Some Great Ideas... And Some Issues

By Khrysse Ferraro

When the Smok G Priv was released, I quickly bought 2 different ones— for me and a friend. I was super excited to finally be purchasing a mod with a touch screen, and I was not disappointed when I received it in the mail. Initially, I loved everything about it— the screen, the power, the firing bar, and even the size.

However, shorty after using the mod, my hand would become sore from use due to the weight and shape combo. The mod itself is very boxy, to which caused the discomfort in my hand. I wish the design included contouring to better suit the shape of an average hand, or at the very least, rounded edges. As for the firing bar, I really liked the concept of it. It felt comfortable to fire regularly, but sometimes did not register when trying to power on and off/lock the fire button.

I wish it would have been more sensitive to repeated clicks. Functionality wise, the mod fired up to 220 watts. Although I have never voluntarily attempted vaping at that wattage on purpose, I sure did fire it that hot on accident! Due to the touch screen aspect of the device, the wattage is easily turned up if the padding of your hand or fingers touch the screen.

I burnt through many coils accidentally doing this as it is very easy to over look the lock functionality if you are someone who regularly changes the wattage since you have to remember to relock the screen each time you unlock it or turn the device on/off. I have seen other mods that have a feature where the mod will auto lock the screen during firing or will not fire if the fingers are on the screen. I think that one or a combo of these ideas would have worked to remedy this issue on the Gpriv. As for build quality, I am quite pleased.

The metal exterior really protects the device from drops and the glass has held up well too. I did place a screen protector on the device to aid against scratches, but the included silicone mod cover does a good job creating a lip around the screen so that the screen never touches any surface that I do not want it to— No scratches from sliding around on a table! Powered by dual 18650 batteries, the G Priv features safe internal charging of the batteries. They charge very even, but it takes a ridiculously long time to charge.

Usually it takes an entire day of charging to charge up from about a 60% charged battery. While this was not a feature I necessarily utilized since I prefer external charging, I would have been disappointed upon receiving the mod and realizing this as it is very inconvenient had I been planing on solely charging internally. Unfortunately, while the design of both the mod and the software itself was nice, both mods that I purchased ended up having issues firing properly.

One does not accurately read the ohm rating of the coil, and the other has the same issue but will no longer fire due to check atomizer error. Oddly enough, both mods died out around the same time, shortly after purchase and light use. Bummer!