Pax vs. Solo vs. Ascent; Which should I get?

I have used all the pretty extensively and own both a solo and ascent right now. Of the three I would recommend the ascent. The ascent to me has the best vapor quality of the 3. Im basing vapor quality on the taste, size, harshness, and ease of draw of every hit. 
 
Going for what you asked about:
 
Quality- Im guessing you mean build quality. I would say they are all relatively even in this department. To me the solo feels the most solid in my hand but I dont know if that really directly correlates to build quality. 
 
Portability- Pretty obviously the pax is the most portable of the three followed by the ascent and the solo. The pax really is an easy vape to fit in to your pocket. To me the ascent fits in to my pocket nicely but it does take up a whole pocket. The solo while pocketeable is not really the most comfortable thing to keep keep on you. I always leave my portable in my truck though so for me they are kind of all even in this category. 
 
Minimal Maintenance- Solo is least maintenance followed by the ascent with the pax as a distant 3rd. Solo takes relatively no maintenance at all except for changing a screen ever couple months if you use one (I recommend using one). I havent really had my ascent long enough to speak of this but after a few weeks it hasnt needed any cleaning. Pax of course you are going to have to clean rather regularly. It can get annoying but to me no more annoying than cleaning a pipe or bong. 
 
Bugs/issues- All of had their reported issues. This category I cant really hand to any of them. Personally my solo is about at the 8 month mark and the battery is basically shot and wont charge right now. Im currently working on a replacement unit through arizer. 
 
Decent vapor production- I have been able to produce big clouds with all 3 of them. I know some users have reported whispy vapor from the ascent, but that wasnt my experience.
 
Reliability- Theoretically all of them should last for years. The ascent hasnt really been around long enough to prove itself in this category and while you will find some users of the pax and solo who have had their units run flawless for years you will also find some who have not had that much luck.
 
 
There is a good chance that you would like any of the three units. 

 

i have a pax and to keep it sweet an short all i can say is that it vapes bud perfectly and doesnt burn it like other vapes, the only problem i ever had was it was always stuck in temperature choice mode but i cleaned the mouth peice good and now it runs just like when i bought itSent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum

 

DONT ever buy the solo, iv tried both (own a pax) and the pax wins every time , charge time is 45 minutes 80% charge and 2 hours for 100% charge. cleaning is not a big deal, i smoke at least 1.5 grams out of my pax a day and i clean it every 4-5 days too keep it functioning perfectly. Thats only cause i smoke way to much. support is on point, i damged my pax by breaking a the oven part on a wood table and they would replace the entire thing for 125 which is great. dont listen to the guy saying the solo is good, its way to fucking big, you get weed in your mouth all the time (they will say get a screen but why the fuck u putting cheap metal in ur vape) , you get wayyyy to little hits from the solo. get the pax bro its really worth it. PM if u have question but whatever u do for the love of god dont get the solo,what you spend is really what you get dont be cheap.

 

 
 
There are a lot of people, I'd even go so far to say that the majority of people over at FC totally disagree with that statement.     Now that doesn't mean that you and others wouldn't like the Pax better, but I'm just trying to add a bit of perspective here.

 

I own a Pax, and it's great for dry herbs. Switched to wax, and can't use the Pax anymore.

 

 
I owned an Ascent.   Here was my review: http://forum.grasscity.com/vaporizers/1253584-da-vinci-ascent-review.html?hl=ascent

 

Solo is cool. Gets me baked and is easy to clean. It's very portable. No you can't put it in your pants pocket. A coat pocket yes. I wouldn't choose over portability tho. 

 

 
Depends.   If you're willing to give up some efficiency for taste, I think the Ascent is very worth it.  Pretty hard to beat that all glass air and vapor path.

 

Anyone who says the Pax has better vapor production than the Solo is delusional.

 

I haven't tried the Ascent but pretty much yeah, the Pax is pretty weak for it's price.

@[member="PvtSkittles12"]
I'll just say the Solo has probably the safest track record. Might not be as portable as the Pax or as innovative as the Ascent, but so long as you get the Solo's latest model, you shouldn't encounter any problems.It definitely has an amazing vapour production, more so than Pax. Also the battery life lasts 3-4 hours depending on the temperature setting, and it takes roughly 2 hours to get a full charge. Maintenance is very simple all you need to do is clean the glass stem, effortless with ISO. Again, I've never used the Ascent so I can't comment, but the Solo is hands down better than the Pax in every capacity besides portability.

My .2

 

Honestly i'd say get the Ascent , i previously owned a MFLB aswell , and its a big upgrade. I've smoked out of my buddies Pax and found it works well but compared to the Ascent with the all glass vapor path and temperature gage i found vapor quality and taste to be just amazing, you can much better control the temperature to your liking, rather than a low medium and high settings. Cleaning is easy af(remove the glass pieces and just soak in a bag of rubbing alcohol and salt over night, or give it a good shake). I use mine about twice or more a day depending and i clean it once a week , cleaning is an ease. With the Pax if you go too long without a clean , the mouthpiece starts to get sticky and it can eventually lead to your vape messin up. I was in the same boat as you. I feel the ascent wins in every category other than discreetness over the Pax , but thats my opinion.Hope i helped. Stay lifted !Sent from my Nexus 4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app

 

I had a mflb. I decide on a pax after a lot of questions and research ( sounds like what you are doing ) I own an Arizer V-tower desktop Vape and would love to have gotten another Arizer product but the pax won hands down and is still winning over a year of exclusive use later. The pax is now my indoor home Vape and outdoor portable / stealthy VapePax battery takes 45 mins to chargeI get 4 loonnng sessions out of a charge ( ill Vape an oven full about 4 times off one charge .... Each oven full can last me 10-20 mins of delicious vaping)It does work best when kept clean. I've never had a prob taking 5 mins every few days just to wipe off some parts with ISO .... I've said before I actually enjoy it...feels like I'm cleaning a high quality piece of gear.... Anyways some people over exaggerate a little.

 

Let me start off this by saying that I have extensively used the pax and the solo (went with the pax and I will explain why).  I only got to try my friends ascent for about a day so all I can go off of were his remarks. Also, I'm a wee bit medicated so I might be jumping around a bit in this review.

Starting off with the pax.  The pax is easily the most portable vape of the bunch.  You can pack it, throw it in your pocket and go about your day using it without anyone really having the slightest clue what you're doing.  One thing I didn't see mentioned in this thread is the smell during heat up time.  Outside it isn't noticable at all, however if you are in an enclosed space, anyone within about 5 feet of you are going to smell it a little when it heats up so keep that in mind.  People will complain about how it needs to be cleaned to run properly....I use about 2-3 oven packs a day and have gone two weeks without cleaning it on vacation.  It still works perfectly fine, the only thing I noticed was the taste and it becomes much harder to draw vapor. Although it may be the most difficult of the three to clean, people tend to blow it out of proportion.  All I do is knock the screen out, heat the vape up and then any residue inside literally wipes right off in seconds. Then I use iso and a brush to clean the screen, clean off the mouthpiece and you're done.  The whole process takes me about 10 minutes. The vapor quality isn't as nice as the solo or ascent, but it really isn't that far off and unless you're a vapor connoisseur it isn't going to bother you.  One of the downfalls would be the temperature settings.  The pax only has three settings, and if you do decide to clean with a solvent MAKE SURE to keep it away from that button.  When the pax gets very dirty the button starts to stick and makes changing temperatures a little difficult.  If that button gets saturated it will stop working and you will be stuck on whatever temp you previously had it set to. The biggest thing with the pax is the fact that it needs to be packed tightly for it to work properly.  It doesn't matter if its packed full, or barely packed at all....as long as you tightly pack down your herbs it will work at it's best.  Also, like any other vape out there grind your material up.  It will make your experience much better.

The reason I went with the pax was simply for its pocketability and stealthiness.  Plus, another one of the things that no one else seems to mention is the fact that it doesn't look like anything suspicious at all.  I just throw it in my car next to a pair of headphones and every non smoker just assumes it's an mp3 player.  The battery charges the quickest of the three and I haven't ever had it die on me after a full charge and I would say I'm an above average user.


Next, on to the solo.  There is no doubt the solo has the best vapor quality of the three.  It has 7 temp settings (opposed to the pax's three), a glass stem and has proven itself for the longest of the three.  It is still pretty portable being its about the size of a small redbull can, but definitely noticable while in use.  If you're planning on only using it around the house, or over at a friends house then this is the vape for you.  If you're more of an outdoors type of person then I would steer to either the pax or the ascent.  The solo is (IMO) the closest you're going to get to a desktop vape of the three vapes that you listed.  Also, another thing to keep in mind is that unless you go with an aftermarket stem, it feels a lot like drinking a milkshake when you draw on it.  Granted this prevents the user error of pulling too hard and cooling down your chamber, some people don't like it. The bottom line with this vape is whether or not you need stealth/pocketability.  If you don't want those two things then there is no question as to which one to get.

As for the ascent, like I said I've only used it once but was very pleased with the vapor quality.  It was comparable to the solo's and the fact that it has an OLED screen is really nice.  It doesn't have preset temps like the other two so you have full control over your temperature setting which is very nice for dialing in right where you like it.  It was a bit annoying to pack it seeing as it doesn't stand on it's own but that's not a huge dealbreaker.  Also keep in mind that the ascent is somewhat heavy and definitely noticable in your pocket, but you can clearly tell that it was made very well.  The battery life lasts a very long time, but also takes a long time to charge so keep that in mind. The glass on glass pathway is very nice and easy to clean, but I found that it gets dirty pretty easily, given that after one day of use I could already taste a bit of a difference.  One thing my friend did say was to always have something around to poke out those holes you mentioned, as they do get clogged pretty easily.

I clearly went with the pax because I needed portability and ease of use seeing as most of the time I am on the go, but from your description I don't think that that's a major concern.  If I were you I would go with the pax or the ascent seeing as they are both pocketable, but you need to decide what is more important to you: ease of use/stealth (pax) or superior vapor quality/broader range of temp settings (ascent).  Both of them are quality made pieces and should last you a long time if maintaned properly

 

 
Great write up, Robot, but those two statements above seem to contradict one another, eh?

 

When I say "comparable to" I mean close to.  The solo still had the best vapor quality, but the ascent is a very close second

 

 
Ah..........gottcha.    I think we need to throw in the FireFly into that mix simply because there are those over at FC who own most all of the most popular portables on the market and many of them say that the FIreFly is the best tasting portable on the market.   I don't know if I could tell the difference, but apparently there are many who can.