Innokin Zyon Pod Vape Review: A Tiny Titan

Design & Build Quality

The Innokin Zyon is described as palm-sized, and with a cylindrical body measuring just 100mm by 29mm. That sounds about right. It’s almost small enough to be entirely concealed in my hands (and I don’t have the largest mitts) but thanks to its chubby body, the vape feels comfortable to hold.

The body is constructed from zinc alloy and plastic. A large plastic fire button, sitting over the OLED screen, runs down one side. Below this is the USB-C port, positioned so you can charge the vape while it’s standing upright. On the opposite side, you’ll find the intake slot for the adjustable airflow.

There are six colors to choose from, including purple and bright yellow. Some, such as the black, white, and yellow versions, are a single color, while the pink and green versions contrast the colored plastic section against a black base.

A metal ring sits around the top of the pod, separate from the main device body. This metal ring is held in place with a rubber O-ring but can be rotated or removed. I’m not 100% sure why it’s there. It could simply be a design feature or maybe to protect the edge of the pod if you drop the vape. During my tests with the Zyon, it got in the way more than it helped, as I’ll explain shortly.

Pods

The pods for the Zyon are large and cylindrical, matching the shape of the device body. They can hold 4.5ml of e-liquid unless you’re in a TPD country where the capacity is the legally allowed 2ml. The pods are made from tinted plastic and sit above the edge of the socket to allow the contents to be viewed.

And that brings me back to that mysterious metal ring. When the ring is in position, only a narrow section of the pod is visible. You can still see when your liquid gets very low, but need to remove the ring to see anything more. It’s not a massive problem because the ring is removable. But it does make me wonder even more why it’s there.

The pods are filled through a port with a silicone bung at the bottom, which feels secure and fits tightly. The filling hole is fairly small, so it’s a bit of a pain when using a large vape juice bottle with a wide nozzle. Also on the bottom is a tiny plastic tab, which has to be lined up with a slot at the bottom of the pod socket or you can’t adjust the airflow.

The Zyon uses Innokin’s replaceable PZP coils. These are generally very easy to install or remove, last a reasonably long time, and produce good flavor. And it’s nice to see some vape brands sticking with replaceable coils (at least in some of their devices) when so many pod systems seem to be switching to fixed coil cartridges.

This device is technically compatible with all the PZP coils. You get a 0.6Ω coil pre-installed, and a 1.2Ω coil in the box. There are also 1.0Ω and 0.4Ω resistances available, but the latter probably isn’t suitable in a device that only outputs a maximum of 25W. I have used the 0.4Ω coil recently and found it struggled to efficiently atomize e-liquids at anything less than 35W.

Features

The Zyon isn’t a bells-and-whistles type of device, so its features are all fairly standard. An OLED screen, adjustable airflow, the usual safety features, and that’s about it. Not to say that’s necessarily a bad thing. Not every vape has to be packed with complicated or innovative technology.

The OLED screen is tiny, measuring around 10mm x 5mm, but bright and crisp. It’s positioned under a clear plastic section of the long fire button but, unfortunately, set so far back into the body of the vape that it’s hard to read unless viewed directly from the front. The Zyon’s bigger brother, the Kroma Nova, uses a similar OLED-under-fire-button setup but doesn’t suffer the same problem, so it’s hard to understand why that choice was made here.

The airflow is adjustable, but in a way that is different (but not entirely unique) from most pod vapes. Rather than having a slider to adjust the airflow, you instead rotate the pod. That’s why you need to line up the tab on the pod with the slot, or else the airflow holes won’t be lined up with the matching slot on the side of the device body.

It’s a system I’ve seen previously in vapes like the Vaporesso VECO GO, and it generally works quite well. On the Zyon, however, the metal ring makes itself known once again. The natural way to rotate the pod is to grab sides and twist, but this means you’ll be grabbing the ring. If you squeeze on the ring the pod will rotate. But twist with a gentler touch, and the ring often rotates instead of the pod, fooling you into thinking the airflow has been adjusted when it hasn’t.

As with the problem of blocking your view into the pod, this isn’t a deal breaker because you can remove the ring. But unless that small metal circle has hidden magical properties, it’s just another reason to wonder why it was added.

Battery Life & Charging

For such a small and relatively low-power vape, the 1300mAh battery is a welcome touch. With the 0.6Ω coil installed and power set at the maximum of 25W, a full charge lasted more than a day. Dropping the power down to 18 Watts and using the 1.2Ω coil saw the charge last for close to two full days.

Pods Per Charge (4.5ml pod)

• 1.2Ω @ 18W = 2 pods
• 0.6Ω @ 25W = 1 pod

Recharging the battery isn’t exactly fast, but it’s not slow either, especially considering the battery capacity and the 0.7A rating of the port. I timed a full charge from empty at just over 50 minutes using the supplied USB-C cable. And if you are desperate for a puff during that hour, the device supports passthrough charging.

Performance

The Zyon is likely aimed at those who prefer an MTL vaping style, but with the correct setup, it could serve as an RDL vape. With the airflow closed, even using the 0.6Ω coil, it provides a tight draw. But you can certainly open up the airflow, increase the power level, and enjoy a bit of Restricted Direct Lung vaping.

The PZP coils are good at wringing every bit of flavor out of your vape liquid, and I’ve used some that have lasted for more than a month if careful not to over-power them. I tested with 50/50 freebase and 70/30 nic salt liquids, and there was no hint of harshness with either of the two coils I used.

I did experience a bit of leaking from the bottom of the pod. This was usually worst with a full pod and the vape sitting unused on my desk for several hours, yet it also happened occasionally when the Zyon was in regular use. A bit of leaking is often expected with pod vapes, but there are some around that have minimized or solved this common issue.

Accessing the wattage adjustment is easily done with two clicks of the fire button. You can then raise the wattage by 0.5W for every subsequent button click. The power level is shown on the OLED every time you fire the vape, alongside the battery level. But aside from a firing timer, there’s not much else to see on the screen. No puff count, no button lock, no setting to change auto cutoff, etc.

Verdict

The Innokin Zyon is a nicely-made little MTL/RDL vape. It isn’t amazing, but it’s not terrible, either. Taking away the metal ring slotted onto the pod solves most of the minor frustrations, leaving only a possible problem with leaking. And even that problem isn’t bad enough to cause real frustration.

The device is small and discreet (unless you buy the bright yellow one, I guess) and feels good in the palm of my hand. It fires efficiently and the PZP coils do a fine job of producing rounded flavors. The airflow also works well, and I quite like not having a slider knob to catch on the threads of my trouser pockets.

I will admit that I prefer a draw-to-fire vape, or one with both button and draw, rather than just button, but it’s no big deal to press a button each time you want a puff.

This could have been an excellent palm-sized pod vape if not for a few slightly odd design choices. And because of those choices, Zyon misses as many targets as it hits and sadly falls a little short of Innokin’s usual high standard of vape design and quality.