Looks like I'm late to the Vaporizer party. My experience so far....
I started with Gpen Elite (Not the Pro) and Flowermate Titan 2. They work well for their price and is a great starting point if budget is an issue. Believe it or not, the manufacturing cost for these are as low as USD5 or lower! I can pretty much guarantee they are all the same, original or knockoff. With quantities and some workers, you can buy full set kits not assembled yet for less than $5, assemble them for pennies and resell them for around $10. Thats how it works in the great Oriental. Then retail sellers sell them at around $20++ to $30, which is the price we end up buying on Amazon, ebay etc. I know cos I was manufacturing vapes for more than a decade! Before most ppl even knew about vapes.
Then I wanted better models and chose some mid range models to test. Ended up with the Flash which has the fastest heat time for portables that I've seen. Still not satisfied, I went with a Mighty and Volcano cos it has the best reviews and no others can withstand the test of time like these two can! As usual, I went the route of knockoffs cos of what I know but others may not agree. I don't really care cos I know what I know.
I struck gold with these two! I even got 2 sets of Davinci IQ to test along with Volcano and Mighty. They came without the battery cell which is SO cheap to get. However, I am SO satisfied with Volcano and Mighty that I have not even tested the IQ once! If your friends have a Volcano, go try it and see what I mean! Its really a class above the rest!