3_5stars

SMOK Morph 219 Review

Remember the SMOK Alien? Yeah, me too, that was a cool vape mod! It came out more than three years ago and I’m happy to say I still have three units, two of them in mint condition. The Alien has aged pretty well, but if you’re all about lightning-fast firing speed, touchscreen functionality and other gimmicks you’re probably going to use once and forget about, the new SMOK Morph 219 is the Alien spiritual successor you’ve been hoping for. Let’s check it out:

A Look at the Contents

The new SMOK Morph 219 kit comes packaged in a large, rectangular cardboard box with a small picture of the vaping device on the front, next to a large nicotine-related warning, and more warnings on the back. This is the EU version of the Morph, so you shouldn’t see these many warnings in other parts of the world. Anyway, the list of contents, as well as the main features of the vape mod are listed on the sides of the box, next to some cool-looking pictograms.

Inside the box, we have the Morph 219 vape mod sitting in a plastic tray, and underneath that are all the included accessories, including the TFV-Mini V2 tank, a spare Mini V2 coil-head, micro-USB charging cable and a rather thick user manual. Now, this is the EU version, so some of the included accessories will differ from those included in the regular kit. For example, the US version comes with the much larger TF Tank, which has its own style of coil-heads and can hold up to 6ml of e-liquid, as opposed to just 2ml. The mod itself though is identical in all regions.

Design and Build Quality

Having used the SMOK Alien for a very long period of time, I found the design similarities between the new Morph 219 and SMOK’s iconic vape mod rather striking. Even when placed side by side, they both have essentially the same general look, including the 510 connection, the iconic colored frame around the display and even the positioning of the micro-USB port. There are some differences as well, such as the almost complete lack of physical buttons on the SMOK Morph, as well as a different battery door, but Alien fans will be happy to know that the newer mod retains the same general design.

Both the original SMOK Alien and the new Morph 219 are dual 18650 battery mods, so it’s no surprise that they are virtually the same size. The new Morph measures 84.5mm x 44.8mm wide and 30mm thick, less than one millimeter taller and wider than the Alien. It’s made out of the same zinc alloy that SMOK has been making its devices out of for as long as I can remember, and comes in different colors. The paint job has been a sensitive topic where SMOK products are concerned, but the company claims its newer gadgets are not as prone to paint chipping as they used to be.

Starting at the top, we have a 510 connection with a gold-plated, spring-loaded pin and a flush protective plate. You can match the mod with atomizer up to 26mm in diameter with no overhang, but anything over that will hang over the wider edges. You can still use it, it just won’t look very cool. Further down, on one of the narrow sides we have the only physical button on the Morph, which is used to lock and unlock the touchscreen controls.

Just like its illustrious predecessor, the SMOK Morph 219 vape mod features a firing bar instead of a classic fire button. It’s actually the same style of bar we saw on the Alien all those years ago, proving that some things never go out of style. It’s very comfortable to use, responsive and makes a very satisfying click when pressed.

The display of the SMOK Morph 219 is much larger than that of the old Alien, which makes sense considering that in this case the display is a tactile one. Apart from that lock/unlock button I mentioned above, all the controls are on this touchscreen. That may scare some users who didn’t like SMOK’s earlier touchscreen mods, like the G-Priv, but I can tell you that their touchscreen technology has evolved quite a bit and the Morph has some of the most responsive touchscreen controls I’ve ever seen.

Opposite the display, we have a colorful panel which looks like resin but is actually just cheap plastic. It’s the same type of plastic we’ve seen on the SMOK Trinity Alpha, and while it looks ok, it doesn’t come close to the quality of true resin panels like we’ve seen on the VooPoo Drag 2 or even the tiny Vandy Vape Pulse 80W. I hope it holds up well in the long run, but just in case, I am going to keep that protective foil it comes with for as long as I can.

Finally, on the bottom of the SMOK Morph 219 we have the battery door, which is somewhat similar to that of the Alien, only even sturdier. The latch on the outside of the door is very hard to pull back once the batteries are inside, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to pop open, even if you happen to drop the mod. It feels very solid is what I’m trying to say, and it also has all the polarity markings, both on the inside and at the bottom of the battery trays.

All in all, the Morph 219 feels like a high-quality dual-battery vape mod, just like the Alien used to when I originally reviewed it. There’s no rattling whatsoever, the paint job looks impeccable, and just having the iconic Alien design back is a pro in my book.

Menu System and Navigation

It’s been a while since I last got the chance to fiddle with a SMOK advanced mod, so I don’t know what their menus used to look like, but from what I understand the Morph 219 is powered by an all-new IQ-S chip and has a completely revamped menu interface.

To turn on the SMOK Morph 219, you have to insert a couple of 189650 batteries in the designated compartments and then press the firing bar five times in rapid succession. To adjust the wattage, you first have to unlock the touchscreen controls by holding down the physical lock/unlock button until the lock icon on the screen becomes unlocked. You can then press the two buttons on screen to increase or decrease the wattage or temperature, depending on what mode you are in.

The home screen is pretty crowded, with lost of information being shown on screen, from the wattage/temperature in the center, to a bunch of subparameters – atomizer resistance, voltage, puff counter and amperage – as well as separate indicators for each battery.

In the top-left corner of the screen we have the menu button, which will take you into the main menu of the device. Here you will be able to select the Mode you want to run the mod in, save your preferences in My Mode, reset the puff counter in Puff, and mess with secondary options in Settings.

In Mode, you are able to choose between Wattage Mode and Temperature Control for three supported materials (stainless steel, nickel and titanium), as well as adjust the TCR and wattage for each of them. Unfortunately, there’s no Custom Curves mode for people who really like customizing their vaping experience, but who knows, maybe SMOK will add it via a future firmware upgrade.

My Mode is the newest SMOK feature, and it’s a weird one. Basically, this is Memory Mode with a twist. Apart from being able to save your power settings for a certain atomizer, you are also able to input what e-juice you are vaping in that said atomizer and the nicotine concentration via a virtual keyboard similar to that of old mobile phones, which SMOK claims is a first for vape mods. Whether that’s true or not I really can’t say, but what I will say is that I don’t see the functionality of this feature. Why add the name or flavor of a juice? So I don’t forget what I’m vaping? Anyway, it’s just not something I’m sold on.

Puff is pretty-self explanatory (allows you to reset the puff counter), and in Settings you are able to mess around with a bunch of settings that don’t really impact the performance of the mod, but rather the look of it and the accessibility. You can input a four-digit pass-code, which is similar to a mobile phone PIN code, change the color of the text on the display, the background theme, and the screen timeout time.

There’s also an About button which displays information about the mod, where it was made and by who (SMOK, obviously), as well as a Chip button which shows technical information about the chip, but it’s really nothing you should bother with. If you learn how to switch in between the available modes, all the rest is bells and whistles.

Battery Life and Performance

As is the case with virtually all advanced vape mods these days, battery life is dependent on a variety of factors, including power output, battery capacity and usage frequency. I have been using the Morph 219 for almost a week now and I haven’t really any significant difference between it and other dual-18650 batteries I use on a regular basis, like the Augvape Druga Foxy or Smoant Naboo. I’ve been getting almost a full day of use out of it vaping at 70W, with the TFV-Mini V2 tank (single mesh coil-head), but I’ve also been hitting my Renova Zero pod system from time to time. so it’s not the best estimate for exclusive use.

The SMOK Morph 219 supports on-board charging, balanced charging and fast charging, but as always, I recommend using a dedicated battery charger, just to be sure. Charging the batteries inside the mod is not a good idea and should only be done as a last resort.

Performance-wise, one of the main selling points of the Morph 219 is its fast firing time of just 0.001 seconds. That does sound and actually feels very fast, but guess what, so does any other vape mod I’ve tried in the last year or so. Mods in general have become incredibly fast, so much so that regular users can’t tell which is the fastest anymore, It doesn’t even matter, actually, as they all feel incredibly fast.

Other than its lightning-fast firing speed, the new Morph 219 doesn’t really stand out in any way. It has that My Mode gimmick, but that doesn’t affect performance in any way. I’ve only been using it in wattage mode and it has been working ok, there’s just nothing special to set it apart from all the other dual-battery vape mods out there. I guess that’s what the Alien-like design is for, to draw people’s attention, because there’s not a lot else that will.

Conclusion

The new SMOK Morph 219 vape mod is a throwback to a distant time when the SMOK Alien was the most popular vaping device on the market by quite a margin. Competition is a lot stiffer these days, and apart from the iconic design there’s really not a lot separating the Morph from the hundreds of different dual-18650 mods out there. It’s certainly not a bad device, it’s just that I was expecting something more from SMOK, and unfortunately the input keyboard and fast firing aren’t enough.