My mother always told me, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. After all, something I find attractive, others might not. Sage advice from a wise woman. Of course, she also told me if I had nothing nice to say, to not say anything at all. Which would make for some really boring reviews, so with apologies to my mother: I don’t like the Sigelei Kaos Z. But that’s not to say others won’t, even if the mod makes it difficult to enjoy on many fronts.

Let’s take a closer look to see on which side of the fence you land.

Over the years, we’ve used a lot of adjectives to describe vape devices. Two of the most common are “bold” and “striking.” But after seeing the Kaos Z for the first time, we may need to reconsider how often those terms come into play.

With a bright, pumpkin-like orange frame, transparent glass side panels that expose the mod circuitry, and a full-color TFT screen, my Kaos Z test model made its presence known before I even pressed the fire key. But wait, there’s more. Once an atomizer is connected, and the button is engaged, the Kaos Z lights up like eight Christmas trees, with an adjustable, six-color LED-illuminated bezel forming a “Z” within the side panel.

The Sigelei Kaos Spectrum (review here) is considerably more “calm” than the Z.

It’s safe to say that “stealth” is one term we WON’T be using in this review.

The Kaos Z’s zinc alloy frame is simultaneously lightweight and sturdy, and feels as if it will adequately protect the glass sides, even if dropped. The fire key is solid, but has a noticeable amount of rattle. Thankfully, the up and down control buttons do not suffer from the same problem. Still, in a device that is going for such a brazen, industrialized look, the fire key seems a little fragile.

The Kaos Z’s offset 510 connection does its job, and none of the atomizers I tested on the device had any trouble sitting flush, nor was there any overhang for tanks up to 26mm wide.

With an advertised 230 watts on just two 18650s, you’d think Sigelei would have a proprietary board to tout, but not much is said of the Kaos Z chipset … other than the fact that you can see it through the glass, that is.

But the Kaos Z operates well. The full-color, 0.96-inch TFT screen is bright and easy to read, and navigating the fairly deep menus was intuitive, though beginner vapers might need to refer to the well-translated instructions a few times before settling in.

The LED bezel color settings are perhaps the easiest item to adjust in the menu system, with six preset colors at hand. Though I think people might opt to turn them off entirely, since they are – in a word or two – BLINDINGLY BRIGHT.

To give you an anecdote of how bright the Kaos Z gets, I was using the mod on a fairly quiet street while visiting my local bar (for research purposes, of course). I adjusted the settings to have the LED illuminate when firing, and vaped normally. Then, a police officer drove up to where I was standing. Though I had done nothing wrong, I cautiously approached the officer and all he could do was laugh at me.

Why? Because he thought I was flashing a distress light, as if I was signaling for assistance. We laughed it off, and he left, but not before he commented that I should probably get a less noticeable vape.

Point taken, officer. Point taken.

I would put all my negativity and “mod shaming” comments aside if the Kaos Z vaped well. Unfortunately, this is where I ran into most of my issues with the device. Most notably with its tendency to misfire… constantly.

Regardless of whether I was in TC or wattage mode, every 3-5 draws resulted in a dead hit, with no signs of any power coming from inside the device. No pulsing. No sputtering. Just eerie, annoying silence. (But the LEDs lit up, in case you were wondering.)

First, I attributed this to bad batteries, so I swapped cells several times, but all provided the same results. Then I checked the connections, the atomizers, hand position, and even the LED settings. Nothing changed the fact that the Kaos Z simply had some serious flaws in its performance.

When I did get things to fire, the Kaos Z proved to be VERY strong. In fact, I’d venture to say the device may be a touch OVERpowered, since I seemed to scorch a coil at 65 watts, even though it was rated to handle much higher power.

Other coils fared much better, but all had to be vaped well below their usual power levels. Once I corralled the wattage quirks, I learned to enjoy the Kaos Z’s rapid ramp-up time and aggressive power. She wasn’t pretty, but she delivered the “oomph” without fail.

In temperature control mode, the Kaos Z was a little more finicky. With the full suite of options, I was hoping the mod would find a sweet spot (and maybe reign in the spotty power concerns), but instead I found the Kaos Z to be erratic, especially with Ni200 coils … for reasons I still can’t decipher.

First, I had problems with jumpy coil resistance readings. Then I received temperature protection warnings. Occasionally, I’d even get a “no atomizer” warning, just for good measure. This doesn’t reflect my ENTIRE experience with the Kaos Z temp control modes, but it reflected them far more than I expected from Sigelei.

I think this is probably more indicative of the Kaos Z as a whole. It has moments where it works extremely well, but too many of these occasions were interrupted by misfires, power spikes and other performance discrepancies. Far too many.

The Sigelei Kaos Z feels like the company held a design meeting, gathered a bunch of ideas from other devices, then crammed them into a box mod. From the gaudy color schemes, the silly Z-shaped LEDs and the exposed circuit board, the Kaos Z isn’t subtle, and it isn’t going to win any style awards.

All of which would be forgivable if the Kaos Z vaped well. But with a slew of misfires, overpowered hits and other performance quirks, I never really got comfortable operating the mod, even after several long days of use. In the end, I didn’t want to judge the Kaos Z by the way it looked, but this was one time when the book matched the cover.

Score: D+

Want the Kaos Z? Pick one up now at Vapor Authority

Sigelei Kaos Z specs:

• Material: Zinc Alloy
• Screen: 0.96〞TFT Color Screen
• Wattage Range: 10W-200W
• Temperature Range: 100℃-300℃ / 200℉-570℉
• Voltage Input: 6.4V-8.4V
• Voltage Output: 1.0V-7.5V
• Maximum Current: 38A
• Uses 2x 18650 Batteries (not included)
• TC Supports: SS, Ti1, Ni200, and TCR Modes
• Resistance Range: 0.05Ω-3.0Ω
• USB Charging: DC 5V/2.5A
• Upgradeable Firmware
• Customizable LED Lights

Sigelei Kaos Z contents:

• Kaos Z 200W Box Mod
• User Manual
• Authenticity Card