SMOK NFIX Mate Review – Surprising Performance From a Tiny Pod System

The sleek little SMOK NFIX Mate is the new product from one of the best known brands in the vape world.

They have been producing some great products for newbies and veteran vapers.  You may have already heard of the Nfix Kit, which is the pen style pod system, this is the big brother in the Nfix series.
SMOK are known for their wide range of different devices ranging from sub-ohm tanks, big beefy mods and all the way down to their small pod systems. They have a good track record of producing great starter kits for people who want to get off those smelly cigarettes.

I personally quit smoking with a SMOK product and stayed using SMOK for the first year of my vaping life. I keep them in rotation for a bit of nostalgia. This is evidence that SMOK products are a good standard and will stand the test of time.

SMOK came out on the market in 2010 and have an extensive line of products, if I listed all the series this review would be over 10 pages long. To name a few of the standout series it would be the Nord 2, SMOK Vape Pen V2, Thallo S, Rigel Kit and TFV lines of sub ohm tanks such as the TFV16.

If you look at SMOK’s website, you can clearly see they have a strong grasp of the vaping world and can cater for all your vaping needs.

What Can We Expect From The SMOK Nfix-Mate Kit

The Nfix Mate is a variable wattage pod system (1-25W), with an extremely simple yet sleek approach to giving the user the ability to change the wattage and turn the mod off with a single button located on the side of the device.

It features a huge 1100mAh battery which is outstanding since it will only use a maximum of 25 watts.

It comes with two different pods, the first being a o.8-ohm mesh MTL pod and the second being a 0.08-ohm dual coil MTL pod. SMOK also have a single coil 1-ohm MTL pod you can buy separately.

What is in the Box

• 1 x SMOK Nfix-Mate device
• 1 x Nfix Meshed 0.8-ohm pod (3ml capacity)
• 1 x Nfix DC 0.8-ohm pod (3ml capacity)
• SMOK lanyard
• 2 x Silicon Dust Caps
• USB to Type C charging cable
• User Manual
• SMOK Warranty Card

Specs & Features

• Size: 74mm/46.6mm/13.36mm
• Weight: 52g
• Battery Capacity: 1100mAh
• Power Range: 1W-25W
• Charging Current: Max 0.69A
• Charging Port: Type C
• Pod: 3ml Capacity
• Style of Vape: Draw Activation

The SMOK Nfix-Mate Kit comes in a variety of different colours as shown below.

Build & Design Quality of The SMOK Nfix-Mate Kit

Overall Look and Feel

Prior to receiving I wasn’t sure about the build quality of this product, as they say pictures can be deceiving. The mod itself is excellent quality and the finish exceptional for such a small device.

The mod has a metal shell which has a matt finish to it which gives it a high end feel.

The SMOK Nfix Mate fits perfectly in the hand, even though I have smaller than average sized hands it’s a perfect fit. I didn’t notice the device when carrying it within any of my pockets, even the little pocket on my jeans is a perfect fit.

Dust Cap

The silicon dust caps that are provided, gave me a feeling that SMOK have thought deeper into the cleanliness of the device. You can chuck it in your rucksack or handbag and won’t need to worry about any lint or small particles that maybe floating around trying to get into the mouthpiece.
I am forever wiping the inside of my drip tips on my regular devices before using them as they are a magnet for anything to get stuck on.

I wish more companies would invest in similar accessories, especially with devices getting small enough to fit comfortably within your pocket or bag.

Lanyard

SMOK have also included a lanyard with the kit. I wore mine under a jumper on a day out. To my surprise as the pod is very thin and the lanyard is not a thick piece of material, no one noticed I had a vape under my jumper.
I feel this is a great accessory for people that are on the go and do not want a beefy mod or pod filling up their pocket. You can easily disguise it in an office environment and not have to worry about any unsightly bulges in your suit jacket.

Battery (Mod)

What can I say, the internal battery of this device is far bigger than what I was expecting for such a small compact pod system.

It has a good ‘clicky’ fire button which I love, I have spent time clicking it to check the wear and tear and it has held up to my expectations exceptionally.

This one button system I feel is a smart yet simple design element, it has the usual 5 clicks to turn it on and 5 clicks to turn it off.

To change the wattage of the device it’s a simple three clicks, wait for the wattage to start flashing and then it’s one click to increase the wattage in 1 watt increments.

Once It hits 25 watts it round robins back to 1 watt. When you have found your preferred wattage leave it and within 3 seconds it will lock into your preferred power.

• 5 Clicks Turns It On
• 5 Clicks Turns it Off
• 3 Clicks To Change Wattage
• 1 Click Increases Wattage By 1

This simple design is great, no need to worry about temperature control, bypass mode or any other functions you can find on nearly all mods nowadays.

Airflow

The mod does not have any airflow rings, nobs or holes that are noticeable on the device, this baffled me at first until I put my detective hat on and took a deep dive into the design of the mod.

When the pod is fitted into the mod, there is a gap between the pod and the mod which is the airflow “hole”.

Here is a quick explanation of how it works.

When you take a pull on the pod, the air is pulled through the gap around the pod, this travels down the side of the pod to the underside where the airflow hole on the pod is located. This then gets pulled through your coil head (in the pod) and then into your mouth.

If I could give this a comparison within the cigarette world it’s more like smoking on a pre-made cigarette than a roll your own style of smoking.

OLED Screen

The battery comes with an OLED screen which is of a good size (20.2mm long by 6.3mm high). Even though this does sound on the small side it’s a perfect fit for the device.

The screen is bright enough that even in direct sunlight I had no issues seeing my wattage or the battery percentage.

The Pods

The fill port is on the side of the pod and it has a rubber gasket to fill. SMOK must have taken users advice on board and have made their pods see through enough to enable users to see their liquid level.

This is a massive bonus as most pod systems make it nearly impossible to see your liquid level where you run the risk of dry burning your coils. They are also clearly marked with the coil type so you know what each pod is.

These pods are magnetic and have under coil airflow which give the pod a more restricted airflow but not so restricted that it is uncomfortable.

The magnets which hold the pod in place are more than adequate for this system, I have put this poor device through its paces with pulling it out of my pocket by the pod and it has not come apart in the process.

I have spent many hours whilst watching films, pulling the pod out continuously to see if the magnets become loose and to see if any issues arise.

I must say the magnets are perfect and I have found no issues at all with the build or design of the magnetic system for this pod.

How to Fill the SMOK NFIX Mate Pods

The pod filling system is extremely simple and easy to use:

• Take your pod out of your battery
• Turn pod so the rubber gasket on the side is facing straight up
• Use your nail to pull the side closest to the mouthpiece end to expose the fill hole.
• Fill the pod using your e-liquid bottle whilst tipping the mouthpiece towards the floor.
• This will ensure your pod is completely full.
• Re-attach the rubber gasket, making sure the rubber is flush with the pod.
• Place the pod back onto the battery and wait 5 minutes for the e-liquid to saturate the cotton.

How Does the SMOK Nfix Mate Perform?

SMOK NFIX Mate pods are fully replaceable, the only difference from other pod systems is that you will have to replace the whole pod not just the coil head which is inside.

If you are new to vaping and this would be your first device this is a great plus for you.

There is no need to fiddle when trying to fit coil heads. Thankfully with the SMOK Nfix Mate you only have to remember if you want the Meshed or the DC pod, this is because most company release a vast amount of different pods for one device.

Pod Performance

Firstly, I am just going to outline the types of e-liquid that I use to test the performance of these coils. I only use e-liquids that I have been vaping on for many years so I have an excellent working knowledge of the notes I should be getting out of the e-liquid.

I used Limey Slush by Joe’s Juice which is a 70VG/30PG at 1.5mg Nicotine for both pods, this gives me a great base to work out the flavour differences.

As I don’t use pod systems often, I also purchased Fuji Tropix Nic Salt by Doozy Vape Co at 10mg of Nicotine. I use the freebase version of the Fuji Tropix, so I know the profile and can compare accurately when using Nic Salts.

DC 0.8ohm Pod Flavour & Cloud Production

I had no issues with this pod, plug and play all day.

Flavour was on point as to be expected from a dual coil pod, Cloud production was good considering it is such a small pod system.

When playing around with the wattage for this coil, the pod states 15 – 25watts, 15 watts did not bring out much flavour from the e-liquid. It’s very much like when you put way too much water in orange squash where it produces a very watered-down flavour.

Anywhere between 19 to 24 watts is where the pod comes into its own, flavour just gets more intense.

The increase of as little as 4 watts is outstanding how the pod comes to life. I spent the whole time just floating between the 21 – 24 watts only because I wanted to see how long the pod would last at the top end of the recommended wattage.

I am well into week two on this coil after consistent use (between 50 to 150 puffs per day) and it is slowly starting to lose flavour. This is incredible, when I started my journey vaping coil heads I was changing them between 3 to 5 days. Some people change on a weekly basis, but I hated when the flavour would diminish.

On day 6 I decided to put the pod through its paces by changing the liquid which normally ruins the coil head. I changed from the 70/30 lime slush to the nic salt.

I was very sceptical that it would just ruin the flavour and not perform as well as before, to my surprise the coil took it like a champ. Once the original e-liquid made its way through the cotton you could taste the nic salt perfectly. There was no lingering notes of the previous e-liquid which I was expecting.

This pod is a reliable little fella with no issues to report, never got a dry hit. Sometimes I let the liquid level drop below the minimum line which is etched onto the side of the pod itself, it did not instantly dry fire and burn the cotton.

The pod is wicked in such a way that you can taste the cotton drying out. I have only ever found this to happen when using an RDA, which brings me to say how well SMOK have done on producing a higher build quality to their coil heads.

I ran a test and left the pod upside down for a whole night to see if there was any leakage, in the morning I could not even find a single drop of e-liquid. I tested the pod to see if the coil got oversaturated due to the position of the pod.

No issues at all it vaped like a champ.

I am a real stickler for good airflow, I thought this pod would make the airflow too restricted and give It a turbulent effect when drawing on the pod.

I was incredibly surprised that the airflow was pleasantly smooth, with more of a restricted mouth to lung than a mouth to lung style of vaping. This goes for both pods that where provided in the kit.

Meshed 0.8ohm Pod

Sadly, I have had major issues with this pod, every time I inserted the pod it would not read the ohms so in turn would not fire the device.

I tried cleaning out the contacts within the pod housing of the mod as well as the contact of the pod with a microfibre cloth. There are no screws on the pod so I could not see if any screws where loose. This did not change the outcome as it still would not fire

However, after fiddling around with the pod by taking it out and putting it back in more times than I kept count of, I got a connection and would read the ohms correctly to allow it to fire.

The 5 times it fired, the flavour from the coil is outstanding. This coil took me to flavour town and I found that it brought out the notes in my liquid that I could not taste on other pod systems used previously.

I could not test out the other e-liquid because it would not allow me to vape enough to bring the liquid level down in the pod to add the Nic Salt.

I have left the pod sitting upright on my desk for at least a week and I have to say it has leaked e-liquid pretty much half the pod onto my desk. I took the opportunity to clean off the e-liquid and the pod and filled it with the Nic Salt, thinking maybe I could get it to fire.

To my frustration it still would not fire.

The pod gave out a good amount of vapour, much more than I expected. The vapour was extremely flavourful and dense. You can always rely on mesh coils to provide a dense and more flavourful vape in my opinion when it comes to premade coils.

As these coils are mass produced, I must have received a dodgy pod, this does not in any way mean that all the meshed pods are going to be like this. This is a shame because I would have used the pod until it died on me and then gone and bought a case more.

Battery

The battery I feel is a major selling point for this product, as stated above I got 3 days use out of the battery before needing to recharge.

I know that most people that are converting to vaping hate the idea of having to charge the device every couple of hours.

Having the TYPE C charging port, the battery is fully charged in a much quicker time.

It took 83 minutes to full charge from 8% which I thought was extremely quick. The screen shows you how long it will take to charge, it gives you that piece of mind knowing you have a full battery.

When you plug the device in it will come up on the screen the estimated time to fully charged, I found this a genuinely nice added feature.

The only downside to the battery mod is that there is no warning that there is low battery, you can be puffing away then it will just stop firing. I initially thought I was having a problem with the pod but on the screen, it says “Too Low To Fire” unless you look you wouldn’t know.

A small LED light would have been great as a warning or flashing screen when battery is getting low.

Pro’s

• Small and compact
• Sleek and stylish
• Exceptional battery capacity
• Dust cap is a great accessory
• Great flavour from both pods
• Translucent pod to keep an eye on liquid levels
• Can be vaped whilst it is charging over 20%

Con’s

• Charging port on the bottom, would have preferred it on the side (personal preference)
• Had issues with the Meshed pod, I would have been really upset if I bought this and had this issue.
• The mouthpiece is a bit of a lip crud magnet

Final Verdict

What can I say about the SMOK Nfix Mate. As vape starter kits go this is a great product to help you quit combustible cigarettes.

The flavour and performance of this product exceeded my expectations. If I had this as my first device when quitting I would have found it a lot easier.

The simple and easy way to go from opening the box to vaping it is under 6 minutes and that includes letting the cotton in the coil/pod saturate. This is a major plus for me with no fiddling required.

The pricing of the pods I feel is reasonable as they are inexpensive and would mean more people are inclined to “give vaping a go” knowing that it is not breaking the bank

I have learnt that a lot of people are put off converting to vaping because all they see is big dual 18650 vape mods and large sub ohm tanks that feel like you are carrying a brick.

This would be a great present for a loved one who wants to quit smoking and wants a simple, sleek, and compact style device.

I would recommend this device as a great little back up vape, mine is currently in the centre console of my car. You can fully charge it and leave in your car in case your regular device runs out of battery and cannot change them up.

It is perfect if you want a portable little device that can produce great flavour as well as a satisfying amount of vape clouds.

It also is a great starter vape for someone who wants to give up those stinky cigarettes with a great simple yet effective device.

Did you buy the SMOK NFIX mate kit? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!