Just a quick guide to help anyone understand some of the differences between conduction and convection vaporizers. Hopefully it helps people make informed decisions on what types of vapes they want!

At a glance:

Convection

+More even extraction

+Better flavor

+Lower combustion risk

+Better for on demand large rips

+Less stirring needed

Conduction

+Larger clouds

+Better heat retention

+Designs are more compact

+Cheaper

+Better for long vape session/ sharing

What's the difference?

Conductive heating is heat that is transferred though being in physical contact between solid objects. Thus a conductive vape is a vape where flower is in direct contact with a heat source.

By contrast convective heating is heat that is transferred though gases. Thus convective heating heats the air that then travels through and heats the flower.

Most portables and devices in general are hybrids where some part of the bowl heats up and the air that passes though the herb is heated, the mighty perfect example of a hybrid device. Pure devices exist of course, the Tinymight 2 is purely convection. Pure conduction is a little rarer or at least I haven't personally come across as many pure conduction devices, I believe the starry 4 is a pure conduction portable.

*That is not my picture, I got it from the Wikipedia page on heat transfer.