Smok has been around since this dawn of vaping and it has made many, many excellent products over the years. The company itself, however, is likely most known for its XCube series box mods, the TFV4 tank and the MIGHTY TFV8 sub-ohm tanks which are some of the best in the business.
SMOK has a number of tricks up its sleeve with the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod. The first is that it uses SMOK’s own, in-house chipset which means SMOK can factor this into the price.
The second is performance; the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod promises SPADES of the stuff. And the third is design; the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod is a beauty, to be sure.
The SMOK Alien 220W is also kicking some serious ass in the VapeBeat Best Mod Reader’s Poll, which you can see and take part in by clicking through to our Best Box Mod 2017 guide.
As you can see, the SMOK Alien 220W is WAY OUT in front of everything else. And we included some seriously good devices in that poll; devices like the Reuleaux RX200S and the Vapor Shark DNA 200.
This just goes to show that SMOK, more than any other brand in the space right now, is building a huge advantage over pretty much every other player in the space. It makes great tanks and now one of the vape space’s most-loved mods.
SMOK also have a pretty INSANE distribution network and this is one of the key factors to its success. Walk into a vape shop anywhere in the world and you will see SMOK products – it doesn’t matter if you’re in Europe, the States or Asia.
SMOK is everywhere.
It is this aggressive approach to expansion, as well as great products, that has driven the SMOK brand right to the forefront of the vape space. In this respect, you can think of SMOK as the Samsung of the vaping world.
But the bar is set high these days, when it comes to box mods. There’s so many to choose from and most of very decent indeed. Prices are coming down as well and this is great for consumers, as you’re getting way more bang for your buck.
Today we’re going to take a look at the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod in order to see if it’s all its cracked up to be. I’m also very keen to see how it stacks up to my DNA 200 mods and the new Wismec Reuleaux RX2/3.
Read on to see how the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod did during my two week testing period. Enjoy!
SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod Review: Packaging and Appearance
You have a nice, eye-catching sleeve over a solid black box. On the sleeves front we see the Alien mod and on the sleeves back we have the information on the Alien, packaging contents, warning, and authenticity sticker.
On the inside is where things light up, so to speak. You see the Alien nestled neatly in foam material and underneath your Alien mod you will find:
- USB Cable
- User Manual
- Battery Safety Card
- Warranty Card
- Screen Protector
All in all, it’s a simple package. The screen protector is a very nice touch here simply because it ensures the display remains in pristine condition until you unbox it!
The Alien has a very good look to it. The shape of the Alien is almost box-like, just with nicely rounded corners and this design allows the Alien to fit into your hand without any discomfort or fatigue at all. The backside of the Alien has a carbon fiber (sticker maybe?) inlay with Smok Alien 220W TC and looks sharp.
The bottom is where you will see a battery door and upon opening the battery door you can clearly see on the door itself marked – and + plus the letters A and B to indicate battery A and battery B.
The top of the Alien has a very nice stainless steel 510 connection pin which is spring loaded. On the front of the Alien we have the very nice, crisp, clear, bright OLED display.
This display is bigger than the RX displays, I don’t know the exact size but this is a very nice display. All the following information can be found on the display:
- Wattage or Temperature (dependant on mode used)
- Voltage
- Ohms
- Amps
- Mode
- PCB
- Puff
- Battery Meters A and B
- Seconds Counter
- Vaping Effect- S (Soft), N (Normal), H (Hard)
That is a lot of information on one display! Also on the Alien you see a plastic accent piece inlayed to the contours of the device and that is the colour of your choosing, I have the all black Alien, although I wish it were orange.
SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod Specs & Features
SMOK knows it has some very stiff competition in the vape space as of right now. For this reason, SMOK has outfitted the Alien 220W with pretty much everything you’d expect from a high-end mod.
Us vapers are fast becoming very sophisticated beasts. We want a huge range of features, bleeding-edge safety features, and we don’t want to pay big bucks for the privilege.
SMOK knows this and has ensured that the ALIEN 220W is not only price-competitive but also packed to the hilt with all the specs, features and vaping options the modern user could want.
You have TC mode, multiple settings for affecting the style of vaping you do, lots of safety features, support for two cells and, of course, 220W of power under the hood for those that want to do some serious cloud-chasing.
To be perfectly honest, the SMOK Alien 220W is pretty much one of the best-specced mods on the planet right now. It has all the features you could wish for, plus a gazillion more, so it’s no wonder this setup is so damn popular.
- Dimensions – 44mm X 30mm X 85mm
- Wattage – 6-220Watts
- Temperature – 100-315*C/200-600*F
- Memory Mode for 22 different memories
- Individual Battery Monitor
- Resistance Range – 0.1-3.0ohms in VW 0.06-3.0ohms in TC
- Voltage – 0.35-8V
A very nice device so far, but does it perform? Let’s find out.
SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod Review: Performance
I will first talk about my experience in wattage mode. This is a great improvement over past Smok devices. There is almost no fire delay at all. No matter what I had on top of the Alien it fired it all the same and almost instantly, unlike the X Cube series devices which had a noticeable fire delay.
One interesting feature aboard the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod is its Vape Effects settings which allow you to choose between three different “styles” of vaping: Soft, Normal and Hard.
I prefer to use the hard effect when using an RDA or RTA as the hard effect acts like a preheat. I usually run the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod in normal effect most of the time, though, when I’m using a standard sub-ohm tank.
Now we are going to talk about the temperature control of the Smok Alien. We all have heard about Smok’s temperature control not quite working as it should. I can attest that the Smok Alien does use the temperature control modes as intended and does this very well. I used all the modes and everything functioned perfectly. No dry, burning hits or cotton burn.
Temperature Control works well on the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod; I’ve had zero issues with this setting, though I seldom TC vape.
The other mode is Memory Mode and you do have 22 of these. Now, it’s all well and good here for those of us who have a lot of attys but my only con here is I wish Smok would have allowed us to name each memory setting, as it’s kind of hard to remember which atty goes with which memory setting.
Otherwise the memory setting is great. You put on say a Crown and set wattage to say 60W for M1. Then you grab say an RDA for M2 and set it for, say 100W, and so on. Continue this until all your attys are saved and then you just have to drop the atty on, select the memory and you’re good to go.
The USB works very well on the Smok Alien in terms of both the USB charging and Firmware upgrading. When I received the Alien I upgraded to the newest firmware right away. Typically if there are any bugs they are all worked out in the newest firmware.
I upgraded the firmware to the newest right away because Smok fixed a known issue with the initial version not firing every time. This newest firmware fixes that issue and I am proud to say that I have had no misfires during my two weeks with the SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod.
The menu system does take some getting use to but nothing that will require a degree or anything. The Smok menu is different than other menu systems and you just press the fire bar 3 times to enter and from there you use the fire bar to select the menu that you want and either wait a few short seconds or hard press the fire bar for a second to enter the said menu.
Clicking the fire bar from the home screen 5 times will lock the device. You have to go through the menu to turn the device off. I went almost 2 whole days without turning the Alien off and when the Alien goes into standby it uses very little power.
SMOK ALIEN 220W TC Box Mod Review: Final Thoughts and Conclusion
I didn’t have any issues while testing this mod. In fact, it performed really well.
However, there’s no getting around the now-established issues that plagued this mod.
For this reason, I have to mark it down.
The faults are just too widely reported for it to be a glitch.
[letsreview]
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