Hello everyone, Pizza Dave here, delivering you a review of the Karat by Smoant. The Karat is a new pod system from the company and is named because it resembles a jewel of sorts. It features a compact design, 2ml capacity, 370mah battery, and a draw activated firing mechanism. The pods utilize a Quarts coil, which is designed for minimal wicking time, fast firing, and great flavor. Let’s dive down and see if Smoant has made something to compete in the extremely popular pod system market.
DISCLAIMER: This device and liquid was sent to me by Smoant for review.
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WHAT YOU GET
STOCK SHOT
SAMPLE PACKAGING
OUT OF BOX
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OPERATION
Operation of this one is as basic as it gets. Charge it, fill it, vape it. The device has no buttons or adjustments, but it does have an LED indicator on top which is used to indicate battery life when vaping and charging.
CHARGING
The LED will illuminate when charging to let you know roughly where it is at in the following fashion:
The LED also indicates the life left on the battery when vaping.
I wish there was a little more range on the battery indication, but at least it turns red at 30% rather than 5%!
FILLING
Filling the pods is probably one of my biggest gripes with this kit. The bottom of the pods has a wide plug across the bottom with two fill holes. If you don’t have finger nails, you will more than likely struggle to get this open. Once you get it open, it isn’t all that bad. With two holes, you have one for filling and one for air to escape so there is never a battle with dropper bottles on this one. Like a few other systems to come out recently, the pod is held in place firmly via magnets.
USING
Like I said above, the Karat uses a draw-activated firing mechanism. I never struggled to get it to fire, even with the lightest of draws. One thing Smoant states about the quartz coils is that they require no wicking time. As a test, I filled a pod, closed it all up, put my liquid away, and vaped it. It was already saturated enough to vape without any dryness or burnt taste, so that’s a pro to me.
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MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS
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HOW IT VAPES
In short, the Karat vapes well. The air flow on this is a middle of the road MTL draw, with flavor that is right up there with the Renovo Zero that I reviewed not long ago. It still doesn’t match the vape I get from the Innokin EQ, but it isn’t bad by any means. The draw-activated fire worked for me every time and didn’t require me to suck extremely hard to get it to go. One of the first things I noticed when vaping this was how comfortable the tip is. It is in the top tier of pod systems I vaped for comfort. The shape of the device overall feels good to me. The weight, flat shape, and solid feel are all designed well. On the Smoant site, they list the bottom holes as lanyard holes. I don’t know why they did this, especially when they don’t include a lanyard. If you were to put a lanyard on it, the thing would be upside down, which sounds like a bad idea to me. Given the size of the Karat I questioned battery life at first, however, battery life from the 370mah battery got me all the way through a work day and then some. Also, with 2ml capacity, I went through two days of work on one pod. At first, the Karat seems to be all pros, but I did find a few things I didn’t like about the device that I will cover in my final thoughts.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
So, what do I think of Smoant’s second pod system to hit the market? Well, I have some mixed feelings about it. The size, shape, and build quality are all excellent traits. The draw-activated firing mechanism never failed me, and it provides a satisfying vape MOST of the time. Battery life and liquid capacity got me through more than a full work day, so I give them a pro on that. However, there are bound to be some cons as well. Filling the pods isn’t the best I have seen as the plugs can be difficult to remove if you don’t have finger nails and you are also bound to get e-liquid on your fingers at this time as well. Another thing I noticed was the pods get quite warm while doing consecutive puffs on this one. It isn’t uncomfortably hot but is definitely noticeable. When I first started vaping this, I really enjoyed it, but over time, that faded. Just a couple of fills in and I started to notice gurgling in the pods. I was sucking nic salt liquid through the tip and it took some time to clear out. I also found leaking at the base of the pod at this time as well. This was with 65/35 e-liquid, so I can only assume 50/50 would be worse. If this never happened, I would have gushed over this one a lot more. I do enjoy using it and think it is one of the best pod systems released to the market, but I absolutely hate flooding coils. One great thing that Smoant did for me was supplied 3 pods. I had this gurgling on just 1 of the 3 pods, so maybe it was a fluke. I give props to Smoant for allowing me to do a real test rather than bashing the thing over one bad pod.
THE OVEN TEST
If this one accidentally went into the pizza oven, would I go out and buy another? I haven’t found a pod system yet that I would answer yes to here. They come out so often, and they keep getting better, so it’s a no for me on this one.
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PROS
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CONS
Thank you all for reading this review and thank you to Smoant for sending it my way for review. If you are interested in picking up one of these, I am seeing them online for $30-40.
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Pizza Dave – Delivering real reviews, with no extra toppings
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REVIEW CRITERIA: I use each item for about two weeks to ensure I have collected enough data to adequately write a review. I use the same e liquid in tanks or rdas throughout all my reviews to ensure that I am comparing apples to apples between all modern equipment. I do not post reviews until I feel confident that I have used it enough to give an educated review. The reason I started doing reviews was due to poor purchasing decisions in my vaping infancy about two years ago. Back then, I purchased several different pieces of hardware without really enjoying it and I hope my reviews can guide people into spending their hard-earned money more wisely than I did! ****Keep in mind that some items I receive may be pre-release and not in retail packaging. Quality may be less than the finished product and what is in the package may differ from the retail package as well.
DISCLAIMER: This device and liquid was sent to me by Smoant for review.
______________________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU GET
- 1 Smoant Karat Battery
- 1 2ml pod
- 1 USB charging cable
- Paperwork
STOCK SHOT
SAMPLE PACKAGING
OUT OF BOX
______________________________________________________________________________
OPERATION
Operation of this one is as basic as it gets. Charge it, fill it, vape it. The device has no buttons or adjustments, but it does have an LED indicator on top which is used to indicate battery life when vaping and charging.
CHARGING
The LED will illuminate when charging to let you know roughly where it is at in the following fashion:
- Lower than 70% - flashing red
- More than 70% - flashing blue
- Fully charged – solid blue
The LED also indicates the life left on the battery when vaping.
- Lower than 30% - red LED
- Greater than 30% - blue LED
I wish there was a little more range on the battery indication, but at least it turns red at 30% rather than 5%!
FILLING
Filling the pods is probably one of my biggest gripes with this kit. The bottom of the pods has a wide plug across the bottom with two fill holes. If you don’t have finger nails, you will more than likely struggle to get this open. Once you get it open, it isn’t all that bad. With two holes, you have one for filling and one for air to escape so there is never a battle with dropper bottles on this one. Like a few other systems to come out recently, the pod is held in place firmly via magnets.
USING
Like I said above, the Karat uses a draw-activated firing mechanism. I never struggled to get it to fire, even with the lightest of draws. One thing Smoant states about the quartz coils is that they require no wicking time. As a test, I filled a pod, closed it all up, put my liquid away, and vaped it. It was already saturated enough to vape without any dryness or burnt taste, so that’s a pro to me.
______________________________________________________________________________
MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS
______________________________________________________________________________
HOW IT VAPES
In short, the Karat vapes well. The air flow on this is a middle of the road MTL draw, with flavor that is right up there with the Renovo Zero that I reviewed not long ago. It still doesn’t match the vape I get from the Innokin EQ, but it isn’t bad by any means. The draw-activated fire worked for me every time and didn’t require me to suck extremely hard to get it to go. One of the first things I noticed when vaping this was how comfortable the tip is. It is in the top tier of pod systems I vaped for comfort. The shape of the device overall feels good to me. The weight, flat shape, and solid feel are all designed well. On the Smoant site, they list the bottom holes as lanyard holes. I don’t know why they did this, especially when they don’t include a lanyard. If you were to put a lanyard on it, the thing would be upside down, which sounds like a bad idea to me. Given the size of the Karat I questioned battery life at first, however, battery life from the 370mah battery got me all the way through a work day and then some. Also, with 2ml capacity, I went through two days of work on one pod. At first, the Karat seems to be all pros, but I did find a few things I didn’t like about the device that I will cover in my final thoughts.
______________________________________________________________________________
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, what do I think of Smoant’s second pod system to hit the market? Well, I have some mixed feelings about it. The size, shape, and build quality are all excellent traits. The draw-activated firing mechanism never failed me, and it provides a satisfying vape MOST of the time. Battery life and liquid capacity got me through more than a full work day, so I give them a pro on that. However, there are bound to be some cons as well. Filling the pods isn’t the best I have seen as the plugs can be difficult to remove if you don’t have finger nails and you are also bound to get e-liquid on your fingers at this time as well. Another thing I noticed was the pods get quite warm while doing consecutive puffs on this one. It isn’t uncomfortably hot but is definitely noticeable. When I first started vaping this, I really enjoyed it, but over time, that faded. Just a couple of fills in and I started to notice gurgling in the pods. I was sucking nic salt liquid through the tip and it took some time to clear out. I also found leaking at the base of the pod at this time as well. This was with 65/35 e-liquid, so I can only assume 50/50 would be worse. If this never happened, I would have gushed over this one a lot more. I do enjoy using it and think it is one of the best pod systems released to the market, but I absolutely hate flooding coils. One great thing that Smoant did for me was supplied 3 pods. I had this gurgling on just 1 of the 3 pods, so maybe it was a fluke. I give props to Smoant for allowing me to do a real test rather than bashing the thing over one bad pod.
THE OVEN TEST
If this one accidentally went into the pizza oven, would I go out and buy another? I haven’t found a pod system yet that I would answer yes to here. They come out so often, and they keep getting better, so it’s a no for me on this one.
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PROS
- Good flavor
- Good battery life
- Great looks
- Good liquid capacity
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CONS
- Pods could potentially leak or gurgle
- Pods get noticeably warm when chain vaping
- Battery indicator could be expanded to show more levels of battery
Thank you all for reading this review and thank you to Smoant for sending it my way for review. If you are interested in picking up one of these, I am seeing them online for $30-40.
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Pizza Dave – Delivering real reviews, with no extra toppings
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
REVIEW CRITERIA: I use each item for about two weeks to ensure I have collected enough data to adequately write a review. I use the same e liquid in tanks or rdas throughout all my reviews to ensure that I am comparing apples to apples between all modern equipment. I do not post reviews until I feel confident that I have used it enough to give an educated review. The reason I started doing reviews was due to poor purchasing decisions in my vaping infancy about two years ago. Back then, I purchased several different pieces of hardware without really enjoying it and I hope my reviews can guide people into spending their hard-earned money more wisely than I did! ****Keep in mind that some items I receive may be pre-release and not in retail packaging. Quality may be less than the finished product and what is in the package may differ from the retail package as well.