Mod Reviews

SMOK Alien 220W

The SMOK Alien 220W is designed for intermediate vapers who are looking for an all-in-one high power set up. The device offers up to 220 Watts of power and has both Variable Wattage and Temperature Control functionality.

by VapeMaster
Nov 29, 2016

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SMOK Alien 220W

SMOK Alien 220W features

Zinc Alloy Construction with Spray Painted Finish
OLED Display
Stainless Steel 510 Connector
Spring-Loaded Brass 510 Pin
Size: 85x44x28.4mm
Power Range: Max. 220W
Resistance Range: 0.1ohm-3.0ohm (Variable Wattage) / 0.06ohm-2.0ohm (Temperature Control)
Temperature Range: 200-600°F / 100°-350°C

TFV8 Baby Beast Sub Ohm Tank features

3ml Capacity
Top Filling Design
Dual Adjustable Airflow Slots
Stainless Steel and Glass Construction
22mm Diameter

What’s in the box?

1 x Alien 220W Box Mod
1 x TFV8 Baby Beast Tank
1 x V8 Baby-Q2 Core 0.4ohm dual coil (Pre-installed)
1 x V8 Baby-T8 Core 0.15ohm Octuple coil
1 x Micro USB Cable
1 x Replacement Glass Tube
1 x User Manual
1x Pack of Spares

SMOK Alien 220W styling and build quality

One thing that is really noticeable about the SMOK Alien is its excellent form factor which is surprisingly compact for a dual 18650 device. Everything is nicely rounded and this makes for a very comfortable feel when held in the hand. The shell of the device is made from Zinc Alloy that is then spray painted. The finish is actually rather nice and is stylised by coloured accents, orange in the case of the item sent for review but other colours are available. One side of the device sports a smart carbon fibre style pattern.

The device features three buttons, firstly a squeeze trigger fire button which initially does take a little getting used to and two smaller adjustment buttons located beneath the display. The two adjustment buttons are a little on the small side but they are thankfully rattle free.

The display conveys a lot of information, perhaps a little too much. All of the typical information you can expect is shown but due to the way it is presented it tends to look a little too compacted and cluttered. One slight issue is that the display is not the brightest that I have come across and it can feel a little awkward to read.

The device’s 510 pin is spring-loaded and I had no issues getting my atomizers to sit flush. The 510 connector appears to be made from Stainless Steel and has decent threading.

The SMOK Alien 220W requires two 18650 batteries which are not included. The battery compartment itself features a press and slide lid that is easy to use. The correct battery orientation is clearly marked on the interior and the flip lid battery compartment means that the batteries are really easy to insert and remove.

There is a Micro USB Port on the device that is located directly beneath the two adjustment buttons. It does look a little strange since it is angled at about forty five degrees. You can use the included cable to connect the device to your PC to charge the batteries or simply use an external battery charger. The cable also allows you to download firmware upgrades from SMOK. Weirdly enough the compartment has no major venting apart from a single Micro USB Port shaped hole in the lid. I certainly did not notice any over-heating issues at low Wattage but I did wonder how well it would cope at extreme Wattages so please be mindful and use the best batteries you can get.

SMOK TFV8 Baby Beast Sub Ohm Tank

Included in the box along with the mod is the TFV8 Tank. It has dual adjustable airflow, top filling and a 3ml capacity. Two coils are included, one of which is pre-installed for you. The overall construction of the tank is decent and even though it tends to primarily cater to cloud chasing fans it is a nice extra to have.

Ease of use

The SMOK Alien uses the same style of menu that you will no doubt already be familiar with. It certainly is straightforward enough to get to grips with and the included manual does a thorough job of explaining all of the device’s functions.

While all of the information that you might require is displayed the particular font used and the compactness of the lettering tends to make everything look rather cluttered to read and this isn’t helped by the display which is not particularly bright. Fortunately it is the only thing that I feel lets down this product a little but considering the reasonable enough price of the product you could certainly live with it.

SMOK Alien 220W performance

I am happy to report that I encountered no problems at all when using the SMOK Alien 220W and it performed equally well whether I ran it in Variable Wattage or Temperature Control Mode. The fire button was very responsive and the option is there to adjust for a soft or hard initial ramp up. Temperature Control Mode had no apparent issues and I noticed no heat spiking or Resistance fluctuation. The Temperature Co-Efficient can be adjusted if you wish and the default settings include support for Nickel, Titanium and Stainless Steel wire types.

Battery life was pretty typical of a dual 18650 device and I got almost two days of full use out of it when vaping heavily at low wattage. If you vape at 220W you can expect that battery life to drain extremely fast and I would suggest you only ever try this with 30A rated high quality batteries.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this device when using it is the main screen that I have already mentioned which ideally could be much brighter and better spaced out but providing you aren’t constantly adjusting your settings it is less of an issue. Overall the device worked well and I think that if you bought one you would be very happy with it!

I also tried out the SMOK Micro TFV8 Baby Beast tank included in the box using some Element E-Liquids Apple Acai and I found it made for an enjoyable enough vape. Flavour was pretty decent and the small tank will certainly please cloud chasers considering its generous vapour production. A 3ml juice capacity is fairly reasonable and the top filling system worked well.

I should mention that according to some reports I have read online the first production run of the SMOK Alien 220W had some issues with the fire button responsiveness that was rectified in subsequent runs but I found no such problem with the device that I received for review.

Conclusion

In my opinion the SMOK Alien 220W is a very well built and decent mod that has a really nice form factor considering it takes two 18650 batteries. In terms of performance it works well and I think most people would be very happy with it and I feel that is a very good offering from SMOK.

While it is very similar to other high powered devices out there in terms of operation I do think that if you ideally need something with ease of use in mind and excellent readability then it is certainly worth paying more for the new SMOK G-Priv but if that is not an issue for you then the SMOK Alien 220W will certainly serve you well and the bonus is that it also includes a tank! At the end of the day the decision is yours to make.

We purchased the SMOK Alien for review from Frumist.com where it is currently priced at £64.99.