Today I will be reviewing a device I have been using for the past week, the SMOK H-Priv kit.
I know it is not the newest SMOK device, but it was sent to me for review purposes by Gearbest and they seem to be fairly popular, so I thought I would add my perspective on the device for any potential buyers, or vapers looking for a dual 18650 device.
First off, its size. SMOK state its size as being 91MM in height, 55MM in width, and 25MM in depth. Compared to the X cube 2, this seems like a very small difference, as that is according to SMOK 100MM in height, by 60MM in width, by 24.5MM in depth.
It sounds like a very slight difference in size, but I do have small hands for a man, and the H-Priv feels a lot smaller, and more comfortable to hold compared to my Xcube 2. For a box mod, it is nice and small, and side by side with my partners SMOK R200, they appear to be the same size.
It fires from 0.06-3 Ohms in TC mode, and 0.1-3 Ohms in VW mode. So pretty much anything you want to use on this will work.
It is advertised as a 220W device, and according to Daniels tests it can achieve this- but I honestly do not really feel the most comfortable with 200W+ devices that run on dual 18650's. As most of us use 20A batteries, I feel a more realistic figure of 150W would be better than pushing out higher and higher wattage numbers, and even this is overdrawing a set of 20A batteries at cut off.
Even with this though, I think it would suit the majority of vapers out there, apart from the people who do vape at extremely high wattages (More than 130W as their ADV).
I have found battery life to be very acceptable in both Wattage, and TC modes. Using the included TFV4 micro at around 42W, I would get around a day and a half of moderate vaping( Around 10ML of juice-depending on your vaping style though this may be heavy or light use to you).
I mainly used a set of Sony VTC4's with the mod during testing, as these were new. I usually use 25R's or HE4's but wanted to use new batteries while testing the mod.
I can only imagine a bit of improved battery life due to the increase in watt hours using higher capacity batteries.
The mod feels very nice in the hand, with a comfortable finish. It is smooth, but not slippery to hold, and feels solid. The fire button is actually the red part of the mod, you squeeze the mod to fire it, similar in function to the Xcube 2 or Istick 100. I actually find this a nice design, and enjoy it with the screen flipped, so when I squeeze, my fingers are causing the button to be pressed, and I can see the screen while taking a hit.
The only thing I can say about the design is the battery door. It is exactly the same as the R200, and can be a little fiddly to get on while you are getting used to it, and it requires some fair pressure to put on. Due to this, I would not advise this mod to people who have issues with their hands, such as weakness from illness. I thought I would get my Grandfather to try the door, as he has weakness in his left side following a Stroke, unfortunately he could not get the door on, so if you have any problems here I would advise a different style device.
Onto the mods performance.
In wattage mode, the mod works great, with the standard soft-hard setting that SMOK mods have been coming with for a while now.
I found myself leaving it on the standard, middle setting, although it is a nice feature to have.
I mainly used the Included TVF4 Micro in Wattage mode with the included 0.3 Ohm Fused clapton coil, at 42W.
I am on firmware version 1.1.1, previous versions apparently had some issues with firing lag, I can confirm there seems to be no delay now from pressing the fire button to the device actually firing.
For straight up vaping in wattage mode, it is a nice looking mod, and works well, so would not be a bad choice by any means.
Temperature control on the device was acceptable. I do not feel it is up there with a device with a board from either Yihi or Evolv, but it is an improvement over older SMOK offerings like the Xcube 2.
I tested a few different set ups with the device, and found that Titanium offers a pretty smooth TC experience, while SS is a bit more hit and miss.
A diablo with a dual coil TI build offered smooth performance and was nice to use.
With my Griffin, using a dual coil SS 316L build at around 0.26, at lower temperatures a hot/cold pulsing effect was evident, over around 220C this seemed to become less apparent, and was not a bad vape.
Using the included TFV4 Micro tank, along with the included SS coil, that is stated to be 0.25 Ohms, and was well within what I consider to be an acceptable amount of change, at 0.24 Ohms.
Unfortunately, I found the Hot/Cold effect to spoil the vape here. I did notice at first resistance was jumping around a LOT with the TFV4 Micro and the included SS coil, so I cleaned all connections, but it may well be a bad coil.
Due to this, I will go by the performance of the Griffin, which was definitely acceptable at the temperature range I like to use, if you want to use stainless steel under 220C though, I think there are better options, but for a kit and at temperatures I consider to be average, it performs well enough to keep you happy, and there are worse choices available.
For a vaper looking for their first dual 18650 box, I think this kit would be ideal with the included tank. You must use an external charger for batteries though. This is not a problem to me as I prefer this method, and I recommend everyone to use an external charger too, but if you wanted to travel you can't charge via USB which may be important to a lot of people.
Now, onto some of my thoughts on the included tank, the Micro TFV4.
I generally prefer RTA's in all honesty, but must say I like the TFV4 micro, and prefer it to the TFV4 mini.
It requires less power and is not such a big juice drinker, but this is a good thing as the tank has a juice capacity of 2.5ML. An included glass extension comes with the tank, and also a chimney extension that screws into the top of the coil to up the capacity of the tank a little.
It is a nice top fill design, the same as the TFV4 mini, and I had zero leakage issues during my testing. I have taken it out to many places in my pocket and am not worried about leaks with the tank.
It works very well in wattage mode with the included fused clapton coil, which is rated for 30-60W.
I found I enjoyed it best at 42W.
Flavour was very impressive, and cloud production was good. It is not as insane as the TFV4/ TFV4 Mini, but still produces a respectable sized cloud.
I found resistance was jumping around with the included SS coil, this stopped after I cleaned the tanks contacts. I think this tank performs best in wattage mode though.
Overall, I think this kit is not a bad choice if you want a dual 18650 box mod, if you are not interested in temperature control it is a great choice. Nice and solid, and looks good too.
It will let you delve into TC too if you want to, although there are different mods I would pick for TC vaping.
Comparison to the Xcube 2-
In my hand-
I received my mod from gearbest which is available here, in black http://www.gearbest.com/mod-kits/pp_357238.html?wid=21 , or Silver http://www.gearbest.com/mod-kits/pp_357237.html?wid=21 .
I know it is not the newest SMOK device, but it was sent to me for review purposes by Gearbest and they seem to be fairly popular, so I thought I would add my perspective on the device for any potential buyers, or vapers looking for a dual 18650 device.
First off, its size. SMOK state its size as being 91MM in height, 55MM in width, and 25MM in depth. Compared to the X cube 2, this seems like a very small difference, as that is according to SMOK 100MM in height, by 60MM in width, by 24.5MM in depth.
It sounds like a very slight difference in size, but I do have small hands for a man, and the H-Priv feels a lot smaller, and more comfortable to hold compared to my Xcube 2. For a box mod, it is nice and small, and side by side with my partners SMOK R200, they appear to be the same size.
It fires from 0.06-3 Ohms in TC mode, and 0.1-3 Ohms in VW mode. So pretty much anything you want to use on this will work.
It is advertised as a 220W device, and according to Daniels tests it can achieve this- but I honestly do not really feel the most comfortable with 200W+ devices that run on dual 18650's. As most of us use 20A batteries, I feel a more realistic figure of 150W would be better than pushing out higher and higher wattage numbers, and even this is overdrawing a set of 20A batteries at cut off.
Even with this though, I think it would suit the majority of vapers out there, apart from the people who do vape at extremely high wattages (More than 130W as their ADV).
I have found battery life to be very acceptable in both Wattage, and TC modes. Using the included TFV4 micro at around 42W, I would get around a day and a half of moderate vaping( Around 10ML of juice-depending on your vaping style though this may be heavy or light use to you).
I mainly used a set of Sony VTC4's with the mod during testing, as these were new. I usually use 25R's or HE4's but wanted to use new batteries while testing the mod.
I can only imagine a bit of improved battery life due to the increase in watt hours using higher capacity batteries.
The mod feels very nice in the hand, with a comfortable finish. It is smooth, but not slippery to hold, and feels solid. The fire button is actually the red part of the mod, you squeeze the mod to fire it, similar in function to the Xcube 2 or Istick 100. I actually find this a nice design, and enjoy it with the screen flipped, so when I squeeze, my fingers are causing the button to be pressed, and I can see the screen while taking a hit.
The only thing I can say about the design is the battery door. It is exactly the same as the R200, and can be a little fiddly to get on while you are getting used to it, and it requires some fair pressure to put on. Due to this, I would not advise this mod to people who have issues with their hands, such as weakness from illness. I thought I would get my Grandfather to try the door, as he has weakness in his left side following a Stroke, unfortunately he could not get the door on, so if you have any problems here I would advise a different style device.
Onto the mods performance.
In wattage mode, the mod works great, with the standard soft-hard setting that SMOK mods have been coming with for a while now.
I found myself leaving it on the standard, middle setting, although it is a nice feature to have.
I mainly used the Included TVF4 Micro in Wattage mode with the included 0.3 Ohm Fused clapton coil, at 42W.
I am on firmware version 1.1.1, previous versions apparently had some issues with firing lag, I can confirm there seems to be no delay now from pressing the fire button to the device actually firing.
For straight up vaping in wattage mode, it is a nice looking mod, and works well, so would not be a bad choice by any means.
Temperature control on the device was acceptable. I do not feel it is up there with a device with a board from either Yihi or Evolv, but it is an improvement over older SMOK offerings like the Xcube 2.
I tested a few different set ups with the device, and found that Titanium offers a pretty smooth TC experience, while SS is a bit more hit and miss.
A diablo with a dual coil TI build offered smooth performance and was nice to use.
With my Griffin, using a dual coil SS 316L build at around 0.26, at lower temperatures a hot/cold pulsing effect was evident, over around 220C this seemed to become less apparent, and was not a bad vape.
Using the included TFV4 Micro tank, along with the included SS coil, that is stated to be 0.25 Ohms, and was well within what I consider to be an acceptable amount of change, at 0.24 Ohms.
Unfortunately, I found the Hot/Cold effect to spoil the vape here. I did notice at first resistance was jumping around a LOT with the TFV4 Micro and the included SS coil, so I cleaned all connections, but it may well be a bad coil.
Due to this, I will go by the performance of the Griffin, which was definitely acceptable at the temperature range I like to use, if you want to use stainless steel under 220C though, I think there are better options, but for a kit and at temperatures I consider to be average, it performs well enough to keep you happy, and there are worse choices available.
For a vaper looking for their first dual 18650 box, I think this kit would be ideal with the included tank. You must use an external charger for batteries though. This is not a problem to me as I prefer this method, and I recommend everyone to use an external charger too, but if you wanted to travel you can't charge via USB which may be important to a lot of people.
Now, onto some of my thoughts on the included tank, the Micro TFV4.
I generally prefer RTA's in all honesty, but must say I like the TFV4 micro, and prefer it to the TFV4 mini.
It requires less power and is not such a big juice drinker, but this is a good thing as the tank has a juice capacity of 2.5ML. An included glass extension comes with the tank, and also a chimney extension that screws into the top of the coil to up the capacity of the tank a little.
It is a nice top fill design, the same as the TFV4 mini, and I had zero leakage issues during my testing. I have taken it out to many places in my pocket and am not worried about leaks with the tank.
It works very well in wattage mode with the included fused clapton coil, which is rated for 30-60W.
I found I enjoyed it best at 42W.
Flavour was very impressive, and cloud production was good. It is not as insane as the TFV4/ TFV4 Mini, but still produces a respectable sized cloud.
I found resistance was jumping around with the included SS coil, this stopped after I cleaned the tanks contacts. I think this tank performs best in wattage mode though.
Overall, I think this kit is not a bad choice if you want a dual 18650 box mod, if you are not interested in temperature control it is a great choice. Nice and solid, and looks good too.
It will let you delve into TC too if you want to, although there are different mods I would pick for TC vaping.
Comparison to the Xcube 2-
In my hand-
I received my mod from gearbest which is available here, in black http://www.gearbest.com/mod-kits/pp_357238.html?wid=21 , or Silver http://www.gearbest.com/mod-kits/pp_357237.html?wid=21 .
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