Sorry for the delay in pulling this together....took me longer than I thought.....
Disclaimer: This info is based on 48 hours of usage with a prototype of the FF2. It's not a finished product, it has a few known issues, and though it's apparently very close to the final product, they are still making last-minute tweaks...so it's possible some things will change in the final released product. But this will give you a detailed view of the features and how they compare to FF1, FWIW....
What's the same vs FF1:
- On-demand convection
- Swappable battery
- Great natural flavor
- Sleek, gorgeous look
- Entire vapor path still exposed; the metal surface on the inside is nearly identical, as is the little airpath slot at the end.
- Orange glow
What's changed:
- Dimensions and weight. It's 35% smaller and less than half the old weight (135 grams vs. 275 grams). It reads taller than FF1, because its height is the same as the 1 but has a smaller width and length. (Pictures would help, but I've been asked to refrain from sharing any at this point.) It really feels much, much smaller, mostly because of the weight. I put it in my pocket when I first unboxed it, to see how it would feel....it's pretty unobtrusive. It doesn't rival say the Pax2 for stealth, but it's way stealthier than the FF1.
- Overall look: the front grills are gone, replaced by two deep grooves that reveal the curved outlines of the glass bowl. (You can see the bowl glow from the grooves, but overall the FF2 glows less than the 1...more on that in a minute.) The lid is the only bit that has color...the rest is silver, at least this one is. (The lid insert on this one is black.)
- The lid: wow, what an improvement. Made of glass, with a mirror reflective finish on the back so it doesn't read like glass. There's still a silicon seal, but it's thinner. There are no separate vapor channels...it's just one big channel. No port assembly (there's still a round window, it's the one part without the reflective backing). No o-ring to make your life miserable. No little vapor grooves that are the hardest part to clean of the FF1. (I was very excited by this!) It takes seconds to clean it. I wiped it with ISO gently, twice, and was done in 30....the section inside the seal is just one smooth surface. The top of the lid is a colored metal insert with the graphical FF logo (no words). It will come in five colors...black, silver, white, gold...and maybe red? I stopped listening when he said GOLD. (Take my credit card number now for the gold, please. ) It's still magnetized, but it's way lighter, and the seal it makes is strong enough to work, but it comes off really easily. (The improvements in the lid, as mundane as they might sound, make a huge difference.)
- Mouthpiece: It's removable (this one's for you, EDA, wherever you are! ). It's safe plastic. It contains a teeny metal screen that catches debris. (I have yet to taste a spec of anything other than vapor.) It's actually surprising how much stuff it catches.
- The bowl: Still a glass bowl with a steel plate. But in a major improvement, the plate has a lot more holes that are much smaller. This increases airflow, but does something even more desirable to an FF owner....it eliminates the need for a screen. Just to emphasize: no screens, other than the mouthpiece. NONE. Can I get a hallelujah??
- Control buttons: on/off toggle is gone. Two heat-sensitive side buttons control the operation and are configurable via the app (more on that below). The left reveals the heat level when tapped three times...the right reveals the battery level.
- App control: app works on droid and iOS. It's technically not necessary for use...it changes the heat level (there are six, from LOW to CONCENTRATES), allows you to configure side buttons (either or both to heat), and reveals battery level.
- Battery life: apparently doubled over the 770s. It's highly variable though, and ambient temps play a role here. In any case battery life is greatly increased over the FF1...it apparently delivers more heat with less power, which is why it glows less often once it's warmed up. The battery looks the same, except it has a little pry tab to aid in removal. (Put away your tape Stu! )
- Charger: two contacts on the bottom of the FF rest on a cradle that charges via USB.
Operation: The bottom line here is that FF2 works much, much better, and easier, than FF1. There is virtually no learning curve. Unlike FF1, you could hand this to your not-vaping-savvy friend and they could touch the buttons and get huge hits. Or any size hits you want....consistently. (In fact, that may be the biggest wow factor of FF2...how freaking
consistently it pulls amazing vapor.) Details...
- App control: The app, which runs on droid and iOS, allows you to change temp profile, and while I think FF may have envisioned this as something you'd set and leave for a whole bowl, or longer, I found it really useful to step up during the bowl. I like starting on Medium and finishing on High. I'm getting something like 90% extraction this way. Yes, the FF2 can run much hotter than FF1, but you have all the control. I've never experienced combustion (yet) on High, which supposedly tops out at 420F. (I didn't dare move up to Concentrates with flowers ...) They seem to be thinking Med/High is a good default setting for folks, and for sure, you start on Med/High and your first hits will be very large clouds. I find no need for a top screen because the High setting achieves near-complete extraction.
- Controls: works much the same way as FF1, but it's a bit streamlined. Touch one or both side button(s) depending on your config. The light flashes green, and when it's a solid green, you hit. Bam, right off the bat, great hits. No real technique or coaxing necessary. The draw is restricted but not in an unpleasant way....(nothing like, say, the Solo...) Unless you let it cool entirely, it stays in GO mode, so when you touch again, you get the solid green. The more you use it, the less glow you see as the device gets warmer. And...that's pretty much it. Like FF1 there's a 30 second shut off. I've yet to get anywhere near it!
- Doesn't get hot as easily: It gets warm, after aggressive use. It can get hot, but it takes work. They've upped the heat and maximized performance but use less power to do it, somehow. There's something powerfully efficient going on here, but of course it's way above my head!
- You still have to stir: If you pack densely, which I like to, you need to stir. But, I got way better results with loose packing than I do with FF1. So you can throw a small amount in, let it fly around, and, especially on High, get very serious extraction happening. No stirring necessary in that case. But pack tight and hit hard, and you'll get the usual convection unevenness, and charring, so you gotta stir.
- Flavor: outstanding, as you'd expect. Natural and revealing of the true taste of each strain. Though it's worth noting that it's a tad less cool than FF1 for some reason. It's not a major factor, but it feels slightly warmer. Slightly.
Overall: smaller, lighter, more stealth, more features, more consistent vapor, easier to clean, easier to use, little/no learning curve, more flexibility, much broader temp range, more control, better extraction, same great flavor. In many ways it seems like FF2 is more like the FF3...it's hard to believe so many new features got packed into one generational iteration of the device. (This is very smart on FF's part...a big danger in this biz is how quickly the technology changes. The two year wait between versions made me a bit nervous that FF could give us something that's already feeling a little dated, but instead they skated to where they knew the puck was going...assuming the finished product is very close to this prototype, and the few remaining issues are dealt with before production, the FF2 is more
revolution than
evolution. ) I am flat-out amazed how well it works...they kept all the good parts of the FF, and fixed all of the major flaws. (The one unknown is reliability, and we won't know about that until months after production.)
Sorry for so much detail but I know FF Nation wants information.
I'm sure I forgot something that's important to someone, so ask me if I left something out. Hopefully I can find out the answer, or already know it (but forgot I knew it.
) Now, back to waiting...(no, there's no release date yet...)