OXVA XLIM SE 2 Voice Edition Review

Design & Build Quality

The XLIM SE 2 looks very similar to the XLIM SE and other XLIM devices. OXVA hasn’t strayed too far from their typical design and that’s a good thing. The XLIM SE 2 is slender, sleek, and remains as lightweight as its predecessors.

The tall stick shape looks good and feels equally good to hold. It’s about the same size as other XLIM devices at 112.7mm tall, 24.2mm wide and 14mm thick so portability remains good. And at 44.5g in weight, it’s really light too.

I really like the design. It’s fancy but understated at the same time and it changes depending on the lighting. In direct light you can see the ribbon pattern going across the body diagonally but when the light shifts, it looks like a diamond pattern. It looks professional, attractive and not too plain.

On the side of the XLIM SE 2 there is an airflow adjustment slider which has good resistance to movement. It will stay where it’s set, even if you throw it in your pocket. The knob to adjust the airflow is small and doesn’t protrude much from the body, so it doesn’t catch on anything and get misadjusted accidentally.

On the other side are where you can find the wattage and voice buttons. I’ll go over these a bit more in the ‘Features’ section. But for now I can say that they feel really good and they give ample feedback when pressed. 

On the front of the device, near the bottom, there is a wide LED bar. It lights up in multi-color when you vape and once you’re finished drawing, it will illuminate a solid color which indicates your battery charge level. 

Overall, the XLIM SE 2 Voice Edition is very similar in design and build quality to previous XLIM series devices. That being said, the design is great, it’s well made, and it’s light and portable. 

Pods

The XLIM SE 2 comes with two pods: a 0.6Ω Top Fill Cartridge and a 0.8Ω Top Fill Cartridge. These pods are the same resistance as all of OXVA’s other pods and they perform nearly identically. The difference is that these pods can be filled without having to remove them from the device.

The XLIM SE 2 is compatible with all XLIM series cartridges, including the XLIM V2 cartridge and OXVA’s prefilled cartridges. The XLIM SE 2 is not compatible with the XLIM C pod which uses replaceable coils.

In addition to the 0.6Ω and 0.8Ω cartridges that come with the device, there is also a 0.4Ω and a 1.2Ω cartridge that are available to be purchased separately. I don’t have those cartridges on hand for this review, so I will be sticking to the included cartridges.

OXVA recommends using the 0.6Ω pod with freebase ejuices, while the 0.8Ω pod can be used for nic salts or freebase ejuices due to the ‘neutral’ resistance. The 0.8Ω pod can be set from 10-18W, while the 0.6Ω pod can be used from 16-25W.

The pods are tinted and so unless you have a good light source behind them, it can be hard to see your ejuice level. However, most of the pod sits above the battery, with only a sliver being hidden, so you don’t have to remove the pod to check on where your ejuice is sitting at.

Features

The XLIM SE 2’s main feature is its voice feedback. This might seem ridiculous to some but I can see it having very real and impactful uses for vapers who are visually impaired. Even if you can see perfectly well, it’s hard to discount the convenience.

When you first insert a pod, the XLIM SE 2 will audibly relay the coil resistance and wattage that it is set to. From there, you can use the buttons to adjust the experience.

The two buttons on the side of the device are where all of the magic happens. The top button has a thunderbolt icon and the bottom button has a volume icon. Pressing the lower button will audibly tell you the battery percentage remaining. You can also long-press the button to turn off voice feedback completely.

Pressing the top button is how you adjust the wattage. Pressing it once will go to the next wattage level, which the device will audibly read to you.

The 0.6Ω pod can be set to 16W, 18W, 20W, 22W, or 25W. The 0.8Ω pod can be set to 10W, 12W, 14W, 16W, or 18W. 

You can hold both buttons together to lock or unlock the fire button (the button with the thunderbolt icon). While the fire button is unlocked, you cannot adjust the wattage.

It’s really simple to operate the XLIM SE 2 and really cool how it offers new possibilities to those with visual impairments. Even as a perfectly sight-able person myself, I found it pretty convenient to have audible feedback from my device. The only downside is that you’ll get weird looks if you’re using it in public because the audio feedback is pretty loud.

Battery life & Charging

Like with most devices, how much battery life you get out of the XLIM SE 2 is going to depend on the pod resistance that you’re using and the wattage that you use it at. I was switching between both pods quite frequently and testing out a range of wattages and I averaged about two days of use per charge. That’s really good, especially because I was vaping at 16W+ with both pods.

Plugged into a regular wall charging block, the XLIM SE 2 takes 55 minutes to charge from completely dead to 100% battery. It can also be used while it charges as it does support pass-thru charging.

Performance

Just over a year ago, I reviewed the XLIM C. That device used replaceable coils as opposed to the replaceable pods that the XLIM SE 2 uses, but they’re the same resistance. While using this device, I felt a bit of deja-vu as it performs very similarly to the XLIM C. Spoiler alert, that’s a good thing.

I used a 70VG, 6mg/ml freebase ejuice with the 0.6Ω pod and a 60VG, 20mg/ml nicotine salt ejuice with the 0.8Ω pod. This is how OXVA recommends using these pods and I would also recommend sticking to similar PG/VG ratios and ejuice types for these pods.

To start with the airflow, there’s many options for how you can vape with the SE 2. The 0.8Ω pod allows you to get a loose MTL draw down to a tight MTL draw by simply adjusting the airflow slider. On the other hand, the 0.6Ω pod can be used for a direct lung draw down to a tight MTL draw. You can achieve pretty much any type of draw that you want with the SE 2 and these two pods, so it’s great no matter how you like your airflow to be.

The 0.6Ω pod definitely does best with freebase ejuices. Closing the airflow about halfway was how I preferred using this pod for a RDL draw that verges on MTL. The vapor gets very warm at the maximum output of 25W, so I tended to stay at 20W or 22W for this pod. There’s a lot of flavor and even a lot of vapor too. 

The 0.8Ω pod is the one that I would suggest for nicotine salt ejuices. 16W seemed to be just the right wattage for me for a warm enough draw and a nice throat hit with a 20mg/ml nicotine salt ejuice. The airflow halfway closed delivers a nice MTL draw that isn’t too tight and allows for enough airflow for the full flavor of my ejuice to come through.

Verdict

The XLIM SE 2 and its voice broadcasting feature might seem unnecessary for the average vaper, but it can be a game-changer for those who are visually impaired. Even as someone who can see perfectly well, I still found the voice feature to be convenient. It doesn’t have any clear disadvantages to a device with a screen, except for the fact that you might get some looks from those around you.

Aside from the voice features, the XLIM SE 2 performs just as well as OXVA’s other XLIM devices. The pods are both great for their respective uses, allowing the SE 2 to be used by DL vapers or MTL vapers, and for freebase ejuices or nicotine salt ejuices. There aren’t many devices that give you this range of capability out of the box so that’s a big plus for this device.

If you’re looking at OXVA’s XLIM devices and can’t decide which one to get, I’ll offer some guidance. They aren’t all too different from one another because they all use the same resistance pods, so it’s going to depend on the features that you want. The SE 2 is unique with its voice broadcasting, however you can achieve the same level of user-adjustability with the XLIM PRO or SQ PRO. If you’re not particularly sold on the voice broadcasting, the two previously mentioned devices are just as good.

Overall, the SE 2 Voice Edition is a great device with some niche usage capabilities for those who are visually impaired. If you know a visually impaired vaper who wants more adjustability on their device, I can easily recommend the SE 2 Voice Edition.