Smok Mag Solo Mod Review by Z-Lee

I’ve got another review for you today where we’ll be taking a look at the Smok Mag Solo 100W Mod from HealthCabin. The picture above shows the entire kit, but we’ll be focusing solely on the mod in this review. This is the first Smok product I’ve ever reviewed, and the first non-pod Smok product I’ve ever owned. It’s pretty common knowledge that Smok has received a lot of flak over the years for their build quality and a lack of thoroughness in their QC department, so when they released a 21700 mod, I figured this is a better time than any to give them another go and to re-evaluate where they stand in the vape market. Some things in this review may surprise you, while other aspects of it may not. We’ll cover almost everything, from head to toe. Let’s get into the Smok Mag Solo Mod Review together!

I want to give a quick shoutout to Sue over at HealthCabin for supplying the Mag Solo for review. As a reviewer, this critique will be conducted in a fair and honest manner.

Alright, leh-go!

For this review, I received the Haze Blue colorway. The color choice when sent was random, but it just so happens that my favorite color is blue, so naturally I like the way this mod looks. It’s nice to see a variety of aesthetic options available, as not everyone wants a pastel-looking mod, and likewise with a more aggressive look such as that of carbon fiber. The mod kit comes with an 18650 adapter, USB Type-C charging cable (very short), a User Manual, Safety Manual, and a Warranty Verification card. The packaging is solid and will keep the mod from taking any abuse at all when shipped. This is a pretty standard outfit of hardware packaged with a mod as a kit, so I’d consider this a decent starter mod kit. With all of the positives, come a few negatives, but we’ll touch a bit on that later.

The Mag Solo

The Mag Solo is made of Zinc-Alloy and has a glossy finish that does a pretty decent job of hiding any fingerprints. The shiny metallic ribbon circumnavigating the faux-leather on the back, not so much. This shiny metallic ribbon is nothing new and can be recognized as a similar variant of GeekVape’s signature design, but the Mag Solo still encompasses the “pistol grip” that makes it stand out amidst the plethora of standard box mods. From the original Mag design however, which I personally was never very interested in being a thumb-fire kinda guy, the design has been toned down enough to where thumb-firing isn’t uncomfortable in the slightest bit. For index finger-firers (say that 5 times quickly!), there’s still that pistol grip feel if that appeals to you.

On the front of the mod from top down is the basic layout of buttons and UI that can be found on most standard box mods. At the top is the fire button, the 0.96″ TFT UI screen just below that, followed by the left (“down”) and right (“up”) buttons, and lastly the USB-C charging port at the bottom.

To the right of the UI, there’s SMOK branding engraved into the shiny metallic band, with MAG SOLO imprinted into padded faux-leather backing. I believe these are stickers, so don’t be fooled into believing the carbon fiber sticker is legitimately carbon fiber; they’re more or less for aesthetic looks. Just above the SMOK engraving, there’s a QR code sticker which I believe directs you to SMOK’s site, but I peeled it off before ever verifying, lol. It comes off quite cleanly and easily.

The fire button has a solid tactile feel having a nice “click” when adding a few pounds of pressure. There’s no mushiness here, which is ideal – you want it either on or off with no room for feathering. One thing I did notice about the left and right buttons is that they’re super easy to press. Too easy to press, in fact. I noticed when putting the Mag Solo in my cup holder while driving to work, that often times my wattage was turned all the way down, all the way up, or the wattage was locked from both buttons being pressed at the same time. The weight of the mod shouldn’t be enough to make changes to the wattage, which is going to catch an unsuspecting victim with an ultra hot vape, or no vape at all. This is going to have to be the first con for me.

The spring-loaded brass/gold-plated 510 pin in the top of the mod has had no issues with registering an atomizer. The throw distance seems quite long, and will likely have you making a few extra rotations to get the atomizer securely fastened into the 510, which is really no big deal.

The bottom of the mod has a swinging battery door panel which unlatches by sliding the ribbed rectangular button inward. Without a battery to sort of “kick” the door open, it’s easiest to use a fingernail to slide the switch without having to press down on it. The hinge portion of the battery door slopes downward (or upward if the mod is standing upright) and is located just below the front-facing side of the mod which is a bit puzzling to me. The heavier portion of the Zinc-Alloy frame also happens to be on the front-facing side, and these two aspects of the design do not not mix very well. I’ve dropped the mod by accident quite a few times off of my desk simply because it’s a bit topsy-turvy. However, the battery door never flew open and the 510 plate has yet to become loose, break, or snap off which is a great testament to what I’ve alluded to time and time again in my reviews – Zinc-Alloy frames are best for durability. This is an absolute huge pro in favor of the Mag Solo.

There is a negative “-” battery orientation engraved on the swinging battery door that I failed to capture very well, as well as a positive battery indicator at the bottom of the battery slot. With modern regulated mods, there are safety protections to prevent the mod from working if you happen to put the battery in the wrong way, so don’t be overly concerned with this in the Mag Solo. One exception to this battery orientation rule is Freemax’s Maxus 100W mod and 200W mod – you can place the battery(ies) in it whichever way you want, and the mod will work just the same. But I digress…

The top of the mod is securely fastened with 6 screws. 3 of the 6 fasten the zinc-alloy top plate onto the mod, and the other 3 screws fasten the 510 plate to the top plate. This seems a bit excessive however, the 510 is fastened into zinc-alloy which is the most important part to me. Many of the newer mods being released today screw the 510 plate directly into plastic or aluminum frames (aluminium for some of you), and the outcomes have been less than impressive. Sure, plastic and aluminum are lighter than zinc-alloy, but zinc-alloy is about 2.5x as strong as aluminum-alloys, and infinitely stronger than plastic. I’ll take a slightly heavier zinc-alloy mod over plastic or aluminum any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. If there’s anything I recommend you doing research on when searching for a durable and long-lasting mod, it’s this. Screw a full atomizer on top of a plastic or aluminum fastened 510 plate and then drop it – you’re out a mod 9 times out of 10. Zinc-alloy is definitely the way to go, but don’t take my word for it. Again, this is an absolutely huge bonus in favor of the Mag Solo.

The UI

From left to right and top to bottom, the UI layout is as follows:

• Battery life Bar Indicator, Battery Life Percentage
• Wattage Setting (W), Left/Right Buttons Locked (if red padlock is present)
• Coil Resistance, Voltage Output
• Puff Counter (p), Last Puff Duration (s)

The User Interface is about as simple as it gets when it comes to a box mod. The chip doesn’t offer anything outside of Wattage (Power) Mode, which makes the mod very easy understand and operate. Wattage changes to the mod are in full wattage increments ranging from 5 to 100W. This device does round-robin for those that care about that feature, but I’ve never really understood the importance of it (how often are you changing the wattage that drastically from 100W to 5W or vice versa?). When holding down the left or right button, the wattage ramps up in acceleration making it very easy to make simple or lengthy wattage adjustments in two or three shakes of a deer’s tail.

The shortcut button combinations to access various features is as follows:

• Turn the mod on/off: 5x fire button clicks
• Lock the entire device (best for stowing): 3x fire button clicks (top right picture above)
• Lock Wattage Adjustment (left and right buttons): Press and hold both left and right buttons simultaneously
• Change the UI color (6 color themes): Press and hold right button and fire button simultaneously
• Reset the Puff Counter (no confirmation screen): Press and hold left button and fire button simultaneously

Aaaaaand, that’s it!
Newer Puff Counter confirmation screens have really spoiled me, because I accidentally reset this mod playing around with the UI. Not a huge biggy, but I don’t like having to dig around for the User Manual for fear of accidentally resetting the Puff Counter. The puff counter itself only tracks up to 999 and then resets anyway, so again, not a big deal.

Performance Info

I’ll try not to get too nerdy in this portion so it’s easier to understand. I noted above what each column represents and highlighted some outputs which I’ll be talking about.

Column 1 is the coil resistance reading of the mod. Column 2 is the wattage I set the mod to. Column 5 is the calculated wattage output for each wattage setting corresponding respectively in Column 2. I added an arrow near the top of the excel sheet for clarification.

The Smok Mag Solo peaked at 73W with a 0.15 ohm coil, and 74W using a 0.36 ohm coil (don’t mind the resistance accuracy, it’s a really old coil I still use for testing only, lol), which is quite a bit shy of the advertised “100W”. I’d never expect a mod to reach 100W with a 0.79 ohm coil simply because we’d be setting the house on fire, but 53W is certainly enough. The 74W cap is going to have to be added to the cons – I’m not a fan of embellished advertised specs, one bit.

The maximum Amp Output was 22.1A using a 0.15 ohm coil shown in Column 4 which is very “safe” (25A+ CDR batteries will perform very well and have longer life since they won’t heat up as much and there won’t be as much battery sag), but quite a bit inhibitive for the mod to be able to reach the 100W advertised.

The max Voltage Output was 6.51V using a good ‘ole 0.81 ohm Innokin Z coil shown in Column 3, so it does reach the advertised 6.5V and verifies the presence of a boosted chip which is definitely a necessity for single battery mods if you like performance consistency.

Based on these results, the Smok Mag Solo is best for MTLs and mid-subohm RDLs and even DLs if the user doesn’t use high wattage. I’ve been vaping the Freemax M Pro 3 with a 0.15 ohm coil for the vast majority of the testing and it’s been performing great at 60-65W. In other mods, for a similar vape I’ve been using 50-55W, so it does seem to perform a little bit on the weaker side, but definitely consistent.

The battery indicator is fairly accurate and performs unnoticeably different until about 5-10% battery left which I was super impressed with. More often than not, performance usually starts to degrade around 20ish% for mods with a boosted chip. This also gets a pro mark from me.

The USB Type-C charging port charges at around 1.2A which falls within decent range of the advertised 1.5A max, even though I do not support or recommend using the charging port for charging unless you’re away from an external charger and there’s no other way to charge this device. The Mag Solo also supports pass-through vaping if you must vape while it’s charging.

I’ve pumped around 3000 puffs through this Mag Solo over the past month and it’s performed exceptionally well for my needs. My needs being lower to mid wattage preferences in vaping. I don’t like hot vapes, so this might not be an ideal mod for you if you must vape at high wattages. If you normally find yourself using coils with 0.4 ohm resistances and above with wattages below 70W, you have yourself a winner here.

My past experiences with Smok devices were restricted to pod devices only prior to acquiring the Mag Solo, so it might be a bit unfair to compare my experiences shared in this review with what I’ve experienced in the past. I will say that most of the negativity I’ve felt in the past with those pod devices and the general consensus of the vape community regarding the Smok brand has been flipped around with the Mag Solo, and I would endorse this product for the uses stated above, assuming I didn’t simply get lucky with the mod I received in terms of QC.

Where the Smok Mag Solo excels is in the aspects of build quality and ease of operation, but leaves quite a bit to be desired in the performance department. It isn’t unusable by any means and I’d still prefer it over VooPoo’s Drag X Plus or even their Drag X Plus Pro simply due to the Mag Solo’s zinc-alloy construction. I’d even go as far as to say the 22A limitation the chips restricts makes it a very safe mod for a brand new vaper. It’s not a great option for a veteran vaper that likes options, but it certainly works decently well for most applications that are ideal for a single 21700 mod – low to mid wattage uses.

I like how the Mag Solo has drifted away from the extreme “pistol grip” aesthetic that turned away pretty much any and all thumb-firing vapers, and has found a way to keep the style while also broadening the appeal to more users. I think this was a smart move by Smok.

++ Pros ++

• Solid zinc-alloy construction
• Solid/sturdy 510 (dropped several times)
• Light weight
• Very easy to operate
• Great hand-feel for both index and thumb-firing
• Battery door holds very well even when dropped
• 22A cap makes this mod a safer option for new vapers
• 9 color options at HealthCabin
• 5 UI color themes
• USB Type-C (1.2A verified)
• Boosted chip

– – Cons – –

• Left and Right Buttons are too easy to press
• 74W cap underwhelmingly falls short of the advertised 100W

+- Considerations -+

• Mod sits a bit unstable
• Wattage (Power) Mode only
• Not a lot of menu options/customizations
• Soft ramp-up

Overall Rating

6.5-8.0
(6.5 for high wattage vapers, 8.0 for mid-ohm RDL/DL users and MTLs – bumped up quite a bit for solid construction in comparison to most mass produced mods being released today)

And that concludes this review of the Smok Mag Solo 100W mod. If you see any glaring mistakes or inconsistencies, please don’t hesitate to point them out. Respond here, or leave me a PM if the thread closes.

Again, I want to thank Sue from HealthCabin for providing this device for review and giving me a proper amount of time to thoroughly test it. And a special thanks to you, the reader, for taking the time to read my word salad.

This review was written by Zach == Z-Lee from ECF, click to view original review there with more photos and more details.