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We put our top affordable vaporizer through the paces to see if the value is real or if the hype is overblown. Popcorn Lung
This year, I attended the Santa Rosa Hall of Flowers — the original cannabis industry tradeshow — with hopes that I might find myself surrounded by innovations. And while there were a few pretty big highlights, most of the show was bogged down by brands hawking vaporizers. A good amount of them were okay at best, but the majority were forgettable overall and some were downright junky. To me, this proved just how difficult it is for a brand (or a specific product) to stand out at all.
So what is it that makes G Pen's Dash such a perennial pillar of the weed vape industry (and its accompanying community)? This mainstay has been on the market since 2020 and, three years later, is still one of the most talked-about vaporizers you can find. Is that simply because of brand recognition? Is it the price? Is there some secret society of lizard people with a sinister plan for world domination that hinges on the popularity of this single product? While that last one seems extremely unlikely, I got hands-on with this ever-popular device to answer all these questions and more in our review of the G Pen Dash cannabis vaporizer.
Let's make one thing very clear: there simply is not a better vape on the current market than the G Pen Dash for a comparable price. This device's suite of features, overall design and styling, reliability and usefulness are unmatched — sometimes even by vapes that cost twice as much. That's not to say that it doesn't have issues — it does heat up quite a bit, the silicon cap is an annoyance at best, the battery life is middling and the vapor could be smoother — but you'd be hard-pressed to find them to be deal-breakers for a whopping $70 investment. If you want a quality weed vape at a bargain-bin price, the G Pen Dash is undoubtedly the best investment.
The vape market is extremely crowded right now — and if Hall of Flowers is any indication, it's getting more crowded each and every day. So sticking out in a sea of middling vapes is a pretty difficult task to manage. G Pen has a reputation and pedigree that helps, but it's really the price of the Dash (when put up against its array of features) that makes this device a shining star in an otherwise drab sky. I honestly can't think of another vape offering what this one offers for a comparable price.
It boasts simple single-button control (which does have its own downsides — more on that later), a simple magnetic cap and a spacious chamber, a trio of heating modes, haptic feedback (it vibrates!), some accessories, micro-USB pass-through charging (meaning you can use it while you charge it), solid and sturdy materials (aluminum alloy, stainless steel and silicon), etc. And that's all in an attractive, ergonomic, discreet package. The next-best vapes offering even a comparable set of well-executed features will likely run you at least double the price if not more.
While there's a lot to love about the G Pen Dash, one of my favorite things about it — and the thing I was probably most surprised by — is its relative size. This device is roughly palm-sized — smaller than a smartphone by a good measure but bigger than a tube of chapstick — and that makes it very easy to slip in even the most crowded of pockets (even with a full complement of EDC gear, I could still find room for it). It's also quite lightweight, making it super easy to haul. That size and weight combo makes it extremely portable and, therefore, ups the overall value because you can take it with you anywhere it is legal to do so for a toke or two on the go.
Pairing wonderfully with that size is its design. Along with being very small, it is sleek and discreet — with rounded ends and no sharp edges of which to speak. And while I don't love the way the silicon cap works (more on that later), the whole thing comes together to form an ergonomic, convenient, frankly handsome whole. I'm actually surprised something so comparatively inexpensive looks so good.
One of the toughest trials faced by any dry herb weed vaporizer is how to heat it up to the proper temperature without actually transferring all that heat to the hand of the user. I've used vapes that feel ice-cold, even when heating at full capacity, and I've used ones that feel like I'm holding hot coals up to my face. The G Pen Dash sits somewhere between the two. It doesn't get so hot that it blisters your lips, but you can definitely feel the heat when holding and using it, even at its lowest setting.
To offset this issue — of which G Pen is clearly aware — the brand has included a silicon cover that slips over the mouthpiece to counter the heat it's giving off. And while it achieves that goal, it doesn't quite stay on as well as I'd like. It's a sleeve (or perhaps more like a cap) and can't be secured to the device other than by gravity or friction. This means it falls off easily, which isn't the biggest deal in the world unless it falls off and drops to the ground or out of your pocket and you lose it. I wish the mouthpiece itself had an attached silicon cover, so I could just set it and forget it.
First, let me say this: once you get the hang of how it functions, the controls are really not difficult. However, they could be simplified quite a bit. For instance, to turn the device on, you have to push the single-button control five times. Then, you can pick between three temperature settings — 375º F / 190º C, 401º F / 205º C, and 428º F / 220º C — by pressing the button three times (the lights switch between blue, green and red). Finally, to turn it off, you have to hold the button for three full seconds.
As I said: they're not difficult, but they do seem kind of arbitrary as to the patterns and methods used. Why not turn the device on with a three-second single push? Why not swap between modes with a single push each? I'm sure there was some kind of logic used by the designers; I just don't know what that logic was.
There is one part of the controls that makes perfect sense: haptic feedback. When you turn the device on, it will spend a bit of time heating up before you can use it. But it vibrates slightly to let you know when that period is over. And that's a very handy feature. It also vibrates when you turn it off. This simple haptic signal is easily my favorite part of the device's controls.
Vapes As far as bang for your buck goes, there's really nothing else on the market that can stand up to the G Pen Dash. Having said that, there are still alternatives — if you're willing to spend a bit more or make other concessions. In the same price range, you can get Pax's Era Pro vape pen, which uses concentrate disposable cartridges instead of dry herb. If you want to upgrade, however, you may love the Pax Plus, which is our pick for the best overall vape you can buy (although it's a good deal pricier at $250) and works with both dry vape and concentrate. And if you really want to ball out, you can pick up the Storz & Bickel Mighty+ (our top upgrade pick), which is an investment at nearly $400, albeit a well-worth-it one.