Review: Pax Era Pro

Sorry, Mom. I took a hit from a Pax Era Pro in your living room. And while scaling ski lifts, lying in parks, and sitting around friends’ fire pits. In the Before Times, I recall hitting it at various music venues in the Portland metro area.

In the past 14 months since it launched, this tiny vape pen has transformed where and when I ingest marijuana in the way the iPod changed how I consumed music. All of a sudden, it doesn’t matter where you are or when you feel like a toke.

In a world where we feel icky sharing mouthpieces, I have taken the little fella everywhere, and loved every moment. Whether conquering a hiking trail or grilling on your friends' lawns, it's the perfect BYO cannabis accessory, and since it's still Pax's flagship oil vape, and 4/20/2021, here's my long-term review.

If you've seen a Juul (the popular e-cigarette brand that was spun off from Pax Labs in 2017), you've basically seen an Era Pro. It's an unassuming metal rectangle with rounded edges. The device’s most identifying feature is four LEDs that form the company’s logo on the side, but it otherwise reminds me of the small plastic cases that mechanical pencil lead comes in. You can get an Era Pro in many different colors, but mine is a rather bland red.

Photograph: Pax

As with most other modern cartridge-based vaporizers, the cartridges themselves double as the mouthpiece, so you’ll never have to clean one. In fact, the self-contained nature of the system means no more sticky fingers between bowls or gross residue in the kitchen sink, if you also hate that gunky mess.

The only physical interface you really have is the USB-C port on the bottom, which quick-charges the pen at what is best described as lightning speed; a single half-hour trip to my wall charger and it will last me nearly an entire half-gram cartridge. (A bit longer and you'll have enough charge for a full cartridge, or about 300 to 500 puffs.) For any other controls, you're supposed to use the Android app or desktop app. (Sorry, iPhone owners. You must use a web app due to an Apple-wide ban on vaping apps.)

If you’re new to the world of "potent potables," there are a couple types. There are portable vaporizers that take actual ground cannabis flower, but we won't be talking about them here. Instead we'll focus on oil vapes, which contain cannabis extract.

At first, vaping cannabis oil might feel sketchy. You're not wrong to feel that way, either. Illicit vaporizer cartridges were linked to thousands of cases of lung disease, and up to 68 deaths by the CDC.

Any grower, legal or otherwise, can technically buy those round, 510-threaded oil cartridges that most manufacturers use that attach to countless different battery packs, but Pax pods are different. The pods and their filling equipment are proprietary products made by the company and then sold exclusively through vetted oil manufacturers.

This means that while Pax isn’t actually manufacturing its own oil, you have a significantly higher guarantee of quality (and Pax can make more money by controlling aspects of distribution). Once the empty pods leave the company’s grasp they belong to an official vape oil manufacturer, which must follow the laws of the state it operates in. Because marijuana isn't federally legal in the United States, where and what you can buy depends on each state's law. Right now, that means all products regulated to each state must remain within state lines.

Each pod contains one of the world’s smallest production NFC chips and is tagged to the exact batch of cannabis it contains. Pair the Bluetooth-enabled Era Pro to your Android smartphone, open up the PAX app, and it will even show you the states’ individual test results for that specific lot. Very impressive.

I have been told by executives at PAX that making such simple-looking software requires an insane amount of doing—both legal and otherwise—because each state has varying packaging and testing requirements. 

My first thought, after inhaling a beautifully smooth bit of live resin from Buddie's Cannabis here in Portland, is that Steve Jobs probably would have loved this in college. All you have to do is put a cartridge in and inhale, but behind the simple functionality, there's a lot of Woz-y stuff going on.

Photograph: Pax

When you pop a cartridge in, not only does the pen (using an equally small chip reader) check what specific cartridge you have inserted, it also pulls up the manufacturer’s recommended temperature setting for the pod—which often changes from strain to strain.

You can adjust the temperature settings of the PAX by slightly pulling in and out on the cartridge, like pumping a bike pump. You’ll feel a small button-like sensation, and you'll see the lights on the outside range from one leaf (coolest) to four (hottest), with a fifth stop and blinking light at the manufacturer’s recommended setting. Typically, I found that setting to be between one and two lights.

One cool thing about the NFC tech is that it is read- and write-able, which means that when you change the temperature setting for a specific pod, that specific pod remembers. Swap out pods and your PAX will adjust to each one's setting. Pretty neat, especially if you like different pods at different temps.

Unlike other vaporizers, the Era Pro doesn’t have an on button; instead it feels when you’re inhaling using a series of extremely accurate pressure sensors. Unlike the Era that came before, the newer Pro has two sensors, so it shouldn't accidentally leak weed smell into your pants when it thinks you’re inhaling on an elevator.

Inside the Android phone app (or web app if you have an iPhone), you can learn quite a bit about what you’re inhaling. Everything from the specific temperature to info on the strain is right there. 

If you want to make you never accidentally inhale too much, the pressure sensors combine with temperature sensors to dish out a dose size from 1 to 4 (small to fairly large). No matter how hard or soft you pull, the vaporizer delivers a consistent amount, with haptic feedback shaking the pen to let you know you’re done. I rarely used this feature, but it's great for new tokers, who can get a bit trigger happy.

Parents (or people frequently around kids) will love that you can lock the device using the app, so that nobody can unlock it without your permission. That's right: Unless they have your cell phone, you never have to worry about your teenager stealing a puff.

I live in Oregon, and the vast majority of retailers carry Pax pods, but that can vary from state to state. I'd check with your local retailers and with Pax's website to ensure availability before you order an Era Pro.

Pax cartridges, at least in Portland, are significantly more expensive than their threaded equivalents for “standard” vape pens. I pay the premium because I like the size, better flavor, and guarantee of quality that comes from using Pax-vetted producers, but your milage may vary. I have noticed that some places in Oregon sell the same brands of oil in both types of pods, so you could potentially save money if you discover one you like and switch to the threaded cartridges and a cheaper vaporizer pen. Then again, the pen itself is why I love the Pax so much.

The Era Pro's vapor is smooth, but it requires a gentler pull than other vaporizers I've used. This helps guarantee a more even dose, and it tends to mean you get “more” out of each, in that you're always inhaling fully. In practice, I get less accidental coughing fits from huge clouds suddenly hitting my lungs. Again, you'll get a few hundred puffs out of each 0.5-gram cartridge.

The vapor itself is also very discreet, provided you hold it in long enough; even if my mom's living room wasn't full of delicious dinner smells this past Christmas, she probably wouldn't have noticed.

We won't want to share mouthpieces for a long time—long after we're fully vaccinated. In a world where there's even the smallest chance my weed habit kills your grandma, I'm just going to bring my own way to imbibe.

If you, too, are looking forward to getting out and about with your friends as the madness dies down in the next few months, I recommend the Pax Era Pro. It's become one of the few things I never leave home without.