Manto
I know that in terms of vape devices the Rincoe Manto is a bit older and probably a bit harder to find at this point. However, I never got my hands on it when it was released, and always thought it seemed like a great device. So I jumped at the chance to write a review for it, even though it may be off the radar of many people at this point.
I'm not sure if it's just knowing that members of Rincoe once worked for Smoant, but I feel it's undenyable to say that the Manto has many similarities to the Smoant Charon Mini. I don't know for certain, but I want to say that it even uses the same chipset. Specs, menu navigation, look, and layout all point to similar people working on these two devices. Consider if you will one of the latest devices from Rincoe, the Manto S, being an anagram for Smoant. Coincidence? Possibly. Regardless, it seems that Rincoe have come in to their own right and I feel that the Manto was a great first introduction for the company. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's jump off this review and start at the best place possible: the top.
Top: The top of Manto is rounded on all sides giving it a nice contour towards the top. This would otherwise be problematic for fitting attys without any overhang, but the Manto has a rounded platform perfect for fitting 25mm attys. Anything over 25mm will overhang. The threading on the Manto is decent. It's not as smooth as some others, but it's far from being bad. It also houses a spring-loaded, gold-plated 510 positive pin.
Buttons: The firebutton on the manto is along one of the sides towards the top. The top portion of the fire button sticks out from the device a significant amount making it very easy to identify. The fire button has a nice clickyness to it and a very strong resistance. It's right on the border of being too much resistance, but you should not have to worry about accidentially firing this device while it's in your pocket. The position of the fire button means that righties will be able to trigger-fire it, while lefties will be either stuck thumb-firing the device, or palming the screen. The +/- buttons are located on the front of the device, under the screen. They are of an oblong shape and very smooth. They protrude a bit from the device, so they also are easy to locate and activate. They're not quite as clicky as the fire button and don't have as much resistance to them, but they activate well. All buttons are secured nicely to the device and there is no button rattle at all.
Screen/Menu: The screen on the Manto is a large, beautiful 2.0 TFT color screen. The layout of the screen is done in a way to produce a 3D looking image and looks really nice in my opinion. Along the top are two battery indicator bars. The center of the screen prominantly displays your wattage/temp and puff counter. The puff counter persists when swapping batteries, which is great. Towards the bottom of the screen is your resistance and Voltage(VW)/Watts(TC), and a firing timer bar with 0s on one end and 10s on the other. The bar fills up when you are firing and stops firing at 10 seconds. However, the seconds don't persist when you are finished firing the device, so the only way you will ever see your seconds is if you are looking at the screen while you are firing it, which essentially makes this a useless feature in my eyes. This is the same with the Voltage. I feel like these should be persistant readings to be of any use to the user as we're likely not going to be looking down at the screen while firing it.
The menu and navigation on the device is pretty much straight forward. 3 click the fire button to enter the Menu system. From there you can choose VW Mode and select your preheat setting (Min/Normal/High/Max), TC Mode (Nickel/Titanium/Stainless Steel/TCR), and Settings (Brightness/Timeout/Color/Factor Reset). Once in the menu or submenus you long-press the fire button to exit the Menu/return to the previous screen. The Manto also utilizes a few button shortcuts allowing you to access a few features without entering the menu, such as holding + and - to lock the buttons and holding the fire button and - to change your wattage in TC mode. The shortcuts are very minimal but also don't get too convoluted, which is nice.
Size/Styling: The size of the Manto is fairly small for an 18650 device. It's not the smallest as it has a bit of chunk around the midsection, but it's not large by any means. It has some super-rounded corners all over and the finish on it is super smooth making it one of the most comfortable devices I have held. However, all that rounded on the bottom means this device likes to wobble a bit and falls over easier than most. It definitely does not pass my car cupholder test as it consistently fell when accelerating and decelerating. While the Manto is quite the small device it still has a nice weight to it that makes it feel like a solid device.
Paint on the Manto is very reflective and smooth. The paint is mostly limited to a band wrapping around the sides, top, and bottom. The front of the device feels like a plastic screen cover which goes over the entirety of the front of the device, while the back of the device utilizes what Rincoe is calling an IML device panel, which is supposed to be scratch resistant. I took a knife to the back panel, and it's not completely scratch resistant, but does seem like it would hold up well to regular abuse. The battery door also has a nice geometric pattern design.
Battery Door/Tray: The battery door is held onto the device via two small circular magnets at the top and one rectangular magnet at the bottom. The magnets are nice and strong and secure the battery door to the device with no wiggle. There is a small notch at the bottom of the device which lets you stick your finger nail in and easily remove the battery door. I spoke a bit before about how similar the Manto and Charon Mini are, and the way the battery doors are is very similar as well. However, the Manto door is done a bit better in that along the top there is a curvature in the door so that it sits around the circular 510 plate. The Charon Mini had this as well, however, the way the curvature on the door of the Charon Mini was done made it stick when prying it from the bottom some. The Manto does not have this issue.
Removing the battery door exposes the battery tray. The tray has clearly marked battery orientation and spring loaded contacts at the bottom. While it's not difficult to remove the batteries by pushing down on the tops of them, I would have liked to see a battery ribbon to make this process that much easier. Batteries fit nice and snug into the tray and the device has battery rattle.
Performance: Since Rincoe has employees from Smoant, I had a certain expectation for the Manto. I expect it to fire quickly, for power output to be accurate, and for TC performance to be really good for a non-DNA/non-Yihi device. I am happy to say that my expectations were very well met. Performance in Power mode is really good. Power delivery is where I expect it to be and hits nice and fast with very minimal delay. I've not had a misfire the entire time using the device. Also, TC performance is right up there with Smoant. I tested TC using some SS clapton coils in the Acevape MK RTA. I vaped the tank completely dry and hit it numerous times after that. There was honestly no juice anywhere to be found in the tank and yet I never once got a dry hit. So I hit it 10 more times and still no dry hit. Aside from having good dry-hit detection, TC performance was very consistent and power throttling was smooth without every feeling pulsy. As far as performance goes, I say the Manto passes across the board.
