First Impressions

The Smoke Fifty-One electronic cigarette comes in a tidy, little flip-top box. It’s dark blue and decorated with gold filigree and lettering. It looks a bit like an expensive cigar box – classy but not overly ostentatious. Nice. Inside are nestled a battery, a USB charger, two cartomizers, a how-to manual and the carrying case. The case comes in nine different colors: silver, pink, red, blue, black, gold, green, purple and brown. You get to pick a color when you’re first ordering. The carrying case design is reminiscent of those old fashion cigarette cases elegant women used to carry in old movies.

Smoke Fifty-One actually offers two different starter kits: the duo, which I just described, and the trio. The trio has separate atomizer and filter components giving the unit three pieces while the duo combines the two into a single cartomizer, making it a two-piece cigarette. The kit also includes an exclusive membership card which gives you discount prices on future orders. Five out of five!

Battery/Output

The Smoke Fifty-One’s battery worked really well. I didn’t give it an around-the-clock test, but it held up well over the course of two or three days of normal smoking. If you’re worried about the battery dying just when you really need it, be sure to order the trio kit because it comes with a two-battery option. That way, you’ll always have a backup with you.

Using the Smoke Fifty-One, I found the draw to be a little tight. I know a bit of tightness is needed to simulate a real cigarette, but I think this one should have been a bit looser. I was left feeling like I had to work a little too hard with each puff. The product also needed some priming pulls. It didn’t deliver its full punch until two or three draws in. Once it got going, however, there was plenty of vapor. Great batteries but a labor-intensive draw, Smoke Fifty-One gets four out of five points for battery life and vapor output.

Flavor

Sadly, flavor was another area where the Smoke Fifty-One didn’t quite meet the early expectations engendered by the product’s elegant packaging. The throat hit of the Fifty-One was very weak. In fact, it was hardly noticeable. I tried the 16 milligram cartomizer and really expected a stronger hit with that much nicotine. The taste itself, on the other hand, was quite a nice surprise. The Tobacco flavor was deep and rich with a sweet, fruity undertone reminiscent of Juicy Fruit gum. Sounds strange, I know, but trust me, somehow it really works. The Menthol was even better. It also had the sweet undertone, but the sharp tang of the menthol compensated for the lack of throat burn.

Not too bad, Smoke Fifty-One. I’ll award you a four out of five in the taste department for those lovely fruity undertones.

Overall

Based on the appearance of the Smoke Fifty-One’s high end packaging, I had some high end expectations. Unfortunately, Smoke Fifty-One didn’t quite deliver. The battery life and full flavors were nice, but the low throat hit and tight pull kind of canceled that out. Add the high price of the Fifty-One and you’ll definitely be disappointed that it didn’t deliver a higher quality product.