks over at Viva Kita/Vaptio reached out to me about reviewing a couple of their products. I had never heard of them prior to their contact and after checking them out I was more than happy to check out what they had to offer! From what I can tall, Viva Kita offers a wide range of products but a lot of them focus mostly around beginner setups to intermediate. I was certainly surprised by the quality feel to each of the products they sent,definitely exceeding my expectations on build quality and performance. The first product that I am going to be looking at from Viva Kita/Vaptio is the Solo 2

The solo 2 is a kit marketed towards new vapers and I believe could also double as a travel mod for experienced vapers as well. This little pen style mod reminds me a lot of the first one that I had back in the day,the eVod Mega. I was really impressed with the performance of this little guy. The Solo 2 is a major advancement since the last beginner pen that I used. Without further delay,lets take a look at the Solo 2 from Viva Kita.

Full Album Of Pics

Manufacturer Specifications

• Size:121mmx24.5mm
• Resistance:0.25ohm
• Coil Material:Kanthal
• E-Liquid Capacity:4ml
• Battery Capacity:3000mAh
• Resistance Range: 0.15 and above.
• Output Power:30\40\50w
• Colors: Black

Package Contents

• 1xSolo 2
• 2x0.25ohm Coil
• 1xUSB Cable
• User Manual

Packaging

I was actually fairly surprised by how neat and tidy this packaging was on the Solo 2 considering it is just a starter pen. A lot of companies do not really throw much effort into starter pen packaging. Some have even resorted to just blister packs. The Solo 2 comes packaged in a sleeve style box. The front cover of the sleeve has a nice image of the Solo 2 and the bottom half of the sleeve has the seemingly new normal nicotine warnings. Once the sleeve is removed, the Solo 2 is sitting inside of a little moulded plastic tray with the user manual,coil priming instruction card and the QC card. Lifting out the tray reveals the usb cord and the spare coil. Overall,the packaging is not super fancy but it is really clean and eye catching.

First Impressions

Ok,so, the Solo 2 has some heft to it for such a small little device My original starter kit definitely did not have the quality handfeel this does. The size is really quite perfect for sitting inside the hand, it is quite comparable to some of the smaller tube mods that I have kicking around.One thing to note is that the USB port for charging was slightly off center of the hole when I first opened it. Plugging this in for the first time seemed to fix the issue. The button for operating power and switching between modes has a nice, hard, audible click. There is no rattle at all. The top cap,which appears to be a plastic or delrin type material threads off very easily and goes back on just as easy. Threads look great and no burrs anywhere to be found. The tank and coil came unscrewed from the mod with ease but the coil was a little difficult to get out at first. I had to grip it with a cloth to get enough force to screw it out.

Overall,first impressions of the Solo 2 are definitely more than I expected. I would have loved to have a kit like this when I first started out.

The Finer Details

Ok, so this is a pen,well,jumbo pen style beginner setup. This little guy packs a pretty decent punch,even for someone who is used to large setups with gargantuan style coils. You'll fnd yourself chain vaping,but it works! There is not a whole lot to cover as far as the Solo 2 goes but let's see what it has to offer.

The Solo 2 comes with a whopping 3000mAh internal battery. Retaining enough battery life through the day would be no issue for any new vaper. There are three modes that this device can operate on, High,Medium and Low. High runs the device at 50w while medium run it at 40w and low at 30w.To switch between modes all you have to do is click the button three times and the lights will flash accordingly. When firing, the light on the button with either be White(High)Blue(Medium)or Red(Low). The operation of the Solo 2 could not be any simpler. I ran this in all three modes, personally I like the High mode as it delivers a pretty decent amount of vapor. Running in high mode I am actually able to direct lunch each it. It still left me chain vaping through the entire 4ml of eliquid I had in there. Medium I found was pretty comparable to the high, still DL hitting it just a little faster each time,still delivering a great amount of vapor. When I turned it down to low was where I really noticed the difference. Prior to moving down to the low setting, I was vaping max vg eliquid with no issue at all. I switched out for 60/40 PG/VG with am 8mg concentration. The vapor production was considerably less BUT with that 8mg in there I was only a few pull before I felt satisfied. I did not experience any harshness from the nicotine or PG in the least. Preference based only, I liked the High mode the most as it delivered what I enjoy,larger clouds and more flavor. I also liked the fact that I could toss a higher nic juice in there and be satisfied within a few pulls. This is why I say that the Solo 2 would be a great companion for an experienced vaper who needed something on the go when you do not want to drag around your precious expensive gear.

The coil that came installed into the Solo 2 was 0.25ohm Kanthal. It seems like even the most common starter kits these days are coming with coils that are well below 0.5ohm which is great because these coils today are providing much better vapor production for the user, resulting in a higher chance they will not return to smoking. There is also another coil that is offered by VivaKita,a 0.15ohm coil. With that coil you can actually push the device an additional 15w from 50w to 65w. I would like to try that coil out to see just how much of a difference it makes when setting the device to High. I would imagine that the vapor production would be that much better and I would chain vape less as compared to the 0.25.

The airflow on the Solo 2 is another surprising feature. It is a non adjustable dual airflow that sits just at the base of the coil. No matter what mode I was in, I had sufficent and more than expected amount of airflow coming through. I remember earlier pen style mods that has the worst airflow, non adjustable and just did not do the job very well. I would say that the Solo 2 has just as much airflow as my old Subtank Mini did back in the day which I think is impressive for a beginner mod. Even with the airflow as good as it is, when I am in the low mode I am able to mouth to lung the inhale no problem.

Filled completely to the top the Solo 2 holds a max capacity of 4ml of eliquid. To fill the device you just unscrew the top cap. There are kidney shaped fill ports on the inside but something interesting that VivaKita has done is add a little rubber disc to the underside of the fill ports. This is done to ensure that no juice spills out the top of the device when it is kicking around in your pocket. This is a feature that is well thought out and definitely benefits the end user. There is not anything worse than taking your mod out of your pocket only to see that your once full tank of juice is now empty,in your pocket. The juice capacity of the Solo 2 would easily get a new user through a day or more of moderate vaping.

Some fairly standard features the Solo 2 offers is 10 second cutoff in the event of accidental firing. Low Resistance protection,short circuit protection and low voltage protection. All fairly standard safety measures that we as vapers sometimes forget and take advantage of!

The Solo 2 features pass through charging so if you find yourself low on battery and this is your only setup, you can plug it in to charge and continue to use it as it charges. From empty to full you can expect the Solo 2 to take around 4 hours to charge. When I plugged it in to charge after I drained it the first time, it took 3 hours and 49 minutes to charge. This time will vary depending on how low you run the battery.

Final Conclusion

The Solo 2 is a fantastic starter kit for people looking to get into vaping as well as experienced vapers looking for a companion device to take out and about. The build quality of the device is excellent and with some of the little different small additions and features, it really looks like VivaKita is definitely interested in making sure that they end user gets exactly what they need out of a device and a little more. So many companies just push things out the door before truly completing them, waiting for feedback from consumers and fix any errors on future releases,or not at all. While this would be a special use type device for me, I will be surely using it again in the future for outings with the family when I do not want to be blowing huge clouds all over the place. The misaligned USB port being the only manufacturing issue I discovered, the Solo 2 is a very well made device! I would recommend this to anyone looking to make the switch without hesitation.