Adary's rather long winded review of Smoant Naboo kit

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I won this kit in a giveaway from @Heaven_Gifts . Regardless of that fact, this review will be as impartial and unbiased as possible. It took a while for the parcel to arrive, but I can only blame holidays both in China and Israel for that, and the inefficiency of Israel post.

I received the kit in a black nylon-wrapped box. Both seals under the nylon were intact, and both stated that this is a sample (for testing only).

Back side of the kit has the standard information and the scratch-off authenticity code (I didn’t really bother to check it since I do trust HeavenGifts to send the real deal in these giveaways)

Inside the box I found the mod itself, the tank, and an extra glass tube for the tank. Underneath it I found the standard charging cable, one extra coil for the tank, and the usual paperwork.

First thing I noticed about the mod is how glossy it is. The whole front face is smooth and shiny (and an obvious fingerprint magnet). The tank came in the same color as the mod except the drip tip which looks very nice, but is just not in the right shade for a perfect visual fit. I’m usually not a stickler for details like this one, but it felt like there isn’t enough attention to detail.


And the time came to assemble the tank and fill it up with juice. Preinstalled coil is a single mesh coil, surrounded with what looks to be organic cotton. The coil is rated at 0.18ohm, and the wattage recommendation for it is 40w-80w. The second coil is 0.17ohm, and is rated for 60w-100w. I gave the tank a quick wash, primed the coil, filled it up with my favorite ADV juice, and let it sit for a few minutes to let that tightly compressed cotton soak up the juice.

The overall impression I got from the tank can be summarized in one word: cheap. Top cap and the airflow ring are made of aluminum, and the rest of the tank is claimed to be stainless steel, but it just feels too light. The finish is painted on, and will probably chip very soon. On the other hand, it has next to no chimney and the coil is very close to the drip tip. Airflow is very noisy in any position.

And then there is the flavor which is what should matter the most, and this tank has tons of it. I started the coil break-in low, at 45W, and after a few puffs started taking it up toward 60w. Once I got there the flavor was spectacular (for a sub-ohm tank). It can’t really compare to an RTA or an RDA, but from all subohm tanks I tried so far, this one definitely has the best flavor. With the first tank i had a little chemical aftertaste, but it disappeared pretty soon after first refill.

Too bad this coil lasted only 3 days. I used it almost exclusively for 3 days, and without any warning I got a burnt hit. You can see from the photo that it got completely gunked up, and I vaped a juice with very little sweetener added. I guess that really sweet juices can kill this coil in a day or less. Cloud chasing wise, this tank definitely hits the spot. Clouds are huge and thick, and if I cared for them I would like it even more.

Important to note, I still didn’t see anyone selling replacement coils for this tank (or even listed on Smoant website) but the coils are compatible with Smok TVF12 series coils.

If I would rate this tank on a 1-10 scale where 1 is total junk, and 10 is best tank ever, these are the marks it would get:

Flavor: 7
Quality: 5
Design: 6

The mod looks very nice overall. Body is constructed from zinc alloy, it’s pretty light weight, and it has a huge front screen, and the back cover has a nice hex patterned fingerprint magnet built in.

Battery cover is held in place with three magnets, and it’s held in place really well. Inside the battery compartment I saw my first nasty surprise. Batteries rest directly against the PCB when inserted.

I can understand that they wanted the mod to be as thin as possible, but this is just a bad practice. Juice can leak into the battery compartment and onto the PCB, and that is a very nice recipe for a disaster.

The top of the mod has a centered 510 connection with a gold plated center pin, which is spring loaded. The mod can easily accommodate tanks up to 27-ish millimeters in diameter without overhang.

The mod will turn on automatically when the batteries are inserted. The screen is very bright, and just under the screen are the plus and minus touch buttons. To turn the mod off, five clicks on the power button will do the trick. Just under the power button is the lock button, which will neutralize the touch buttons on the screen.

This lock can be a bit deceptive, since it won’t prevent the mod from firing. Long press on the lock button will put the mod into the stealth mode with the screen off. One more thing I noticed with the lock function is that it will disengage for no reason at random intervals, whether the mod is in stealth mode, or just the touch buttons are locked.

The screen itself is very bright, but the brightness can be adjusted from the menu. The touch buttons have ‘tactile feedback’ (or let’s call it vibrations) which work for single presses. Long press on a touch button will vibrate only once (at least something :D). Vibrations can be turned off from the menu, and regardless of how much I dislike them, they are useful especially when the mod decided to unlock the buttons and you give them the lightest touch.

Menu system is fairly easy to navigate. Three quick presses on the fire button will enter the menu, which is further navigated with the plus and minus buttons, and presses on the power. To go back one step, just press the power button for about three seconds. Of course, the mod won’t fire when in menu.

By default the mod will start up with the dial interface.

It tried to look fancy, but in all honesty I prefer the classic interface which just displays the information in a more human-readable format.

The classic interface also has a background image, which can be changed from the settings, and if anyone wants to fiddle with the software, additional backgrounds can be uploaded, but they have to be manipulated into bitmap format, and picture size of 240x240 pixels (anyone remember color phones from 2001?).

The third display option is something I really don’t understand.

It’s called the music mode, and I guess that the mod has a built in microphone. The built-in VU meter will start jumping and dancing based on the ambient noise (or music). Does it look nice? I guess it does look nice to younger people. Do we really need something like this in a vape mod? Definitely not. In my opinion this is a complete waste of battery and resources.

There is also a clock screensaver that looks rather funky (took me a while to realize it’s an analogue clock to begin with), and it quickly goes away.

Timeout for display can be configured from the menu as well, but I prefer to keep it short, and not waste any of my battery life on bling that I really don’t need. Important to note, if the batteries are taken out for a longer period of time (let’s say overnight) the internal clock will reset. In all honesty, I would rather have a small battery for the clock inside instead of the useless VU meter microphone.

Performance wise, the mod is very decent. In wattage mode it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It fires very quickly, and delivers power to the coil as expected. What surprised me is that it also performs quite decent in TC mode. I tried it with my trusty ‘ole Footoon Aqua reboot, with a 0.1 ohm stainless steel staggered coil, and once I managed to set up the wattage it gave me a very consistent vape.

Setting it up is a whole different story tho. By default, the mod will set itself to 60W in TC mode, and to change that, I had to press the power and plus buttons together for about three seconds. This allowed me to adjust the preheat wattage. The interface has additional weird features like this one, but they are all covered in the user manual (recommended reading)

Rating the mod on the 1 to 10 scale would be as following:

Design: 8
Performance: 7
Quality: 6

Let’s look at the specs.

The mod
Dimensions: 91x48x31mm
Batteries: Dual 18650
Max wattage: 225W
Available colors: Rainbow, Red, Stainless Steel, Black, Gradient Blue, Pink, Green
Screen size: 2.4 inch

The tank
Dimensions: 25x52mm
Drip tip: 810
Material: aluminum, stainless steel, resin (drip tip) quartz glass
Capacity: 4ml (bubble glass) 2ml (straight glass)
Airflow: bottom

Final thoughts

I have to say that this is a very solid kit for beginners. The tank has a lot of flavor, and the mod performs fairly well. I don’t like the fact the mod is a fingerprint magnet, and that the front screen will probably get scratched a lot down the road.

Would I replace it if it got stolen or broken? I guess I would replace the mod. It’s a solid performer and I can easily see myself using it daily and taking it everywhere with me. The tank I wouldn’t replace just because I’m not really into subohm tanks.

Would I recommend this kit? Yes and no. Yes I would recommend it to people who want to get into DL vaping with a decent kit, and no, I wouldn’t recommend it to more experienced vapers who would probably be disappointed.

Mod Pros
Good performer
Nice design
Light weight

Mod cons
Bad battery compartment design
Fingerprint/scratch magnet
Funky lock feature and weird key-press combos for features

Tank pros
Good flavor
Compatible with Smok TVF12 coils

Tank cons
Feels cheap
Not solid stainless steel construction
Noisy airflow
Compatible with Smok TVF12 coils

Thank you all for reading :smiley:

If you want to get this kit, check it out at @heavengifts
https://www.heavengifts.com/product/Smoant-Naboo-Kit.html

9 Likes
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Seriously? That back cover design is an exact replica of the Charon Mini.

And I don’t like that dumb name.

But I appreciate the review!

8 Likes
3

So many similarities to the Mini, looks like they just wanted to get a new product out on the market.

7 Likes
4

Very well done but I really don’t know what direction Smoant is taking with all this extra BS added to it.

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I agree, looks like a bigger Mini with a rounded faceplate and why keep the same dumb backplate?

Very solid review @adary, I appreciate the detail you put into it :+1:

8 Likes
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Probably because it’s a good fingerprint magnet :smiley:

Thanks for the feedback folks :slight_smile:

6 Likes
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It definitely seems like a rehash of the Charon Mini.

I really wish they’d (well, all mod manufacturers really) stop focusing on fluff (unreadable clocks, voice recognition, “party lights”, spinners, etc) and start focusing solely on delivering a quality set of electronics designed for longevity and proper functionality for mature adults.

Thanks for the review!

6 Likes
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Amen to that. Give me a tiny B&W screen with the info i need and I’m happy (like ipv d3s for instance)

Thanks for the comment :slight_smile:

5 Likes
9

Awesome review, cheers :beers:

5 Likes
10

I have no problem with ‘fluff’, as long as the main purpose of a mod is paid attention to. I think of them the way I think of early ‘smartphones’. When they were still primarily used as a mobile telephone, the damn manufacturers spent so much time on the portable computer parts that most of the actual phones were clunky and worked poorly. I was always one of the ones who relied on the phone part, so their indifference to the actual phone functionality irked me. Now, no one cares and all they want is the computer and app stuff.

3 Likes
12

My only ‘complaint’, which is really nothing more than an observation, is that it looks to me like they just did a light mod on the chassis of the Mini and called it a new mod. Seems there are some lighting features that are different but it ‘looks’ too much like the Mini for me, which is all I meant. Would never mean to deride a good review, of course.

Let’s just say that if I never heard of the Mini, I would really like this one.

Except for the dumb name. I’m not a Star Wars guy.

2 Likes
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It’s definitely a solid performer.

And you are more than welcome :slight_smile:

3 Likes
14

Appreciate the review. Nicely done. Mine is chugging away just fine although I don’t use it every day. Hard to do that when theirs another mod in for testing. Nothing wonky to date.

3 Likes