My first introduction to a SMOANT device was back in May 2016. It was the incredibly heavy, cumbersome Knight V1 Starter Kit. Since the release of the Knight V1 Smoant has been honing their skills as vape gear manufacturers, getting better and better at designing and building remarkable mods and tanks. The Smoant Naboo isn’t just their latest, it’s their best.

We will get to how well it vapes in a bit, but right now I want to tell you about what I believe is something we usually never see; true innovation. The Smoant Naboo may be a 225W, TC capable mod, but more than that, the way in which Smoant incorporated “touch” with a physical button just under the side Firing Button confirms this manufacturer’s commitment to always try for ‘better’.

 

Under the firing button located on the side of the mod sits a thin button used to activate the touch sensitive icons that will appear under the large display. Pressing the physical button on the side causes the adjustment icons to appear and disappear. The user simply touches either touch sensitive icon to raise or lower the wattage or temperature.

 

They are also used to navigate the menu system. Nothing else on the Naboo is touch sensitive. Once the user has the Naboo set up for the optimal vape, pressing the side button again causes the touch adjustment icons to disappear.

Navigating the Menu of the Naboo

The Smoant Naboo is a 5-click on/off, 3-click to the menu mod. Through the menu the user can set the Naboo for Variable Wattage, Temperature Control, Wallpaper, and General Settings. General settings include brightness of the display, set the time, and timeout, screensaver, and vibrate mode.

 

There are three “themes” the user can choose from, Classic, Music, or Dial. To close out of the menu system the user holds down the fire button for 2-3 seconds. This will bring the user back to the active, information rich screen, in the chosen ‘theme’.

 

3-Clicks – 4 Modes – Use touch icons to move between them, then press the Fire Button. Use the touch icons again to navigate inside the Settings Mode. Hold the Fire Button Down to back out of the Menu

The Smoant Naboo Mod Feature Highlights

 

The default wattage when firing up the Smoant Taboo the first time is 5W. Once the Naboo Sub-Ohm Tank was attached and filled with eJuice, I set my wattage to 60W. Because the preinstalled coil head is the 0.18ohm Mesh OCC rated for 40-80W, I figured starting in the middle range would be the right choice.

 

Note* Make sure you have clicked the side button to close the touch-sensitive adjustment icons. Leaving them visible WILL cause the Naboo to increase or decrease the wattage or temperature if the user accidentally touches either one. I learned this from experience.  Smoant calls this their Independent Lock Button. In any case, the touch adjustment buttons do not go away unless the button is pressed to close them.

 

The Smoant NABOO 225W Starter Kit looks similar to the SMOK X-PRIV (reviewed here), both in shape, corners, and overall size. However, unlike the X-PRIV, the Naboo has a Fire Button, not Fire Panel. Even the full-size rear battery door has a pattern loosely modeled after the cobra pattern on the X-PRIV.

 

Inside the Smoant Naboo Mod sits the newest version of the Ant225 chipset, and in addition to the wattage and temperature range, as well as the other various modes available to the Naboo because of the chipset, the biggest improvement is the incredible ramp up speed of 0.015s. The Naboo is the fastest Smoant mod ever, throwing vapor instantly after pressing the fire button.

 

 

The large 2.4″ TFT Color Screen is indeed color, but the colors are set. You can change the Themes, which will display a completely different GUI, but you cannot customize the colors of fonts, numbers, etc… Despite not being an HD display, the wallpaper background choices look very good.

 

The extensive temperature control suite, while certainly suited to be used to customize the users vape experience with different heating elements, SS, Ni, Ti, both Coil Heads that come with the Naboo Sub-Ohm Tank are made with Kanthal heating elements.

I made my own decision a couple of months ago about Mesh coils, and the Naboo Sub-Ohm further supports that decision. Mesh Coils are the best thing to come along for sub-ohm tanks in a long time.

 

A Mesh Coil is designed so that its heating element has an order of magnitude more surface space than a simple coiled wire. With an enormous surface sitting in the center of pure organic cotton, when heat from the mod is sent to the coil so much more eJuice is instantly vaporized, causing big clouds of vapor and the richest flavor available.

 

There are variations in the Mesh Coils, resistance, the number of coils in the head, and so on, but there is no doubt that Mesh is here to stay. In the Naboo Tank, both Mesh coils produce wonderful flavor and huge clouds.

 

The Naboo Sub-Ohm Tank has a 4mL maximum eJuice capacity, plus dual bottom airflow slots that allow plenty of air to enter the chamber. Like the recently reviewed Augvape Skynet, the Naboo Tank has a threaded top-fill design. Unscrew the top cap to reveal two large fill slots. Using one slot to fill, the other slot is used to allow the displaced air in the tank to escape faster. The result is a less messy, and faster fill.

 

Naboo Mesh OCC Coils

Made with high-grade stainless steel, the most notable part of the coil heads is the enormous eJuice ports. I sincerely doubt anyone could get a dry hit caused by a strong draw on the wide bore drip tip. Just as fast as the eJuice vaporizers, it is replaced into the cotton through these large ports. (SMOK take a note here). It should be noted here that Smoant has designed the Naboo Tank for full compatibility of SMOK Prince Coil Heads, which is great is users have stocked up on Prince Coil Packs, otherwise, I like the Smoant Coil Heads more than SMOK’s.

 

At the time of this review, official replacement coils for the Naboo Tank are few and far between. Hopefully Element Vape will have them in stock shortly.

 

Right now, there are two Coil Heads available for the Naboo Sub-Ohm, the 0.18ohm Mesh OCC (40-80W)
and a 0.17ohm Mesh OCC (60-100W). I can’t see or taste much of a difference between the two, other than the 0.17-ohm does allow for an optimal wattage for myself at 88W.

The Naboo Kit is available in 4 colors, with match sub-ohm tanks; Black, Rainbow, Red, and Stainless Steel (silver). All 4 use the a unique resin 810 wide bore drip tip.

 

The Naboo is a full-size mod and tank, and with two 18650 batteries installed it has a hefty and sturdy feel to it. The Naboo is also very comfortable to hold for long periods without fatigue. While the Smoant Naboo Mod offers plenty of range, 1W-225W, and the Naboo Sub-Ohm offers great flavor and ample clouds, I enjoyed vaping with this kit every bit as much, and maybe even more, as I did with most of SMOK’s Kits.

 

The Naboo Sub-Ohm uses eJuice quickly, but that’s pretty much par for the course these days in high performance sub-ohms.

 

I highly recommend the Smoant Naboo Starter Kit for two reasons; Smoant delivers a touch device that is both innovative and non-frivolous, and the price to value is excellent. If or when you decide to bring your own Naboo Starter Kit home, please remember to make sure the touch-sensitive adjustment icons are turned off before using it.

 

SCORE: A