I have written before about how attached I am to my TFV12 tank. It is older than most of what Smok sells now, but it is still a favorite, and only one kit has come close to replacing it: the Smok G-Priv 3. This review covers my first impressions of the mod and the tank, and then explains why I ended up sending the kit back.
First look
What won me over at the start was a color, a chrome magenta that looked deep and smooth, and I liked the device before I had even held it. Smok has a reputation for bright, eye-catching finishes and this kit keeps that up. The mod is sold in Black, Prism Silver, Prism Gold and Purple Red. Purple Red is really closer to magenta, and I think it is among the prettiest finishes Smok has made.
The back panel is a marble-pattern shell matched to the color of the kit. On my Purple Red unit it was a glossy pink and purple conch-shell pattern that suited the body well.
The mod
Touchscreen and passcode
The G-Priv series is known for its big touchscreen, and this one comes with plenty of settings. One of them is a passcode. People pick up my vape to taste whatever is in the tank all the time, often without asking, so a lock is a polite way of saying hands off. If the code slips your mind, you reset it by answering two numerical security questions.
Themes and My Modes
You can pick from six theme colors: royal purple, sky blue, bright red, canary yellow, calming teal and soft white. The chipset also stores four personal profiles that Smok calls My Modes. My favorite part of that menu is that each profile can hold your nicotine level, the flavor you are vaping and a preheat setting. Mine read 3MG, P.O.M. (the pineapple, orange and mango blend by Nude) and normal preheat, with hard preheat now and then when I wanted a harsher throat hit. I left the puff counter untouched because I like to see my daily total. It showed 100 on day one, since I could not put the device down.
Power modes
TC mode is not something I use, though I did scroll through its options out of curiosity. VW mode is where I spent my time, and the preheat choices there let you shape the throat hit. The mod tops out at 230W. I fitted my TFV12 just so I could say I had run it at full power, and the vapor that came out was very hot and very flavorful.
The secondary key
Above the fire button sits a small black secondary key, and it was my one real annoyance with the mod. After several years of vaping, my habit is to lock a screen by clicking the fire button a few times. On this mod, touching the secondary key switches the screen off to save power, and holding it for 2 seconds unlocks the device. Three quick clicks of the fire button still lock it, so the extra key is Smok’s attempt to shorten something that already took about 3 seconds. I kept brushing it by accident and locking myself out, which made it more irritating than helpful.
Charging
The charging port is USB type-c, the same connector my Note 10 Android phone uses, so one cable handled both and I no longer had to keep swapping cords. Charging was very fast. The port is on the underside of the mod, though, which is not ideal: I had to lay the device on its side or balance it over an edge while it charged.
The tank: TFV16 Lite
The kit ships with the TFV16 Lite. A full-size TFV16 exists and is sold separately, but Smok judged the Lite to be the better match for this kit. Given the 16 in the name and its place as the newest TFV model, I assumed it would handle more power than its predecessors. Instead, the coils are rated at 60-90W. That surprised me, coming from a TFV12 whose atomizer can take 200W.
- Capacity: the glass looks compact but holds up to 5mL of e-liquid. Its bulged shape keeps the outline smooth and sleek.
- Airflow: two large slots sit just under the glass, placed higher on the base than usual to improve the draw, with bigger clouds and stronger flavor as the goal. I found the slots a little thin. Turning the base tightened the pull easily, and rotating the whole base counterclockwise locked it.
- O-ring: Smok moved it from the center to beneath the swivel top. Vapers had complained that the old o-ring tore and let juice run down the tank, and the new position is meant to spare it the wear of constant refills.
- Drip tip: a marble resin piece made to echo the shell on the mod. Mine was magenta streaked with white, pink and purple. It fits tightly and rests on a small platform above the chimney, where most drip tips are just a continuation of the tank.
Taken as a whole, I loved how the G-Priv 3 was designed, colored and put together.
Why I sent it back
The relocated o-ring, the part meant to cut down on leaks, is what failed on my unit. Two weeks after I bought the kit, the o-ring snagged on a sharp spot on the swivel top, was pulled out of its seat under the drip tip and dropped into my hand. I spent roughly 15 minutes trying to work it back in, but the rubber had stretched too far to sit properly.
There was a spare in the box, and it went in without trouble. I refilled, clicked the lock shut and carried on. Just 24 hours later the spare came out the same way. At that point I contacted the manufacturer and asked for a replacement. A return label arrived quickly, but the color I had fallen for was out of stock, so I was offered store credit instead and accepted it without much enthusiasm.
Verdict
All of this happened over a month before I wrote this, so the color has probably been restocked. Even so, my first run with the G-Priv 3 left me a little sour. It was great for the first two weeks. After that, the low-wattage coils, the faulty o-ring and a nagging worry that I would crack the all-glass touchscreen took most of the excitement out of it. For now I am staying with my older setup, a Smok I-Priv with the TFV12, until Smok brings out something else that gets my attention.