timwis Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Hi Vapor Talk members, In this review i take a look at the DRAG X 18650 Mod Pod Kit from Voopoo. The VOOPOO DRAG X 18650 Mod Pod Kit was supplied for the purpose of this review by Ella from Sourcemore. Introduction The Pod Mod revolution is entering the end game as they become Mod Pod's, i think the switching of the words is based on the fact a 510 adaptor will (but as far as i know isn't yet) become available so normal atty's can be used (but then i have adaptors for half my Pod Mods so nothing new). I don't have the best relationship with Voopoo but that has nothing to do with how i found the device or what i put in this review which will be solely based on my experience using the Kit. When it comes to Pod Mods Voopoo saved the use of their premium brand name until coming out with a product they feel worthy of it and here we are with two simultaneous releases the Drag X and Drag S which i don't have but is an in-built battery version. The Drag X has a luxury build quality and under the hood is the GENE.TT Chip giving incredible fire speed and instant ramp up. The device like many of the Pod Mods is quite a simple Wattage only device which has Smart mode and RBA mode which can also be used just to override the restrictions imposed by Smart Mode plus the Blue screen is just so much nicer. The other main feature and marketing direction is around the "Original Score Ranking Mode", which was going to give me the opportunity for a rant but although mentioned during the review as many of the devices with this "childish" feature will still be in the market place it does appear Voopoo have realised what an own goal it was so Kudos for that. My new version has an entirely new display and thankfully the Score feature has been sent to a Kindergarten for the 3 year old's to play with in the sand pit, so let's check out the Drag X! Disclaimer: Although i said the Drag S is an in-built battery version of the Drag X don't read this review and assume the Drag S is identical in it's operation features. Their are a couple of function differences, it has a different top wattage, has an Auto draw option and comes with different coil heads so if the Drag S interests you source reviews for that device. ___________________________________________________________________ In The Box Contents: 1×DRAG X Device 1×DRAG X Replacement Pod(4.5ml/2ml TPD Edition) 1×PnP-VM6 0.15ohm 1×PnP-VM1 0.3ohm 1×User Manual 1×Type-C Cable ___________________________________________________________________ Aesthetics and Ergonomics The Drag X comes in cardboard packaging and even has a ribbon which works like a battery ribbon to lift the device with attached pod out of it's compartment. The device is quite heavy and has a Zinc Alloy construction and padded Leather Spine with "DRAG" embossed into it. All versions come with a Gunmetal colour frame which borrows it's looks from the full sized drag with the Colour of the Spine's Leather being different depending on which option you choose. I received the Galaxy Blue version, the options are Carbon Fiber, Classic, Retro, Mashup, Chestnut, Marsala or Galaxy Blue. The pod including mouthpiece is one single moulding, protrudes almost entirely out the top of the device and is as good as clear for the purpose of seeing your e-liquid. On the face we have a Round concave fire button top then central colour screen, below the screen lined up vertically we have smaller round navigational buttons followed by a Type C USB port. The rounded form factor, padded spine and concave fire button makes this ergonomically sound, feeling comfortable in the hand and in use! ___________________________________________________________________ Drag X Specs and Features: Size: 95×32.5×28mm Power Range: 5-80W Capacity: 4.5ml/2ml TPD Edition Resistance Range: 0.1-3.0ohm Output Voltage: 3.2-4.2V Battery: Single 18650 external battery Material: Zinc Alloy +PCTG Standard Coils: PnP-VM6 / PnP-VM1 Compatible Coils: All PnP coil range New Generation GENE.TT Chip 0.001s Extreme Ignition Innovative Infinite Airflow System Original SCORE Ranking Mode 5-80W Adjustable Power Type C USB Colours: Carbon Fiber, Classic, Retro, Mashup, Chestnut, Marsala, Galaxy Blue ___________________________________________________________________ The Pod The Pod for the Drag X is rounded and one complete, as good as clear moulding including mouthpiece. Most of the pod protrudes out of the device for good visibility of your juice so no issues there. Looking at it's circular base we have 3 evenly placed strong magnets and a silicone bung kept attached with a metal stud. The bung has a flap which is easy to lift to pull the bung out revealing a very generous fill port plenty big enough for a quick, mess free fill. The coil head just gets press fitted into the pod as is the case with most of these pod mod pods! ___________________________________________________________________ Fitting The Pod The Pod Bay looks quite different to other bays i have seen. The bottom of the bay only has the round central section visible with the rest of the floor which leads to the airflow slots being obscured by the perimeter having an upper metallic shelve for the pod magnets to attract too. Looking at the bottom of the bay we have a raised central positive and outer raised negative spring loaded contacts which look to have a silicone seal. The pod snaps into place and fits very securely, the dual negatives and metallic surround shelf design means the pod can be fitted without it needing to be lined up a certain way, good design! ___________________________________________________________________ The Coils Included is 2 different coil heads none of which are pre-installed and both part of the Voopoo PnP range. The 2 included coil heads are the PnP VM1 0.3ohm mesh coil head rated between 32 - 40w and the other included coil head is the PnP VM6 0.15ohm mesh coil head rated between 60 - 80w. The Drag X is compatible with the entire Voopoo PnP range which is quite extensive! ___________________________________________________________________ The Airflow The air enters the coil head via it's base and of course the bore of the coil head it'self has some bearing on the draw but the Drag X does have quite a neat system to control how much air gets to the base of the coil head. On each side of the device we have airflow slots with metallic plates underneath that can slide to close down the openings. The plates are controlled by also having a slot above the spine with adjustment lever. The lever to the far left of the slot is the airflow fully closed and as it is moved to the right the plates slide open until the lever to the far right is fully open. I love the idea and execution apart from the lever although not as crude is like a nail head sticking out which both catches on clothing and can come quite sharp, really wish the idea was kept but a lower profile broader lever was installed. ___________________________________________________________________ Fitting The Battery A single 18650 battery get's fitted via the hatch door on the base of the device. Just slide the door forward and lift up, positive is clearly labelled at the bottom of the tube but there is no marking on the underside of the door, this needs a clear negative marking please Voopoo! When the door is shut we have no movement or battery rattle whatsoever, a really nice solid door! ___________________________________________________________________ The Display This is where my device will differ to earlier reviews as it now as a new display. The Display is Vibrant and has either Red accents if in Smart mode or Blue if in RBA mode. Top left we have "SMART" or "RBA" depending which mode you are in and top right we have the battery status bar. Then we have the set wattage with either an open or shut Green padlock icon to it's upper right and the unit "W" to it's lower right. Underneath the wattage to the left we have resistance and to the right voltage. The bottom half of the screen within rectangular accented sections we have vape duration and puff count information. In the upper section we have a vape duration progress bar graph much like a graphic equaliser in appearance and below the vape duration of your last puff given as a digital figure. The lower section gives both your current day puff count and overall puff total. ___________________________________________________________________ "Original Score Ranking Mode" My newer production version thankfully doesn't have this childish and pointless feature, it gives rankings dependant on puffs which are called achievements. What were "Voopoo" thinking, they just can't seem to control their urge to market towards the young which does the vaping industry no favours! Mine still has both a daily and overall puff counter plus a 14 day puff monitoring system for those that do find monitoring their puffs useful, they don't need to be Bronze level or ranked as Iron or Platinum, thanks. ___________________________________________________________________ Operating The Device The Drag X is quite a simple device to use with just two modes which includes a smart wattage option. The device is the usual 5 clicks of the fire button to turn on and 5 clicks to turn off and it does boot up rather slowly compared to other pod mods i have tested. Once on, fire and up together locks and unlocks the whole device so while locked the device will not fire, personally i prefer an option to just lock the navigational buttons but the Drag X lacks that option. Other combination button press features are fire and down together resets your puff counter, both navigational buttons and fire together allows the time to be set and both navigational buttons pressed together displays the 14 day puff monitoring graph. Three quick presses of the fire button changes between "Smart" and "RBA" modes. When in "Smart" mode the device detects the resistance of the coil and limits the wattage to that coil heads upper recommendation, there is no lower limit. "RBA" mode really is just standard variable wattage allowing to adjust right up to the maximum 80w whatever the resistance is. I was at the lower recommendations of the coil heads wattage range so what mode i was in really made no difference but the accents are Red in "Smart" mode and despite being a Forest fan much preferring Blue i had the device in "RBA" mode at all times! The only other thing that needs mentioning is the wattage adjusts in 1w increments which i like because this really isn't suited to MTL style vaping despite there being a couple of MTL coil heads and an RBA available. As you would expect the Drag X has multiple safety protections, a message is displayed on the screen if one kicks in! ___________________________________________________________________ Protections: Overtime Protection Short Circuit Protection Overcharge Protection Max Power Protection Over-current Protection Temperature Protection Over-Discharge Protection Reverse Polarity Protection ___________________________________________________________________ Charging As ever i only recommend charging in the device if it's your only option but if you do i am pleased the device both has Type C USB and the port is on the face of the device so it can charge standing upright. No charge rate is given so i did charge the battery using the port and was quite disappointed that despite Voopoo's marketing hinting at quick charge it actually isn't taking full advantage of having Type C and is only 1.5A max. It took my 2600mAh battery 2 hours each time i charged in the device, my maths makes that an average charge rate of 1.3A. While charging good feedback is given in the form of both a battery charging progress bar and the charge given as a percentage, the device doesn't support pass-through. ___________________________________________________________________ My Experience Using The Drag X Kit And Thoughts! I will get all the negatives out the way first which to start with is the Score feature which although thankfully mine doesn't have there will still be plenty with the feature in the supply chain, what were Voopoo thinking especially with their past reputation? Next is the airflow lever which is like a nail head sticking out, i get it caught on my pocket which also courses it to adjust and it is quite sharp, not lethal granted but feel they could of done a better job. Also most will want to know how this behaves in regards to any leaking and i tested especially for this. The bottom of the airflow slots and even the lever slot are lined up with the floor of the bay and you don't get any pooling of liquid in the bay, if any leaking occurs it comes out all three slots. I found if the device is used moderately no leaking occurred, so if you are not a chain vaper you shouldn't have any issue but with the e-liquid getting hot through chain vaping then liquid did start escaping through the slots and with this happening if i carried on vaping, what a mess, e-liquid everywhere! I also felt charging could be quicker as i found it charged at an average of 1.3A so a 1.5A max charge rate which is disappointing but at least it has Type C, it also doesn't support pass-through but charging feedback is good. Needing to remove the pod to fill is another con but far from a deal breaker and overall i like how quick and mess free it fills, the great visibility of the juice inside and how securely it fits in the bay. Despite my misgivings about the airflow control lever i actually like the design in general and it adjusts to give a good range of SRDL, RDL and loose MTL draws. Indeed it will close down for a tighter draw and there are a couple of MTL coil heads available but as it gets tighter the airflow gets turbulent unlike the smooth more open draws it gives so really not for MTL vapers. The overall look, build quality and ergonomics of the device i love and in my opinion it goes to the top of the Pod Mod charts in that regard. I found the supplied coil heads gave above average flavour but not really close to the Freemax Autopod50 coils, but still very good and quite an extensive range are available. I also found the two coil heads included gave plenty of warmth in fact i found i preferred the 0.3ohm coil at just 25w and the 0.15ohm coil head at 50w both under their recommendations. The biggest pro for the device other than it's build quality and looks is it's performance giving a fantastic reliable vape. I'm sure the fire button has an eye and can see my finger approaching it fires that quickly and i also noticed a spike in power for the first 0.5 seconds before giving a stable vape at set wattage, this spike along with the insanely quick firing response gives the effect (i know many don't like the phrase but i'm going to use it anyway) of hitting hard which is what many a vaper looks for in a device, i found the Gene chip slightly tamed with the Drag 2 but it's back kicking ***! ___________________________________________________________________ Likes Compared with other pod mods best build quality to date Really nice Leather spine colour options Portable, ergonomic Quite heavy but in a reassuring quality made way Excellent visibility of e-liquid inside the pod Quick and mess free filling Pod fits very securely No leaking if vaping moderately Excellent airflow control system (see cons about lever) Daily and overall puff counters 14 day puff monitoring system Smart and RBA wattage modes Adjusts in 1w increments Sharp, bright, colour display Fires insanely quickly Instant ramp up (boost spike first 0.5seconds) Excellent performance and reliability during testing Above average flavour (comparable to other pod mods) Smooth airflow across SRDL, RDL and MTL draws Compatible with entire extensive Voopoo PnP range of coil heads Accommodates 18650 battery Solid battery door, no movement or battery rattle Type C USB Good charging feedback given Firmware upgradeable Cons Immature Score achievement feature (not on newer versions) Airflow adjustment lever sticks out like a nail head Will leak if chain vaping Quite slow charge rate especially for Type C Need to remove pod to fill Slow to boot up Can't lock just navigational buttons Doesn't support pass-through No battery orientation marking on underside of door I would once again like to thank Ella from Sourcemore for supplying the VOOPOO DRAG X 18650 Mod Pod Kit for the purpose of this review, thanks for reading and stay safe! ___________________________________________________________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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