Review Of The Davinci IQ

About Davinci IQ

Davinci has been innovating vaporizers since the beginning of 2012 with the launch of Davinci Vaporizer. Next, they released the Ascent in 2013 and that machine met with rave reviews. Their third model; Davinci IQ, was released near the end of 2016.

The Davinci IQ is a dry herb, conduction vaporizer that uses an all Zirconia Ceramic heating chamber, vape path and mouthpiece. Zirconia Ceramic produces the same pure flavour and smooth taste as glass; however, Zirconia Ceramic is 20x stronger. This is the first vaporizer of it’s kind to use an all Zirconia Ceramic air path and heating chamber.

Connect to the unit via the easily seen and felt, side buttons; or alternatively, control the unit on your Android or iPhone via Bluetooth. This vaporizer also uses a replaceable, 18650 battery, shared by the Arizer Solo II, allowing true portability when out and about.

The Davinci IQ comes in standard black or limited edition olive and is priced at $367.39CAD. The set includes 1 Davinci IQ unit, 1 keychain tool, 1 micro USB charging cable, 1 keychain, 1 cleaning brush, 9x alcohol cleaning swabs, 1 10mm water tool adapter/extended mouthpiece, 1 carry can, 1 3500mAh 18650 battery and the user’s manual.

Smart Paths

The innovative design of Davinci IQ created rich, flavourful vapour and each Smart Path setting was a pleasant experience. Smart Path is an intelligent and automatic temperature range. Over 10 minutes, the device slowly increases the temperature to  4 pre-set temperature ranges. These ranges are customizable through the app.

The pre-set ranges are 177 – 188℃, 188 – 199℃, 199 – 210℃, and 210 – 221℃ There are 4 Smart Path settings. The lower settings provided the most powerful flavour I have ever experienced in a portable vaporizer and the higher Smart Path settings created loads of exquisite, smooth and aromatic vapour clouds.

Stealthy Design and Rugged Features

Portability and Stealth

The Davinci IQ is truly a work of art; with a sleek and rugged design that had probability and stealth, as a top priority. The tiny device measures 4.19cm W x 9cm H x 2.39cm D and fit solidly into my small, girl hands, weighing only 5oz.    

The Top Chamber

The top chamber contained one of two, Zirconia Ceramic mouthpieces (stealth or a straw-like tube and gasket), the replaceable, 18650 battery chamber and battery, the easily removable, Zirconia Ceramic, Vapour Path/Flavour and Storage Chamber and a tiny tool to remove the lid.

Cleaning

All pieces were easily removed; which made this portable vaporizer one of the easiest to clean. All you need to do is soak the parts in Isopropyl Alcohol overnight for best results. The Zirconia Ceramic Vapour Path was also incredibly thoughtful, as it ensures you will never receive a hot hit.

Flavour Chamber

You can also use the Zirconia Ceramic Vapour Path for additional storage and extra flavour. Mint added a new flavour complexity and discretion to my sessions that I’ve never before experienced in a portable, conduction, dry-herb vaporizer.      

Display

The display is a 51 LED grid. The Smart Path mode was easy to read; albeit, a bit bright on the standard setting. Stealth mode was my preference (press the control button and the down button at the same time, once).

The Bottom Chamber

Opening the bottom hinge allowed access to the Zirconia Ceramic Heating Chamber. We found it was best to pack the cannabis tightly; but not too tightly as to impede airflow. Mostly ensure the cannabis reaches the Zirconia Ceramic Pearl found when opening the bottom hinge.

The Pearl is used to conduct heat to the bottom of the unit to create more uniformity in temperature within the heating chamber. This, in turn, produces a richer and more flavourful hit.

Loading Cannabis

Loading the ground cannabis through the bottom of the unit was simple and easy. Simply pack the finely ground cannabis into the bottom of the unit until full. Swing the unit shut, turn the Davinci IQ on and the unit will vibrate when the ideal temperature is reached.

Additionally, make sure that there is enough cannabis in the device (I found the unit took about a quarter of a gram). Pull from the mouthpiece, sit back, relax and enjoy the cool, smooth flavour produced from the innovative and well-made, Davinci IQ.

Flavourful and Smooth Hits

Depending on the setting (using Smart Paths), I found the Davinci IQ to be either the most flavourful hit I’ve ever experienced from a portable vaporizer at lower temperatures; or at higher temperatures, it produced the most vapour clouds I’ve ever experienced with a portable conduction unit.

Whether you are looking for a precise and refined flavour or robust, hearty and aromatic vapour clouds, Davinci IQ can meet your every need. Using the stealth mouthpiece allowed enhanced privacy; while the thoughtful design allowed easy concealment in a pocket or purse.

Bluetooth Compatibility for iPhone/Android (with App)

Precision Control Mode

Connect via the Bluetooth App and switch to precision control mode; or alternatively, press the beautifully fitted and special grip buttons (press the control button once, to switch to precision mode). Move the temperature up and down with the temperature control buttons and watch the temperature adjust (Click all three buttons at once, to change the temperature readout to Celcius).

Davinci Vaporizer App

One further thing to note about the Davinci Vaporizer App downloaded from the Google Play Store: The app had terrible reviews on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, averaging a 1.9-star rating from both stores.

However, I downloaded the app and gave it a try on my Samsung Galaxy S9 and I found the app to work, most of the time. There were annoyances, such as not having long saving pre-sets, as the app seemed to lose all the information already set up after a disconnection or when the machine had its automatic, 10-minute timeout.

The Davinci Vaporizer App also allows the customer to set custom Smart Paths, set vibration alerts to off and get useful information, such as total usage time, average session length and average temperature used.

One thing I would like to see on future models are saved presets that survive the automatic shut-off after the device resets. I think this app attempted to do this; however, more often than not the information was lost. I preferred to have my readings in Celcius and had to reset the readout often; however, that is being picky.

Boost Mode

Furthermore, when you press and hold down the control button, you activate Davinci IQ’s Boost Mode; which turns the heater in the unit on full blast, up to 221℃, until the button is released. When the button is released, the unit will cool itself down via automatic standby mode.

Do be careful when using Boost Mode, as the unit can heat up quite quickly and somewhat shockingly, as I did not expect such a fast and responsive, elevation in temperature.

Superb Build Quality

Once the Davinci IQ was in my hand, I felt the superb build quality and rugged design. Although I would still avoid dropping it from any kind of height, as the unit feels solidly heavy enough to at least, break something else on the way down.

Moreover, there was evidence all over the Davinci IQ, that the features were well mapped and designed; with the customer as the central focus. All materials felt solid and well constructed, with all space used efficiently in the unit.   

The unit felt perfect in my smaller, girl hands; while, it also had enough bulk to ensure my husband didn’t forget about it in his pocket. I loved this unit in my purse, as it didn’t get lost in the abyss that is the bottom of my purse and the Storage/Flavour Vapour Path was great to use in situations where discretion was a must (Mint was excellent!).

Battery Life

I found the Davinci IQ to have average battery life, giving me about three sessions before I had to recharge. The unit charges slowly and takes about 4 hours for a full recharge from empty, using the USB charger provided.

The battery indicator also seemed a little off as sometimes it would read I had medium battery life; however, the machine would go dead, indicating there was less battery than I originally thought.

The best thing about Davinci IQ’s battery system is that it uses replaceable, 3500mAh 18650 batteries. These batteries are common in Arizer Air Series and make this unit fully portable with a very small investment into batteries and a charger.

I definitely recommend you purchase extra batteries and charger, as the unit went infinitely longer. The batteries fast-charged in the battery charger, cutting the recharge rate of the battery to approximately 2 hours, down from the Davinci IQ’s average charge time of 4 hours. That means when you have access to a charger, you essentially never have to stop to charge your unit.

Canada’s Best Portable Conduction Dry-Herb Vaporizer

Now that legalization is finally here, it’s time to invest in a cannabis vaporizer built with quality, reliability, portability and discretion in mind. Davinci has developed an exquisite product with its IQ series and its innovative, thoughtful and rugged design is backed by a 10-year warranty.    

Davinci has been an innovative pioneer and their IQ series is quite simply Canada’s best portable conduction dry-herb vaporizer for overall flavour production. The vapour production is also quite satisfactory; if you are a vapour cloud fanatic, you will be in love with Davinci’s Boost Mode.     

The vaporizer is portable, stealthy and attractive and creates incredibly flavourful sessions, suited to novice and experienced user alike. Although the price seems a bit steep at first, Davinci delivered in quality of flavour and overall vapour production. The Zirconia Ceramic Vapour Path and airflow provided a noticeable enhancement of flavour and provided protection from hot hits.   

Have any questions or comments about the Davinci IQ? Please leave a detailed message in the comments!