Pod System Reviews

SMOK Nord Kit

You can’t move for bumping into pod system here in the tail-end of 2018 and here’s the newest release from SMOK! The Nord Kit is a pod system with replaceable coils that will be available in 1.4Ω and 0.6Ω versions so catering for MTL and sub ohm vapers.

by Dave Junglist
Dec 19, 2018

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If there is one sector in vaping that seems to have grown exponentially this year it’s been pod system and nic salts. This is SMOK’s third pod product, with the INFINIX and Novo pod systems being released earlier in the year. These two devices passed me by, but I have tried a lot of pod systems in the last year or two and have developed quite a liking for the convenient and easy vape they provide and, when coupled with a good nic salt juice, I often find I don’t touch my squonkers, tanks or Billet Box for days at a time. So, from a vaper that has had spells on pretty much every vaping trend out there, I really do feel that pod systems deliver and should be considered as an addition to your vaping arsenal. So, does the Nord Kit stack up to the current big hitters? Let’s have a look!

What’s in the box?

The kit is like most other pod systems on the market, simple and straight forward. The box, which is smaller than some sub ohm tank packages I have seen of late, contains just a few items:

1 x Nord Device
1 x 0.6Ω mesh coil (for sub ohm vaping)
1 x 1.4Ω regular coil (for MTL vaping)
1 x USB charging cable
1 x User Manual

The manual fits nicely in the box and contains all you need to know about the device, which for such a small device is quite a bit! The Nord Kit is touted by SMOK as the bigger brother if the NOVO so let’s check out the specs and see how they compare.

SMOK Nord Specs

This isn’t the smallest pod system that I have had my hands on, it certainly isn’t as small as the Juul or the Vladdin systems but has a very similar size and weight as the Aspire Spryte. It is by no means heavy and sits in my hand nicely and is very comfortable. Size-wise it’s about as big as a Clipper lighter, which I am sure many of you will have had a few of in your time. In terms of sticking it in your pocket or bag for when you are out and about it takes up no space at all.

Size – H:94mm, W:30mm, D:18.8mm
Weight – 80g
Battery Capacity – 1100mAh
Pod Capacity – 2ml for the EU version and 3ml for everyone else

Apart from the size the big bonus here is the battery capacity, 1100mAh is pretty big for a pod system. When you consider that the Juul only has a 200mAh battery, the Spryte a 650mAh and the Innokin EQ Plexus an 800mAh one then you can see it carries a decent charge! The Breeze 2 and Nautilus AIO kits have 1000mAh batteries so SMOK have just pipped them in terms of capacity.

The pod size is pretty much what we have come to expect in the EU, we get to drop a ml thanks to the TPD but for those of you that want the extra capacity the larger pods won’t be hard to track down.

Design and Build

I really like the look of these devices. SMOK kindly sent us one of each of the available colours and two of the gold ones, so I used the extra gold one to try out for the review. A bit too bling for my tastes but I am sure it will appeal to some of you! My preferred colours are definitely the black and white ones, they look really good in the flesh - definitely as good as they look in the photos.

I really like the pattern styling on the front and back panels and the sides of the battery section match up nicely with the sides being a plain colour that matches the predominant colour of the front and back panels.

They are pretty hard-wearing little units, I have carted the review one around in my bag and pockets for a good couple of weeks now and there are no major scuffs or loss of paint work at all so I reckon they should keep their shine for quite some time if reasonably well cared for.

The Nord comes in two pieces - the mod itself, which contains the battery, and the mouth piece. The coils on this pod system simply push in, nothing to unscrew, no airflow control, as plain and simple as it gets in my opinion!

I really can’t fault the build of this device other than a couple of tiny issues, the pods can be quite hard to pull off when you initially get them, it really did take some effort to pull mouthpiece from the device for the first few times, but it did get a lot easier after a few times and it now pops off with much less effort. The second minor gripe is that the mouth piece has no cover, so pocket lint and bag detritus can get into it.

Using the SMOK Nord

The Nord kit comes with the mouth piece and battery separated and the two coils are in the packaging, allowing you to choose the coil you would like to try first. I started out with the 1.4Ω coil so I could compare it with the Aspire Spryte which is my go-to pod device at present. The 1.4Ω coil is designed for mouth to lung vaping, it is slightly thinner than the 0.6Ω coil and the resistance is clearly printed on the side, so it is easy to see which is which.

I dripped a little bit of juice on the side of the coil where the holes are and dripped a few drops into the top of the coil to help speed up the priming before I inserted the coil into the mouthpiece. The coils simply have o-rings at the top and bottom of the coil and these push firmly into the pod. They push in really easily and I had no leaks at all when using the device. To fill the pod there is a little rubber bung at the side of the pod, this is attached to the pod so there is no chance of it popping out and getting lost. The fill hole is wide enough to get a small tipped eliquid bottle in and fill without getting overspill. My main complaints with the Spryte is to do with the filling of the pods, the rubber bungs can easily pop out and one side of it is a real beggar to get back in, the fill hole is also so small that it is common to get liquid pushing back out when trying to fill so it can be a bit messy at times. No such problems with the Nord, it is quick and easy to fill - I had no overspill at all when refilling.

When the pod is attached to the battery there is a clear oval-shaped window at the top of the pod so it is relatively easy to tip the Nord up and see how much juice you have in it before you head out. This is a good addition to the system and shows that SMOK have really considered vapers when designing it.

When you are using the Nord you can quickly check how much battery power the device has left. Just click the fire button twice in quick succession and the LED on the power button will flash – a red LED shows the battery at less that 30% charge, orange for 30-70% and green for over 70% charge. You can power the device on and off by rapidly clicking the power button five times.

There is an eight second cut out on the power button when firing it, I found that this was more than enough and, if you find yourself chain vaping, you can take a few toots, release the button and hit it again if you want to take drags on it for over this time limit.

The button is quite easy to depress, and I have accidentally hit it a couple of times when it’s been in my pocket and while I was driving – so make sure you power it off if you are carrying about in a bag to save frying any coils.

SMOK Nord Performance

Like I said, I started out on the 1.4Ω coil as I have been MTL vaping with pod systems since late this summer and have settled on 25mg nic salt juice. The flavour from the 1.4Ω coil was as good as anything else I have tried. The mouthpiece is quite wide and I did initially wonder what the MTL experience would be like – I was pleasantly surprised with the results! In my opinion it is slightly tighter than the Spryte and delivers a really good MTL experience. The amount of vapour produced is perfect and the warmth and flavour were spot on for me.

I ran a few tanks the 1.6Ω coil before I switched to the sub ohm 0.6Ω coil. For this I thought I would give some 6mg juice I had from Sugar Pie Vapes – these are great tasting juices and as I hadn’t tried 6mg for a while I thought I would give it a go in this device. With the MTL coil giving such a tight draw I did think that the sub ohm coil would be a bit tighter than it actually was - it is pretty open! At 6mg the vape was strong, and while I can happily vape 25mg nic salts the throat hit when sub ohming 6mg is still too strong for me! I did take this to a local vape meet last weekend and a few people tried it and were impressed with the vape that it delivered. The 0.6Ω coil uses a mesh coil and the volume of vapour and flavour it delivers – considering this is just a little pod device – is really good.

I get almost a day out of the kit when using it solely with the MTL coils and with the sub ohm coil it obviously gets through the battery quite a lot quicker. If you want to use this as a pocket friendly sub ohm set up when out and about then it might well last a quick trip to the pub, but you might want a couple of them if you are out for much longer than this.

Conclusion

The device is just coming up for pre-order on a few UK sites and looks to be retailing from around £24 but I couldn’t find anywhere listing the coils or pods with a price – but I don’t expect them to deviate much from the usual £10 or so for a pack of coils. The lifespan of the MTL coil has been good so far, I have run a good 20ml through it so far and the liquid isn’t discolouring yet and the flavour is still good. I have only run a few tanks through the sub ohm coil so can’t comment too much on the longevity of these.

All in all I only have a couple of negatives about this kit, that the pods being really hard to get off initially and the fact that the mouthpiece has no cover to beware if you have dusty pockets or bits in your bag!

The positives are many though – this set up had great battery life it delivers great flavour and an all-round superb vape. It is easy to use, comfortable and looks great. If you are looking for a pod device to try or have a smoker you are looking to convert, I heartily recommend this to you! Well done SMOK and thanks for sending this in to us to try! As mentioned, SMOK sent us one of each colour so we are giving them all away. The black unti has already been bagged in a giveaway on the forum but the rest are up for grabs here so if this kit sounds like something you would like then you can enter the competition here.

Dave Junglist

Reviewer at POTV

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Dave Junglist is co-owner of Planet of the Vapes and has been vaping since 2015. He spent his early years with his head in a bass bin and was a very committed and experienced smoker. He had his first cigarette at the age of 13 and just knew it was for him. He did stop briefly with the aid of patches but reverted quickly and became a ‘secret’ smoker, working hard to keep his weak will from the attention of his family. Vaping made an honest man of him and for this he is forever thankful. He has been involved in websites since completing a degree in Environmental Science in the late nineties. At that time there was pretty much no contact with computers but on joining the regular workforce and deciding that the world-wide-web was the future he blagged his first job as a web designer and never looked back. As you would expect from a junglist, Dave likes his beats and is most comfortable when the bass is wobbly.