timwis Posted September 18, 2020 Posted September 18, 2020 Hi Vapor Talk members, In this review i take a look at the DRAG S Mod Pod Kit from Voopoo. The VOOPOO DRAG S Mod Pod Kit was supplied for the purpose of this review by Selina from Fasttech. 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 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 so we got two simultaneous releases the Drag X and Drag S which is the 2500mAh in-built battery version i review here rather than the 18650 Drag X version. The Drag S 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 realised what an own goal it was so now it comes with a different display by default and you need to register online to show age verification to download the point scoring feature. Personally registering for the point scoring system i see as proving you are a child and maybe need to grow up. The Drag S is slightly smaller than the X version and has a lower 60W top wattage as well as giving the choice of both button fire or draw activation. Primarily this review is to coincide with the release of 4 new colour/design versions of the Drag S/X, so let's give the Drag S a look! ___________________________________________________________________ In The Box Contents: 1* DRAG S Device 1* DRAG S Replacement Pod (4.5ml) 1* PnP-VM1，0.3ohm 1* PnP-VM5，0.2ohm 1* Type-C Cable 1* User Manual 1* Warranty Card 1* Chip Card ___________________________________________________________________ Aesthetics and Ergonomics The Drag S 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 of the original colours come with a Gunmetal 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. The original options are Carbon Fiber, Classic, Retro, Mashup, Chestnut, Marsala or Galaxy Blue. I received one of the four new colour/designs which are the Knight range which all have different frame colours and spines. I received the Silver Knight which has a Union Jack spine design and Silver frame, the new colour design options are Silver Knight, Bronze Knight, Dark Knight or Iron Knight. The pod including mouthpiece is one single moulding which 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 a 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 a real treat to use! ___________________________________________________________________ Drag S Specs and Features: Size: 87*33*28mm Battery Capacity: 2500mAh Built-in Battery Material: Alloy+Leather(Mod) Output Power: 5-60W Output Voltage: 3.2~4.2V Resistance: 0.1~3.0Ω Capacity: 4.5ml Material: PCTG(Pod) Coils: 0.2ohm PnP-VM5 Coil(DL, 40~60W); 0.3ohm PnP-VM1 Coil(DL, 32~40W) Compatible with all PnP coils including RBA Fill: Bottom Fill Charging: 5V/2A Charging Port: Type-C Colours: Carbon Fiber, Classic, Retro, Mashup, Chestnut, Marsala, Galaxy Blue New Colours: Silver Knight, Bronze Knight, Dark Knight, Iron Knight ___________________________________________________________________ The Pod The Pod for the Drag S 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 flap kept attached with a metal stud. The flap 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 (obviously not including the Drag X). 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 VM5 0.2ohm mesh coil head rated between 40 - 60w. The Drag S 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 S 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. ___________________________________________________________________ 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" Thankfully this now needs downloading and doesn't come as default as in my opinion it's a 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 S is quite a simple device to use with just two modes which includes a smart wattage option, however unlike the X it has two versions of each mode. 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 S 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 mode fire button option", "Smart mode with either fire button or auto draw", "RBA mode fire button option" and "RBA with either fire button or auto draw". 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 60w 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 S 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 ___________________________________________________________________ Charging The Drag S has an in-built 2500mAh battery which gets charged via the Type C USB port. The charge rate is 2A so charges very quickly and while charging both a progress bar is displayed and the charge is given as a percentage, the device doesn't support pass-through. ___________________________________________________________________ My Experience Using The Drag S Kit And Thoughts! I will get all the negatives out the way first which to start with is the airflow lever which is like a nail head sticking out, i get it caught on my pocket which also causes 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! P.S also leave a full pod in the device overnight at your own risk as it can look like the photo below and e-juice then comes through the slots when lifting the device up! My main issue with the S is the Auto Draw which just doesn't work unless the airflow is closed then it worked great but even if just opening by a slither it just didn't work at all. In this situation the fire button worked fine still with plenty of air which actually shows although it's a neat adjustable airflow design it isn't that effective if this still gives a DL vape fully closed. 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 DL & SRDL draws but from half open to closed really does nothing! 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 0.2ohm coil head at 38w 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. What is strange though is this is supposed to have the exact same chip as the Drag X but with the Drag X i noticed a spike in power for the first 0.5seconds of the vape like a set boost which doesn't happen on the Drag S, the Drag S also gives that buzzing in the background when firing which a few pod mods do but i don't detect that on the Drag X so i would be interested if anyone else with both devices have noticed these differences? After all that for an in-built battery option i really like this device and am quite prepared to overlook any of the issues, that has been helped by as well as testing with the supplied pod and coils i have also been enjoying it with the VXV RDTA pod which gives a more restricted draw and overrides the devices airflow, also when it comes to the auto draw issue, i wouldn't personally use it anyway. Finally having both Type C USB and a 2A charge rate is a big pro and good charging feedback is given although it doesn't support pass-through! ___________________________________________________________________ Likes Compared with other pod mods best build quality to date Really nice Leather spine colour options 4 New colour/designs best yet 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 and limitations) Daily and overall puff counters 14 day puff monitoring system Smart and RBA wattage modes Fire Button or auto draw Adjusts in 1w increments Sharp, bright, colour display Fires insanely quickly Instant ramp up Excellent performance and reliability during testing Above average flavour (comparable to other pod mods) Smooth airflow across DL & SRDL Compatible with entire extensive Voopoo PnP range of coil heads Type C USB Good charging feedback given Firmware upgradeable Cons Airflow adjustment lever sticks out like a nail head Airflow only makes a difference from halfway, still plenty of air fully closed Will leak if chain vaping Had leaking leaving full pod installed overnight Auto Draw only worked if airflow fully closed Need to remove pod to fill Slow to boot up Can't lock just navigational buttons Doesn't support pass-through I would once again like to thank Selina from Fasttech for supplying the VOOPOO DRAG S Mod Pod Kit for the purpose of this review, thanks for reading and stay safe! ___________________________________________________________________
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