timwis Posted April 30, 2020 Posted April 30, 2020 Hi Vapor Talk members, In this review i take a look at the Ladon 225W TC Box MOD from Smoant. The Ladon 225W TC Box MOD was supplied for the purpose of this review by Jessi from Smoant. Introduction A couple of years ago dual battery box mods were being churned out at the sort of rate we now see pods, pod mods and AIO devices but now a release draws real attention especially when it's from a manufacturer with Smoant's reputation which i find well deserved. The Ladon 225W TC Box Mod is one of two devices just released by Smoant, the other being the Knight 80 which i have already reviewed. The Ladon is a compact dual 18650 device which comes with Type C USB and boasts safe balanced charging at 2A. Hosting all the usual modes including a full TC suit and with both a unique aesthetic look and exceptional build quality let's give the Ladon TC Box Mod a look! ___________________________________________________________________ In The Box Contents: 1 x Smoant Ladon MOD (no batteries) 1 x Type-C Cable 1 x User Manual 1 x Warranty Card 1 x Certificated 1 x Battery Warning Card ___________________________________________________________________ Aesthetics and Ergonomics After really liking the pictures of this device it didn't disappoint when it arrived, it's unique aesthetics and build quality gets top marks from me. When you like the look of a device so much it's hard to imagine some people may not like it but i can see those more into their plain looking devices may not like it's busy appearance. I received the Rainbow version, it's available in Rainbow, Black & Red, Stainless Steel and Full Black. It's construction is Zinc Alloy, SUS304 and it does say Leather referring to the outer side of the back panel and i have seen pictures of two other variants of Leather panels for different colour options, mine comes with a suede feeling material which both sparkles and has iridescent qualities. The device feels a nice medium weight and form factor is one of cut corners and stepped bevelled edging with a centrally positioned raised 25mm 510 platform up top. All colour options have both a Red side rectangular fire button and navigational rocker underneath the large monochrome screen. On the face underneath and part way up either side of the screen we have a mesh plate with horizontal grooves, we also have vertical grooves giving the device nice grip on both sides. For a dual 18650 device the Ladon is compact and is equally comfortable to fire the device with thumb or finger using either hand! ___________________________________________________________________ Ladon Specs and Features: Size: 91.5 x 46.9mm Output Wattage: 1-225W Voltage: 6.0-8.4V TC Mode: NI;TI;SS316;TCR Conversion Rate: 95% Charging: 5V/2A Surface: Zinc Alloy+SUS304+Leather Battery: Dual 18650 batteries(not included) Temperature Range: 200℉--600℉/100℃--300℃ Multiple Protections Balanced safe charging Type C USB Thread: 510 Colours: Rainbow, Black & Red, Stainless Steel, Full Black ___________________________________________________________________ The Kit Option As well as just the Mod which i am reviewing here there is also a kit version which includes a very interesting tank, the Ladon All in One Tank. The Ladon All in One Tank is also available separately and is a Sub-ohm tank which also comes with an RBA which will house both coil and mesh builds! The two stock coils that are included is a 0.16ohm single mesh and a 0.15 dual mesh both of which uses 100% Tea Tree Fiber for their wicking material. The pre-installed Bubble glass gives the tank a 6ml capacity and also included is a 4ml glass and 4ml glass for use with the RBA, i would imagine their will be a 2ml TPD option. The Kit doesn't include the RBA though but purchasing the Tank does, also the RBA with glass can also be purchased separately. I was interested in the tank so researched some others experiences and what i am hearing is the RBA is garbage but the stock coils are amazing, but bear in mind they are best at 80-90W. ___________________________________________________________________ Fitting The Batteries The Ladon accommodates dual 18650 batteries which to install you need to remove the back panel, there is a little notch at the base to get your fingernail into making it easy. The tray has clear orientation labelled in White which i like and the inside of the panel has a protective coating but don't use this as an excuse to use batteries with damaged wraps. The tray doesn't have a battery ribbon but i find enough of the batteries protrude for easy removal so all good! The panel gets secured by 2 top magnets and one large central bottom magnet and it snaps reassuringly in place. There is no battery rattle whatsoever or sidewards movement of the panel but using the hand there is minimal up and down movement but it didn't move during normal use so all in all very happy! ___________________________________________________________________ The Display The device has an 0.96" OLED screen which has nice brightness, is very sharp and well laid out giving all the required information in an uncluttered fashion with everything easy to read. In fact it's the same display as on the Knight 80 just brighter. Top left displays the mode and top right we have the battery status bar. Below is the wattage when in wattage mode, when in TC the temperature is displayed. We then have the voltage which displays watts when in TC and underneath this is the resistance followed by puffs, finally at the bottom is your current vape duration. When a device is dual battery it's much better to have a battery status bar for each individual battery and better still if both are also given as a percentage so just having a single battery status bar and that's it has to go down as a con for me. ___________________________________________________________________ Operating The Ladon The Ladon is the usual 5 clicks of the fire button to turn on and 5 clicks to turn off, once on pressing + and - together locks the whole device so it also will not fire. The only other combination key press from all working screens is +, - and fire together which resets your puffs. 3 clicks of the fire button causes the mode to blink which now allows the use of the + and - buttons to scroll through the working screens (modes) which are VW, DVW (curves), Ni, Ti, SS and TCR, in the manual their is a full list of TCR setting ranges for various TC wires including Gold. When using curves the + and - alters the wattage for each time segment and fire selects. When using a TC mode then by default the wattage is on auto but fire and + together allows wattage to be set for TC, fire and - together allows you to change temperature unit. Wattage adjusts in point 1 increments from 1W right up to 100W then switches to 1W increments up to the full 225W (it round robins) which despite quite quick scrolling i feel after 20W it should switch to 1W increments but to me that's nothing major, that's it! very easy to navigate. If it sounds familiar it's because apart from the absence of Bypass mode it operates exactly the same as the Knight 80. ___________________________________________________________________ AI Smart Ant Chip & Buck Boost Mode (apparently not) According to the marketing the Ladon has the same AI Smart feature and Buck Boost as the Knight 80 but i really think because it's 90% the same system as the Knight 80 they have simply forgot to omit this, even in the manual it refers to the Ladon having Bypass which it doesn't so Smoant releasing 2 products simultaneously seem to of just made a few errors. With the Knight 80 when an atomiser is attached it gives a recommended from and to wattage for that resistance but that doesn't happen with the Ladon so if it doesn't have the AI Smart feature i assume it also doesn't have the Buck Boost unless this is just voltage boost which the device would have anyway! ___________________________________________________________________ Protections The Ladon has multiple protections and text alerts are displayed on the screen to indicate one kicking in, the protections include: Over Current Protection Over-heating Protection Reverse Polarity Protection Short Circuit Protection Over-time Protection Low Voltage Protection ___________________________________________________________________ Charging I personally never recommend charging external batteries in the device unless it's your only option but the Ladon does support balanced charging at 2A. We also have Type C USB with Smoant being the first manufacturer to the best of my knowledge to adopt Type C USB for all their devices. ___________________________________________________________________ My Experience Using The Ladon And Thoughts! It's been a while to see a new dual 18650 device from Smoant and in my opinion it's been worth the wait. The device is up to date as far as hosting Type C USB but other than that there's nothing new but that's not a real criticism of Smoant as in general apart from little *** bits we just haven't really seen any real innovation in a good while. The device's shape and size along with the position of the fire button makes the Ladon very comfortable in either hand using as either a finger or thumb firer. The fire button has a stiffness to it and gives a satisfying click, it fires impressively quickly and every time hit set wattage instantly, a real good performer. Of course under normal conditions the device isn't going to do the full 225W but i went as high as 100W and 100W felt 100W which gives me confidence the device will fair better than most at higher wattage outputs. The curves also worked great and the user interface is as easy as it get's for a device that offers so many modes. The device has 95% efficiency and at 40W a pair of 2600mAh batteries gave me approximately 700 puffs, of course not an exact science as different batteries perform differently and length of puffs vary but i personally found battery life comfortably better than average. Like any device though things could always be better and for starters i really like dual battery devices to both show the status of each individual battery and also give the status as a percentage but all that gets displayed is a single battery status bar icon. Another con for me is point one increments right up to 100W, this is only needed up to 20W max and then should switch to 1W increments, those that vape at mid wattage's will find adjusting wattage a bit sluggish. A couple of other things that don't bother me personally but will others is the errors in information as on the marketing it does say the device as AI Smart wattage but unless the retail version has a firmware upgrade unlike the Knight 80 it doesn't, also in the manual it just copies the operation instructions of the Knight 80 instead of omitting the Bypass Mode which the Ladon doesn't include. Finally is the centrally positioned 25mm platform which will be entirely subjective if it's a con or pro, personally i like it as any atty i would be using would be 25mm or smaller but those into their large tanks will wish the 510 plate sat flush. As already mentioned i never recommend charging in the device but if you are going to i would have much less concerns with this device with Type C USB and balanced charging, the device is also fully firmware upgradeable. ___________________________________________________________________ Likes High build quality Unique look 4 Nice colour options Fire button, nice stiff click Side fire button Bright, sharp well laid out display Comfortable to use, either hand. thumb or finger firer Very user friendly UI Centrally positioned 510 platform Compact device, not too heavy Fires without delay, hit set wattage instantly Worked great in wattage and curves modes TC not tested (Smoant one of the first manufacturers with proprietary chip to pretty much nail TC so don't envisage issues but seek further information if TC user) Battery orientation labelled in White No battery rattle or panel movement during use Efficient, good battery life Type C USB 2A Balanced charging Firmware upgradeable Cons No Innovation (a general criticism with mods, not particularly aimed solely at this device) Battery status only given as 1 battery bar icon Point 1W increments up to 100W, unnecessary making adjustment quite sluggish Errors in marketing and manual Large tanks (over 25mm) will overhang platform I would once again like to thank Jessi from Smoant for supplying the Ladon 225W TC Box MOD for the purpose of this review. ___________________________________________________________________
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