Smok OFRF NexMESH Kit Review – A Magical Mesh Vape?

I’m quite happy to have received the Smok OFRF Nexmesh Pod Kit but where, oh where, am I supposed to start when it comes to brand introductions?

I don’t think Smok really needs an introduction most people reading this review will know who Smok are.

Those of you who don’t know who Smok are they’re a Chinese brand who have been around for longer than most people have been vaping.

Are Smok any good?

Simply put yes – although many on the internet would argue they aren’t as good as they used to be. That being said they are still a very prominent brand in the industry and attract lots of attention with pretty much any release.

So on to OFRF… Personally I’d never really heard of them until last year, that’s probably because last year (2019) Wotofo acquired them, a match made in mesh heaven.

I was going to talk mainly about about OFRF, thinking that after the acquisition OFRF remains to be it’s own entity within Wotofo… but the OFRF website just talks about Wotofo, so maybe not.

Let’s forget the politics and keep it simple.

• Smok is a huge vape manufacture from china.
• OFRF is a big Vape Company which are now owned by Wotofo
• Wotofo is a big/huge Company from china.
• NexMESH is the brand name of the “next generation of” mesh strip coils, owned by OFRF/Wotofo

All you need to know if OFRF and Wotofo are popular when it comes to vaping on mesh, which is very popular in it’s own right these days…I’m going to have a nap, see you on the next section.

What To Expect From The Smok OFRF NexMESH Kit?

The Smok OFRF NexMESH kit is called a pod system, not a pod mod, although there isn’t much functionality difference between this system and some pod mods on the market.

It has variable wattage, ranging from 5-30W and it is powered by a 1200mAh. On the side of the device is a 0.69” screen, which has a very basic display.

The pod (or cartridge) has a waterproof design which prevents condensation build up inside the pod port, which is great if it works. The pod is held into the port with fairly strong magnets and the filling hole is on the side of the pod.

The outer shell is aluminium alloy and has a fancy mesh grill on one side.

It takes a 1.2A charge rating through it’s micro USB charger, and it has the added bonus of allowing pass through vaping – (you can use it while it charges).

Lets get dug in.

Watch Harley’s Video Review

 

Inside The Box

• 1 x NexMESH Pod Device
• 1 x 0.4ohm Mesh Coil
• 1 x 0.4ohm SS316L Coil
• 1 x Charging Cable
• 1 x User manual

Specs and Features

• Size: 80.5x45x17.5mm
• Output: 5-30W
• Battery: 1200mAh
• Charger: Micro-USB 5V/1.2A
• Display: 0.69in Screen
• Resistance range: 0.4-3ohm
• E-liquid capacity: 2ml
• Pods: Refillable, replaceable coil
• Coil options: NexMESH coils – A1 (Kanthal 0.4ohm), SS316 0.4ohm
• Adjustable airflow
• Battery, Short Circuit, overtime (10s) Protection

Design and; Build Quality

The Smok OFRF Nexmesh kit comes in 6 colours; Silver, Gunmetal, Black, Blue, Gold and Red.

It looks pretty cool, on one side it has OFRF on a 2×2 layout, which slightly resembles the Uwell Caliburn KOKO. On the other side is a mesh grill try design which is cool.

The fire button makes the center of the first O in OFRF, which I like, it’s quite quirky and gadget like.

As you can see, it is plastered in branding which will put a lot of people off, there is even branding on the bottom and on one side.

In fact, the only sides that there isn’t any branding is on the top and the side where the screen and adjustment buttons are.

Smok OFRF Nexmesh Build Quality

It is made well, there isn’t any imperfections or rough bits, although it does have a matte finish.

It doesn’t feel flimsy and I’m not concerned about it breaking but it also doesn’t feel like the most durable piece of kit, that’s probably because it’s so light.

The Smok OFRF Nexmesh Pod

According to Smok and OFRF the “NexM Cartridge base adopts a waterproof design” to prevent condensation from entering the “interior”.

Well I’ve looked and looked but as far as I can see it is just the same as any other pod…with a slightly thicker base.

You’re still sucking air from the top of the pod, down the side, and up from the bottom of the coil, surely logic suggests that you’re still going to get condensation build up?

In the spirit of ‘Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it’ we’ll refer back to this at the end of the performance section.

The Smok OFRF Nexmesh Pod Connection

The pod only fits into the system one way around and is held in by two magnets.

The magnet pull isn’t super strong but it holds the pod into place nicely.

Even when you’re jolting it around and hitting the bottom of the system.

Smok OFRF Nexmesh – Buttons and Screen

Other than the fire button, which is located on the side, in the center of an O, the buttons and the screen are pretty standard and basic.

The buttons don’t rattle and easy to press.

The screen is 0.69” and it displays a battery indicator bar, current resistance, voltage and power setting.

Smok OFRF Nexmesh – Battery and Charger

Build with a 1200mAh battery inside the Smok OFRF Nexmesh pod system takes a 1.2A charge rate, which isn’t bad you’ll be looking at a full charge in about 1hour.

Downsides?

Well although it doesn’t make a huge difference I had hoped that manufactures would have switched over to USB-C by now and this still has been designed and built with Micro-USB.

Furthermore the Micro-USB port is on the bottom of the device. Again, this isn’t a massive deal but it does put the port at a slight more risk of damage; that being said it isn’t an uncommon place to find the charging port.

Using The Smok OFRF NexMESH

Filling The Pod

• Remove pod from the system
• Lift Rubber plug from the side of the pod
• Fill the Pod
• Reapply the rubber plug

When using a new coil allow the liquid to soak into the coil for 5 minutes – known as ‘priming you coil‘.

Changing The Coil

• Remove the pod
• Pull the coil from the base of the pod
• Unscrew the base of the coil
• Apply base onto new coil
• Push the coil into the pod and fill the pod up

It is best to change the coil when the pod is empty to reduce liquid loss.

The coil has 2 flat sides that align up with the pod (it doesn’t fit in at every angle)

Button Functionality

• On/Off – Press fire button 5 times with 2 seconds
• Lock/Unlock – Quick press ‘+’ and ‘-’ at the same time
• Adjust Power – Single press (or hold) ‘+’ or ‘-’ buttons

How Does The Smok OFRF Nexmesh Perform?

SS316 NexM Meshed 0.4ohm Coil – Conical

This coil is recommended to be used at 15-20W. As usual I’ve used it mostly with Got Salt Peachy Promise, 50VG/50PG – Nic Salt.

This should be super interesting because all the conical coils I’ve tried in the past have been awesome for flavour.

Starting at the very bottom, at 5W this coil provides a prominent but little flavour. There is very little in the way of vapour production but there is vapour present.

15W is the bottom of the recommended wattage range and it’s a great setting.

The vapour production is probably less than the smoke from a cigarette but it feels like there more vapour than there is… it’s really strange, although it is still a nice smooth draw. The flavour isn’t full mouth but it’s pleasantly prominent.

20W is the max recommended wattage range and you get a cigarette like amount of vapour while the flavour is upped, it’s pretty much a whole mouth flavour.

25W is 5w above, and the flavour is definitely whole mouth.. yum! It produces quite a lot of Mouth To Lung vapour, while managing to stay smooth.

The problem with 25W and 30W is they are great but the coil does struggle a bit.

When using it alot at 25w I got that burning flavour taste, not burning cotton.

I didn’t get that at 30W but using it too much at 30w does start to burn the coil.

NexM DC 0.4ohm MTL Coil

This coil is recommended to be used at 12-25W. I used it with Got Salt Peachy Promise, 50VG/50PG, Nic-Salt.

It took this coil some “wearing in” before the flavour started to come, but it did come. I think it took about 30 minutes before the flavour started to come through properly.

5w is simply pointless with this coil, nothing notable happens.

At 12W you get a nice prominent peachy flavour at the back of the mouth and the vapour production is like a cigarette.

At 19W, you don’t get much more vapour than you do at 12w, although it is smooth and you certainly get a whole mouth flavour production.

25w is perfect. The vapour production isn’t huge, again it’s similar to the smoke from a cigarette, but as you inhale its feels so invitingly thick and the flavour is awesome (for a Mouth to lung system).

30W is also great, It’s above the recommended wattage and with that in mind, the coil does seem to struggle to keep up the flavour production after a few puffs.

Smok OFRF NexMESH – Coil Summary

Both coils turned out great and both coils handled 70/30 blend nicely, although I would recommend sticking to 50/50 to prolong the life of the coils.

It’s a close call, The NexM DC 0.4ohm coil provided a better flavour at the top of it of it’s recommended power range but the mesh coil seemed to work better at a wider variety of power settings.

After roughly 7 days each both coils are still working fine.

Something I did notice about the system is, when the pod is nearing empty you seem loose flavour before you get a dry burn.

That’s really handy there nothing worse than going straight from awesome flavour to burnt cotton.

Adjustable Airflow and Coil Bases

If you’ve read or watched my reviews before you will know I’m really, really… really not a fan of coils that have separate bases.

It’s something that seems to becoming more and more common with pod systems and I think they are fiddly, unnecessary and more often than not you end up loosing the base or even throwing it in the bin with the coil.

As usual with this type of coil the adjustable airflow is on the base of the coil rather than the system.

In this case, the airflow band it’s self is easy to adjust and does a great job offering a tight draw and a loose draw that is plenty for a 30w system.

Smok OFRF NexMESH Battery and Charging

The Smok OFRF NexMESH is fitted with a 1,200mAh battery, which Is acceptable for a 30w kit.

I was quite surprised at how long the battery lasted. From opening the kit, I don’t think I charged it till towards the end of the second day.

If you are using it at 12W you can expect about 650 x 2 second puff – a puff every other minute for just under 22 hours.

If you are using it at 25W you can expect about 300 x 2 second puff – a puff every other minute for just under 10 hours.

The 1.2A charge rate means the kit can be fully charged in about an hour – that’s not bad.

Does the Smok OFRF NexMESH Pod Kit Leak?

So the bit we’ve all being waiting for, by the nature of how the airflow on pod kits is designed even if they don’t leak, they still often usually get a condensation build up.

Smok and OFRF claim that the base of the pod is designed to stop both leaking and condensation.

I was hugely skeptical about this, but it turns out, I was also wrong.

I did notice the pod often had liquid around the sides of the pod but after closer inspection I realized that it wasn’t condensation or leakage, it was from when I had filled the pod and left a little bit of excess liquid around the fill hole.

Well done guys, you proved me wrong!

Little Annoying Bits

There only one little pedantic thing that have annoyed me using this device.

Usually to lock a device you have to hold the ‘+’ and ‘-’ buttons down for a second or two, but with this device you simply have to press them, this lead me to accidentally lock it quite a few times.

I suppose this wouldn’t make a great deal of difference to someone who is using it as a vape rather than as a “review toy” (meaning I’m constantly playing with it) but it was still a little bit annoying for me.

However I suppose you could argue it is less likely to fire in your pocket.

Pros

• Great Flavour
• Light in Weight
• Decent Size
• Decent Battery
• Simple and Easy to use

Cons

• Covered in branding
• Coils have separate bases

Final Review Verdict

There isn’t much I can fault with this device, it is light in weight looks good (all be it covered in branding) it’s a nice size and it provides good flavour.

What’s not to like?

Well.. like I said, I don’t like how the coils have a separate base nor do I like that the Micro-USB port is on the bottom of the device and that the device locks super easy but all 3 of those things are down to preference.

So is this a pod kit you’re using or thinking of buying?

Let me know in the comments below 🙂