Lost Vape OB5500 versus Flonq Max Disposable Vape
Clash of Styles: Lost Vape OB5500 versus the Flonq Max
Adult vapers love disposable vapes. It can be difficult to distinguish rival models, and flavor is king. Here are a couple heavyweight contenders pitted head-to-head. There are some big style contrasts but excellent performance all around.
Disposable Vapes
Disposable vapes have seen a surge in popularity due to their convenience and ease of use. They come pre-loaded with e-liquid and are ready to use straight out of the package, eliminating the need for messy refills or complex settings. This is exactly what the Flonq Disposable Vape collection and the mighty Lost Vape Orion Bar family deliver.
The shared design concept is a compact and lightweight design. Both the Orion Bar and Flonq are highly portable, perfect for on-the-go vaping. Furthermore, both of these disposable vapes offer a wide variety of flavors to choose from, catering to the diverse taste preferences of users.
The Flonq and OB5500 both function perfectly as an affordable alternative to prefilled gas station pods, making them an attractive choice for those trying vaping for the first time or those who prefer a low-maintenance vaping experience. Available in the flavors that adult vapers prefer, they can hang and bang with the best in the industry. Which one is right for you?
Disposable Vape Competition
The disposable vape market is intensely competitive due to several factors. First, the popularity of vaping has led to an increased demand for easy-to-use and convenient vape devices, paving the way for disposable vapes.
These products are user-friendly, with no need for refilling e-liquid or replacing coils, making them a popular choice for beginners. There is a diversity of preferences among vapers ranging from ergonomics and design to the disposable vape flavors offered by the various manufacturers.
Disposable vape manufacturers compete to cater to these varying tastes. Features like better battery life, superior design and bolder flavors can draw sharp distinctions between seemingly similar devices. This fierce competition ultimately results in a broad range of choices and improved quality for consumers. The Flonq Max and Lost Vape OB5500 are at the cutting-edge of this market.
Disposable Vape Features
Not all disposable vapes are identical. They vary significantly when it comes to their battery life, vapor quality, flavor offerings, and overall user experience. There are even unique features like air flow control, displays which monitor battery life, and e-liquid monitors. The Sili Box has a button, a rarity on a disposable, which they call the Turbo Boost. It amps up the voltage, increasing the vapor output and flavor density.
The Lost Vape Orion Bar OB5500 has a sleek design and delivers great flavors. Its Orion Bar lineage and quality are the primary selling points. It has the flair of its big brother the Orion Bar 7500 and similar performance.
The Flonq Max Disposable Vape impresses with its wide variety of distinctive and bold flavors, winning the hearts of those who appreciate the exploration of different tastes. There may be more similarities than differences, but most adult vapers will have a preference when it comes time to pit these two designs head-to-head.
The Flonq Max has a graceful appearance almost Apple inspired. It is ideal for adult vapers who may feel judged vaping a lozenge shaped, pastel colored device.
Flonq Max Disposable Vape
We have previously reviewed the Flonq Max and later examined the second wave of new Flonq Max flavors. It is a favorite of everyone in the building because of its slick appearance, honest puff count of approximately 8000, robust vapor and perfectly crafted flavors. It is an ideal device for attracting mindful combustible using initiates, as it has a decidedly mature and chic appearance. This is no small deal, as will be outlined after the body of the review.
Flonq Max Specifications
- E-liquid Capacity:14ML
- Nic Strength: 35MG
- Puffs per Device: ~8000
- Battery Capacity: 650mAh
- Draw-Activated Firing Mechanism
- Battery: Rechargeable via USB-C
- Heating: Mesh Coil
- Dimensions: ~3.5” x 1.75” x 1”
Flonq Max Flavors
Appearance matters but at the end of the day it is all about flavor and vapor. The Flonq Max flavors are beyond reproach. The Flonq Max also delivers satisfaction, do not be thrown off by the 35mg nicotine strength. Changes in the conversion tables will reduce most disposable vapes to 40mg rather than the current 50mg, even though the salt nic juice formulas are unchanged. The Flonq Max merely reflects this industry shift.
Banana Milkshake Flonq Max
The Banana Milkshake Flonq Max is an authentic sweet ripe banana-flavored vape with a medium amount of ice.
Blue Lemonade Flonq Max
The Blue Lemonade Flonq Max is a sweet icy blue razz which is elevated with the tart and sour notes of fresh squeezed lemonade.
Cherry Peach Lemonade Flonq Max
The Cherry Peach Lemonade Flonq Max is a unique flavor in some way, but stays between the lines as another great salt nic fusion fruit flavored disposable vape with a perfect mix of cherry flavors to augment a delightful peach lemonade base.
Grape Flonq Max
The Grape Flonq Max delivers the big confectionary inspired Concord flavor that so many adult vapers love, and it finishes with a chilly little kick.
Milk Chocolate Flonq Max
The Milk Chocolate Flonq Max mixes medium ice with a smooth milk chocolate flavor. This is the sleeper hit of the Flonq line and a unique flavor option we highly recommend.
Mix Berries Flonq Max
The Mix Berries Flonq Max certainly mixed in the berry flavors well to create a brilliant medley and a great version of a classic nic salt flavor. It blends blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry flavors.
Pink Lemonade Flonq Max
The Pink Lemonade Flonq Max is a sweet lemonade-flavored vape with medium-high ice.
Strawberry Ice Cream Flonq Max
The Strawberry Ice Cream Flonq Max was perhaps the most highly regarded flavor in the collection. This is one of the best strawberry cream flavors you will find in vaping, let alone disposables.
Strawberry Watermelon Flonq Max
The Strawberry Watermelon Flonq Max is perfect. You taste the lush watermelon throughout the puff and notes of strawberry occasionally punching through.
Tobacco Flonq Max
Most adult vapers who live in areas without a flavor ban steer clear of tobacco nic salts and disposables. But the science behind tobacco vape flavors has advanced significantly from the days of RY4. The Tobacco Flonq Max is an excellent, mild-bodied tobacco vape.
Watermelon Ice Flonq Max
The Watermelon Ice Flonq Max is another great fruit and ice fusion. Sweet watermelon and ice are a perfect pairing for a disposable vape.
Yummy Bear Flonq Max
With a name like Yummy Bear Flonq Max, you have a pretty good this is going to be a fruity confection flavor. It bursts star-like with cherry and sweet pink lemonade notes.
New Flonq Max Flavors
For a more thorough deep-dive, check out our feature on the new Flonq Max flavors. But we want all the information on this remarkable disposable vape in one place, so here is a run-down on the second wave.
Clear Flonq Max
The Clear Flonq Max disposable is exactly what this line-up needed. Freed from the noteworthy flavor profiles that dominate the Flonq Collection, it still shines bright with a palate cleansing crispness.
Mint Chill Flonq Max
A sweet mint flavor with just the right amount of chill, the Mint Chill Flonq Max is a refreshing all-day vape flavor with spearmint inspired notes which are exceedingly refreshing.
Lost Vape Orion OB5500
The Lost Vape OB5500 is an excellent device. It is a less expensive option than the Orion Bar 7500 but does not surrender much in terms of performance and even less when contrasting vapor and flavor production.
It still has an adjustable airflow slide, just like the OB7500 and holds an impressive 14ml. It has a ridged shell for easy gripping and is compact. The battery is 500mAh and USB-C chargeable. With the airflow open it is almost loose enough for direct-to-lung (DL) draw but can be shut down to vape mouth-to-lung (MTL) which is preferred by most disposable vape users.
When wide open, the airflow is probably far too loose for most disposable vape users. If you have an OB5500 and ever wondered what the difference between loose and tight draws are, or how MTL vaping is different than DL and how the device can dictate your inhalation pattern, monkeying around with the convenient airflow slide located on the bottom is a great way to realize how intuitive these distinctions are.
Lost Vape OB5500 Specifications
- E-liquid Capacity:14ML
- Nic Strength: 50mg
- Puffs per Device: ~5500
- Battery Capacity: 500mAh
- Draw-Activated Firing Mechanism
- Battery: Rechargeable via USB-C
- Heating: Mesh Coil
- Dimensions: Approx 3.25” x 1.75 x 0.875”
Lost Vape OB5500 Flavors
Favorite disposables are generally decided by flavor profiles and availability because the window of performance is quite similar between devices. Not surprisingly, the Orion Bar OB5500 is loaded and ready to compete with a strong line-up of flavors. There is a reason that Lost Vape's Orion Bar 7500 was so popular and why the OB5500 is likely to follow suit.
Fresh Mint Lost Vape OB5500
The Fresh Mint Lost Vape OB5500 is a minty, and icy flavor. On the tightest airflow setting, the puff is sweet, like a hard restaurant mint with medium-high ice, making this flavor pop.
Kiwi Berry Lost Vape OB5500
The Kiwi Berry Lost Vape OB5500 is perhaps even sweeter than the Blue Razz vape due to the kiwi, but cool kick of ice smooths out the flavor and adds balance.
Kiwi Passionfruit Guava
The Kiwi Passionfruit Guava Lost Vape OB5500 is an excellent guava vape. It has a nice kick of ice to tamp down the sweet kiwi and bold passionfruit notes.
Pineapple Coconut Lost Vape OB5500
The Pineapple Coconut Lost Vape OB5500 tastes like coconut pie. It has a creamy finish for pineapple coconut vape. This vape does not provide the sweetness of ripe pineapples but rather a coconut pineapple dessert with slight cream on the finish. The coconut is upfront in the mix and has a strong presence from the inhalation through exhalation and in-between puffs. It finishes with creamy coconut and a touch of ice on the tongue.
Strawberry Watermelon
The Strawberry Watermelon Lost Vape OB5500 Disposable tastes like ripe strawberry and watermelon mixed with medium ice. Sweet ripe melons strike on the exhale while the strawberry leads off.
Triple Berry
The Triple Berry Lost Vape OB5500 is an extremely sweet berry vape with medium ice. It tastes like there is sweeter raspberry in the mix and fewer blackberry or blueberry flavors. You taste the sweet berries on the inhale, exhale, and in-between puffs.
Disposable Vape Appearance and Marketing
The sheer attractiveness of the Flonq Max juxtaposed against the rather intense art on the Lost Vape OB5500 illustrates an interesting point. Disposable vapes are formulated with the flavors adult vapers prefer. These are fruit and beverage inspired characterizing flavors. These popular flavors are exactly the style of vaping Big Tobacco wants banned to eliminate competition. Recent efforts by RJ Reynolds to sneak in a new flavor ban in Ohio were thwarted but expect these hydra-headed opponents to spare no expense to eliminate the competition.
Vape Flavor Fallacy
Mi-One Brands has no interest in selling to minors or adults who do not smoke. We know the flavors most adult vapers prefer are not tobacco-inspired and feel flavor bans do a great disservice to those of legal age who seek an alternative to combustible cigarettes.
Unfortunately, the popularity of characterizing vape flavors with adult vapers also perplexes vaping prohibitionists who fail to understand why an adult would want the most palatable flavor possible rather than an ersatz tobacco puff. Their complaints seem increasingly hypocritical and misdirected in a world where alcoholic Mountain Dew seltzers and THC-laden gummies are available at the grocery store.
There are now countless studies showing vaping is less harmful than smoking, but there is no positive use case of alcohol. Each year alcohol kills about 4,000 minors (3300 deaths on 9/11) and sends nearly a quarter million (US forces in Vietnam suffered about 150,000 wounded) to the emergency room according the CDC.
Prohibition failed once but there is no reason to think the governments appetite for regulations and restrictions has declined in last century. The main difference is that wealthy stopped smoking long ago, but also imbibe at high level on average.
This makes vaping an alien vice among the ultra-wealthy who control the levers of power, and leaves alcohol untouchable. It is easy to ban something that does not impact anyone you know or associate with. Bloomberg and his vice-fighting jet set should consider the wisdom of Mark Twain.
Vape Flavor Studies
The Farsalino Flavor study used empirical evidence to back up what everyone who vapes knows from firsthand experience. Due to availability at convenience stores and familiarity, many vapers may initiate on a tobacco flavor but it does not take long for most adults to migrate to fruit and beverage flavors.
The longer an adult vapes, the more likely they are to reject tobacco flavors and choose the more delicious options that are available. This is simple commonsense.
Even the vastly improved tobacco flavored vapes of today are less appealing to most adults vapers. Does removing the better flavors makes an initiate vaper more likely to waver?
It is not going out on a limb to say only selling the obsolete Big Tobacco devices that cost far more per milliliter and are only available in the least popular flavors gives tobacco companies a potential monopoly on convenience store shelves and eliminates competition.
There is nothing untoward about a vape company using nostalgic flavors that a middle-aged vapor will recall from their 80s or 90s childhood. Unfortunately, the vape flavor fallacy is strong and this is a constant target.
Prohibitionists are certain that the most popular flavors with adults are meant to appeal to kids. Adult preferences entirely drive the vape market. Use by minors has declined remarkably but still poses a grave threat to the industry.
Public Perception of Disposable Vapes
The visual representation of a popular vape device can impact public perception and potentially contribute to a negative stereotype around vaping. The use of cartoons, mimicking the trade dress of established brands, and silly names allowed vaping prohibitionists to effectively vilify electronic nicotine delivery systems right out of the gate and started an avalanche of negative issues that still reverberate to this day. And these packaging issues occurred before Juul’s dodginess torpedoed the much of the independent vaping industry.
There is probably no appeasing the vaping prohibitionists, who are backed by hundreds of millions of dollars, or the FDA, which seems intent on banning all vapes except for a couple obsolete models made by Big Tobacco, handing them a virtual monopoly on nicotine.
But we should never forget how easy it is for opponents of vaping to vilify our industry and deny adult vapers the products they seek.
Unicorn Milk sales to minors were probably not even a rounding error compared to the sales of Juul Mint at a busy gas station that didn’t card minors. Yet this high-VG mod fuel was falsely made the poster child for underage use that US Senators wheeled out constantly.
There was not even a commercially popular Cotton Candy vape juice flavor in 2016 when the sheer audacity of such a flavor existing left AstroTurf activists like the Orwellian-named Truth Initiative demanding its destruction.
The Lost Vape Orion OB5500 has gone the route of including illustrations on their disposables. This makes sense in a crowded market. There is probably even a canonical reason for their urban graffiti designs, which are present on previous models of disposable vape like the Orion Bar 7500 and appear on their open tank systems.
Responsible Disposable Vape Packaging
Responsible marketing practices, such as refraining from using cartoons or juvenile imagery, can help reshape public perception of vaping, moving it away from a negative stereotype towards a more positive view. The OB5500 does not quite rise to the level of a cartoon, but they are flying much closer to the sun than many brands.
Improving the public image of vaping is a Sisyphean task. The US is a long way from adopting the humane policies of the UK, whose National Health Service hosts the website "Using e-Cigarettes to Quit Smoking". Thus, the vape industry must always strive to put its best foot forward to thrive in the competitive landscape and contribute positively to the vaping narrative.
In a just world, the worst-case scenario would be that adults may feel uncomfortable or embarrassed to use a device with a bizarre appearance in public, limiting the usability of an otherwise excellent smoke and ash free alternative.
The greater concern is that the vape industry has been dealt a bum hand from a stacked deck. The FDA and Big Tobacco make odd bedfellows, but they both seem to seek the same outcome: the independent vaping industry destroyed and cigarettes facing no competition from electronic nicotine delivery systems available in popular designs or flavors.
It is crucial for manufacturers to incorporate mature, elegant, and appealing designs that cater to adult users who value both functionality and aesthetics. No brand-themed puns. No cartoons. No misuse of IP and trade dress.
The Flonq certainly accomplishes this with its classy and understated appearance. The jury is out on the OB5500.
