Danielle AlhirakiSMOK Nord 2
9.8
PROS
- Excellent flavor
- Super long battery life
- Comes with 2 pod and 2 coils
- No leaking
- Great throat hit with nic salts
- Attractive design
- Excellent build quality
CONS
- Pod is hard to remove
- Puff counter resets when you remove pod
The SMOK Nord 2 is the long-awaited update to the ultra popular Nord pod system of 2018. The original Nord has long been SMOK’s most popular and best selling pod vape because of its good looks, portability and great flavor. But as good as it is, there’s always room for improvement.
The Nord 2 brings a bunch of new and exciting upgrades, the biggest one being variable wattage. The Nord 2 has an OLED screen and the wattage can be adjusted all the way up to 40W. The Nord 2 also packs an upgraded chipset, a bigger 1500mAh battery, and now comes with two pods and two coils: an RPM pod and a Nord pod.
I’ve been excited to get my hands on the Nord 2 ever since it was released. I love my original Nord and I still use it often. Is the Nord 2 good enough to take its place?
Box Contents
- 1 x SMOK Nord 2 Device
- 1 x RPM Pod (RPM 0.4ohm Coil Preinstalled)
- 1 x Nord 2 Pod (Nord 0.8ohm Coil Preinstalled)
- 1 x USB Cable
- 1 x User Manual
Specifications
- 95mm x 30.5mm x 20mm
- IQ-N Chipset
- 1500mAh Battery
- 4.5ml Pod Capacity
- 0.69” OLED Display
- Variable Wattage
- 40W Max. Output Wattage
- Button Activated Firing
- Micro-USB Charging
Design & Build Quality
On first glance, the Nord 2 and original Nord look very similar. They both have the same rectangular shape with rounded edges and the shape of the mouthpiece is similar, too. But upon closer inspection, I can see that there have been a lot of changes.
The first difference is size. The Nord 2 isn’t too much taller and wider than the original Nord but it’s definitely bigger. It’s also much thicker which is likely because of the 0.69” OLED screen on the side of the Nord 2. The larger 1500mAh battery might be a reason for the thickness as well.
I got the ‘Red Stabilizing Wood’ panels on my Nord 2 and I have to say that I’m disappointed. It looks gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but it’s certainly not real wood; instead, it’s a shiny plastic panel made to look like there’s wood underneath it. If there was actually wood underneath it that would have been fine by me. But I’ve seen other units in the same ‘Red Stabilizing Wood’ and the patterns are all identical — not something you would get if it was real wood.
Aside from the fake wood, I love everything else about the design. It looks really good and high-end. Plus, even with the thicker form than the original Nord, the Nord 2 is still pocket friendly. It’s comfortable to use and feels good in my hand.
Build quality is top-tier. The Nord 2 is perfectly assembled and the pods fit snugly. One notable upgrade is the power button. It’s firm and clicky and has been improved from the easily activated power button on the original Nord. The black paint on the body of the device has held up well during my testing without any fading or chipping. The screen is also clear, bright and looks good.
SMOK Nord 2 Pods & Coils
The Nord 2 comes with not one, but two pods: an RPM pod and a Nord pod. Each pod comes with it’s own coil preinstalled. The coils aren’t interchangeable and will only fit into their designated pod. The coils simply push into the bottom of the pod.
Both pods have a 4.5ml capacity; an upgrade to the 3ml pods of the original Nord. The Nord 2 pods look very similar to the Nord’s, but they’re wider and thicker. As a result, these pods won’t fit into the original Nord.
The pod pressure fits into place and it’s quite a snug fit. It’s actually a bit difficult to remove the pod, especially if you have any ejuice on your hands. I won’t complain though; I’d rather have the pod be too snug than too loose and have to worry about it coming out accidentally.
A minor gripe is that there’s no way to check your ejuice level while the pod is inserted. You’ll have to take out the pod to check on your ejuice level.
The Nord pod has a light tint on the pod but the RPM pod is completely clear so it’s easy to tell the pods apart. The Nord pod also has ‘NORD’ written on the fill plug while the RPM pod says ‘RPM’.
This rubber plug is located on the side of the pod. It’s very secure and I haven’t experienced any leaking whatsoever. The fill port is a decent size and allowed me to easily fill up the pods, no matter what type of ejuice bottle I used.
The RPM pod comes with a 0.4ohm mesh coil preinstalled. This coil is for DTL vaping and is meant to be used with regular nicotine ejuices. I certainly wouldn’t use nicotine salts with a coil resistance this low, unless you want a headache that is! I used this coil with a 50/50 regular nicotine ejuice and it wicks fantastically. It has no trouble keeping up with chain vaping or long draws and I had absolutely no leaking to speak of.
The Nord pod comes with a 0.8ohm coil preinstalled. This coil offers a loose MTL draw and is best used with nicotine salt ejuices. I used this coil with a 50/50 nicotine salt ejuice and it wicks great. Just like the other coil, chain vaping and long draws didn’t phase this coil one bit. I also had no leaking at all.
How to Use the SMOK Nord 2
The Nord 2 uses SMOK’s new in-house chipset: the IQ-N chip. This is a variation of the IQ-R chip found on the RPM40 and the IQ-80 chip found on the RPM80 Pro. Thanks to this chipset, the Nord 2 can fire at up to 40W.
To change the wattage, press the fire button three times. Now you can press the fire button or hold it down to scroll the wattage upwards. The Nord 2 only adjusts the wattage upward so if you scroll past your desired wattage, you’ll have to round robin from 40W and scroll back up to your desired wattage.
The screen on the Nord 2 is small but it’s nice and crisp. It displays your wattage, coil resistance, voltage, a puff counter, and a battery indicator.
The Nord 2 is exclusively button activated. When you press the fire button to take a draw, the wattage display changes to puff time so you can see how long of a draw you take.
An annoying feature is that the puff counter resets every time that you take out the pod. It makes no sense for the puff counter to reset, especially because you have to take out the pod to check your ejuice level.
Battery Life
Battery life on the Nord 2 is impressive. It packs a built-in 1500mAh battery, a 400mAh increase over the original Nord. I used this device exclusively as my only vape during my testing and it lasts longer than I expected.
Using the 0.8ohm pod at 14W I was able to vape two full pods (that’s 9ml of eliquid) on just a single charge. That’s crazy usage time and equals just about two-three days of vaping. With the 0.4ohm coil at 24W I was able to vape about a pod and a half which is around 2 days of vaping.
Compared to most other pod vapes, even ones with larger batteries, the Nord 2 lasted longer.
Performance
When I first used the original Nord, I was blown away by how good the flavor was. Now with the Nord 2, I feel like I’m having deja vu! The Nord 2 is even more impressive than the original. The flavor is on the upper echelon of pod vapes, no matter which coil I use. Especially when it comes to fruit flavored ejuices, the flavor feels more crisp and in depth than any other pod vape that I’ve used.
The 0.8ohm coil is my favorite and I get very good flavor. The draw is a loose MTL vape but it’s not airy at all. There’s still enough restriction that I can MTL vape comfortably. The throat hit with a 35mg nicotine salt is superb and extremely satisfying. I can safely say that this is one of the best devices/best coils I’ve used for nicotine salts.
The 0.4ohm coil, despite being a mesh coil, isn’t as flavorful as the 0.8ohm coil. It’s still super flavorful and better than most other pod vape coils but it’s the less flavorful one of these two coils. I get a loose DTL draw with this coil. Regular nicotine ejuices taste great and I’d go so far as to compare the flavor with some sub-ohm tanks. Excellent job by SMOK on these coils.
Verdict
It looks like pod vapes have a new top dog to compete with. The Nord 2 gets everything right from the design and size to the battery life and coils. The draw and flavor with the Nord pod and coil are great for nicotine salts; definitely among the best performance you can get right now. Even the RPM pod and 0.4ohm coil are wonderful for regular nicotine ejuices and come close to the flavor that I get with some sub ohm tanks — not an easy feat to accomplish.
The Nord 2 gives great performance and it lasts longer than its competitors — there’s not much more that you can ask for from a pod vape.
Jamie Gann
Robert Barnes
Adam Alhiraki
Now there is some conflict in your article…
I some of the first paragraphs, you combine it like this:
0.4 : DTL
0.8 : MTL
Then in your last 2 paragraphs, under performance, you have it the other way round….
0.4 : MTL
0.8 : DTL
You also swap around what juice where…. first you correct, with e-salts in the 0.8…. but then here at the end you nic-salting the 0.4 ??
Hey Guss,
Oops! Thanks for pointing this out! I accidentally switched the ohms for each coil in the performance section. This has been corrected.
Thanks!
Hi Danielle, I have the MiPod right now and I like the salt nics but it just doesn’t seem to hold up well with these kind of juices. Would the Nord 2 be a good substitution or do you have something else in mind? Thank you!
Hey Samantha!
The Nord 2 and the 0.8ohm coil are very good for nic salts — so much so that I’ve continued to use it after this review. There are many good salt nic vapes but the Nord 2 is one of my favorites. I think you’ll be happy with it over the MiPod.
If the device is off the puff counter won’t reset. If it is on it will.
Problem solved.
I want to note that there is also pass through charging. I dont know if that was mentioned however if you want to vape as it charges just click the unit twice to turn it on.
Also as stated the puff counter doesn’t reset if unit firing button is pressed 5 times, shutting the device off. Then remove pod to avoid the count being reset. Awesome review and great pod system. Highly recommend! Smok won with the Nord 2.
Excellent review! Thanks for sharing that.
The Nord 2 ist not just a small update. It‘s a complete rework which resolves almost all of the issues of the original Nord, which btw were not big ones.
Adjustable power, bigger battery, bigger tank, improved fire button, a meaningful display (showing also the remaining charging time in particular).
Ok, the puff counter resets when the pod gets removed (if the device is on). But who counts puffs? I never understood that feature. Last but not least: Great flavour! I totally agree: Year to date the Nord 2 is the new Alpha Amine the pod vapes.
The slightly bigger size and weight of the Nord 2 makes it feel even better in my hand than the original. I love that. And it still fits into the smallest pocket.
The Nord 2 for me is a system completely free of hazzles. Suitable for absolute beginners. And perfectly suitable for me. Allthough I own a bunch of vapes already the Nord 2 is my current favourite.
They could include an “old people” setting to dump the rarely used data and make the battery life indicator bigger, which is only 2mm high and very difficult to read without good eyesight (or glasses).
Also, you can’t use it while charging like the old Nord which was great while driving.
Actually Ziege, yes you can use it while it’s charging. just click the button twice to turn device on while it’s plugged in & charging. From one “old person” to another, it took me awhile to figure this out~ and I second your vote for larger display font on most used data~ don’t need the rest =) ~ Sam
Thanks for this awesome review!! I quit a pack a day habit in 2012 and still vape…because…if I didn’t, I’d go back to smoking, life and work are just too stressful. I went from (don’t laugh at me) using a istick 30w with an ego mega dual coil cartomizer for years, (only stopped because they stopped being produced) and after I bought the last emdcc in the world lol, I anguished over what to buy/use. I just can’t with replacing a bunch of parts, or something that was leaky, etc. I finally settled on the Smok Nord as a replacement and was quite happy with it, but as you so well pointed out, the small improvements made to the Nord 2 sounded great, so I have my first one but haven’t used it yet. I’m confused on which coil is best for someone who vapes regular ejuice and likes a decent throat hit? TIA & happy vaping!
Hey there Jeannah,
Glad you like the review! Congratulations on quitting that pack a day habit, that’s no small feat to accomplish. For regular ejuices you can use either coil, but the 0.4ohm mesh coil will give you a better throat hit. This coil will give you a direct lung draw. If you want, you can still use the 0.8ohm coil but the throat hit won’t be as pronounced.
I’ve tried to stop smoking cigarettes by vaping in the past and failed miserably. So far using the Nord2 I haven’t had one cig in a week now. If you’re looking to put down cigarettes by vaping the Nord2 is the way to go. The draw with NicSalt vape juice is incredibly satisfying and completely kills my urge for a cigarette. I wish I did this sooner, PLUS even if you draw alot of times a day it still costs less than a dollar per day to vape with the Nord2. I highly recommend it.
This is a addition to my first comment.
The Nord2 would be the perfect vape if they just made the side opposite of the OLED screen a SECOND OLED screen, that way the fonts could be double the size and easily readable for people with less than great eyesight.
May you review Nord X? it’s new upgrade of Nord 2
Yes! We’re in the process of getting one sent over to us. Check back within the next few weeks for the review!
Hi I was searching for the Nord X review and unable to find one. Have you done it yet? I am trying to decide between Novo and Nord 2, 3, or X. I only vape salts. Do you have one you really prefer? I have been using Suiron Edge but pods are no longer available and cotton burned up really fast anyway, losing flavor.
Hi Ruby! I’m actually reviewing the Nord 4 at the moment (for some reason SMOK skipped right over making a Nord 3 and went straight to 4) and so far I love it. It doesn’t come with coils for nic salts though so you’ll have to purchase those separately (either the 1.2Ω RPM coils or 1.0Ω RPM coils). The Nord 2 is great but I think the Nord 4 is even better.
I am a “new” user to these types of vape devices. I am not using them for nicotine, so apologies if discussions about THC ejuice are frowned upon here. I started with dry herb vaping, but despite positive experience, didn’t like that I had left over “herb” that I had to dispose of. Eventually however, other options came available. Oil extract vape devices came along, using similar tech to ejuice vaping, but meant for the thicker oil associated with THC/CBD oil extractions from the plant. While these give great results that exceed the dry herb experience, they are costly, and not reusable beyond the battery.
Now, there are alternatives that have ventured into ejuice. And that is where I have some “newbie” questions.
The company that makes the product, uses a 70/30 pg/vg mix. I have had great results with my initial tests with the Nord relative to a tank that I could not control the voltage on the battery. I tried an ELF battery with that, mixed results. That being said, my curiosity would be as to what would be the recommended wattage for best long term performance. The store recommended 25 at most, but to start at 20 and adjust accordingly.
Since this ejuice isn’t the standard mix mentioned above, I wonder if starting at 20 is still too high? Is 15w too low?
Hi, Mike. Man, I wish I had some of that cannabis oil! I’m hoping to have my medicinal cannabis card by the end of January. Can’t wait to buy a couple of oil vape pens, get home, and try that on! It’s been a while since I’ve caught a buzz, and w/my multiple chronic pain issues, I’m ready to try anything, believe me.
Sorry but I can’t help you w/the wattage and coil questions you have as I’m a bit of a newbie too. I’ve been vaping for a few years, I know what I like/what works for me w/my devices, but I don’t yet have the knowledge on numbers, settings, all that stuff, but probably should by now, right?.
I’m responding due to your comment about dry herb vaping and “didn’t like that I had left over ‘herb’ that I had to dispose of.” Well, my friend, depending on the device you use to in dry vaping, you need to save that herb that you think is cashed, because dry vaping doesn’t completely deplete the THC in that ABC (Already Been Consumed) herb that you’re getting rid of.
Save it in a jar and when you have a considerable amount, you need to cook with it. There are videos all over Youtube that share just how easy it is to do this. I’ve heard that making the good old standby—pot brownies— are perfect for ABC cannabis and has the potential to space you out as edibles do. All you have to do is watch one of the many Yt videos on how to make cannabutter or cannaoil and there, in minutes, you have your most important ingredient for some nice brownies right there.
So please don’t throw that ABC herb away because you’re just chucking out herb that still has potential. Trust me on this.
Thanks, Mike
I find that the RPM pod spontaneously pops out of my Nord 2 unit. It will not stay in. It’s quite annoying. Is there a fix for this that I’m not aware of?
That’s actually the opposite of my experience! The pods for my Nord 2 are almost too firm and can be difficult to remove at times. The pod should be clicking into place and sit snugly in the battery. Are the small tabs on the pod broken?
I just took (like 30 minutes ago) pliers and squeezed the sides together a tiny bit and my rpm pod is snug and works perfectly.
If you turn off the Nord 2 before checking your e-juice the puff counter won’t reset! ☺️
Hi there, I recently bought the Nord 2 and am very pleased with it. I really like the .08 mtl coil that it came with. The problem is that it came with a nord DC 0.08 MTL Coil.
I went and bought the Nord Mesh MTL 0.08 Coil. Is it OK to use the Mesh coils, or does it have to be the DC coil? Thank you.
Hi! Yes, you can use the 0.8Ω Nord Mesh MTL coils.
Thanks so much, greatly appreciated!
Hey there, i have been using the nord 2 pod it comes with but the coil has come to the end of its life. i bought some 1.4ohm regular coils and use 40mg e salt liquid. After 5 or so hits with the new coil i start getting that burnt taste but have no idea why as it is a new pod and i also have the pod filled all the way up so not sure what it may be. Any thoughts?
Can I use the 2nd Clear pod with Nic salts? I feel it gives more flavour than the other pod. The first pod in your pic for me, I didn’t enjoy as I kept hearing a “bubbling” like sound when vaping and the flavour on that with nic salts just wasn’t there for me. Can you recommend vape juices for lasting flavour for both please