April 20 is going to feel a little different this year.
With weed legalization slowly picking up steam across the country—a hearty congrats, New York!—and with little need to keep your smoking devices tucked away in cabinets, closets, or drawers anymore like a teen trying to hide your piece from your parents, there’s no better time to treat yourself to the smoking device of your dreams. After all, is it so much to ask that our glass look as grown up as a nice bottle of wine waiting to be uncorked on the kitchen countertop?
Whether that dream device be a premium gravity bong or the perfect vape pen for on the go, Gizmodo has spent the last several months tracking down the best gadgets to 4/20 blaze it. For this list, we looked at a mix of both premium and budget-friendly picks, with a specific focus on design and user experience whether you want to catch a buzz or blast off.
Best Vape - Also Consider:
DynaVap’s “M” vaporizer is a unique device; I definitely haven’t run into anything like this before. Its stainless steel design is solid and detachable into four parts, making it easy to clean. It’s very portable—great for hikes—and uses flower instead of THC oil like the Pax 2. But unlike all of Pax’s devices, it isn’t battery-powered. Users will have to heat up the end of the “M”—with a torch, a Bic won’t do—until a tactile click comes from the device’s cap, notifying them the ”M” is primed and ready to go.
Easy, right? Not gonna lie, there is a slight learning curve when using the “M” model. I combusted the flower in the bowl once because I didn’t hear the click, which didn’t offer a fantastic experience. But that only happened to me once. And when I got used to the temperature, and paid attention, of course, I was tasting all of the wonderful terpenes in my flower in no time, a spectrum of piney aroma and flavors that’s way cleaner than any THC oil I’ve tried. — Matthew Reyes
