timwis Posted March 12, 2020 Posted March 12, 2020 Hi UKVapers, In this review i take a look at the Crown Pod System Kit from Uwell. The Uwell Crown Pod System Kit was supplied free of charge for the purpose of this review by Pearl from Cigabuy. Introduction Uwell best known for their Crown Tanks and more recently the highly regarded Caliburn brings out a pod device using the Crown name while after testing in my opinion is very much an upgraded Caliburn. With the crown pod system we have much improved filling, liquid viewing windows, 1.0ohm and 0.6ohm pods, adjustable airflow and much larger battery capacity. The Crown uses the same Pro focs coil technology which was introduced with the caliburn, also still both button and draw activated but unfortunately still no power regulation so a direct output device. So in my opinion a much larger Caliburn with improvements so let's give it a look! ___________________________________________________________________ In The Box Contents: 1×CROWN pod system 1×1.0Ω CROWN pod (pre-installed) 1×0.6Ω CROWN pod 1×Micro USB cable 1×User’s manual ___________________________________________________________________ Aesthetics and Ergonomics The Crown comes in cardboard box packaging and on opening in the tray sits a nice looking large pod device with spare pod by it's side. I received the Grey version which is a Dark Grey which could of easily have been called Gunmetal, it's also available in Blue, Red and Black, all versions come with a dark large duckbill style mouthpiece installed. The colour of choice is on both sides of the device, front and back and on both front and back we have a central dark strip which has a nice Regal/Gothic type design, the base is Black and made of plastic. The main chassis is Aluminium Alloy, towards the top on the dark central strip we have a square fire button with raised crown which protrudes slightly and blends into the design, further down we have a tiny LED indication light. Where the pod interlocks with the shape of the top of the device small viewing windows are formed front and back, moving again to the base we have positioned centrally a micro USB port. The Crown is nearer to a pod mod size than a Caliburn style device so less stealthy while still being very portable and ergonomic, of course the extra size is needed for the extra battery capacity. I think the device looks really nice and some good colour options available, it feels very well made. ___________________________________________________________________ Crown Pod Kit Specs and Features: Material: PCTG, Aluminium Alloy Size: 95.6mm x 30mm x 18mm E-Liquid Capacity: 3ml (2ml TPD) Maximum Wattage: 25 W Coil Resistance: 0.6 Ω/1.0Ω Battery Capacity: 1250mAh Refillable pod, cost-effective to use. Top filling method, quick and convenient. The airflow of the pod can be adjusted as you want. The Pro-FOCS flavor testing technology gives you an excellent vape experience. Colours: Black, Grey, Blue, Red ___________________________________________________________________ The Pods The pods are quite large, a lot of that is because of the very large Black mouthpiece, the pod itself is slightly frosted but does have a clear section both front and back which are showing when fitted into the device creating juice viewing windows. The mouthpiece while being large does only have a small opening so much suited to a draw with restriction rather than loads of air. On one side of the pod we have a sliding piece for adjustable airflow (big pro) and moving to the base we have a very small opening to the side of the contacts to allow the draw activation to work, we also can see the 2 contacts that will line up with the contacts in the pod's bay. The capacity of the pods are 3ml with the standard kit but there is also a 2ml version available. You receive 2 pods that are refillable but the coils can't be replaced, pre-installed is a 1.0ohm pod and also included is a 0.6ohm pod, the coils an both pods use the same Pro focs technology (whatever that actually is?) as with the Caliburn and are made of Kanthal. The specs are printed on the base of each pod but also the 0.6ohm pod can be quickly distinguished by having a large Red section inside the pod towards the bottom. ___________________________________________________________________ Filling The mouthpiece pulls off the pod to reveal the central air pipe opening and two holes (one to each side), one being small to let air escape while the other is the fill port which will be fine for most sized nozzles and has a self sealing membrane. The small hole to allow air to escape does it's job really well making filling quick and mess free if careful, in fact it fills so quickly and easily the only time you could have issues is overfilling if you are over zealous. When the pod is fitted to the device the mouthpiece can be pushed first rather than just pulling straight upwards, this dislodges it allowing the mouthpiece to be removed for filling without having to move the pod from the device, good job! ___________________________________________________________________ Airflow On one side of the pod we have a plastic sliding piece that is marked min and max and when in the min position a small airflow slot is above it. The sliding piece can be slid upwards to have as much of the slot open as you require giving it very good adjustability with the only downside being the pod needs to be removed from the device to have access, still a big pro as once you have it how you like it you shouldn't need to readjust. ___________________________________________________________________ Fitting The Pod Looking inside the pods bay we can see the raised central opening to the membrane switch and to either side a Gold plated, spring loaded contact. Apart from a barely protruding section inside the bay towards the front i really see nothing that would help secure the pod in place, yet the pod fits very securely and has no play whatsoever showing if the device has precision build quality press fitting is all that's needed, cracking job! ___________________________________________________________________ Operating The Device The Crown Pod Device can be turned on and off with 5 clicks of the fire button, either action gets confirmed by 3 flashes from the LED. The device is very simple as it is a direct output device with no settings so simply take a draw to vape or if like me you prefer a physical fire button then press the fire button which will override the draw activation mechanism. The device of course has all the safety protections you would expect from a pod device which are indicated by various flashes of the LED. The device also has 3 tiers of battery status indication so when you vape the LED lights in the colour of the current state of the battery: Over 60% = Green Between 30% & 60% = Blue Below 30% = Red ___________________________________________________________________ Protections Include Open Circuit Protection Short Circuit Protection Low Power Protection Over-vape Protection ___________________________________________________________________ Charging The device also shows the same battery status indication while charging and charges in approximately 1.5 hours at 1A. For a 1250mAh battery it's about par but a little faster and the inclusion of Type C USB would be better. While charging the device does support pass-through using either the fire button or draw activation. ___________________________________________________________________ My Experience And Thoughts! I really did like the Caliburn but here we have a device which in my opinion tops it. Both coils act very similar to the Caliburn giving above average flavour from the off but that's the break-in period and after 2-3ml the flavour improves further and also gives good longevity with both pods. The mouthpiece is a style i have used many times but seems a bit strange here to start with as it's big yet the opening is small to suit restriction so seems a bit of a miss-match but the more i used it the more i got use to it but might put some off. The viewing windows while not being large i found more fit for purpose than the very thin slots of the Caliburn, i also like being able to remove the mouthpiece while the pod is still in the device for filling and how quick and easy it is. The bigger capacity is a big improvement (standard version) and also i occasionally got slight gurgling (it soon cleared) with the Caliburn but i have had none of that with these pods and also suffered no leaking whatsoever. The Caliburn was possibly best liked for what many considered the perfect draw for a pod device but here we can replicate that draw but have more options with the adjustable airflow. The 1.0ohm pod fully open gives that same loose MTL draw but now it can be adjusted to while not in my opinion getting quite a cigarette type draw not far off it. The 0.6ohm pod fully open gives a really nice restricted direct lung draw which can be closed down for a loose MTL but really i found this pod at it's best with airflow fully open. The 1250mAh battery allows for reasonable vape time with the 0.6ohm pod while the 1.0ohm pod would give most vapers a whole day's vaping and while i feel 1.5 hours to charge could be improved on it's about par and does support pass-through. The Crown has the same draw and button firing mechanisms as the Caliburn so it will both suit those that prefer draw activation and those like me that prefer using a fire button. Just like the Caliburn the membrane switch is amazingly responsive matching the performance of using the fire button, firing with no delay. Unfortunately again like the Caliburn it's a direct output device so the power will decrease along with the battery which is very noticeable with the 0.6ohm pod (the 1.0ohm pod gives a more consistent vape throughout with drop off barely noticeable). ___________________________________________________________________ Likes Good build quality Portable and Ergonomic 4 Colour options Draw or Button Activated Draw activation very responsive Fires without delay Battery status indication Top-fill (can be filled when pod is installed) Clear viewing windows Adjustable airflow Both MTL and DL pod included Pods fit very securely Suffered no flooding or leaking 3ml capacity standard pods 1A charging (par) Good flavour even during break-in then improves further (both pods) Above average pod longevity Supports pass-through both draw or fire activation Cons Direct output Large Mouthpiece will feel strange at first with MTL draw Would prefer Type C USB Coils can't be replaced (need to replace the whole pod) I would one again like to thank Pearl from Cigabuy for supplying the Uwell Crown Pod System Kit for the purpose of this review. ___________________________________________________________________
Recommended Posts