VAPEBEAT’S VERDICT
Is The SMOK NOVO Pro Any Good?
The SMOK NOVO Pro takes what people love about SMOK’s NOVO vapes, and then ups the ante with more power, more features, and more battery life. It’s really rather good, and the two new NOVO series coils are excellent as well.
Everybody loves SMOK’s NOVO pod vapes. They’re simple and get the job done. The Pro version does too, just with some hyper-useful additions and upgrades
— Drake Equation, VapeBeat
SMOK NOVO PRO SCORE CARD
OVERALL
★★★★
BATTERY
★★★★
COILS
★★★★
PERFORMANCE
★★★★
Best Alternative?
SMOK’s NOVO pod vapes, traditionally, are simple, beginner-friendly vapes. That’s kind of been their whole deal. But the SMOK NOVO Pro is different: it has a lot more bells and whistles, and lots more power under the hood.
I got an advanced preview version of the SMOK NOVO Pro a month or so ago and I’ve been using it alongside the Vaporesso XROS Pro ever since. Is it any good? Is it better than the XROS Pro? Read on to find out.
Design
The SMOK NOVO Pro is a pod vape, so it keeps the same – although slightly bigger – form factor as its other NOVO-branded stablemates.
It has a display, where you can see battery life and wattage settings, and like most SMOK vapes it comes in a dizzying array of colors – 13 at last count.
The device is sleek and slim, nice and compact. It feels nice and premium too, way more so than nearly all the other NOVO pod vapes I’ve tested. Competition is stiff these days, what with the XROS Pro out and vying for peoples’ attention.
I like what SMOK has done with the design, though. Everything slots together nicely, there’s no wobbly bits, and the mouthpiece and MTL draw are brilliant.
The use of a button is also much appreciated. As much as I love breath-activated vapes, a button’s tactility is always better (and less prone to breaking). I also find they’re less prone to random pocket firing.
On the side of the SMOK NOVO Pro, you’ll find an airflow setting which you can use to switch between vaping styles, and unlike most airflow controls on pod vapes, this one actually works really well.
You have three potential vaping settings with the sleepless air switch: DTL, RDL, and MTL. Me? I keep my pods locked to MTL. I can run them at lower wattages and use stronger Nic Salts juice doing this, and the battery lasts longer too.
The SMOK NOVO Pro features a 1300mAh internal battery, a 1.6A charge rate via USB Type-C, and a variable wattage output up to 30W, opening up the possibility for running high VG juice in it. I haven’t done this, however, although it is totally possible.
New Features & Abilities
With new stuff, it’s mainly design stuff. Things like its steepness air switch, the inclusion of a display, and things like Smart Mode, whereby the device automatically detects the pod’s coil resistance and setups the wattage automatically.
There are new pods too, which we’ll get to in a minute, but for the most part, the SMOK NOVO Pro is basically just a smarter, more feature-rich NOVO pod. It keeps everything people love about NOVO pod vapes, but adds in more power (30W), additional settings and some novel hardware buttons.
If you’ve been using a SMOK NOVO pod vape for a while and are looking for a device to “upgrade” to, the NOVO Pro could well be what you’ve been looking for.
Me? I’d go with the Vaporesso XROS Pro over this one for the very simple reason that Vaporesso’s pods – and the flavor they deliver – are better than pretty much everything else on the market right now.
Coils
With coils, it’s a NOVO series pod which means you have access to all of SMOK’s legacy coils from its NOVO 2, the OG NOVO, and the NOVO X as well as two brand new coil options specific to the NOVO Pro, a 0.8ohm and 0.6ohm mesh.
SMOK’s coils are always a bit up and down when it comes to consistency but I did find the new NOVO Pro coils to be pretty darn good. I got around 9-12 days from each variant pretty consistently.
As for its legacy coils, they’re decent too – although the mileage you get from them seems to vary on a pack-by-pack basis. This is one of the reasons I love the XROS series from Vaporesso so much: the coils are consistent, they last weeks between changes, the flavor is outstanding.
Battery Life
With battery life, the SMOK NOVO Pro is rock-solid. It’s packing a 1300mAh battery with USB C fast charge, so even when you’re down on power, a quick 20 minute blast will bring it back up to almost 100%.
This is one area where the NOVO PRO outshines the XROS 3 and the XROS Mini. The larger battery will usually almost always see you through a full day, whereas with the XROS 3 and XROS 3 Mini, a top up is almost always required.
There is a caveat, however, that you need to be aware of. If you run the NOVO Pro up and around its maximum output (30W), you will run down the battery quicker and it will not last all day. Keep it locked to lower power, MTL vaping and it’ll do a solid day’s worth of vaping before crapping out.
Is The SMOK NOVO Pro Worth It?
If you’re a longstanding fan of SMOK’s NOVO series, the NOVO Pro is an obvious choice. It has all the aspects that made SMOK’s NOVO series so popular, just with a bunch of added features, capabilities, and performance upgrades.
While I don’t think it is as good as the Vaporesso XROS Pro, I do think it is easily the best NOVO vape you can buy right now. For power, performance, design, and overall ease of use, it is impossible not to like this pod vape.
My only slight complaints relate to SMOK’s ongoing inconsistency with its coils, where some are excellent and others are complete duds, and the fact that, while it does have more power, using it does come at the cost of reduced battery performance.
Other than that, I really dig this pod vape and have no problem recommending it.
- Intelligent wattage adjustment, adjustable airflow control, dual activation modes (draw and button), long-lasting 1300mAh battery, USB-C fast charging
- SMOK’s coils can be unreliable with respect to longevity
- MTL, DTL, RDL w/ Nic Salts
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