Geek Bar Pulse vs Pulse X: Which One Should You Buy?

Geek Bar has spent the last two years near the top of almost every disposable bestseller list in Canada, and the Pulse line is the reason why. There are two versions on the shelf that get confused for each other constantly: the original Geek Bar Pulse and the newer Pulse X. They share a name, a brand, and a family resemblance, but they are built around two different ideas about how long a disposable should last and what it should cost you. This is the side-by-side we get asked for most, so here it is with the real numbers.

The one difference that decides everything: puff count

The Geek Bar Pulse is rated for 9,000 puffs on 16 mL of e-liquid. The Geek Bar Pulse X is rated for 25,000 puffs on 20 mL. That is not a small bump. The Pulse X lasts close to three times as long on roughly a quarter more liquid, which tells you the X is not just a bigger tank bolted onto the same device. It is tuned to pull far more puffs out of every millilitre.

The math on that is worth seeing. The original Pulse gets about 560 puffs per millilitre. The Pulse X gets about 1,250 puffs per millilitre, more than double. In plain terms, the X sips where the original drinks, which is how it stretches 20 mL into a five-figure puff rating.

Cost per puff is where the X pulls ahead

On the sticker the original Pulse looks cheaper. It sells for $29.99 against $35.99 for the Pulse X, a six-dollar gap. But the price you actually care about with a disposable is the price per puff, and on that measure the gap flips hard.

The Pulse works out to a little over a third of a cent per puff. The Pulse X comes in under 0.15 cents per puff, which is less than half the running cost of the original. If you are a daily, all-day vaper, the Pulse X is the cheaper device over its life even though it costs more at the till. If you vape lightly or only socially, you may never reach the back half of a 25,000-puff device before you want to switch flavours anyway, and the lower upfront price of the original makes more sense.

E-liquid and nicotine: both legal-max salt

Here the two are closer than the puff count suggests. Both run 20 mg salt nicotine, which is the legal maximum strength for retail sale in Canada under the federal cap. So whichever you pick, the throat hit and the nicotine delivery sit in the same band. The original holds 16 mL, the X holds 20 mL, and both use salt nicotine rather than freebase, which is the standard for disposables because it goes down smoother at high strength.

If 20 mg feels like more than you want, neither Pulse device steps down, so that is a reason to look at a refillable setup with bottled e-liquid instead, where you can buy 10 or 12 mg. For most people coming off cigarettes, though, 20 mg is the strength that actually does the job.

The device itself

Both sit in Geek Bar's Pulse family, so the design language carries over: a small on-device screen that shows you battery and e-liquid level so you are not guessing when a device is about to die, USB-C charging on the rechargeable battery, and a mesh coil. The Pulse line is also known for offering two draw modes, a standard mode and a higher-output boost mode. Boost trades some of that headline puff rating for a bigger, warmer hit, so the 9,000 and 25,000 figures are the standard-mode ratings. If you live in boost mode, plan on fewer total puffs than the box promises on either device.

The practical takeaway: the X is a physically larger device because it has to carry a bigger tank and more battery to reach 25,000 puffs. If pocketability matters more to you than longevity, the original Pulse is the more compact of the two.

Both are rechargeable, and that is the only way a disposable reaches these numbers at all; the battery would give out long before 25,000 puffs of liquid ran dry otherwise. Charge over USB-C when the on-screen battery indicator starts dropping, top it back up, and finish the tank. The most common way people waste money on a big disposable is tossing it at the first weak hit when it only needed ten minutes on a charger. The screen exists for exactly this reason, so you can tell an empty tank apart from a flat battery instead of guessing.

Flavours

We currently stock 15 flavours of the original Pulse and 17 of the Pulse X, and the menus overlap heavily. The crowd-pleasers, the iced fruit blends like cherry, peach, mango and the berry mixes, show up on both. If a specific flavour is the thing locking in your decision, check the two collection pages directly, because the exact lineup rotates as Geek Bar releases and retires flavours. As a rule the newer X tends to get the latest releases first, so a flavour that sells out on the original sometimes lives on in the X lineup.

Is the Pulse X worth the extra six dollars?

Run it as a monthly bill instead of a sticker price. A daily vaper tends to finish a 9,000-puff device in something like a week to ten days, so across a month that is roughly three to four original Pulses at $29.99 apiece, call it $90 to $120. The same person on a Pulse X is usually buying a single device at about $36, because 25,000 puffs covers most of a month on its own. The X is not a little cheaper to run, it is dramatically cheaper, and the only honest reasons to still reach for the original are its smaller size or a tighter budget on the day you buy. How hard and how often you vape moves the exact figures, but the direction never flips.

One thing to watch: counterfeits

Geek Bar's popularity has a downside. The Pulse and Pulse X are among the most counterfeited disposables in the grey market, and a fake is the usual reason a device tastes flat, leaks, or quits at a fraction of its rated puffs. Real puff counts and clean flavour both depend on getting authentic stock. Buying from a tracked catalogue instead of an unfamiliar corner store is the simplest protection, and genuine Geek Bar packaging carries a verification code you can check against the brand's own site. If a price sits far below the going rate, treat that as a warning rather than a deal, and read how to spot a counterfeit if you are not sure what to look for.

So which one should you buy?

Buy the Pulse X if you vape every day and want the lowest real cost and the fewest trips to reorder. Twenty-five thousand puffs is genuinely weeks of use for most people, and the per-puff price is the best in the Pulse family. Buy the original Pulse if you want a smaller device in the pocket, a lower upfront spend, or you are a lighter vaper who would not finish 25,000 puffs of one flavour before moving on. Either way you are getting the same 20 mg salt nicotine and the same screen-and-mesh build that made the line popular.

If you are still weighing brands rather than just models, our top disposables in Canada roundup puts the Pulse line next to its main rivals, and how long a disposable actually lasts breaks down what a puff rating means day to day.

Getting one delivered

Both devices ship from the same catalogue our Toronto, Montreal and Canada-wide customers order from, at a flat $4.99 delivery fee. Every order needs an adult signature and photo ID at the door, and we take card and digital payment only, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Interac e-Transfer and Shop Pay. The full Geek Bar range, both Pulse models plus the rest of the brand, lives on the Geek Bar collection, and everything else is on the main disposables page.