I completely agree with the ff flavor, but the P2 gives the ff a race to the finish line. Being a ff and P1 daily user, I always went to the ff for the quality materials.
With the P2 in the picture I would say the flavor quality of the P2 is worth the top shelf materials, from start to finish.
Personal taste, and all, but the P2 cannot touch the FF for flavor. They are not even in the same country, thanks to the difference between conduction and convection, which is huge.
OK on to my second day with the Pax2. I got somewhat more inconsistent results than my first day. My first load I used about .18gs, finely ground. I did ok with it, not great...I couldn't get decent vapor below 3 petals. For my second session I used a larger amount, about .25 or slightly more grams. Again, very finely ground, and packed about as densely as I could manage.
Much better results. I got excellent vapor on one petal, about five moderate hits, and at least that many on the second petal after that. I did find the taste degraded slightly more noticeably on the back half than when I used less herb, but it was worth the tradeoff. I probably pulled more than 30 hits from it. However, even after failing to extract any more from it after many hits on petal 4, the ABV still looks like it'll give up another several large hits in my Nano (haven't tried it yet, but it looks dark, but not very dark, brown). I also had inconsistent battery life on day two...on day one, two long sessions only used half the battery. On day two it used all but one petal. Maybe not a huge difference, but worth noting.
My intermediate conclusions...for me, anyway, the Pax 2 works better the more you pack in, and the more finely you grind. (I'm not having any clogging issues with a fine grind, but I'm cleaning it after two sessions.) Also, like a lot of conduction vapes, waiting 30 seconds between hits (or longer, but you have to touch the mouthpiece to keep it from going into standby) helps, as it allows the oven to cook a little bit and generate vapor before you suck it out of there.
Also despite a reported high temp of 430 or higher, it doesn't extract any more than the FF which theoretically tops at 400. I haven't quite figured this out yet...the INH05 has much more heat and power for a portable and still doesn't quite hit combustion temps. I am coming to the experiential conclusion that the effective high temp of the Pax 2 isn't all that much above 400, based on its incomplete extraction. (This is just a guess based on results, not a categorical statement of Pax temps.)
Overall a nice portable, fantastically stealthy, beautiful form factor, some coolness. Very very well made. But still a conduction vape, with all or most of what that implies, and unfortunately somewhat less power than a portable like the INH. (If the Pax could pack the power of the INH in the Pax form factor, it would rule the world!
)
I'm giving it a test run tonight at a concert, which for me will be the real test of an "out of the house" vape.
