Well after a long work day, it is extremely nice to return home to instant satisfaction.
Customs beat me to the unboxing, but they left it all in okay condition, the charger was outside the box and the manual was a bit scuffed. Not fussed but I will say the day I got three hoppers (2 for others) was a very nice unboxing experience. I did prefer the drawer box style.
Anyway it's all about the big hits and the lifestyle, and so far I am on cloud 9 for sure.
The leather pouch I got for my what was grey Ti is actually quite nice, but not so good with the PFE. A brand new PFE and full plain Ti set up is nice to have again though, it's been a while, a couple of months since my plain Ti GH died. And despite the near 3 month transit with USPS, I am happy I switched to a plain io even though I guess the leather sleeve is a bit surplus, I'll use it anyway to keep the sheen on this one. It actually looks near identical to my 3.5 year old dead GH which is a testament to a good material choice, that has a couple of tiny dings on the back as I've dropped it (come to think of it this case wouldn't have prevented that anyway, Ti hopper assemblies land button first and turn on on impact, at least that aspect of the hopper is very durable [although lately it has crossed my mind that smacking the thing to empty it is possibly not a good idea, the heater or whatever might be fragile]), but my old slapped about unit only looks a bit dull compared to the brand new one.
Tiny bit of crud in the io chamber I dry q-tipped out, couple of empty runs at 1.5 (immediately can tell this is a different beast) got a bit of, I guess you could say metal or machinery note, minor flavour. Nothing major and faded fast, 3 tokes later at 5 I was happy to fill.
BCG fine grind with some Purple Headband I have been saving for this very occasion, held onto since pre-4/20 yet post io shipment.
Tune of choice: White Light - Gorillaz.
First toke at 3, pretty solid. I'll say within one chamber it hasn't blown my mind like the sublimator clouds do, just seeing those bad boys roll up a tube is literally insane (yeah I tried T5 at this point, very impressive but despite the instant on it isn't sublimation). Big recommendation to all hopper heads on trying the sub out, it is a similar kind of cloud chasing dream to the extreme.
That said, the io is instant. And it is exactly as good as I expected. This thing is the shit.
I'm definitely fried and have yet to finish the first chamber. I also definitely got the low battery lights with the installed battery.. it has been lost in space for a quarter of a year and customs could have had a go with their confiscated weed for all I know, though definitely not haha. It was as clean as a whistle, so clean that you can spin on the PFE in one click of the fingers. This is vape perfection for me, so slick, quick, tasty and potent. What more do I want? A nice bit of glass to pair.
It's pure convection and leaving nothing to be desired.
Could be conformal coating on the PCB so decent change, if it is there hopefully it's food grade (everything else is, seems likely but I'll have a closer look when I switch battery again).
My batteries are all old, 1.5-2.5yrs since use. This one conked out at T5 on the first toke - probably my worst cell, but more testing will be interesting.
The slotted power adapter and this io are as dreamy as it gets.
The airflow I can't say is a big difference yet. Extreme airflow like the TUBO is crazy, I guess the Tetra would be even windier.
I like the Grasshopper restriction, I guess a good test is my torus function, the GH gets it spinning just, the io...yeah it is better and definitely an improvement. A little airier, it's basically dialled in on perfect.
It is a worthy upgrade. But I would also suggest if the legacy is working for you, then it's definitely not necessary.
However my daily driver plain GH at 4.2 years old carked it for the 7th time in it's multi-evolutionary life. The tally sits at 5 warranty requests in 2016, 6 in 2017, 1 in 2020. Over 3 units, now with a 4th, I expect there could be more but I don't mind as long as I can enjoy quality cannabis properly from here on out I think it's worth the price of replacement, worth the wait, and worth acknowledging that everything else is in many ways (not all) inferior.
I largely justified getting the io because of the fascination and enjoyment I got from round 1.
Round 2 is more mature. The back end is much improved. The lights are nicer, more even, easier to explain and deal with in every way.
The hopper is very simple but a lot of people find it hard to grasp I've found. This thing is a really good gadget to have and show off, just as the legacy but better in all the ways just by enough.
edit: one new feature - there's a tiny rattle. Takes a good shake, I noticed it emptying the chamber hands free. Haven't had that before.. anyone else?
edit 2: after getting the included battery off the charger, I gotta say I'm more impressed. You can fight this heater like a mother fucker. I have the capacity for enormous bong hits and wow. This is really, really good.
that would mean that you only get batteries if the business is worth it!? what else should I do with 1 or 2 batteries forever for 1 device. That would make the device unusable. But I know that unfortunately many people already do so made experiences. 
