ELEAF iStick P100 Review – Design.. A Big Yes.. Performance?

The Eleaf iStick P100 is not what I was expecting to see when I found out I was reviewing an Eleaf device.
Eleaf landed firmly on the vaping map with the original, iconic iStick mod, which I think at one point every other vaper I knew owned. I still have mine but has been retired to the shelf.

Founded in 2017, Eleaf will nearly always get recommended for anybody who is looking for a reputable, simple starter kit.

What Can You Expect From The Eleaf iStick P100?

What can I say, it’s an extremely different looking device to any other Eleaf products I have seen in the past.

The Eleaf iStick P100 is a Variable Wattage device, with a very sophisticated design and feel that is unlike any other pod-based vape I have had my hands on.

The device has a 3400mAh battery which has a max 100watts of power and the kit comes with 2 coils. The GZ 0.2ohm coil and GZ 0.4ohm Coils. More of my thoughts on that in the review.

What Is in The Box

• iStick P100 Mod
• iStick P100 Cartridge (pod)
• GZ 0.2 ohm coil
• GZ 0.4ohm Coil
• USB Type-C Cable
• User Manual
• Warranty Card

Specs & Features

• Size: 39.6mmx29.5mmx106.4mm
• Battery Capacity 3400mAh
• Cartridge Size 4.5ml
• Filling Port Diameter 4mm
• Output Wattage Max 100W
• Charging Current 5V/2A (USB-C)
• SMART MODE
• 1.14” TFT Screen
• Button Fire

Design & Build Quality

Overall Look and Feel

First of all, Yes Yes Yes Eleaf have smashed it with the design of this pod system. The look and feel of this device are like no other pod system on the market.

When opening the package and removing the mod out of the frosted white plastic cover, it brought a smile to my face at how pleasing to the eye it was. The picture on the packaging does not do it justice.

The mod is made out of a zinc alloy and with the internal battery it is a lot heavier than pretty much all pod systems I have had the pleasure of using, which is quite a lot.

The faux carbon fiber panel on the rear of the mod is the same shape as the front screen which gives the device nice consistency and works well. The Eleaf logo on the front above the screen is very discreet which brings a sophisticated mature feel to the device.

The TFT Screen is exceptionally clear and easy to read and navigate. I normally wear glasses to read and had no issues with seeing any of the display, even in direct sunlight there was no issue.

I will be going into the functions of the screen later on in the review, I must say that I am very impressed with what Eleaf have done with the functions and visuals.

I love the placement of the charging port. It is in the perfect location so you can stand the device up whilst you charge it rather than on the bottom where most companies put the charging port.

Battery (mod)

The mod sports a behemoth of a 3400mAh battery which gives you battery for days. As always I love the ‘clicky’ button which is positioned in a great location for those who thumb fire.

I always spend a long time continuously clicking the button to see if there are any wear and tear issues.

Wow.. There were no issues whatsoever apart from my thumb aching, this is a massive plus for me.

I have had many pod systems and box mods buttons fail on me and it generally seems to be down to bad design or over design, making it too much of a complicated mechanism which in turn means more things can go wrong with it.

I believe the button mechanism will stand the test of time and not cause you any problems.

AirFlow

The Airflow is built into the mod itself and is not adjustable, this is where I did run into a couple of issues and problems with the type of airflow I am getting from the Eleaf iStick P100.

The airflow system consists of two very large and open slots on either side of the battery and the pod is 1.7mm above the slots.

Some Issues

This is where I ran into some issues.

Firstly, the way I vape a pod-like system is I hold it with my whole hand wrapped around the device.

This means your hand and fingers cover up the airflow holes making it extremely hard to vape. You can say it gives a restricted lung hit but if Eleaf wanted it to have that feature they would have made it adjustable.
Secondly, I know I am going to sound like a snob but airflow plays a massive if not crucial part of the experience of vaping and can be the difference to someone using or discarding the device for something else.

Or in the worst-case scenario go back to those deadly combustible cigarettes.

The airflow is very open and extremely turbulent, it took me a very long time to adjust to the device.

It’s obnoxiously loud as well which took some getting used to. I would have gone for a honeycomb style airflow that’s adjustable to smooth out the draw and to cut down the noise this device produces.

Drip Tip

It has a proprietary whistle style drip tip which I love. When you look at the mod you do not realise that it’s removable, it is designed so well that the curves of the pod seamlessly connect with the drip tip.

The package does not come with a spare drip tip so make sure you don’t lose it. I am not sure if you can buy a spare drip tip from Eleaf so look after the one provided.

TFT Screen & Eleaf Chip

The Eleaf iStick P100 screen is 1.14inches and has a beautifully clean look to it, with easy to read on-screen menu and functions.

As stated before even in strong direct light it’s easy to see what you need and change functions effortlessly.

I will run through the features and functions that the Eleaf iStick P100 has to offer.

• To turn the device on and off it’s a simple 5 clicks of the fire button.
• Enter the menu screen: Press the + & – button together, the screen has 6 options of SMART, PUFF, COLOUR, DEFAULT, ID CHECK, and EXIT.

I will explain what each feature means.

• SMART mode means that the power of the device will be adjusted automatically according to the coil installed.
• Puff is your 7-day puff counter, Eleaf added a great feature where it tracks your puffs over 7 days and displays them in a graph. This shows you what days you vaped more than others. If you are into keeping track of these sorts of things, it’s a great feature.
• Colour is where you can pick the colour of the theme for your screen, you get to pick from Blue, Green, Purple, and Red. I love the green one which I have stuck with since I got the device.
• Default resets your device to factory settings
• ID Check is your product batch code, this is great in case there is a major fault you can quote your batch number.

The Pod

The pod has 4 magnets situated on the underside of the pod, sitting on either corner of where the pod is press-fitted.

The magnet has the perfect amount of force so the pod is secure with no risk of it falling out of the mod.

There are 6 grip nodes on one side of the pod that help you get a good grip to pull it out of the housing.

I have tested this by pulling the Eleaf iStick P100 out of my pocket by the pod itself, to my surprise it has never pulled away from the mod itself.

How To Fill The Eleaf iStick P100 Pod

Filling the pod is quick and simple, there is a rubber gasket on the side of the pod, this can be lifted away which will reveal a large fill port.

I have tried many different size liquid bottles to see if they fit, I have found no issues filling the pod.

1. 1. Take your pod out of your battery
   2. Turn pod so the rubber gasket on the side is facing straight up
   3. Use your nail to pull the side closest to the mouthpiece end to expose the fill hole.
   4. Fill the pod using your e-liquid bottle whilst tipping the mouthpiece towards the floor. This will ensure your pod is full.
   5. Reattach the rubber gasket, making sure the rubber is flush with the pod.
   6. Place the pod back onto the battery and wait 5 minutes for the e-liquid to saturate the cotton.

The pod itself has a slightly darker frosting to it. When filling the pod you can clearly see how much liquid you have put into the pod, this is great because a lot of pods have dark pods which make it hard to see your liquid level.

There is one downside to the pod, once the pod had been situated within the mod it makes it extremely difficult to see your liquid levels at all. I kept having to take the pod out to check the levels. I found this more of a design flaw than an issue with anything else as it uses pre-made coils.

If you accidentally let the liquid level go down too far and get a dry hit, your coil is destroyed. There is no going back from there as you will need to insert a fresh coil.

Even a little cut-out window in the back would at least help indicate when the liquid levels are dropping too far.

Leaking

I have had an issue with the pod leaking into the base of the mod where the magnets are located. I thought this could be down to not press-fitting the coils properly but found it has happened to both coils that came in the package I received.

I know that condensation can build up within pod systems, but this was at least 1ml of liquid sitting in the base. This shouldn’t be too much of an issue if you make sure to clean your pod and mod when you refill.

You will run a major risk if the chip inside the mod isn’t waterproofed and liquid seeps into the device, there is potential for your device to just stop working altogether.

How Does The Eleaf iStick P100 Perform?

The Eleaf iStick P100 has replaceable coil heads which is great as the coil head options are vast enough that you can find the right coil heads to suit your vaping needs.

The press-fit is always a good way to go rather than the old method of screwing coil heads into the 510 base, this would cause issues like cross threading and over-tightening of the coils.

It’s also good for users who have issues with their fingers and hands, as it’s press-fit is not small and fiddly which can be difficult for most of us.

I use the same e-liquids on all my reviews so that I can tell if the device I am using picks up all the notes within the liquid. The e-liquid is Limey Slush by Joe’s Juice at 70VG/30PG with 1.5mg of nicotine.

GZ 0.2ohm Coil

The coil states best between 45-65W.

I struggled to find my sweet spot with this coil as I found it very unstable.

At 50W the flavour was ok but the vapor production would sometimes be good but sometimes feel like it was struggling to heat the coil head up consistently.

I ended up sticking to 62W which would give consistent dense vapour production.

The coil heads were not bad when it came to the flavour it produced. I did find that it muted a lot of the sweet notes of my liquid and left me with a watered-down lime flavour, made my liquid taste a little like washing up liquid, I found this rather disappointing.

I upped the wattage to 65W and instantly burnt out the coil, this was within the first 100 puffs of installing the coil according to the puff counter.

This coil head also drank a lot of liquid as well which was a shock considering the performance I was getting from the coil head I installed.

GZ 0.4ohm Coil

The coil states best between 20-35W.

This coil was an unexpected joy for me, knowing that it had to be vaped at such a low wattage made me feel uneasy. With the low wattage alongside the wide open turbulent airflow, I thought it was going to be a nightmare of a vape.

I set it straight to 35W and from the first pull I loved it. I was pleasantly surprised at the decent amount of dense vapour it was producing consistently.

The flavour was on point picking up pretty much all the subtle notes in the liquid including the little hint of Koolada I put in my liquid to give it a nice cooling effect.

I have been using the same pod for well over a week and a half, the longer I have been vaping the coil the more I am enjoying it. Added bonus of being a 3500mAH battery running at 35W which I barely charged throughout the week.

My personal opinion is that if Eleaf made the P100 with adjustable airflow, I would have turned the airflow down to over half, and with this coil it would have been an exceptional restricted lung device.

How To Change The Eleaf P100 Coils

It’s a simple case of pulling out the coil and pushing the replacement back in.

Just be careful if you have e-liquid in the pod! You can get away with a small amount in the pod (if you tilt at the right angle) but anymore and you will empty the pod.

Battery

The USB Type-C charging port is a great plus, when you charge the device a large picture of a battery takes up the screen with a percentage of how much your battery is charged.

It is large enough that if you leave it on the side you do not have to get up and walk to it to see the battery percentage.

Clear and simple screen icons make it a pleasure to look at. You will find yourself going through the features as they are so easy to understand and navigate through.

I like the fact that there is no lag between hitting the firing button and the coil heating up.

I found a lot of pod devices have a second of nothing when pressing the firing button. This little touch is a welcomed change and well received.

It’s simple and easy to get set up and to start vaping.

I decided to experiment on how easy it was to change the coils on the Eleaf iStick P100. I got my wife who doesn’t vape or know anything about vaping sit down with me.

I gave her the Eleaf iStick P100, a new coil head, and the instruction manual and asked her to see if she can change the coil for me.

In under 5 minutes with no working knowledge or help, she managed to successfully change and fill up the pod with no issues at all.

Little Statement From My Wife – “I can’t believe how simple and easy it was to change the coils on the vape”

There is an immense credit to Eleaf for making this so simple and easy to do. This on its own is a major selling point for this product.

Also a quick point that I feel is needed to be stated, whilst searching around the Eleaf website it states that a 510 adaptor for the Eleaf iStick P100 will be available soon. This makes complete sense for the massive wattage range.

Not only can you use the pods but with the 510 adaptors you can use sub-ohm tanks, RDA, RTA, or an RDTA as well. This is a definite bonus for me and I will be looking to purchase one when it becomes available in the UK.

Pros

• Great design
• Amazing screen
• GZ 0.4ohm Coil is amazing
• USB Type-C
• 510 Adaptor

Cons

• Loud and Turbulent Airflow
• Poorly Placed Airflow Slots
• Leaky Pod
• GZ 0.2ohm Coil

Final Verdict

What can I say about the Eleaf iStick P100 kit?

It took me a while to get around a couple of issues I have had with this kit i.e problem coil and airflow issues, but overall it’s a great device.

It is extremely easy to get the kit from boxed to vaping and also installing the coils were a piece of cake. The user manual guide within the box was very clear and simply written, even with little to no knowledge of vaping devices you can install and vape this kit with no issues.

The 510 adapter is a great idea which I have seen a lot of companies have done. I think this device would look great with a sleek RDA on top, and with the 3500mAh battery, you will not be underpowered at all.

I recommend this device to new vapers mainly, this is only because the airflow I feel could be off-putting to experienced vapers who like the idea of being able to tune in their airflow.

Did you buy the Eleaf P100? Or have you used it? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.