Hi Vaping Community, In this review i take a look at the SWAG PX80 80W Pod Mod Kit with SWAG Pod Tank from Vaporesso. The SWAG PX80 80W Pod Mod Kit was supplied free of charge for the purpose of this review by Jasmine from Vaporesso.
Introduction
Vaporesso are the flagship of the worlds largest e-cigarette manufacturer Smoore! Vaporesso’s products just seem to get better and better and they don’t shy away from being innovative as we have seen with features such as Super player, Smart TC and Pulse modes. In recent times they moved from using their Omni chipset (most manufacturers would love this chipset) to the Axon which really rocks offering even more stability and efficiency!
The Swag PX80 is a pod mod version of the much loved Swag series and it certainly has a few tricks under it’s sleeve with an embedded IML screen and a neat way to allow changing coil heads while the pod still has e-liquid in it!
The Swag Pod Tank is the most innovative Pod tank i have used and is a great partner for the Axon powered Swag PX80 with it’s Variable Wattage, Smart Wattage and Variable Voltage modes. The PX80 also has a puff monitoring system, customisable colour display and accommodates the much praised GTX coil heads which offer cross compatibility, let’s check this latest gem from Vaporesso out!
In The Box
Contents:
1pc SWAG PX80 MOD
1pc SWAG POD (4ml / 2ml TPD)
1pc GTX 0.2ohm MESH Coil
1pc GTX 0.3ohm MESH Coil
1pc Type-C USB Cable
1pc User Manual
1pc Warranty Card
1pc Reminder Card
Aesthetics and Ergonomics
The Swag PX80 came in the usual cardboard packaging and on opening despite being a Pod Mod i received undoubtedly a Swag!!! The option i received was the Emerald Green, the choices are Brick Black, Imperial Red, Emerald Green, Leather Brown or Gunmetal Grey.
The device as mentioned stays true to the Swag form factor with pretty much identical dimensions so is a pod mod that is very portable and ergonomic getting swallowed up in the hand. The device features both a nicely machined chromed fire button and navigational vertical rocker and has an hidden screen within an IML Carbon Fiber design one side. The opposite side see’s a cut cornered Leather panel which makes a change to the usual leather spine and up top we have the most standard “tank looking” Pod i have seen to date.
As well as the buttons on the face we have a Type C USB port and then moving to the base we have printed safety stamps and venting. The device is extremely well made and in my opinion aesthetically pleasing to the eye!
SWAG PX80 Specs and Features:
Dimensions: 99.7 * 27.2 * 50.9mm
Materials: Zinc Alloy, Leather, IML panel, PCTG
POD Capacity: 4ml (Standard) / 2ml (TPD)
Coil: GTX 0.2ohm MESH Coil (45-60W), GTX 0.3ohm MESH Coil (32-45W)
Output Wattage: 5-80W
Battery: External 18650
Display: 0.96 inch TFT Screen
Charging: Type-C, 5V/2A
Embedded IML Screen
Replaceable Coil Without Emptying POD
Quad Leakage Protection
Adjustable Rotating Airflow
GTX Platform
AXON Chip
Magnetic Pod Connection
Colours: Brick Black, Imperial Red, Emerald Green, Leather Brown, Gunmetal Grey
The Pod
The Swag Tank Pod is the most sophisticated and “Tank like” pod i have used to date. Up top we have a Delrin proprietary drip tip which can’t be removed but this is necessary as will become clear. The base of the drip tip has a chromed band and the fixed top-cap is Zinc alloy with both a printed closed and open padlock icon on it. The base section of the Pod Tank is also some kind of metal and incorporates dual airflow slots. We have a cylindrical opening and inner metallic chamber with wicking ports. The coil head just gets press fitted into place and sits flush with the base of the pod creating a flat sealed bottom surface to the pod and enclosed airflow.
The pod with coil head inserted has Vaporesso’s Quad Leakage Protection which consists of triple O-ring seals and a self circulation system which recycles any escaping e-liquid rather than it coming out of the airflow slots.
The standard pod capacity is 4ml and the TPD version of course comes with a 2ml capacity Pod Tank. As with so many of these pods we have bottom fill in the form of a removable silicone plug which while it offers a quick and mess free experience i would much prefer top fill so i didn’t need to remove the pod tank to fill!
The Coil Heads
The Swag PX80 Pod Tank accommodates the GTX platform series so we have cross compatibility with many recent Vaporesso products. Although the Swag Pod Tank has a clever way of ejecting coils which also allows coil changes while e-liquid is still in the tank when it comes to fitting a new coil just press fit into place and i will explain the rest in the next section.
You receive both a 0.2ohm and 0.3ohm mesh coil head with the 0.2ohm being rated between 45 and 60w and the 0.3ohm between 32 and 45w. Because we get cross compatibility with he GTX coil heads this gives many more options including a 1.2ohm MTL option!
Clean and Easy Coil Replacement
I have seen similar designs to this but not sure using the drip-tip as a coil ejecting tool and certainly not with any other pod/AIO tank.
The coil head fits inside the chamber but we also have an inner metal lining which acts as a shutter for the wicking ports when the coil is removed so the coil can be removed with e-liquid still inside the tank.
The drip tip has a little arrowhead and on the top-cap we have both an open and closed padlock. When the arrowhead is lined up with the closed padlock the drip-tip is locked in position but if you turn it to the open position (arrowhead lined up with open padlock) the drip tip can be pushed downwards which can be seen by the Chromed band around it’s base lowering into the tank. when you press the drip tip down it pushes the inner metal lining down onto the coil which ejects while falling in place to act as a shutter for the wicking ports.
This way of ejecting the coil as allowed for the base of the coil to sit flush completing the flat sealed base of the pod giving both a leak resistant solution and enclosed airflow system! When fitting a coil as already mentioned you just press fit into place as normal which automatically pushes the inner lining up to expose the wicking ports but you need to remember to turn the drip tip to the closed position so if the drip tip gets pressed you don’t eject the coil head by accident.
Fitting The Pod
Looking into the shallow pod bay we can see the central Gold plated, spring loaded contacts and four strong magnets to attract the metallic base of the pod. The pod fits very securely needing a strong tug to remove while still being able to turn with a smooth restriction for adjusting airflow!
The Airflow
The device has a slot towards the top either side which lines up with slots on the pod when inserted. Due to the base of the coil head completing a flat bottom to the pod the airflow is enclosed which is much better than on similar pod mod designs and having the side of the pod adjusting directly to the outer slot you don’t get the air leakage as you do on fancy designs such as the Voopoo Drag X etc! excellently executed adjustable airflow design!!!
Installing The Battery
The Swags have that Pico style top battery cap design which allows the battery to protrude above the height of the main body allowing for a smaller device. The cap on the Swag PX80 is substantial with heavy machined knurling, we have no brightly marked negative orientation but plenty of light gets into the tube and positive is vibrantly marked at the bottom of the tube so i am fine with this. Both unscrewing for battery installation and screwing the cap secure reveals nice smooth threading, good job!
The Display
The Swag PX80 has an integrated, embedded IML screen with outer Carbon Fiber effect layer before the final clear outer shell, this means the screen is invisible with just the Carbon fiber layer visible until the display springs into life, i love this!
Top left we have the battery status bar and top right the mode, below in large font we have either the wattage or Voltage depending which mode you are using! We then have a graphic equalizer which i don’t believe really equates to anything as it would mean far from a smooth vape according to it but purely an aesthetic touch! Underneath the Graphic equalizer we have the suitable wattage range for the attached coil head for reference.
Below to the left we have the resistance and to the right the the voltage (displays wattage when in Variable Voltage mode). Finally at the bottom of the display we have the puff count to the left and vape duration to the bottom right. After 20 seconds of inactivity the display goes off and the screen disappears!!!
Now you see me, now you don’t!!!
Operating The Device
The Swag PX80 is the almost universal 5 clicks of the fire button within 2 seconds to power up or down and once on 3 quick clicks will lock the navigational rocker but the device will still fire!
- and - together so just evenly depress the entire rocker enters the menu which displays a column of icons which can be scrolled through using the rocker with fire as select. We have Variable Wattage (default), Variable Voltage, Smart Wattage, Puff, Theme, Default and Exit.
When choosing Smart Wattage it gives an option to switch on or exit which will leave the device in the default standard Variable Wattage mode. When choosing Puff it reveals a 7 day monitoring graph, you also get the option to reset or exit without resetting. Theme allows you to change the colour of a few items like the graphic equalizer etc, the choices are Green, Blue or Pink!
The wattage adjusts in 0.5w increments with individual presses or 1w increments when the + or - is held down. It adjusts from 5 to 80w and doesn’t round robin which is a rare con for this device especially with it being 80w. Maybe a 40w device not being able to round robin really doesn’t matter but once you start getting to 80w it becomes a con but it’s a sign how good i have found this device that i am emphasising what many will see as a petty con!
Protections:
Short Circuit Protection
No Load Protection
PCBA Overheat Protection
Auto Shut-off Protection
Over Charge Protection
Over Discharge Protection
Over Voltage Protection
Low Voltage Protection
Charging
If you find you need to charge your battery in the device then i am pleased that the Swag PX80 has both a Type C USB and 2A charge rate. While charging the screen displays a charging progress bar, the charge as a percentage and also estimated charge time left, it also supports pass-through, excellent!
False Battery Status Reading
I did find an issue with my device which might be isolated to my device or could need a firmware upgrade to solve. I initially put what i thought was a fresh battery in the device yet it showed just one Red battery bar but nether the less i decided to get what puffs i can before it reached the cut-off. Anyway about 300 puffs later it finally ran out of battery so it had been a full battery and it just displayed the wrong battery life percentage. The next battery i put in registered and behaved correctly throughout and when i fitted a third battery again it gave a full battery bar so all good! Then after about 70 to 80 puffs it jumped from all but one battery bars full to again just one Red bar! I attached the USB as the charge on the battery is displayed on the screen to find it still had 70% charge which sounded right and when pulling the USB out the status bar had gone back to displaying the correct status!
It’s just the status bar can from time to time give a false reading, it doesn’t actually effect battery life because if the status bar is showing you are out of battery it carries on firing until the battery actually does really reach cut-off. I would find it a deal breaker if sometimes it showed there was more charge on the battery than there actually was as this could leave you without a vape if you thought the device when leaving the house had plenty of charge to then find it had very little, instead it’s just an annoyance when it displays incorrectly!!!
How It Performs? And Thoughts!
What a gem this is from Vaporesso and so glad it uses the GTX coil platform as these are tried and tested coil heads which give really good flavour and decent longevity as well as cross compatibility.
Apart from the battery indication bar sometimes displaying a lower reading than is the actual status (could just be my device) which is more just annoying than anything else because it doesn’t actually effect battery life it really is hard to find anything to complain about.
Maybe one thing worth mentioning is i believe they have missed a trick with this being a semi restrictive/restrictive direct lung device which even when using the 1.2ohm MTL coil (not included) only gives a loose MTL at best. I say that because the general thought would be those that love the Swag are likely candidates to consider buying this and sure some single coil RDL vapers etc use the Swag but the vast majority of Swag users i know have MTL set-ups. So in my opinion it seems a bit odd that the PX80 not just with the included coils but also slot airflow and wide bore proprietary drip-tip isn’t considering MTL as an option. I really think Vaporesso should bring out a MTL version of the Swag Pod Tank which operates the same but has a series of holes each side for airflow and a drip tip more suited to a MTL vape!
I have always preferred the 0.3ohm coil head over the 0.2ohm as much because it allows a lower wattage vape as the flavour and draw is very similar. I do however for my own preference find the ratings a little high and prefer the 0.3ohm at 30w and the 0.2ohm at 40w, the airflow is very smooth across the board. Also the 0.6ohm and 0.8ohm mesh coil heads in the GTX series will give a lower wattage RDL vape increasing battery life while maintaining vape quality and flavour.
So much to like here from the clever way the drip tip ejects the coil and the inner lining of the chamber blocking the wicking ports to give a mess free coil change experience to just how well the adjustable airflow works with a smooth adjustment. The embedded screen i believe will appeal to many and i for one love it and although many Axon features are disabled this is still a feature rich device compared to other pod mods. The threading on the battery cap is the smoothest i have come across yet with a battery cap of this kind and the overall build quality and aesthetic look is first class! The device is also quite light, very portable and ergonomic making it a great out and about companion and that leak resistant Quad protection gives a leak free experience which is always a winner!
I have not always found Vaporesso devices the most efficient when it comes to battery life but despite my issues with the status bar the Swag PX80 is proving to buck that trend as i have been experiencing better battery life than average for a single 18650 device. I love both the chromed fire and navigational rocker as an aesthetic feature when the light catches and in it’s operational capacity the fire button is nice and clicky and we get absolutely no delay, hitting set wattage out the gate!
For those that charge in the device we have both USB C and a 2A charge rate with great feedback given while charging including estimated charge time left, it also supports pass-through!
Likes
Excellent build quality
Portable and ergonomic
Very pleasing to the eye (subjective)
5 Leather panel options
Embedded Display within IML panel
User friendly interface
Space saving top battery cap design
Threading silky smooth
Swap coils while e-liquid still in Pod Tank
Neat system to eject coil heads
4ml Capacity (2ml TPD)
Can see e-liquid level at all times
Mess free filling
Leak resistant Quad protection
Accommodates GTX coil head series
Cross compatibility
Both coil heads included very good flavour and decent longevity
Fires out the gate with instant ramp up
Adjustable airflow moves smoothly and works great
Variable Wattage, Smart Wattage, Variable Voltage modes
7 day puff monitoring system
Screen accents colour customisation
Experienced above average battery life compared with other single 18650 devices
Type C USB / 2A charge rate
Excellent charging feedback including estimated charge time left
Supports firmware upgrades and pass-through
Cons
Status bar sometimes shows false reading (could be my device and not a general issue)
Not suited for MTL despite an available MTL coil head and the Swag being a MTL favourite
Bottom-fill, would much prefer top-fill
Wattage & Voltage adjustment doesn’t round robin
I would once again like to thank Jasmine from Vaporesso for supplying the Swag PX80 80W Pod Mod Kit for the purpose of this review, thanks for reading and stay safe!