Welcome back for another Z-Lee review. Today we'll be taking a look at the newly released FreeMaX Marvos X which is the latest iteration of the Marvos Pod series consisting of the Marvos T, Marvos 60W, Marvos 80W, and the Marvos S 60W. All of these pod systems use FreeMaX's MS-series coils and are all cross-compatible with one another - even the new CRC Pod that comes with the Marvos X can be used on any of the previous Marvos Pod Mods. Similarly, the new MS CoilTech 5.0 (Double-D) coils found in the Marvos X also work in this way. I absolutely love when companies stick with compatibility parameters so that their products can be used interchangeably.
We'll be taking a bit of a different approach with today's review because there are so pictures to be added to show the UI color functions and options. We'll be going into everything with just as much depth as before, but will be giving you a more brief intro with much of the information that can be found on FreeMaX's website. Besides, I think their website has a much better presentation than the still photos you'll find in this review. You'll be able to access an interactive display showing the 10 different lighting modes of the Marvos X visually which I can only describe to you in words, and you can also check out their RBG UI color sampler which has over 16.5 million different options. I think you'll be able to find a color that works for you.
I want to thank @Freemax_Jerry for reaching out to do this review. It's a tad bit overdue, but you can be assured that I put this kit through it's paces. As always, I'll remain as unbias and objective as I can while also adding subjective opinions and thoughts throughout. If you have any questions or comments about this kit such as "Why are your reviews so long?" or what have you, feel free to leave a response or PM me.
Alright, let's dig in!
(All photos can be clicked on for easier reading/viewing)
The FreeMaX Marvos X Pod Kit comes with everything you'd need to start vaping with the exception of the 18650 battery and vape juice. Included with the pod mod, CRC pod tank, and USB Type-C charging cable come two different coil heads. Both are of the new CoilTech 5.0 variant which is the latest and greatest coil technology available on the market from FreeMaX. These easily contend in flavor with the FreeMaX 904L X (CoilTech 4.0) coil heads found in the Fireluke 3 tank which is the standard that I compare all coil heads against.
I did receive a courtesy letter with the package noting that I received a first-batch sample, so your package contents may vary from what you see above.
- The Coils -
The website mentions that the 0.15 Ohm coil head comes pre-installed, but as you can see from the package display above, both coils come individually wrapped.
The 0.15 Ohm coil head recommends between 60-80W with a best Wattage setting of 75W. I've been vaping this coil at 45W with a resistance reading of 0.12 Ohms and have been thoroughly enjoying it. If you enjoy a cooler vape with great flavor, 45W should work well for you. If you enjoy a warmer vape, I would suggest a Wattage of around 60W. This coil is capable of vaping at 80W, but for the sake of coil and battery life, I'd suggest 45-60W. These settings will also vary with the strength of your juice in flavor and PG ratio as you may find more or less of a throat hit with various airflow settings.
The 0.25 Ohm coil head recommends between 30-50W with a best Wattage setting of 45W. I think this coil head is more accurately recommended, with a personal suggestion of 35-40W.
- The CRC Pod Tank -
The Pod Tank is made of PCTG plastic and is more resistant to breaking if dropped. The pod as a whole is much lighter than a glass tank making it harder to break.
The 810 drip tip has two semi-transparent O-rings and another O-ring can be found along the inner portion of the top cap where the drip tip is placed. These 3 seals make for a tight and solid fit without being hard to take the drip tip out. This also allows you to use your own 810 drip tip if that's something you'd prefer. The particular drip tip that comes with the Marvos X is V-shaped on the inside that advertises no spit back (you can barely see it in the top left picture). I've experienced no spit back, so I'd have to say it's doing its job.
The illustration above shows the breakdown of the tank and how to open it for refilling. The CRC (Child Resistant Certified) top cap requires a lift and slide motion to expose the kidney-shaped refill slot. The drip tip does not need to be removed in order to refill, but some may find it easier to do so.
The four circular tabs you see on the bottom of the tank are the magnets that securely hold the pod into the pod mod. The magnets are strong enough to keep the pod from coming out of the pod mod when picked up or even turned on its side while holding the pod, but I wouldn't make it habit of carrying it around this way.
Something worth noting. When inserting the coil into the pod, be sure that the O-rings of the coil slide down properly inside the chimney located at the top of the tank (this picture shows the coil before it's been properly pressed down into the chimney. I've not had it happen with a FreeMaX pod device, but I've had it happen with other pod devices and this is a sure fire way to get leaking as air is able to freely enter the tank. This is also the reason why you don't want to leave the top cap open for too long when refilling.
A great feature that I'm not sure too many people notice, is the air vent hole that's opened up when the slide top is pushed back. This feature has been used in many of FreeMaX's slide top tanks and makes refilling much less of a pain with messes. I generally give the air vent hole a quick blow before refilling to make sure it isn't plugged.
As I mentioned before, you don't need to remove the drip tip to refill. Once you've made sure the air vent hole is vacant of any juice, place the nozzle of the bottle at an angle all the way to one side (can be left or right side) of the kidney-shaped slot before beginning to refill. I would also leave a tiny bit of space at the top for air. This is a great practice for any tank, as too much juice is often a cause for leaking or a mess in general.
- The Marvos X Pod Mod -
The Marvos X pod mod is kind of the shining star of the show with this kit - pun intended. You'll see why in a bit with all the lighting options that I'll run through further below.
I received the Navy Blue kit which comes as a silver pod mod and tank. The only other Marvos X pod kit with a silver body is the Black kit. Grey & Light Blue come as a matte black metallic body and tank, and the Brown and Green kit come as a gunmetal colored mod and tank. The battery cover around the back of this mod is navy blue and features an abstract eagle emblem intertwined with the Marvos X logo - the red stitching around the battery cover adds a nice accent to the darker navy blue. The body of the mod is a brush-finished zinc alloy which for the amount of metal used here, is nearly as light as aluminum and definitely stronger.
Around the edge of the battery cover, you'll notice a semi-transparent strip of plastic. When the mod is lit up, the color pattern seen on the edges of the front-facing panel can also be seen around the battery cover. Furthermore, when you take the battery cover off and the mod is still lit, you can see the entire battery sled light up which is pretty cool. The positive and negative battery orientation indicators can be a bit hard to see, but you should be able to see them tipping the mod at different angles if you forget what the correct orientation is.
On the top, if you've used a pod device before, the connectivity design here is nothing new. You'll notice two spring-loaded brass contact pins offset from the center which make direct contact with the positive and negative (inner and outer) portions of the coil when the pod is seated into the pod mod. If you're ever getting leaks from a pod device, this is the first area to check. My experience with this kit has been pretty leak free, but I have had to wipe out the contact area a few times which likely means the coil head is probably starting to get a bit old. The flavor output is still on par to my liking, so I'm willing to put up with the very slight seepage I've experienced. I've just crested 1000 puffs which is not uncommon for FreeMaX coils, and I'll likely be using this coil for another 500 to 1000 puffs.
The front portion of this mod is where all the magic happens (remember to take the protective sticker off). The fire button is slightly mushy, but you can definitely tell when it's suppressed and when it's not as there's a muffled clicking sound when the fire button reaches either position. The up and down directional keys just below the UI display (which I'll get to further below) are snappier and have a bit more of a pronounced click when used.
At the bottom of the front panel is the USB Type-C charging port. This port is capable of using a 3.0 QC (quick charge) cable, although I wouldn't recommend using one (or any cable for that matter) for external battery mods. Buy yourself a few 25A CDR 18650 batteries (Molicel P26As are my go to) and an external li-ion charger to prolong the life of the circuitry in your mod.
At the very bottom of the front-facing side of the mod is the small Slide Switch. This can be flicked to lock (left) and unlock (right) to quickly disable use of the mod. Similar to shutting the mod completely off by quickly mashing the fire button 5 times, this is a much easier and faster way of doing so. There's also an animation that pops up on the UI letting you know if the mod has been locked or unlocked using the Slide Switch.
The airflow ring that sits on top of the mod has a fully opened to fully closed position with a stopper in both directions. Two airflow slots are positioned opposite of each other, as well as the two slots in the airflow ring giving you fairly uninhibited airflow if you like an airy vape. If the airflow ring is completely closed, turn it counter-clockwise to access more airflow. If the ring is completely open, turn it clockwise to further restrict the airflow.
Normally I prefer the airflow partially closed for a Restricted Direct Lung (RDL) vape, but I've found all settings to be quite tasty with this pod kit. If you like a very restricted airflow (borderline MTL), you can achieve that by closing the airflow completely off. A word of caution with the airflow completely closed off however, I'm not sure what this will do to the lifespan of the coil since cutting off the airflow reduces the ability for the coil to cool down.
About the biggest drawback for the Marvos X pod mod is that the FM 2.0 chip in this device is not boosted (it is in the Maxus Solo mod). It's not that I'm concerned about output Voltage since the highest resistance coil used in the Marvos line is a 0.5 Ohm coil which should theoretically be fine down to 3.3V @22 Watts, it's that I want the consistent power output throughout the battery discharge. You can start to feel the vape get weak at around 20% remaining battery life. Doable, yes. Preferable, no.
- The User Interface -
The chip is the style they use in the FreeMaX Maxus Solo kit, but with a few less functions and more lighting options. The default screen is almost identical.
From top left to bottom right, the UI information is as follows (for Power Mode):
Remaining Battery Life
Coil Resistance
Puff Counter
Wattage Setting
Mode Used (Power)
Voltage Reading (active when fired)
Shortcut Button Commands are as follows (features accessed without the submenu):
5 quick clicks of the fire button - Turns mod off and on.
3 quick clicks of the fire button - Opens main menu.
Hold both up and down buttons together - Locks and Unlocks up and down buttons but still allows you to fire.
Hold down and fire buttons together - Cycles through the 5 main UI color themes.
Hold up and fire buttons together - Randomly selects different lighting modes and colors.
The mod scrolls Wattage in 0.5W increments. Once held for a second, the mod scrolls uncontrollably fast in whichever direction you're pressing. I say uncontrollably because the device is difficult to stop within 5W increments if you're wanting to adjust only 5 or so Watts. You're better off just clicking the up or down directional button 10 times. Freemax chips do not round robin which I'm fine with, because how often are people going to want to switch from 100W to 5W? Furthermore, this mod scrolls so fast that you can get from 5W to 100W in a matter of a few seconds. Round robin, it's not needed here.
The main menu (3 quick clicks of the fire button):
Mode
Set
Exit
In the "MODE" menu, you'll find the 4 different output modes the mod is capable of. To get a better idea of what these displays look like and you missed it, you can scroll back up toward the beginning of the review found under the section titled "- Output Modes -".
Power (Variable Wattage - "VW") - Adjust power output via Watts.
Smart - Automatically adjusts the Wattage setting and limits Wattage range based on the coil resistance.
VPC - Variable Power Curve - You can customize phases of fire in timed increments (0.5 to 2 seconds) if you prefer a faster ramp up time at a higher Wattage that smoothens out to a lower Wattage. Or if you want a slower ramp up time for a more graceful vape.
Bypass - Outputs the available power the battery currently has in Volts.
In the "SET" menu, you'll find:
Theme Color
LED Control
Puff
Reset
Exit
The "THEMECOLOR" submenu allows you to choose from 5 preselected UI colors as well as a 6th option that randomly selects a color for you.
The 5 default UI colors are difficult to see in the picture, so I'll list them here from top left to bottom right:
Light Blue
Dark Blue
Purple/Fuscia
Green
Orange
In the "LED CONTROL" submenu you gain access to pretty much all of the colorful things you'd ever want from a mod.
The first thing you'll be asked in the "LED CONTROL" submenu is whether you want the LED lights on or off. If you choose to have the LED lighting on, then you can then select from 10 different lighting mode options. They are:
Always On - Uhhh, always on. =)
Circle - The light pattern goes in circles.
Flash - The lights around the mod slowly "breathe".
Alternate - The left and right bar glow in an alternating pattern.
Waterfall - The light always has a faint glow while a brighter light continuously flows from top to bottom.
Tetris - The lighting falls from top to bottom and continues to stack until the whole light is lit up, then starts over.
Drop - A horizontal light drop from top to bottom.
Rise - A horizontal light rises from bottom to top.
Spread - A horizontal light splits in the middle of the mod and two lights spread further apart from each other going both up and down.
Gather - Two horizontal lights start as two separate lights from top and bottom and come together.
These 10 lighting modes as well as the Multicolor vs. Unicolor options are far more easily depicted visually at FreeMaX's Marvos X webpage about halfway down.
Below the lighting modes you'll find:
Bright - LED Brightness (set from 1 to 100)
Speed - How quick the LEDs move and transition (set from 1 to 100)
As you can see, the LEDs can get quite vibrant when the brightness setting is jacked all the way up.
Lastly in "LED CONTROL" we have:
Multicolor - LED transitions through the color wheel.
Unicolor - A static color achieved through Red, Green, and Blue values individually set from 1 to 255 by the user.
255^3 means there are more than 16.5 million color options to play with. Bored of one color? Switch it up!
I love this Tron look I've been sporting since I reviewed the Maxus Solo kit a few months back. If you're into this look as well, then you'll already know what color settings you're looking for.
The last two submenus found in the main "SET" menu are:
Puff - Reset the Puff Counter.
Reset - Factory Reset to default settings.
- Overall Thoughts with Pros, Cons, & Considerations -
I've got 1051 puffs on the 0.15 Ohm coil and it's still going strong. This has been my main daily driver to and from work which totals about 3 hours a day. Given I am testing other products and I'm not a huge chain vaper, I would consider my testing of this pod kit to be about as complete as one could expect for a trial period run through. This pod kit has sat sideways in my lunch bag for 12 hours at a time, daily, with no more than some residual juice sitting on the pod mod contacts - nothing that couldn't be addressed with a quick swipe of a paper towel.
The pod mod charges at 1.5A with the included charging cable which is pretty standard for an advertised 2A device. Again, this device can recognize a 3.0 QC cable, but as before I'd advise against it. I ended up with 162 and 189 puffs between two charges (the first charge was subject to lots of Wattage experimentation) settling at a Wattage setting of 45W for the entire second discharge. 175-176 puffs isn't a bad average for a single 18650 battery. The Marvos X also allows pass-through vaping if you do need to recharge it via the USB Type-C port.
With a plethora of LED settings which includes turning them off, I find that the pod mod is almost certain to find something you're interested in. I'm not one for huge, gaudy flashing lights, but you can really tone the LEDs down to however you want more or less, and that's a big part of what I like about this kit as well as the Maxus Solo kit. If you were not allowed to customize the LEDs, maaaaaan...
Would I recommend this kit over a previous Marvos device? If you're a fan of controllable LEDs, yes. If you're just after the flavor chase, there may be a minor flavor upgrade, but I'm not sure if buying the whole kit would be worth it. The CRC tank found in this kit should be purchasable standalone which will get rid of the rubber plug side refill from previous models. The pods and coils are all interchangeable with previous iterations of the Marvos line of products which is a huge plus.
(Marvos X CRC Pod Tank in the older Marvos 60W Pod Mod)
Something to consider.
The Marvos S pod kit has the Marvos DTL Pod Tank which comes with a 510 pod adapter. This will allow you to use the CRC Pod Tank, the DTL Pod Tank and all of the coils on a mod with a larger battery if that's what you fancy.
(Marvos X CRC Pod Tank w/ 510 pod adapter on the Fireluke Solo Mod)
And you can still haz the lights!
(+)(+) Pros (+)(+)
Nearly leak free
Well built
Sleek aesthetic
Great hand feel
Clicky, responsive buttons (no sticks)
LED customizations are stellar
Airflow almost achieves MTL to a full DL
UI is super easy to read and operate
Simple but effective CRC tank (slide to fill, refill vent built in)
Marvos (esp. CoilTech 5.0) coils are top notch in flavor and lifespan
V-shaped anti-spitback drip tip works great
Great blend of the Marvos and Maxus Solo mods
Light doesn't seem to effect battery life all that much (got almost 200 puffs from a single 18650 which is super great)
Pass-through vaping
Picks up USB Type-C charging cables
USB Type-C charges at 1.5A with included cable
Slide Switch for instant locking
(-)(-) Cons (-)(-)
This version of the FM 2.0 Chip is not boosted (Only see this being a possible issue with the 0.5 Ohm FM coil capping it at 22W)
(-)(+) Preferential Considerations (+)(-)
UI menus have fewer function options but more LED options than the Maxus Solo
No 21700 battery
C-frame battery cover instead of bottom door latch
(How it looks in the dark)
- Overall Rating -
9
(I'd give it a 9.5 if it were a 21700 mod, but that's subjective)
I hope I've covered everything for this kit and have helped you in some way informationally. If you have any further questions about the kit and/or want to leave a comment, please do so. You can also PM me.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
