Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the smok I-Priv Kit. Please see bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is a retail version and not marked as a sample
Introduction:
The smok I-Priv Kit is an older kit from popular manufacturer Smok. It came out early this year but i didn't get a review sample until way later so hence the late review. Smok doesn't need much of an introduction as they are the best selling company currently however in my experience is a middle tier company overall but are probably the most disliked around forums. The Smok I-priv Kit is a kit is a kit that includes a dual 2x700 mod rated at 230 watts and includes the TFV12 Prince tank as well. It’s available in 8 colors Black, Purple, Green, Prism Chrome, Prism Blue, Prism Gold, Prism Rainbow and Red. The kit is on sale at around 60USD on healthcabin
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
album
Initial Impressions and features
When I first got this Mod, I figured the “I” in I-Priv stood for iron man. It’s clearly designed to look like his armor complete with the screen being an arc reactor in the chest. On top of that it talks to you like Jarvis as well. It kinda freaked me out and i turned it off so i won’t be going over the voice commands. Too gimmicky for my taste. It also has an LED on the bottom you can program but i’m not sure why. You can’t see it when it’s sitting and it just blinds people when you vape on it so i turned that off as well. I mean personally I like some LEDs although i know most don’t, but not on the bottom of the mod. Overall at the start it just felt kinda gimmicky to me even as a fan of comics and such i wasn’t too impressed with the design choices.
Watt Mode Performance (chart and spreadsheet in picture album)
Now let’s get into some data. I ran my normal testing. I used Samsung 30T batteries for the testing. Testing resistances were done at .12, .14, .21, and .63 ohms. wattage points were max (230), 200, 150, 100, 75, 50 and 25. At .12 ohms it maxed out at 187 watts and 39 amps. For the rest of the testing it was on the low side quite a bit 17-37 watts low at 100 or more, and 4-13 watts low under 100. Pretty big struggle at that resistance compared to most mods. At .14 it maxed out at 222 watts. It still was quite a bit low over 100 watts 10-11 but at 100 or less just a little low 1-4 watts. For the .21 test it maxed out at 177 watts. Again a little on the low side 2-7 watts at 100 or less and 8 watts low at 150. For the .63 testing it maxed out at 79 watts and 7.048 volts. For the rest of the testing it hit low 1-3 watts. The volts shows there is no boost circuit in this mod like many dual battery mods.
Overall I felt the performance of this mod was just ok. It struggled quite a bit with the .12 ohm build which is common for most mods at that resistance to struggle a bit but not as much as this one. It mostly hits slightly low to very low overall. I was able to get 222 watts max, so I consider it to be accurately rated at 230 watts. The 7.048 volt limit shows there is no boost circuit. Their manual lists the max Volts at 8.2V which is a decent rating for a mod without a boost circuit but this one seems like closer to 8 would be a better rating had I used a higher ohm coil it would probably hit that. They don’t list an amp limit on this mod and the most i got was 39 with a .12 ohm coil which is around average for a dual battery mod (average is around 40 these days). However a bit lower than other dual 21700 mods I’ve tested. Personally If i was listing the specs I’d call the mod 230 watts, 8V and 40A. So overall good ratings from what they actually listed which was only watts and volts.
Simplified TLDR Power Performance summary
Mod performance is just ok. Mostly hits few watts off on the low side for most people’s uses and at really low ohms or high watts very low. Accurately rated for watts (222), No boost circuit, average amp limit of 39. Volts tested at 7.048 so pretty expected from a non boost mod.
Temperature Control Performance
Using SS316 wire in SS mode with TCR set at 92, I tested 8 builds. 2 simple round single coil, 2 simple round dual Coil, 2 large fancy single coils builds, and 2 large fancy dual coil builds. SS mode allows you to set the TCR. There is no dedicated TCR mode but since you can adjust it in the preset modes that’s fine in my book. With that said, the mod isn’t bad in TC at all. It feels pretty accurate providing a warm vape in the 420F-450F range so maybe a bit off on the high side. You may want to start around 400F and adjust from there. You also have full power range adjustment for ramp up which works well. The throttle was smooth and not pulsey and vaped pretty damn nice most of the time. It’s a little inconsistent at times where it seems to forget to cut off but overall not bad. I’d consider it at least passable. It’s not as good as some others but they sure passed the ijoy, sigelei, wismec, joyetech, etc bad mods of TC and have improved. I wouldn’t flat out recommend for TC however they are moving in the right direction and have made mods since this one so maybe if i get to try a newer one they will have it fully fixed to be on a mid tier level. Overall pretty impressed with the improvements they’ve made with their TC since the alien but still not quite there yet.
Other Usage Notes
The mod uses a standard 5 click to lock or unlock the mod. You use 3 clicks to enter the menu and in the menu there is an option to power off the mod. One thing smok always seemed to nail for me is their menu system. It’s very easy to operate and this one is no different. 3 clicks of fire gets you to the menu where you have mode, puff setting,my setting, screen, voice setting, led setting, and power off. In mode setting you have power, and TC for Ni, Ti, and SS and a watt memory mode. Not sure the reason for a watt memory mode but whatever. IN TC modes you can set the power and the TCR, in Power mode you can set the preheat of normal, soft, and hard. The my settings allows you to change the wattage adjust from Voice Control amount. The screen you can set the color and the timeout. The LED is self explanatory and plenty of colors and options. Overall easy to use menu and mod. I didn’t mess around with the voice controls as the mod talking to me was just odd so i disabled it. It’s not really a useful feature anyway IMO and i don't’ even use it on my cell phone much.
The Smok I-Priv adjusts by .1 watt increments under 100 watts and full watt increments 100 or more but doesn't round robin. If you hold the adjustment button it does full watts under 100 as well and scrolls pretty fast. Overall well done there and fast and easy to adjust but i’m not a fan of .1 watt increments. The mod itself is built mostly solid with no rattle at all, But is quite bulky and heavy and solid metal. The Battery door is a standard magnetic back plate and It’s easy to get batteries in and out without damaging wraps and takes 2 2x700 batteries (21700, 20700, or 18650 with included adapter). The backplate has some notchers on the top so you have to angle it on the top first to slide it in then close it. It works well but there is a little bit of play with the battery door. My other minor complaint on the build quality is the panel opposite of the fire bar. It’s squeaky so when you squeeze the mod to fire you can feel it give and make a little noise. Not sure why it was made like that when it could have been part of the body and just painted to match but it bothers me a little so worth a mention.
There paint on the mod is very nice as well. They’ve come a long way from the flaky paint aliens. The Black one i have is a mixture of a black body with some red accents on the fire bar and opposite the fir bar as well as the metal circle around the screen and the adjustment buttons. The Prism ones are made to be shiny but the non prism like i have is more matte in finish except the red highlights which are shiny and look like they have a nice clear coat on them. Very well done there. The fire button is nice large and clicky fire bar. It works well and It never gets stuck or anything though which is as it should be and is really comfy to use and you can fire it by squeezing the mod. The 510 pin gave me no issues and every atomizer i used on it worked great with no gaps. The mod handles a 25mm atomizer flush and due to the design with the armor shoulders you can’t physically fit anything bigger than that on it. The screen is a nice size round screen with color text on it that you can change the color of. It’s bright and easy to see and overall a nice screen halfway between the large full color ones and the smaller black and white ones on most mods. Also for branding the mod itself there is a small smok logo above the screen in white and an I-priv on the back plate also small and grey matching the small design plate n the back. They don’t list a charging rate and i don’t recommend charging internally in your mods and I don’t test charge rates of devices like this due to that.
TFV12 Prince Rundown
Ok so now a quick rundown of the tank, I normally don’t get too crazy in detail with included tanks and this one has been on the market for quite some time. They list it as a 28mm tank but it’s really around 25mm and only 28mm at the widest point with the bubble glass . It comes with a large 8ml bubble tank and a 5ml standard tank. It uses a standard 810 drip tip with o-rings. The one in the black kit is a black snakeskin resin so nice overall looking. It uses a swing open fill like most of their tanks but has a button to lock it in place. The AFC is easy to adjust and has 2 large air holes equally spaced apart. no complaints about the tank itself and a standard tank you see on the market from many companies.
Now for the important part, the coil performance. There is no RBA deck so you are limited to the coil options only. I used the 2 coils that came with the kit. The 1st coil was the V12 .15 ohm strip coil It was good at around 70-80 watts and flavor was average nothing great but not bad but sadly it died around 40ml of usage so poor life. Next was the V12 .15 ohm mesh coil which was good at around 60-70 watts and the flavor was decent, just ok. Not as good as the strip coil and only lasted 24ml then started doing the atomizer short thing. Overall not very good coil life form either and the flavor was at best just ok.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this kit or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no but let's break it down piece by piece. The tank like most in kits really isn’t worth buying separate. Much better tanks on the market but it is on par with most tanks included in kits. Still i’d rather buy a mod and tank separate. For the mod now I’m going to lean a little towards the no as a TC mod but a little towards the yes as a power mod. There hasn’t been a ton of dual 2x700 mods on the market and i’ve only got to test 3. This the vboy 222 and the geekvape blade and none were perfect by any means but this is kind of a middle point. The vboy outperforms it overall easily and the blade outperforms it in power mode only but not in TC mode. And the vboy isn’t perfect either and the blade is the best power performer of the 3. So i’d suggest reading all 3 reviews to pick one that suits you but it’s good enough in the limited options out there for this kind of mod if you don’t mind it’s faults so i’ll be adding it to my sheet as a power mode mod only.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.
Product Link: https://www.healthcabin.net/smok-ipriv-kit-p/18055.html
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from healthcabin
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done around 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadhseet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
Introduction:
The smok I-Priv Kit is an older kit from popular manufacturer Smok. It came out early this year but i didn't get a review sample until way later so hence the late review. Smok doesn't need much of an introduction as they are the best selling company currently however in my experience is a middle tier company overall but are probably the most disliked around forums. The Smok I-priv Kit is a kit is a kit that includes a dual 2x700 mod rated at 230 watts and includes the TFV12 Prince tank as well. It’s available in 8 colors Black, Purple, Green, Prism Chrome, Prism Blue, Prism Gold, Prism Rainbow and Red. The kit is on sale at around 60USD on healthcabin
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
- Dual High-Amp 20700/21700 Battery - Not Included
- Optional Dual 18650 Batteries
- Wattage Output Range: 1-230W
- Voltage Output Range: 0.5-9.5V
- Min Atomizer Resistance: 0.06ohm
- Temperature Range: 200-600F
- Supports Ni200 Nickel, Titanium, and Stainless Steel Heating Elements
- Precision Memory Modes
- Voice Control System - AI Powered Technology
- Premium Zinc Alloy Construction
- Visually Striking Armored Design
- Full-Colored OLED Display Matrix - Customizable Colors
- Battery Series Connection
- Dual Battery Life Indicator
- Puff Monitoring
- Stealth Lateral Fire Key - Squeeze-to-Fire
- Ergonomically Placed Adjustment Buttons
- Micro USB Port - Firmware Upgrades
- 510 Connection
- 24.5mm Base Diameter
- 28mm Diameter at Widest Point
- 8mL Maximum Juice Capacity
- Superior Stainless Steel Construction
- Bulb Glass Pyrex Glass - Food-Grade
- High-Grade Glass Reinforcement
- High-Temperature Resistant - Explosion Proof
- Convenient Top-Fill Rotary Design - Lock Button Mechanism
- Massive Dual Adjustable Airflow Control at Base
- TFV12 Prince Coil System
- 0.15ohm V12 Prince Strip Coil - rated for 40-100W
- 0.15ohm V12 Prince Mesh Coil - rated for 40-80W
- 810 Cobra Resin Ultra-Wide Drip Tip
- 510 Connection
- 1 I-PRIV 230W Box Mod
- 1 TFV12 Prince Tank
- 1 0.15ohm V12 Prince Strip Core
- 1 0.15ohm V12 Prince Mesh Core
- 1 18650 Battery Adapter
- 1 Spare Glass Tube
- 1 PRIV USB Cable
- 1 Spare Parts Bag
- 1 Instructional Manual
album
Initial Impressions and features
When I first got this Mod, I figured the “I” in I-Priv stood for iron man. It’s clearly designed to look like his armor complete with the screen being an arc reactor in the chest. On top of that it talks to you like Jarvis as well. It kinda freaked me out and i turned it off so i won’t be going over the voice commands. Too gimmicky for my taste. It also has an LED on the bottom you can program but i’m not sure why. You can’t see it when it’s sitting and it just blinds people when you vape on it so i turned that off as well. I mean personally I like some LEDs although i know most don’t, but not on the bottom of the mod. Overall at the start it just felt kinda gimmicky to me even as a fan of comics and such i wasn’t too impressed with the design choices.
Watt Mode Performance (chart and spreadsheet in picture album)
Now let’s get into some data. I ran my normal testing. I used Samsung 30T batteries for the testing. Testing resistances were done at .12, .14, .21, and .63 ohms. wattage points were max (230), 200, 150, 100, 75, 50 and 25. At .12 ohms it maxed out at 187 watts and 39 amps. For the rest of the testing it was on the low side quite a bit 17-37 watts low at 100 or more, and 4-13 watts low under 100. Pretty big struggle at that resistance compared to most mods. At .14 it maxed out at 222 watts. It still was quite a bit low over 100 watts 10-11 but at 100 or less just a little low 1-4 watts. For the .21 test it maxed out at 177 watts. Again a little on the low side 2-7 watts at 100 or less and 8 watts low at 150. For the .63 testing it maxed out at 79 watts and 7.048 volts. For the rest of the testing it hit low 1-3 watts. The volts shows there is no boost circuit in this mod like many dual battery mods.
Overall I felt the performance of this mod was just ok. It struggled quite a bit with the .12 ohm build which is common for most mods at that resistance to struggle a bit but not as much as this one. It mostly hits slightly low to very low overall. I was able to get 222 watts max, so I consider it to be accurately rated at 230 watts. The 7.048 volt limit shows there is no boost circuit. Their manual lists the max Volts at 8.2V which is a decent rating for a mod without a boost circuit but this one seems like closer to 8 would be a better rating had I used a higher ohm coil it would probably hit that. They don’t list an amp limit on this mod and the most i got was 39 with a .12 ohm coil which is around average for a dual battery mod (average is around 40 these days). However a bit lower than other dual 21700 mods I’ve tested. Personally If i was listing the specs I’d call the mod 230 watts, 8V and 40A. So overall good ratings from what they actually listed which was only watts and volts.
Simplified TLDR Power Performance summary
Mod performance is just ok. Mostly hits few watts off on the low side for most people’s uses and at really low ohms or high watts very low. Accurately rated for watts (222), No boost circuit, average amp limit of 39. Volts tested at 7.048 so pretty expected from a non boost mod.
Temperature Control Performance
Using SS316 wire in SS mode with TCR set at 92, I tested 8 builds. 2 simple round single coil, 2 simple round dual Coil, 2 large fancy single coils builds, and 2 large fancy dual coil builds. SS mode allows you to set the TCR. There is no dedicated TCR mode but since you can adjust it in the preset modes that’s fine in my book. With that said, the mod isn’t bad in TC at all. It feels pretty accurate providing a warm vape in the 420F-450F range so maybe a bit off on the high side. You may want to start around 400F and adjust from there. You also have full power range adjustment for ramp up which works well. The throttle was smooth and not pulsey and vaped pretty damn nice most of the time. It’s a little inconsistent at times where it seems to forget to cut off but overall not bad. I’d consider it at least passable. It’s not as good as some others but they sure passed the ijoy, sigelei, wismec, joyetech, etc bad mods of TC and have improved. I wouldn’t flat out recommend for TC however they are moving in the right direction and have made mods since this one so maybe if i get to try a newer one they will have it fully fixed to be on a mid tier level. Overall pretty impressed with the improvements they’ve made with their TC since the alien but still not quite there yet.
Other Usage Notes
The mod uses a standard 5 click to lock or unlock the mod. You use 3 clicks to enter the menu and in the menu there is an option to power off the mod. One thing smok always seemed to nail for me is their menu system. It’s very easy to operate and this one is no different. 3 clicks of fire gets you to the menu where you have mode, puff setting,my setting, screen, voice setting, led setting, and power off. In mode setting you have power, and TC for Ni, Ti, and SS and a watt memory mode. Not sure the reason for a watt memory mode but whatever. IN TC modes you can set the power and the TCR, in Power mode you can set the preheat of normal, soft, and hard. The my settings allows you to change the wattage adjust from Voice Control amount. The screen you can set the color and the timeout. The LED is self explanatory and plenty of colors and options. Overall easy to use menu and mod. I didn’t mess around with the voice controls as the mod talking to me was just odd so i disabled it. It’s not really a useful feature anyway IMO and i don't’ even use it on my cell phone much.
The Smok I-Priv adjusts by .1 watt increments under 100 watts and full watt increments 100 or more but doesn't round robin. If you hold the adjustment button it does full watts under 100 as well and scrolls pretty fast. Overall well done there and fast and easy to adjust but i’m not a fan of .1 watt increments. The mod itself is built mostly solid with no rattle at all, But is quite bulky and heavy and solid metal. The Battery door is a standard magnetic back plate and It’s easy to get batteries in and out without damaging wraps and takes 2 2x700 batteries (21700, 20700, or 18650 with included adapter). The backplate has some notchers on the top so you have to angle it on the top first to slide it in then close it. It works well but there is a little bit of play with the battery door. My other minor complaint on the build quality is the panel opposite of the fire bar. It’s squeaky so when you squeeze the mod to fire you can feel it give and make a little noise. Not sure why it was made like that when it could have been part of the body and just painted to match but it bothers me a little so worth a mention.
There paint on the mod is very nice as well. They’ve come a long way from the flaky paint aliens. The Black one i have is a mixture of a black body with some red accents on the fire bar and opposite the fir bar as well as the metal circle around the screen and the adjustment buttons. The Prism ones are made to be shiny but the non prism like i have is more matte in finish except the red highlights which are shiny and look like they have a nice clear coat on them. Very well done there. The fire button is nice large and clicky fire bar. It works well and It never gets stuck or anything though which is as it should be and is really comfy to use and you can fire it by squeezing the mod. The 510 pin gave me no issues and every atomizer i used on it worked great with no gaps. The mod handles a 25mm atomizer flush and due to the design with the armor shoulders you can’t physically fit anything bigger than that on it. The screen is a nice size round screen with color text on it that you can change the color of. It’s bright and easy to see and overall a nice screen halfway between the large full color ones and the smaller black and white ones on most mods. Also for branding the mod itself there is a small smok logo above the screen in white and an I-priv on the back plate also small and grey matching the small design plate n the back. They don’t list a charging rate and i don’t recommend charging internally in your mods and I don’t test charge rates of devices like this due to that.
TFV12 Prince Rundown
Ok so now a quick rundown of the tank, I normally don’t get too crazy in detail with included tanks and this one has been on the market for quite some time. They list it as a 28mm tank but it’s really around 25mm and only 28mm at the widest point with the bubble glass . It comes with a large 8ml bubble tank and a 5ml standard tank. It uses a standard 810 drip tip with o-rings. The one in the black kit is a black snakeskin resin so nice overall looking. It uses a swing open fill like most of their tanks but has a button to lock it in place. The AFC is easy to adjust and has 2 large air holes equally spaced apart. no complaints about the tank itself and a standard tank you see on the market from many companies.
Now for the important part, the coil performance. There is no RBA deck so you are limited to the coil options only. I used the 2 coils that came with the kit. The 1st coil was the V12 .15 ohm strip coil It was good at around 70-80 watts and flavor was average nothing great but not bad but sadly it died around 40ml of usage so poor life. Next was the V12 .15 ohm mesh coil which was good at around 60-70 watts and the flavor was decent, just ok. Not as good as the strip coil and only lasted 24ml then started doing the atomizer short thing. Overall not very good coil life form either and the flavor was at best just ok.
Pros:
- Power mode performance is solid but not great
- Accurately rated for watts (222)
- good amp limit (39)
- batteries are easy to get in and out without damaging wraps
- nice fire button
- handles 25mm atomizers without overhang
- easy to adjust wattage quickly
- color options (8)
- Easy to use Menu
- TCR adjustments and full watt adjustments in TC
- nice size color screen
- nice fire bar
- TC is just passable. Not terrible but not great
- Minor build quality issues (battery door play, creaking noise from side opposite fire bar)
- included tank coils aren't very good
So with all that said, do I recommend this kit or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no but let's break it down piece by piece. The tank like most in kits really isn’t worth buying separate. Much better tanks on the market but it is on par with most tanks included in kits. Still i’d rather buy a mod and tank separate. For the mod now I’m going to lean a little towards the no as a TC mod but a little towards the yes as a power mod. There hasn’t been a ton of dual 2x700 mods on the market and i’ve only got to test 3. This the vboy 222 and the geekvape blade and none were perfect by any means but this is kind of a middle point. The vboy outperforms it overall easily and the blade outperforms it in power mode only but not in TC mode. And the vboy isn’t perfect either and the blade is the best power performer of the 3. So i’d suggest reading all 3 reviews to pick one that suits you but it’s good enough in the limited options out there for this kind of mod if you don’t mind it’s faults so i’ll be adding it to my sheet as a power mode mod only.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.
Product Link: https://www.healthcabin.net/smok-ipriv-kit-p/18055.html
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from healthcabin
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done around 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadhseet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
