Langrel
Member For 1 Year
Both of these devices were reviewed many times over and were very well received by pretty much everybody, but I still would like to chip in my 2 cents.
So, the mod, Vaporesso Polar. It's a direct upgrade to my retired GX350. I love how solid it feels in the hand, the battery cover is held on by strong magnets and doesn't shift nor does that seesaw thing when one of the magnets isn't glued on perfectly flat. It's 100% flush and the only way you are getting it off is by sticking your nail at a specially cut groove in the bottom right corner. When I just got it out of the box, I expected to just be able to pull the cover off. Nope. Had to look. The mod is very fingerprint friendly, it is semi-glossy, but the accents are so dark you really don't see any fingerprints on it. The firekey has quite a bit of fine texturing to it, it's almost slightly abrasive, but not unpleasantly so and you definitely know where it is, it's also flush with the mod, so you are unlikely to press that should you carry this in your pocket. The screen on this thing is gorgeous, it is much sharper and clearer than what it is looks like on the photo I had taken. The triple navigation key design makes me wonder why all mods don't have 3 keys for the menu and 4th being the firekey, essentially it removes the need to hold down anything to confirm an action. Perhaps one reason is that other mods don't have the functionality of this device and actually, perhaps surprising to myself, I use some of this functionality that I really didn't expect I would.
Vaporesso Polar features VW soft/normal/hard, Variable Voltage mode, Bypass (functions like a mech), Temperature control, Memory mode and, most important for me - CCW. Something something Wattage? Custard Cream Wattage? Cotton Candy Wattage? Custom Curve Wattage? I hope at least one of those is correct. It basically allows me to set the wattage progressively, which mod will fire as I am holding the firekey, at 0.5sec increments. I have it set that it goes from 60w to 80w to 90w over the first second and a half, then holds it steady at 90w for 2.5 secs and then go back down to 80w to 70w to 60w. I just call it Power Curve. The reason I went this route and not a regular VW setting will be explained as we go on. One of the selling points of this mod is the instant ramp up time of 0.001 sec, while I do not have the tech to test this, I can tell you it ramps FAST. that 0.24sec hit is me taking the mod out of standby clock function for the shot. It picked up that 1 quick click as 0.24sec and sent power to the coil and it fizzled and in fact I cannot press the firekey quickly enough without firing the mod. Like when I shut it down, I will most likely have 2-3 short quick fizzles before it picks up on the fact that I am trying to do a shutdown sequence. In fact the instant ramp up time is one of the reasons I use it in CCW. No language settings that I could find, weirdly, so I hope you speak English if you are considering buying the mod. One thing I did discover is, while the mod does feature a standby clock, which I do like, but it doesn't keep the internal time, so when you take your batteries out, the time on this mod freezes, maybe if they added like a watch battery inside, well perhaps you do not want a tiny watch battery right by 2x 18650s cells powering the same circuit. Swap the batteries out quickly if you want it to keep a more or less accurate time.
Overall I am very satisfied with the mod, like I already mentioned it's a direct upgrade my old SMOK GX350, at pretty much every level. Ergonomics / functionality / build quality / ease of use - it's all there.
So the Freemax Mesh Pro. You are very unlikely to find a top 10 tanks list without either that or Fireluke being in the top 3. Did it live up to my high expectations? Um, Yes, yes it did.
When I first got it, naturally I wanted to give it a good cleaning and that of course means you have to disassemble the tank. It actually came apart quite easily, everything was finger tight. Yeah, I didn't even need pliers to unscrew the preinstalled coil, how crazy is that!? Talk about ergonomics, the top cap and the airflow adjustment ring are quite a bit wider than the edges of the glass, which means you can grip just the portions that need to be turned. People have complained time and time again about the refill mechanism, making it sound like you can just flick it open and the juice will leak everywhere. Um, no, that's metal on metal there, lads. You can hear it grind when you push the top cap open, there is quite a bit of resistance. Unless over a long period the metal gets polished to a mirror finish, that's not going to be a problem. Also it seems to be press-fitted and you don't get an extra gasket, so don't tear it.
The way I like to vape is press my lips firmly against the top cap and this is where the resin design absolutely shines. It's extremely comfortable and doesn't get hot at all. In fact the resin feels so nice on this tank, makes me wonder why they bothered making a metal variant. Or.. Why not all tanks are resin, but there is probably a reason for that.
Let's talk about the actual performance - the coils. Naturally when I got it I popped the double mesh out and screwed the triple mesh coil in. Very strong, saturated flavour. Decent clouds, but this isn't a cloud chasing tank. No spitback at all, you would have to close the airflow, dry pull for about 5 secs then fire it and still you would likely have no spitback. Because it wicks just that well, I upped my draws from 1.5-2secs to 3.5-4sec. I am really not going easy on these coils, long slow draws is my way to go. It just seems that of anything, mesh is well suited for that job. If I tried to pull for 4 seconds with a SMOK TFV8 coil I would just scorch the coil towards the end of the draw. Not with these thou. I am currently vaping a citrus smoothie with menthol and about 1mg nic and it's a taste sensation alright. I get sharp orangey / grapefruity taste together with both menthol coolness and a mild throathit. Even with low nic level this coil hits hard, I cannot imagine what a 3mg would feel like in this. I feel like Freemax did a bit of a blunder not including the triple mesh in the box, because just about everybody agrees that the triples are obviously the best, I feel like if they included the triple coil in the kit it would be just that much better as a kit. Judging by the internet the triple mesh coil probably accounts for like 70-80% of all coil sales for this tank.
Now, let's talk why I use CCW. The mod ramps up too fast, full stop. I actually got a little taste of burned metal when I fired it in Normal VW at 100w. It's one of the problems I had with GX350. It just seems wrong to me to fire a coil at your max desired wattage from the get-go. It's been sitting around for a few hours, nice and cool, then you just blast it at 150w, a bit of a rude awakening if you ask me. To me that's like revving your car at max RPM on a winter morning to warm it up... That's not gonna be great for the engine.. So I set it to CCW for a more mild ramp up, especially considering the lengthy pulls I like to take. 90w is probably the highest I will ever go, I did once customise the curve reaching 100w, but if anything the vape just feels slightly thinner, no real improvement of anything. So 90w is my sweet spot. With the triple mesh coil, the battery life is about 300 hits, using HG2s, thou usually I swap out my batteries when they reach half capacity. Cannot comment on the coil life, but I am at roughly 800 hits at the time of writing this review and the flavour is as great as it was. It's said that the triple mesh coils are extremely thirsty.. Well, in my experience I refill this 5ml tank about HALF as often as I did refill my 8ml TFV8 tank using different coils from the TFV8 family, so perhaps not as thirsty as some of the other tanks.
Overall I think these both are great devices and they work wonders together, with a little bit of customisation. Absolutely love my new go-to kit!
So, the mod, Vaporesso Polar. It's a direct upgrade to my retired GX350. I love how solid it feels in the hand, the battery cover is held on by strong magnets and doesn't shift nor does that seesaw thing when one of the magnets isn't glued on perfectly flat. It's 100% flush and the only way you are getting it off is by sticking your nail at a specially cut groove in the bottom right corner. When I just got it out of the box, I expected to just be able to pull the cover off. Nope. Had to look. The mod is very fingerprint friendly, it is semi-glossy, but the accents are so dark you really don't see any fingerprints on it. The firekey has quite a bit of fine texturing to it, it's almost slightly abrasive, but not unpleasantly so and you definitely know where it is, it's also flush with the mod, so you are unlikely to press that should you carry this in your pocket. The screen on this thing is gorgeous, it is much sharper and clearer than what it is looks like on the photo I had taken. The triple navigation key design makes me wonder why all mods don't have 3 keys for the menu and 4th being the firekey, essentially it removes the need to hold down anything to confirm an action. Perhaps one reason is that other mods don't have the functionality of this device and actually, perhaps surprising to myself, I use some of this functionality that I really didn't expect I would.
Vaporesso Polar features VW soft/normal/hard, Variable Voltage mode, Bypass (functions like a mech), Temperature control, Memory mode and, most important for me - CCW. Something something Wattage? Custard Cream Wattage? Cotton Candy Wattage? Custom Curve Wattage? I hope at least one of those is correct. It basically allows me to set the wattage progressively, which mod will fire as I am holding the firekey, at 0.5sec increments. I have it set that it goes from 60w to 80w to 90w over the first second and a half, then holds it steady at 90w for 2.5 secs and then go back down to 80w to 70w to 60w. I just call it Power Curve. The reason I went this route and not a regular VW setting will be explained as we go on. One of the selling points of this mod is the instant ramp up time of 0.001 sec, while I do not have the tech to test this, I can tell you it ramps FAST. that 0.24sec hit is me taking the mod out of standby clock function for the shot. It picked up that 1 quick click as 0.24sec and sent power to the coil and it fizzled and in fact I cannot press the firekey quickly enough without firing the mod. Like when I shut it down, I will most likely have 2-3 short quick fizzles before it picks up on the fact that I am trying to do a shutdown sequence. In fact the instant ramp up time is one of the reasons I use it in CCW. No language settings that I could find, weirdly, so I hope you speak English if you are considering buying the mod. One thing I did discover is, while the mod does feature a standby clock, which I do like, but it doesn't keep the internal time, so when you take your batteries out, the time on this mod freezes, maybe if they added like a watch battery inside, well perhaps you do not want a tiny watch battery right by 2x 18650s cells powering the same circuit. Swap the batteries out quickly if you want it to keep a more or less accurate time.
Overall I am very satisfied with the mod, like I already mentioned it's a direct upgrade my old SMOK GX350, at pretty much every level. Ergonomics / functionality / build quality / ease of use - it's all there.
So the Freemax Mesh Pro. You are very unlikely to find a top 10 tanks list without either that or Fireluke being in the top 3. Did it live up to my high expectations? Um, Yes, yes it did.
When I first got it, naturally I wanted to give it a good cleaning and that of course means you have to disassemble the tank. It actually came apart quite easily, everything was finger tight. Yeah, I didn't even need pliers to unscrew the preinstalled coil, how crazy is that!? Talk about ergonomics, the top cap and the airflow adjustment ring are quite a bit wider than the edges of the glass, which means you can grip just the portions that need to be turned. People have complained time and time again about the refill mechanism, making it sound like you can just flick it open and the juice will leak everywhere. Um, no, that's metal on metal there, lads. You can hear it grind when you push the top cap open, there is quite a bit of resistance. Unless over a long period the metal gets polished to a mirror finish, that's not going to be a problem. Also it seems to be press-fitted and you don't get an extra gasket, so don't tear it.
The way I like to vape is press my lips firmly against the top cap and this is where the resin design absolutely shines. It's extremely comfortable and doesn't get hot at all. In fact the resin feels so nice on this tank, makes me wonder why they bothered making a metal variant. Or.. Why not all tanks are resin, but there is probably a reason for that.
Let's talk about the actual performance - the coils. Naturally when I got it I popped the double mesh out and screwed the triple mesh coil in. Very strong, saturated flavour. Decent clouds, but this isn't a cloud chasing tank. No spitback at all, you would have to close the airflow, dry pull for about 5 secs then fire it and still you would likely have no spitback. Because it wicks just that well, I upped my draws from 1.5-2secs to 3.5-4sec. I am really not going easy on these coils, long slow draws is my way to go. It just seems that of anything, mesh is well suited for that job. If I tried to pull for 4 seconds with a SMOK TFV8 coil I would just scorch the coil towards the end of the draw. Not with these thou. I am currently vaping a citrus smoothie with menthol and about 1mg nic and it's a taste sensation alright. I get sharp orangey / grapefruity taste together with both menthol coolness and a mild throathit. Even with low nic level this coil hits hard, I cannot imagine what a 3mg would feel like in this. I feel like Freemax did a bit of a blunder not including the triple mesh in the box, because just about everybody agrees that the triples are obviously the best, I feel like if they included the triple coil in the kit it would be just that much better as a kit. Judging by the internet the triple mesh coil probably accounts for like 70-80% of all coil sales for this tank.
Now, let's talk why I use CCW. The mod ramps up too fast, full stop. I actually got a little taste of burned metal when I fired it in Normal VW at 100w. It's one of the problems I had with GX350. It just seems wrong to me to fire a coil at your max desired wattage from the get-go. It's been sitting around for a few hours, nice and cool, then you just blast it at 150w, a bit of a rude awakening if you ask me. To me that's like revving your car at max RPM on a winter morning to warm it up... That's not gonna be great for the engine.. So I set it to CCW for a more mild ramp up, especially considering the lengthy pulls I like to take. 90w is probably the highest I will ever go, I did once customise the curve reaching 100w, but if anything the vape just feels slightly thinner, no real improvement of anything. So 90w is my sweet spot. With the triple mesh coil, the battery life is about 300 hits, using HG2s, thou usually I swap out my batteries when they reach half capacity. Cannot comment on the coil life, but I am at roughly 800 hits at the time of writing this review and the flavour is as great as it was. It's said that the triple mesh coils are extremely thirsty.. Well, in my experience I refill this 5ml tank about HALF as often as I did refill my 8ml TFV8 tank using different coils from the TFV8 family, so perhaps not as thirsty as some of the other tanks.
Overall I think these both are great devices and they work wonders together, with a little bit of customisation. Absolutely love my new go-to kit!
