4stars

Vaporesso Target PM30 Review

Hot on the heels of the Vaporesso Target PM80 pod comes the new PM30, a simpler device designed to please both fans of direct lung and mouth-to-lung vaping. Pod mods are definitely the hottest sector in the vaping market these days, but with so many options to choose from, is the PM30 something you should consider? Check out our review to find out:

A Look at the Contents

The newest Vaporesso pod mod comes in a standard cardboard box with a clean layout – a grey background and a life-seize picture of the PM30 on the front, and some technical specifications, a list of contents, and a scratch-and-check sticker on the back.

Inside the box we have the Vaporesso PM30 sitting snug in a plastic tray, and underneath are all the included accessories – a spare refillable pod, spare coil-head, a USB Type-C charging cable, user manual and warranty card. It’s pretty much a standard starter kit, with the important mention that the extra pod is a great addition, and something you don’t see in every kit.

Design and Build Quality

The Vaporesso Target PM30 measures 22mm x 27mm x 117mm, is made primarily of zinc alloy and has a glossy paint finish. It’s rather long for a pod mod, to be honest, but it makes up for it in slickness, so it doesn’t really feel bulky in the hand.

The best way I can describe the design of the PM30 is a combination between the popular Target PM80 and the Vaporesso PodStick. The general shape appears to have been inspired by that of the PodStick, but certain elements, like the shape of the refillable pods and the carbon fiber imitation sticker, were definitely borrowed from the PM80. All in all, I fond the design to be a pleasing one, although I personally prefer the look and feel of the Target PM80 more, to be honest.

For this review I received the gunmetal and carbon fiber version of the Target PM30, but according to the Vaporesso website, you can get it in six color combinations, including a vibrant blue or rainbow. Mine looks nice, but if I had to choose, I would probably go for a more adventurous color.

Apart from the glossy paint and the large carbon fiber sticker, the Vaporesso Target PM30 also features an elegant fire button reminiscent of that of the Vaporesso PodStick, some discrete branding and a USB Type-C port on the back, near the bottom. On the very bottom of the device you will notice some venting holes, just in case something goes wrong with the built-in 1,200mAh battery, which shouldn’t be the case. But, then again, better to be safe than sorry.

The plastic pods hold up to 3.5ml of e-liquid, feature top filling and connect to the battery via powerful magnets. The plastic material is tinted, but you can still see the level of juice inside, so there is no need to remove the pod from the device to check.

Target PM30 pods feature the same valve fill-port introduced on the Renova Zero vape pod, and later used on a series of the devices, including the slick Vaporesso Degree. All you have to do is push on the top of the pod, where you see the little arrow marking, to reveal the fill port. Then press the tip of your juice bottle down on the metal-lined fill port and squeeze.

Vaporesso proprietary fill ports is one of the best in the business, but this package is missing a crucial element – an included fill bottle. All other devices that featured this kind of fill method came with a small plastic bottle, but not this one. Unfortunately any kind of soft tip fill bottle will not work with this fill port, as you need to be able to press down on the hole to open the valve inside. Hopefully, Vaporesso will start including those little plastic bottles in this kit, or else you’re going to need some hard tip juice bottles.

The Vaporesso Target PM30 comes with two different coil types, an 0.6Ω mesh coil-head, and a 1.2Ω round wire coil-head. The first is designed to offer a restricted direct lung vape, while the second is primarily aimed at mouth-to-lung (MTL) enthusiasts. The Chinese manufacturer also sells an 0.8Ω mesh coil-head, but you’ll have to buy that one separately.

Battery Life and Performance

The new Target PM30 pod mod comes with a built-in 1,200mAh battery, which I consider to be of decent capacity for a device this size. 1,500mAh would have been ideal, in my opinion, but this capacity is not too shabby either, especially if you plan on using the higher resistance coil-head more, because it needs lower power output.

The LED ring around the fire button acts as a battery indicator, with the green light indicating that the battery is over 70 percent full, blue meaning that the battery level is between 30 and 70 percent, and the red warning you that you should be thinking about a recharge.

As I mentioned in the previous section, the new PM30 has a USB Type-C charging port, which is not only more convenient to use, but also helps charge this thing back to full in about 45 minutes. The PM30 also has vape-while-charging technology, so you can use it while it is hooked up to a power source, if you can’t wait for it to charge up again.

When it comes to performance, the Vaporesso Target PM30 is not all that different than the devices that inspired it – the PodStick and the Target PM80 pod mod. By that I mean that it uses very similar pods, removable coil-heads, and, most importantly, lacks any kind of adjustable airflow. That last one is going to be a deal breaker for many, I fear, especially since the competition (like the VooPoo Vinci, for example) has found a way to incorporate airflow control on their pod mods.

Don’t get me wrong, like the Target PM80, which I included in my top five pod mods of 2020, the new PM30 is a joy to use, it’s just not the pod mod mouth-to-lung fans have been waiting for. While it is possible to do an MTL draw with the 1.2Ω coil-head, it’s a really loose one, as opposed to the tight, cigarette-like draw that a lot of fresh ex-smokers are looking for.

For fans of direct lung vaping, the 0.6Ω and 0.8Ω mesh coil-heads are both great options, offering both excellent flavor and decent amounts of vapor. I’ve been using the mesh coil-head included in the kit for a week now, and I have yet to experience any issues with it. Leaking hasn’t been a problem, in fact the bottom of the pod is as dry as a bone, and I never once got a dry hit, which is probably thanks to Vaporesso’s advanced coil recognition system.

The Target PM30 features a more bare-bones version of the resistance reading capabilities of the Target PM80, which means that the device recognizes which coil-head you have equipped and adjusts power output accordingly. For example, for the 0.6Ω coil-head, power output starts at 20W, while for the 1.2Ω coil-head, it starts at 8W.

You can also adjust the power output for each coil-head by pressing the fire button three times in rapid succession. The red light is the lowest setting, blue is medium and green is the highest. For the MTL coil-head the highest output is 12W, while for the lower resistance mesh coil it’s 25W. Interestingly, while the PM30 has a max output of 30W, there is virtually no coil-head that supports a 30W output…

Conclusion

If you though messing with the settings and external battery of the Target PM80 was too cumbersome, but wanted something a bit more advanced than the Pod Stick, the new Vaporesso Target PM30 is probably just the device you’ve been waiting for. And unless you were hoping for a pure mouth-to-lung vaping experience, it won’t disappoint you. Like it’s predecessors, it features a nice design, great build quality, and offers impressive performance, all things we’ve come to expect from Vaporesso over the years.