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ZQ XTAL - an OG Caliburn rival

I_aint_Joe

Bronze Contributor
Member For 3 Years
Introduction

This should be quite simple, the ZQ Xtal is intentionally or not, a Caliburn rival. Not the Caliburn G – the original Caliburn. In this review, it will stand or fall based on a direct comparison with the Caliburn. Images are here – I ran out of ideas for photos as this is such a simple device, so I tried to get artistic and creative.

The Xtal is a 520mAh pod device, with button/autodraw, micro-USB charging and a choice of two 1.8ml pods, a 1.2ohm nichrome wire and a 1.0ohm mesh. Neither airflow nor power are adjustable.
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Use

As expected, it’s all very simple. Five clicks to power on/off and then three clicks to cycle through autodraw mode, fire button mode and combined autodraw + button mode.

The fire button displays different colors to show which mode you’re in, battery level while in use and battery level while charging.

The pods are press-fit into the device and fit very securely, they are bottom fill with the entire base of the pod lifting open to expose a fill port and an air pressure relief hole – this setup works really well, filling is simple and mess free.

The one issue that I encountered with the Xtal is the battery life. When I used salts in it, I was restrained and didn’t encounter any issues, however once I switched to freebase (and especially with the mesh coil) I chained it non-stop and depleted the battery quite quickly. It will charge within an hour or so and does support pass-thru charging, so you can vape while charging, but a larger battery capacity would have been nice.
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Pods

  • 1.2ohm nichrome wire - according to ZQ this is their flavor pod and it doesn’t disappoint. I tried salts and freebase, fruit, and pastries and they all tasted really good, while you can vape this coil as loose MTL, I enjoyed it the most as a very tight restricted DTL. But does it vape as well as the Caliburn? Yes, absolutely, a very similar experience.
  • 1.0ohm mesh - this is the Xtal’s vapor production pod and like the 1.2ohm coil, it is impressive. To put it bluntly, I vaped the crap out of this coil and really didn’t want to put it down. Of course, at 1.0ohm it’s not going to be a huge cloud machine, but it is very satisfying and performs well with all juices, however I enjoyed it the most with freebase fruit flavors. Maybe it was my vaping style, but this pod seemed a little thirstier for juice than the 1.2ohm. This pod doesn’t give the same experience as a Caliburn, it’s different and for me, it’s better.
Neither pod has shown any sign of leaking or moisture and both lasted well, with a gradual loss of flavor at the end of the pod’s life.
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Conclusion

If you liked the original Caliburn, then you will like the Xtal. The filling system is great and both pods give a very nice vape. There’s nothing game-changing with the Xtal, but that’s not the point.

Pros

  • Very nice flavor from both pods.
  • Good filling system.
  • Simple and intuitive usage.
Cons

  • Battery might not last a day, depending on your vaping style.
  • No type-C charging.
  • No adjustable airflow/power.
Disclaimer

The ZQ Xtal was provided for me by ZQ for the purposes of this review.

On a side-note, I’ve reviewed a lot of stock-coil tanks, DTL pod systems and MTL pod systems over the last year or two – while the general quality has improved throughout the board, the most noticeable improvement for me has been in MTL and very restricted DTL – I’d still say that a pod system or sub-ohm tank running at 30w or higher is nowhere near as good as a comparable RDA/RTA with a decent build in it – however once you get under 30w and especially under 15w, these tiny pod systems are getting much closer in performance to their rebuildable rivals.

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