Honest review time: The VooPoo Drag Mini

Here’s a look at something new that was sent over from the wonderful folks at Sourcemore. It’s a fairly new kit released by VooPoo called the Drag Mini. Now I realize VooPoo recently came under some serious fire for a sponsorship that somewhat went awry and they’ve been heavily scrutinized by the industry since then. This kit was shipped before the proverbial poo hit the fan and as I’ve got a commitment to Sourcemore for the review I’ll try not to bring my personal feelings in to it. Here are my honest thoughts on the VooPoo Drag Mini Kit care of Sourcemore.

Package contents:

Listed features and specs:

Packaging and contents:

The kit comes packed in a nice cardboard box with an outer sleeve bearing all the usual information we like to see on the back including contents, basic warnings and an authenticity check sticker. Mine got a little beat up in transit but everything inside arrived safe and sound. In the kit you get the VooPoo Drag Mini, a Uforce T2 tank, a Uforce P2 coil(pre-installed), a Uforce N1 coil, a glass tube, a micro USB cable, seven spare O-rings, a warranty card, two user manuals, and a card for the Gene chip. It’s a well equipped kit and you get everything you’d need to get started short of juice.

The mod:

The mod follows the release of the original Drag and the Drag 2 but comes in considerably smaller than either of it’s predecessors. It also sports the exact same shape as it’s elders but is slightly heavier thanks to it’s internal 4400mAh batteries which are about the equivalent of two 18650s. It measures 81.5mm tall, 48.5mm wide and is about 25.5mm thick. It’s almost 7mm shorter than the Drag 2 and a few millimeters narrower as well. It also appears to be made with the same sort of zinc alloy and resin materials. It’s got some nice ergonomic curves which make it a pleasure to hold on to but one thing I noticed on the mini is you can see where the battery cover/panel is adhered to the device and where it meets up it leaves some sharp little edges. On mine it’s sharp enough that it’s left a few little nicks in my finger before I realized where it was coming from. It doesn’t exactly ruin the device for me but I’ve had to be wary of the sharp edges to avoid further nicks on my fingers.

Starting at the top of the device it’s got a protruding stainless steel 510 connection that sits almost a millimeter above the top of the device so unfortunately no matter what you match it up with there’s going to be a slight gap underneath your atomizer. It will however support atomizers up to 25mm without overhanging the sides but that gap will still remain. The 510 itself is solid with really nice threads and I’ve had no issues with it just the fact that it leaves a slight gap with anything you put on it kind of irks me. On one side of the device it has the same type of resin panel we see on the Drag and Drag 2 and on the other side it still bears the silk-screened name Drag in big letters. The resin panel looks nice and gives it a bit of flair but the name Drag on the side is definitely subjective. I know when the original launched opinions on the big branding were divided but it still managed to become one of the most popular mods of 2017 and even in to 2018 so obviously taste is subjective. The side with Drag on it is solid while the resin panel side looks to be permanently affixed to the device to lock in the internal batteries but again it does leave some rather sharp edges where the two meetup.

Down the face of the mod is the fire button, screen, adjustment buttons and micro USB port. The fire button which is at the top is round and made of metal. It’s nice and firm with a solid click to it and personally I’ve had no complaints with it rattling or anything else. The screen looks pretty standard and although they don’t list the size I imagine it’s probably a 0.9″ OLED. It’s not the brightest so you might struggle with it outdoors but indoors it’s easy enough to read. Information on the screen is well laid out and includes the usual things like dual battery bars, wattage, resistance, volts and a puff counter. Just below the screen are the up and down adjustment buttons. They’re also made of metal, nice and clicky but have just the tiniest bit of rattle to them. Not enough to bug me but it should be mentioned. Under the adjustment buttons is the micro USB port for charging and for firmware updates. When tested it charged at a rate of about 1.3A and usually took about two hours to fully charge the device.

Now much like the Drag 2 the Drag mini uses a newer version of the Gene chip called the Gene.fit. VooPoo boasts on their site that they’ve spent 15 months on R&D, 11M data mining of the Gene chip and 161 tanks tested with this new Fit mode but they still recommend you pair it with the Uforce T2 tank and should not be used with RDAs, RTAs or RDTAs. Of course as with most modern chips it also includes the usual safety protections like a 10S cutoff, over-temp, over-current, overcharge, over discharge and short-circuit protection. It also includes balanced charging which is handy considering it’s setup as a dual cell device. It supports roughly the same functions and features as the original but with a new mode called Fit. When in Fit mode the device automatically tries to set the best wattage for the Fit setting you’ve selected. There are three options Fit 1 which is best for battery life, Fit 2 which is best for flavour and Fit 3 which is for clouds bro clouds. I tested the new feature out with several different tanks and coils and it always seemed to do a pretty good job of setting an appropriate power level. There were a few exceptions where it would feel like it’s running higher than it should for a particular coil so I would just change the Fit setting to one of the other options. For the most part I was using Fit 2 which seemed a good balance between flavour, vapour and battery life. Really you could think of it as an easy or simple mode which does most of the thinking for you and only gives three simple options. It will be great for new vapers but chances are seasoned vapers already know what they like and can dial in their preferences themselves in the other modes. Aside from the features of the chip it also has what VooPoo calls VO Class fireproofing bridge which is supposed to protect the chip from dust, liquid and from burning out.

Speaking of modes the Drag mini supports the following, VW(variable wattage), TC(temp control) for SS, TI and Ni and Fit with it’s three options. Functionally it works like most other mods out there with five clicks to turn it on and off and three clicks to cycle through the options. It sort of cycles you through the modes with each set of three clicks except for TC and Fit where it actually presents you the sub-options. When a mode is selected pressing fire and up locks the device while pressing fire and down flips the screen orientation. Noticeably absent are any TCR options or any sort of pre-heat or curve, at least that I could find. It also doesn’t have any settings menu for adjusting things like the brightness or locking the resistance. To lock resistance for TC it prompts you for new coil when you attach your atomizer and to adjust wattage when in TC you click the fire button four times. It’s a really stripped down system which aims to make things easier for newer vapers by taking some of the guesswork out of it. The device can fire up to 117W which is down a few watts from it’s Drag and Drag 2 counterparts but for me it’s still more than enough as I almost never go over 100w or even close really.

The tank:

The tank that comes with the kit is the Uforce T2, the third in the line of UForce tanks. It’s a pretty standard looking subohm tank and includes the most common features we tend to expect on modern tanks like a slide open top fill, adjustable bottom airflow and multiple options for the size of the tank glass. At the top it comes equipped with a colourful resin 810 drip tip(not Goon style) that matches the colour of the resin panel on the mod. It’s a bit shinier but the colours should be relatively close matched. Just below it is a push to open top fill. There’s a triangle just above the name UFORCE on the top cap where you push and it will open. It reveals a fairly tight kidney shaped fill hole. It works well with needle and unicorn tips but blunt tips will definitely struggle with filling this one. The tank comes equipped with a 5ml bubble glass tank installed but also includes a 3.5ml straight glass tank with the kit. I’m still not a big fan of most bubble tanks so I’ve been rocking it with the straight glass which still has a decent capacity. Around the base of the tank are three airflow inlets which can be adjusted using the airflow control ring. It’s fairly tight with stops at either end and should stay in place once set.

Now the two coils that come with the tank are quite different. It comes with their new 0.6ohm P2 coil installed which when sat side by side is considerably smaller than the 0.13ohm N1 also included in the kit and the two coils provide a very different experience. The P2 coil is a single mesh coil with a fairly tight draw, it’s not quite mouth to lung but it’s definitely a restrictive direct lung hit. It’s also really low powered with the recommended range being between 24-28W. I found I only needed to run it around 24W to get a good experience from it where it produced really great flavour and a good amount of vapour. I personally tend to vape at lower wattages so this new P2 coil was right up my alley however my one and only complaint with it is it sometimes struggles to keep up with thicker liquids like an 80vg I tried it in required a few primer pulls in between vapes or I’d get a dry hit. With 60 or 70vg blends it seemed to cope much better so keep that in mind if you plan on using the P2. It’s definitely not for mouth to lung so I don’t recommend trying it with any salts unless they are subohm salts.

With the N1 the recommended range is between 50-100W with the suggested best being between 70-80W. To me the N1 is much more in line with other mesh coils I’ve tried and requires considerably more power to make it work. 75W was pretty much the sweet spot for me on the N1 which produced copious amounts of vapour and very solid flavour. I didn’t encounter any wicking issues with the N1 and it was able to keep up with the 80vg juice I ran through it with ease. One thing I noticed with either coil is not once did either of them leak on me even when left sitting for a day or two I was surprise to come back to them just the way I left them. Considering the size difference in the coils I’d probably suggest using the bubble glass with the N2 for the extra capacity and the straight glass with the P2 since it sips juice a lot slower.

Overall:

Most of the issues I encountered with the Drag mini were cosmetic and don’t really affect the performance of the device which I’ve got to say did not disappoint. I’ve really been enjoying my time with the kit and appreciate what it brings to the table. Setting personal opinions aside I think VooPoo has done a great job with the Drag mini and the series in general. It’ll probably be better suited to more advanced users but would also make a good kit for someone just getting in to subohm vaping with the Fit settings really helping to ease folks in.