Voopoo Vmate Kit by Suomynona

VOOPOO VMATE KIT

http://en.voopootech.com/vmate-kit


INTRODUCTION
I received this kit for free from Voopoo for the purpose of this review and I would like to thank @VOOPOOTech for sending it to me. I will give you my honest opinion about it though and try to highlight as many aspects of this kit, good and bad. I know it’s a bit of a long review, so head over to the bottom for a TLDR verdict if you don’t have much time.

Vmate
The Vmate is one of Voopoo’s latest mods and is both small and a featherweight at an advertised 100g (without batteries). On the Voopoo site you can buy the kit at $79 (separately the Vmate is $69 and the Uforce T1 $37) but I’ve seen it for as little as $66 on fasttech.com.
The mod’s design is supposedly based on a danseuse. I can’t see a resemblance to a ballerina but you’ll immediately notice it being lightweight and its elegance. The claimed 100g turns out to be more like 112g but it’s still noticeably less weight than other mods. It comes in a range of colors, where you have the option in a black or metal color (zinc alloy) version with the battery doors in camouflage green, camouflage red, emerald green, red, rock black, surf blue, waterfall black or wood (as pictured above).

Uforce T1
The T1 version of the Uforce is the upgraded version of the known Uforce tank that uses an already a wide range of coil heads available for the other versions of Uforce tanks. The main differences I can see is that the outside has a more industrial design and has an chimney extension included for a larger tank capacity. You now have the option between a 3.5ml (straight), 5ml (bubble), 5.5ml (straight) and a whopping 8ml (bubble) glass.

There is also a TPD version available with a 2ml tank. It makes use of the same coils so there will be little difference compared to the 3.5ml glass tube tank.

Uforce coils


The U versions of the coils are you "regular" parallel round wire coils: U2 a single parallel coil, U4 a double parallel, U6 trippel and so on. The N versions are mesh coils, single and dual version.

The D4 is described as a quadruple coil but has a single airflow hole.

While I can’t find much information about the R2 coil head, it looks very much like an RBA section.

UNBOXING
On the box itself you have the normal branding, indication of the color, some warnings, an authenticity scratch code, QR codes and the list of contents. Inside the box there are 2 decks. On top deck you’ll find the Vmate and below you’ll have the the tank, spare parts, manuals, the Gene chip and warranty cards.

Cotents:

  • Vmate mod
  • T1 tank
  • spare o-rings
  • 8ml bubble glass (installed)
  • 5ml glass tube
  • U2 and N1 coils
  • a USB firmware upgrade cable
  • manual for both mod and tank
  • a warranty card
  • a Gene chip card

VMATE
The Vmate is a lightweight, dual 18650 battery 200W mod equipped with the latest Gene.fan chip. It has a claimed 95% efficiency and in case of a venting/exploding battery, the electronics are protected by a fireproofing bridge that also blocks dust and liquid.

People who own a Voopoo mod with the Gene chip will know that these are very good chips that deliver powerful, instant performance and even do temperature control very well. With the Vmate, things got even better!

Most common atomizers will nicely fit on the mod. Anything over 26mm will overhang the 510 plate but you can easily use up to 28mm atomizers without overhanging the mod. Even though the mod is 30mm wide, the 510 isn’t completely centered because the screen is protruding a bit so a 30mm atomizer will slightly overhang on the back.

Operating the Vmate is really easy and uses common standards like a 5 click on/off, click and + for lock, + and - to open the menu, click to select and hold the fire button to get out of the menu. Due to the minimalistic and elegant design, there are no + or - indications on the mod, but the + is on the side of the display, the - on the back size.

Even the menu is very simple:

  • Wattage mode
  • 5x custom memory (both power and wattage)
  • Lock

You’ll also find a series number and firmware version in the menu but that’s pretty much it for the menu options.

In normal power mode operation, the screen shows pretty basic information: the wattage, resistance, the current volt output, the time of your last puff. 3 fast clicks on the fire button cycle the mod through each of the temperature modes: SS, Ni and Ti are supported. It always jumped to 80W power but you can adjust this by 4 fast clicks on the fire button. The screen will clearly show which mode you are in and in temperature mode, the output volt indicator will be changed by the maximum power that is applied.

When you’re in the custom M settings, 4 clicks will let you adjust the wattage or temperature per second.

The mod can be locked either through the menu or by simultaneously pressing + and fire button. The 3 buttons are also very clicky. The material (plastic) of the buttons and battery doors feel like cheap plastic but help to shave some weight off the mod. It’s sits very well in your hand, is very lightweight and still feels like you hold onto a solid. quality mod.

Temperatures can be changed per degree. If you want to change between °C and °F, simply hold the - button until it reaches 100°C (200°F), let go and press - again. The range goes between 100°C-315°C (200°F-600°F).

Wattage can be increased per 0.1W from 5W to 100W where it then jumps to 1W increments up to 200W. A long press is considered everything longer than 0.5s and then the numbers change at a very high rate.

When you reconnect the atomizer, you’ll be asked if it’s a new coil and if you click + to confirm, the Vmate will give you an estimate for that coil, which is usually on the lower end of recommended wattage.

Voopoo made did a bit of an innovative thing by having 2 separate battery doors. They’re just 2 very light-weight plastic covers that give the mod its color scheme. At the bottom they have a lip that locks in a slot and on top a strong magnet will snap it in place. Behind each door there’s a Voopoo labeled ribbon to get the batteries out very easily without damaging your battery wraps. Inside you’ll find the usual + and - indications for the battery direction are just pressed in the black plastic. Both the doors and battery housing also have an L and R indication so you don’t switch up the doors. Even without those indications, you won’t be able to swap the doors because the magnets have an opposite polarity. With little details like this, you can see that Voopoo has thought things through.

The Vmate provides protection against incorrectly placed batteries. There’s no led or screen indication for it but the mod simply won’t turn on. In the battery doors, there’s a very thin venting hole that serves as a door opener and on top of the door you have a pretty strong magnet that snaps the door in place.
By making the Vmate so tiny, everything is so perfectly tight-fitting that you won’t get any rattle from it, no matter how hard you try.

19-vent%20hole
Here is a look at the vent hole in the cover, just under the fire button.

UFORCE T1


There are multiple configurations for this tank, but in this kit it’s preinstalled with the 8ml bubble glass and you get a spare 3.5ml tube glass. The coils have a proprietary shape and size so they’re not compatible with other stock coils like for example the baby beast. There’s a variety of options and a 5-pack of these coils will cost $3 each, give or take a bit depending on your vendor.
EDIT: I’ve been told the Uforce coils are compatible with the Freemax Fireluke mesh coils and a quick google search confirms this.

All the different kits will come with the B-silver version which I find has a very nice, clean and industrial look to it. If you want an extra one or are just interested in the tank, there’s a wide range of colors available. The drip tip is a multi-colored version that looks like your average resin but is much better in the sense that it doesn’t collect all the lip grime that you get on metal, delrin and your regular resin drip tips. It’s compatible with other TFV8-style 810 drip tips that are fitted with 2 o-rings.

The 510 pin is non-adjustable and the positive pin is barely sticking out, so you shouldn’t use this on a hybrid mod.

To fill up the tank, simply slide the top cap open and fit your bottlenose or dropper into the wide opening. The place where to push the top cap open is indicated with a tiny triangular engraving and is a bit difficult to see. Unlike the regular Uforce there is no branding or any other indication that can help visualize where to push. The top cap clicks into place and makes it feel like quality machining. Everything is a tight and snugly fit while not requiring any real force either. The seal in the top port is not replaceable. It looks like the top cap is press-fit to the tank.

Like the original Uforce tank, there are 3 airflow holes that allow a huge amount of air to get to the coil and no matter what position you choose, it’s all smooth airflow with no whistle at all. It does produce a bit of noise without being so loud that it’s bothersome.

20-UFORCE%20T1
In the Vmate kit you’ll find the tank with both a U2 (parallel) and N1 (single mesh) coils. The U2 is a 0.4Ω coil that likes it between 40-80W, recommended between 55-65W. The N1 comes in at a much lower 0.12Ω and prefers a bit more power, between 50-100W with a recommended best range between 70-80W. I do think the recommendations are spot-on. Personally I preferred the performance at the top of the recommended range for all the Uforce coils I tried.

THOUGHTS
I find the kit as a whole very impressing, I think you’re getting a lot of quality for the price. Both the mod and the tank are superb and deserve a high recommendation for a wide range of vapers. It’s the first time I actually use a Voopoo product and it comes across as something they’ve put thought in and is well tested. It’s always possible to point a finger at something that could use a bit of improvement but with this kit, I can only point at trivial details and feel like I’m nitpicking. The overall vape quality is great and both the Vmate and Uforce T1 shine on their own so it’s easy to put the tank on another mod or use a different tank on the Vmate. But let me break it down for you.

Vmate
Voopoo made a very good dual-battery 200W mod with the Vmate and teaming it up with the Uforce T1 was an excellent choice. The Vmate fires instantly and excels with temp control as well thanks to the Gene technology inside. The energy efficiency is also one of the things that amazed me. It really lasts a long time between recharges.
Because of the minimalistic and lightweight design, the buttons and battery covers feel a little bit like cheap plastic but that doesn’t mean it’s flimsy at all. The battery covers are really held well in place, they don’t move at all and that’s giving it a very solid feeling. You can move the buttons around a little bit, which gives it a bit of a cheap feeling, but they won’t rattle and always do what you want them to do. I suppose there are always a few trade-offs if you want to make something that is ultra light and still provide a certain quality, without having to resort to carbon fiber which would drive up the price.

The way Voopoo designed the battery covers makes it also very easy and cheap to change the whole look of the mod so you can match your mod to your tank instead of the other way around.

The 510 connection doesn’t really stand out with its looks and does a good job of blending into the mod. It’s spring-loaded and has worked flawlessly with anything I have put on it.
22-Vmate-510
It’s screwed in in the middle of the mod and has decent threading. Even though it looks rather small, together with the rest of the mod, it can take some pretty big tanks without looking utterly ridiculous.

The menu on the Vmate really doesn’t have much going on. If you like to play with custom power or temperature settings, this is the place to be but other than for the purpose of this review, I’ve seen no use for it personally.

In normal operating mode, you change from W to TC by fast-clicking the fire button 3 times, then you cycle through W, TC SS, TC Ni and TC Ti. 4 fast-clicks lets you change the power setting in each of the TC modes.
In my opinion, Voopoo should change the way you cycle through the modes because the Vmate fires so fast that you will fire your coils whilst changing modes. You could make a drinking game of it, the person that changes mode without firing the coil wins and if you loose, you take a drink. I bet you it wouldn’t take long before everyone is drunk!

The next thing I found a bit annoying was the 0.1W increments up to 100W, as well as the 1° increases in TC mode. Surely anything above 30W can be done with 1W increments and 5° temperature changes should be good enough. It wouldn’t be so annoying if the scroll speed would build up, but once you hold the + or - for half a second, it starts scrolling full speed and it’s really fiddly to get it to a nice round number where you want it. At least all the buttons are very clicky, which helps a lot.

Initially I also mistook the +/- buttons for the fire button trying to vape without watching what I was doing. With the screen side being slightly wider, you do get a feel for what is where pretty fast so those mistakes will disappear once you get to know the mod a bit better. But you really have to slide your finger a bit over the buttons to actually notice the ridge between the + and - buttons, so the mistake is easily made.

Something that I imagine is a con for some people, is the little vent hole in the battery doors that you have to use to get the batteries out. I’m blessed with strong nails, but people with very soft nails or nail biters may have some difficulties getting the covers off. There are some pretty strong magnets in the doors.
One of the covers actually lost a magnet the 2nd time I opened it. I had to get it off the magnet in the mod and glue it back in the door. I’ve had this happen with quite a few mods and it’s nothing that a little drop of all purpose glue won’t fix. I won’t even mention it as a con as I’m so used to doing this will different mods from different manufacturers.

Now that I’ve gone over the cons… let me say I really like the TC on this mod. I’ve only tried it on SS, but that’s the most difficult to get right. Round wire, fused claptons, flaptons, … I compared it next to my DNA 250 with similar settings and I get a pretty similar experience, obviously with a lot less options to customize and a lot less power, but I have to say I am impressed.
The instant firing of the mod was also something I can appreciate a lot and the fact that no matter what atty I threw on it, even an 30mm Aromamizer Plus or a 22mm Super Tank didn’t look completely ridiculous.

Uforce T1
If I was impressed with the original Uforce tank, I can say for sure that the T1 is even better. Whenever I see Uforce now, I just think of a very enjoyable vape and the T1 throws in some good looks too.

The design lacks any branding and looks very nice and clean. Whatever coil I tried, the flavor stands out as well as the build quality. I’m not going to pretend it matches the flavor of a good rebuildable tank or dripper, but it’s easily the closest experience I’ve had with commercial coil heads.

This kit only comes with a 3.5ml and an 8ml glass, but a 5ml and 5.5ml glass are available for purchase too. The available choices let you modify the tank to whatever looks best or whatever size you prefer. I also can’t get over the fact that the tank can hold 8ml of liquid with just an average 26mm base. This just proves that you don’t need a 30mm tank and a huge mod if you don’t like to refill your tank every 5 minutes. The coils are not even that thirsty so it takes a while to vape through this amount of liquid.
I never had any leaking or spitback and it’s super easy to refill with the large hole under the sliding top cap.

The rubber seal under the cap is not replaceable though but with everything machines so well and really good tolerances on everything, I’m sure you won’t get problems any time fast.

The drip tip that came with it is by far my favorite one because it doesn’t transfer any heat, doesn’t collect any lip grime at all and it’s just the right size for me. There is no 510 drip tip (or even a converter) included but you won’t have much trouble finding an aftermarket one if that’s your thing.

The airflow is identical to the original Uforce so it’s a bit loud but has no whistle in any position. Fully open, there’s no noticeable restriction. If you prefer to have some restriction, you have to close the airflow between around 50% to 75% because the holes are big and you have 3 of them. Closing the airflow increases the flavor a bit but it’s also excellent in controlling the temperature of your vape. I don’t think I have another tank where it’s so easy to control flavor and warmth of your vape so easily.

The airflow ring itself is doesn’t take much force to adjust but it’s tight enough that it won’t change position when you put it your pocket or a handbag. The knurling on the AFC as well as the top cap allows you to really grip the tank even if your hands are covered in liquid which is a big improvement over the original Uforce tank. There’s a stopper on both ends of the airflow which makes it easy to unscrew the tank from the mod or to open the tank for a coil or glass replacement.

I started off with the U2 coil and enjoyed the vape quality a lot: smooth airflow and good flavor while vapor production was average. I can’t really say anything bad about these coils besides the fact that Voopoo doesn’t provide you with the material of the coil anywhere (and that goes for all their coils). It isn’t overly aggressive on liquid consumption either so if you’re watching your liquid intake, this may just be the coil for you.

After 2 weeks of use and a couple liquid bottles later, I visually checked the coil and I barely noticed it was used, so expect good and long use out of these coils. I used several different flavors in it without much of an overlap either. I have no idea what wicking material they use but it’s not bad at all.

The U4, U6 and N1 coils I tried were all a little improvement in flavor, cloud production but also a bit of extra liquid consumption. I definitely need more time to pick a favorite but I enjoyed all of them.

All these coils wick very well and can take high VG liquids thanks to pretty large wicking holes. I’ve vaped liquids ranging from 60/40 to 80/20 VG/PG ratios and didn’t have issues with leaking or wicking.

All coils are engraved with info of how much power the coils require, recommended range and a minimum level of liquid. The rounding of the bubble glass acts like a lens (especially the small bubble glass) and makes it a bit difficult to read anything but the all the info is available online and I’m sure people can tell when their tank is nearly empty without indications on the coil itself.

Besides the airflow being a tad loud and the first 50% of airflow adjustment not doing a whole lot, it’s incredibly difficult to find anything wrong with the Uforce T1.

Right out of the box, I got a fairly strong machining smell from the tank but couldn’t see any machine oil or other residu in the tank. Just like other any new atomizer, I always recommend giving it a good wash before use.

(TLDR) VERDICT
Both the Vmate and the Uforce T1 have a lot of things going for them. You really have to be very critical to come up with reasons to hold against them. I’ve let a couple people try the Vmate and had a hard time getting it back. They gave really positive reactions so together with my experience I feel very comfortable giving this kit a good recommendation, both for new and experienced vapers who are in the market for something new and I’m confident that most buyers will be very satisfied.

Vmate
Pro

  • very lightweight and small kit
  • looks, elegant design and comfortable in the hand
  • great TC performance
  • energy efficiency
  • very fast firing mod
  • (not the brightest display but) visible in bright sunlight
  • custom memory modes
  • possibility to change the looks completely simply by replacing cheap side panels

Con

  • 0.1W increments up to 100W
  • coil firing when changing operating modes
  • max 80W in TC is a bit low for a 200W mod
  • you need nails to open battery covers
  • display is a fingerprint magnet

UForce T1
Pro

  • up to 8 ml of e-liquid capacity (2ml tpd version available)
  • innovative design
  • smooth airflow
  • no whistle
  • sliding top-fill
  • build quality
  • flavor
  • excellent long lasting coils at very reasonable prices

Con

  • no indication of material on any of the coils
  • a bit loud

To end, here are some more pictures with different tanks to show that this mod can easily handle a variety of tank sizes and still look good doing so.


The Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus, a 30mm tank and yet minimal overhang.


The Voopoo Uforce T1, 26mm base and 28mm bubble glass


The Geekvape Griffin, a 25mm base, 26mm glass RTA


The Tobecco Super Tank, a 22mm tank

11 Likes

A fine review! Thanks for the information.
Looks kinda like a geekvape display.
:+1::+1::+1::+1::+1:

4 Likes

Wow @anon28032772, that was a great, and detailed review. I still love the way that SC looks riding on it !!!

3 Likes

I’ve been told that the Uforce coils and Freemax Fireluke Mesh coils are interchangeable… so there’s something I didn’t know :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Great in-depth review, nicely done @anon28032772

3 Likes

I am thrilled that I finally could read this! I waited so I wasn’t biased for my review. This reminds me more of a blog. Great sentence structure. Lots of information. Excellent job!

3 Likes

Glad you appreciated it. Now I have to go and read your review to see what you think about it :smiley:
I really love it for when I’m on the road. Small, lightweight and it can still fire up some pretty big tanks without looking utterly ridiculous. Combined with its performance, it’s a great mod and tank.

2 Likes