Smoant sent me the Charon Racer for review. This pod vape is inspired by vintage motorcycles and scooters, which is a bit strange but also cool.
Design
The Charon Racer looks like a regular vape for the most part, except at the top, where you’ll find an orange LED with a circular ring around it, and above that is a squared-off lanyard connector.
The LED light is designed to look like a retro motorcycle headlight, the side panels have leather padding like a motorcycle seat, and the glossy body is painted like the body of a motorcycle. It’s very weird, but I also think it’s unique. I like the design for the most part. The motorcycle light is a little weird. But hey, to each their own. I still give them props for what they’re doing here.
The frame is made of zinc alloy metal. One side of the device has a firing button and a USB-C charging port, and the other side has an airflow slider.
The Racer comes in several colors:
- Blaze Orange
- Pepper White
- Phantom Pink
- Knight Black
- Gunmetal Grey
- Gentle Blue
- Marrs Green
- Emerald Green
LED Screen
The screen shows an animated image, the wattage setting, the Ohm resistance of the pod you’re using, a puff counter, and the battery level.
There are three screen themes to pick from: the motorcycle (which is the default), a pink scooter, and a colorful circle. Each theme has different animations depending on what you’re doing, for example, it changes when you’re vaping or turning the device off.
Features
A single button on the Racer controls everything: power on/off, mode selection, firing, theme changes, puff counter reset, and light settings.
There are two vaping modes: smart mode and power mode. Smart mode auto-adjusts the wattage based on the pod you’re using. But if you want more control of the wattage, you can switch to power mode.
Smart mode sets the wattage right in the middle of the coil’s wattage range, which works great for me, so I’ve been sticking with it instead of using power mode.
But if you want to use power mode, you can adjust it anywhere between 5 to 45 watts.
You can fire the device by pressing the firing button or simply drawing from it. Both options work well for me.
Adjustable Airflow
The airflow slider gives you access to three airflow intake holes, which click into place for each setting. Unfortunately, the airflow adjuster hardly does anything at all. Every setting is a loose MTL hit, with only minor changes between each one. But the change is so tiny that it’s barely noticeable.
The only noticeable airflow setting is the one that closes it off completely. You can still get a hit like this, and it’s almost a good MTL hit, but you can tell it’s not supposed to be used for vaping because it gurgles the pod.
Pods
Three cartridges are available for the Charon Racer, and each holds 2ml of e-liquid. These are new pods designed for the racer, called Racer series coils. These are mesh coils, so they fire fast and have great flavor.
The pods are side-filled and can be filled without being removed from the device.
- 0.4 Ohm – This coil is rated for 26-30 watts. This has good flavor but not as good as the other coils. You can get some big hits from this one.
- 0.6 Ohm – This coil is rated for 20-24 watts. It performs much like the 0.4 coils but produces better flavor. It requires lower wattage, and you still get big hits.
- 0.8 Ohm – This coil is rated for 14-18 watts. The wattage is much lower here, but I still get some big, satisfying hits. And this coil has the best flavor.
The device comes with the 0.6 and 0.8 Ohm pods, so you’ll have to buy the 0.4 Ohm pod separately if you want to try those.
Battery and Charging
The Racer has a built-in 1000mAh rechargeable battery. That’s a perfect size for a little pod vape like this. It charges using a USB-C cable, included in the box, at 5V/2A charging.
Safety Features
- Over-temperature protection
- Auto-adjust output
- Short circuit protection
- 10s overtime protection
- Low voltage protection
Where to Get It
Most of the big sites carry it, but it’s only available for pre-order right now
Final Thoughts
The Charon Racer is a nice little pod device.
I wasn’t a fan of the the motorcycle headlight at first, but it has sort of grown on me over the last few weeks. And I like everything else about the style of the device. The leather panels and the glossy finish are nice.
The Racer also performs well. Smart mode works great, the chip fires fast, and the screen looks good. The pods also work great and produce excellent flavor.
The adjustable airflow is the biggest problem here. They just don’t do much. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a good hit, though. You just have to be okay with a loose MTL hit. That’s not my preference, but I can deal with it.
The Charon Racer was sent to me for review from Smoant.