It's rare to come across a West Coast stoner who isn't already somewhat familiar with the PAX brand. Its handheld, pocket-sized flower and oil vaporizers are ubiquitous among committed non-combusters and strain hunting extract users, and its high-profile farm collabs have kept its proprietary cartridges consistently relevant.
Now the PAX line has expanded once again to include the PAX Era Life, its most streamlined device yet, built to suit a variety of cannabis oil users with simplified functions and an unparalleled ease of use. With its relatively low price point, simple features, and elegant simplicity, the PAX Era Life brings quality weed tech to an entirely new and potentially far more inclusive audience.
What is the PAX Era Life?
The PAX Era Life is a compact cannabis oil vaporizer that uses proprietary PAX cannabis oil pods for vaping.
It's a compact, streamlined, lower-cost version of PAX's popular Era Pro pocket oil vaporizer. The two vapes share the same sleek look, with the Era Life being about one centimeter shorter than the Era Pro. The PAX Era Life's scaled back functions make it PAX's easiest to use vaporizer. Simply plug a PAX pod into the open end of the device, reinsert to choose from one of four temperatures, and draw.
The Era Life shares the majority of its basic functionality features with the Era Pro, save for the Pro's high level of interconnectivity via app. The Era Life does not feature app connectivity, and hence lacks those fancy app control options like low-pod alerts or child locks.
But what the PAX Era Life lacks in ornamental tech, it makes up for with a long battery life (up to 150+ hits per charge), relative low cost ($35), and flashy new color choices like Indigo, Grass, or Blaze.
What are PAX Pods?
PAX Pods are the exclusive cartridges used by PAX vaporizers. PAX employs a proprietary design for its pods using SimpleClick™ tech, which allows users to plug their pods into their devices to choose a temperature and then draw from them instantly — no warm-up necessary. Higher temperatures burn through concentrates nominally faster than medium to low settings, but the Pods are long-lasting overall, supplying more than two weeks of inhales for low-temp daily tokers.
Authentic PAX pods can only be used with authentic PAX devices and vice versa. PAX Pods universally consist of top-shelf quality extracts from reputable farms, and — depending on your location — are often available in extracts that span the cannabinoid spectrum.
How does it work?
The PAX Era Life is the most scaled down of all PAX devices, and is arguably the easiest PAX device to use. Straight from the package, the Era Life is ready to go; it's as easy as plugging in a pod and taking a hit.
Charging the PAX Era Life
The PAX Era Life arrives with a 4-inch long charging cable, and though mine arrived via USPS, it was approximately half charged. Once I'd used up the unexpected power boost, it took only 45 minutes to fully recharge the lithium-ion battery.
- Like other PAX devices, the PAX Era Life has a X shaped light on its front. Each of the light's four arms (or “petals”) illuminate independently to alert users of battery percentage. Each arm represents 25% battery life.
- The upper left arm of the X will flash red when the device's battery requires charging.
- Charge the PAX Era Life by connecting the cord to a charging dock, power station, or USB port on your computer.
- All four arms of the light up X will gently flash as the device charges.
- Once fully charged, all four arms of the X will glow bright white for several seconds, fade, and repeat.
Changing temperatures
Not unlike it's siblings, the Era Life operates at four different temperatures depending on the user's input. Novice user note: extracts vaporized at lower temperatures will produce robust flavor profiles and gently sloping highs, while vaping at higher temperatures can elicit a wild, swooning onset, so set your preferences accordingly.
- The “Pop and Click” method of gently popping your pod loose then clicking it back into place will activate the PAX Era Life's temperature control.
- For each pop and click, one of the aforementioned arms of the light-up X on the body will glow.
- Once you've chosen your temperature and pop-clicked it into place, the PAX Era Life is ready for hitting.
Temperature range:
- One click, one petal, low temperature = 520°F
- Two clicks, two petals, low/medium temperature = 610°F
- Three clicks, three petals, low/high temperature = 700°F
- Four clicks, four petals, high temperature = 790°F
How to clean the Era Life
Since the PAX Era Life is an oil vaporizer that only uses PAX pods, cleaning is really concentrated to the housing, which can be wiped with an antibacterial wipe, moist cloth, or, in a pinch, the hem of a t-shirt.
Like most vaporizers, the mouthpiece is part and parcel with the cartridge, independent of the vaporizer, and as such, disposable and not much of a cleaning requirement.
What is the appeal?
PAXStyle, discretion, and better living through tech are at the heart of PAX's branding, and with the introduction of the Era Life, that ethos expands to include accessibility. PAX products already have a pretty wide appeal, but by removing a large barrier to ownership — like the price — PAX seems positioned to capture an even wider swath of oil users.
The bright colors, pared-down features, and functional simplicity make the PAX Era Life exceedingly appealing not only to users who value a durable, fashionable, and discrete device, but also to top-shelf extract aficionados, amateur vape lords, and even novice cannabis consumers with top-shelf inclinations. Even established fans of PAX products can appreciate the easy earnestness of this device; no apps to download and decode, no melodramatic cleaning issues, and no gambling on an extract from an unknown, rogue farm.
Bottom line: across the board, this may arguably be PAX's most appealing device to date.
Photos courtesy of PAX
Check out the Pax Era Life at pax.com.
