Smoant Charon Mini Review - Full Photo Album
Hey everyone!
I was lucky enough to use Smoant's giveaway of the new Charon Mini a few weeks ago. It comes in black, red, rainbow and gold frames. I have the black frame version. You can find more information at Smoant's website
It's your standard dual 18650 mod. It's a compact one like the Vaporesso Revenger. It goes up to 225 watts and has glass front and back panels. It has a 2 inch TFT color display that's plenty bright during the day at it's lowest setting. It supports fast 1.5a charging and in my experience it does charge very fast. Smoant claims a crazy fast 0.015s firing response time. In practice I haven't found this to fire faster or slower than a DNA or any other decent mods in the last year really.
What makes it different?
- Front and back glass panels
- 2" color LCD screen
- Customizable wallpaper and 2 different UI styles.
Performance
People always talk about Smoant/Vaporesso/VooPoo chips as the next best options to a DNA/Dicodes/high end Yihi chip. I've tried Vaporesso (not a fan) and VooPoo (big fan) chips before, this is my first Smoant. This Smoant chip however is quite simply one of the best chips I've ever used. I doubt I can tell the difference between this and a newer DNA in a blind test.
Power mode is wonderful. I use SS316L/SS430 wire which you know jumps in resistance as it heats up. Even in power mode the mod constantly pings the resistance and adjusts the voltage to make sure it's delivering the set wattage.
Power delivery is buttery smooth. A lot of mods at around it's price range and below have this thing where the wattage and the vapor temperature feels right, but the flavor doesn't feel as pronounced and theres a noticeable drop in vapor density and vapor production. It almost feels like the power being delivered is pulsing, between a higher than set voltage and a brief pause, many times over to average out to the wattage you've set.
Not this one. Flavor and vapor production is as good as I've ever tasted.
Temp control is also very good. I've only used SS316L in the pre-set mode and I've had a wonderful time. It doesn't throttle aggressively and it doesn't burn the cotton either at 450F. It works exactly as well as my DNAs, with moderately thick contact or spaced coils. Now it's possible I haven't experienced the edge cases where this chip does better/worse than a DNA, but so far it's been fantastic!
Performance wise I'm extremely happy with this mod. It's the most important aspect of a mod for me. I'll pick up an ugly AF mod over a beauty queen any day if it performs better. Smoant should be proud of this chip and should consider selling/licensing it to third parties, or consider selling it to DIY-ers like Evolv does!
UI and Customization
The Charon Mini has a 2 inch LCD display with a customizable UI. The screen at it's lowest brightness is legible in broad daylight. Although reflections can be an issue at times. The pixel density is quite decent and the display quality is not bad either.
There are two UI styles. The default style is not customizable. The alternate style shows your custom wallpaper and has a different non-customizable layout for various UI elements.
Sadly changing the wallpaper and choosing from one of the two UI styles are the only customization options available to you. It's unreasonable to expect DNA like customization but I would have preferred to have more options.
Navigating through the UI is a chore, and sometimes counter-intuitive. It takes some getting used to. Using a third button alongside - and + would make the experience a lot better and complement the big display well.
My biggest nitpick with the UI and the screen is that the UI doesn't really utilize the big screen space well. A lot of it is just wasted space. Hopefully a few more UI styles that make better use of the screen space can be added via a firmware update.
Battery Life
The Charon Mini cuts off the batteries at 3.10v, a little lower than most mods I've used. I think this was done because of the complaints with the original Charon, and the big 2 inch LCD display on this mod that you can't turn off.
Battery life was hard to gauge because there's no puff counter. So I had to estimate it based on the time between battery changes, number of tank fills and the good old gut.
It feels like it doesn't last quite as long as my DNA250/75c/Gbox, but the difference is not huge. I think it has to do with the big LCD screen, despite the lower than usual voltage cutoff. I personally would settle for a good old fashioned OLED monochrome display to get more vape time out of the batteries.
What's great about it
- The Performance
Whether it's VW or TC, this mod performs extremely well. Next best to DNA, IMO.
- Looks fantastic
It's compact, symmetric with very nice beveled edges. No sharp edges or corners anywhere. Glass panels are beautiful. Even though there's a lot going on with the design it doesn't look over the top.
- Very comfortable to hold
The narrow sides and the beveled + rounded edges make this mod very comfortable to hold. Even though it has glass panels it doesn't fit slippery, they feel quite great to touch actually. Not sure if there's an oleophobic coating that might wear off eventually and make it a fingerprint magnet.
- Good build quality
It's a very well made product. The glass panels, paint, finish and the weight makes it feel way more expensive than it is. 510 pin and threads are excellent.The tolerances are near perfect.The mod feels rather high end mod barring the issues with the fire button and the door. It does feel a little heavy though.
- The battery sled
I've use a lot of mods in my 7 years of vaping. I'm currently building my own so I've been looking into battery sleds in depth. The Charon Mini has the best battery compartment I've ever seen, honestly. It uses pogo pins instead of bent clips and they won't tear your wraps. The tension of the spring and the fit of the batteries are just perfect. The batteries stick out of the exposed panel so you can just pry them off easily, no need for a ribbon. It's a joy replacing batteries in this mod!
What's not so great
- The fire button
The power button is twice as tall as it is wide. You'd think pressing anywhere on the button would make the mod fire but sadly you can't even press down on the bottom part of the button. Only the top part can be used to actuate the switch underneath.
This is is so bizarre! Why make the button that long if the switch underneath is half it's size? Why not make it a smaller, square button?
The button is also a little stiff. I would have liked one that's not so hard to press. The Charon Mini has the stiffest fire button among all of my mods.
- Door has play
Yes, unfortunately even though the door sits flush it moves around quite easily. The bottom part of the door more specifically. You can hear and feel it move when you're handling it. It's such a shame because otherwise the tolerances of various parts in this mod are near perfect.
- It tips over relatively easily
The bevels that make the mod so comfortable to hold are also what makes it easy to tip over. Smoant made all the opposite edges symmetrical so the bottom surface is actually a lot smaller than the body. Since the mod is very narrow it's very easy to accidentally tip it over when you're putting this down. I wish they made the bevels much smaller for the bottom edge so it stands more firmly yet not rip through skinny jeans.
- No battery % or Puff Counter
There's no way to see the battery life in terms of voltage or percentage. There's one battery bar that tracks both batteries in the default display style. If you are using the alternate display style you get a separate battery bar for each of the batteries. I much prefer a percentage or voltage as it's far more precise.
There's no puff counter either. This made it hard for me to gauge the battery life of this mod. Hopefully these two things will be added with a firmware update.
- Glass panels
If you tend to drop your mod often this might not be the one for you. On top of my phone's screen cracking from a drop, I have to worry about a mod now too lol. I love how the glass feels in the hand, and how good it makes the mod look, I'm still a little worried about cracking it. Hopefully some sleeves/screen protectors (!) come out for it soon.
