Daniel MacGregorSMOK Scar P5
8.2
PROS
- Excellent flavour from RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil
- Pods feel really rugged
- Feels nice to hold
- Great battery life
- Strong feeling battery door
- Nice battery door release button
CONS
- RPM 2 Mesh 0.16ohm coil performed poorly
The Scar P5 from Smok is one of three products in their latest Scar range. The Scar P5 is a pod device that takes an external 18650. There is also the Scar P3 which has an internal battery and the Scar-18 which is a mod and tank kit. They all have an IP67 rating and seem to be heavily inspired by Geekvape’s Aegis line.
So, can the Scar P5 compete with the Aegis Boost Plus? Let’s take a look.
Box Contents
- Smok Scar P5 Device
- RPM Pod w/ RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil installed
- RPM 2 Pod w/ RPM Mesh 2 0.16ohm coil installed
- Micro USB charging cable
- User Manual
Specifications
- 5-80W power output
- External 18650 battery
- 5ml capacity pods
- IP67 rating: shockproof / waterproof / dustproof
- Size: 118mm * 28mm * 36mm
- Weight: 160g with battery installed and pod full of liquid
Design & Build Quality
The Scar P5 has a zinc alloy skeletal frame on the body and a leather style cushion on the back and side. On the front of the P5 is a soft silicone which surrounds the front panel and extends around the bottom of the device. The P5 feels comfortable to hold in the hand.
The screen on the front of the device is a 0.96” colour OLED display. It is bright, colourful and easy to read, even in direct sunlight.
The fire button is square in shape and protrudes slightly, making it easy to find with your finger. It is located above the screen on the front panel, making it ideal for finger firing with your forefinger.
The adjustment buttons are located below the screen. Both the firing button and adjustment buttons are nice and clicky to press and are responsive when used, and there is no button rattle present.
Below the adjustment buttons is a micro USB slot which is covered by a rubber stopper to ensure it is waterproof.
On the back of the P5, at the bottom, is a button to open the battery latch. This button is nicely stiff to press, with no chance of accidentally opening the battery door if the Scar P5 is in a pocket or bag.
The battery door is located on the base of the device and is spring loaded. When you press the button to open the door it flips open, ready for a battery to be slid into the device. The spring on the door feels strong and sturdy and the door itself feels well made too. There is no battery rattle at all once you close the battery door, which is just pressed close and it clicks into place nicely.
On each side of the device, at the top, are airflow slots. These allow air to pass into the base of the coil when you take a draw. The airflow is not adjustable on the P5.
The P5 is 118mm high, 28mm wide and 36mm deep and weighs approx. 160g with a battery installed and pod full of liquid.
Overall, the Smok Scar P5 feels very well made. It is also very comfortable to hold and is very light in the hand too. It is just as comfortable to use with either your thumb for firing or your forefinger.
Features & Functions
The Scar P5 uses the IQ-80 chipset, which is the same chip also found in the Scar P3. It’s IP67 water and dust resistant and it will fire between 5-80W.
It only features a variable wattage mode, so it is very simple to use. You just select your desired wattage with the up and down buttons and then use the fire button when you want to take a draw.
The screen is in full colour and you can change the colour theme between 6 different choices. This is done by pressing the fire button and the up button simultaneously.
The display has a battery icon on the top left and a battery percentage in the top right. Your wattage is displayed in the centre, and the battery voltage output and coil resistance are below this. It then shows your last draw length in seconds and a puff counter at the bottom.
You can press the fire button and the down button together to clear the puff counter.
Finally you can lock the wattage of the P5 by pressing the fire button three times and unlock the wattage by repeating.
Pods
The Scar P5 comes with two pods. One pod allows you to use Smok’s RPM range of coils and the other pod will allow you to use their RPM 2 range of coils. Each of the pods will hold 5ml of liquid.
The pods have a built in mouthpiece, which is comfortable to use. They have a top fill design, so you pop out the rubber stopper to reveal the fill port, fill up with liquid and press the rubber stopper closed. The fill port is nicely sized, allowing you to use bigger nozzles to fill with no issues. The rubber stoppers are chunky so inspire confidence in their longevity.
The pods have magnets on the base and snap into place on the top of the P5. These magnets are really strong; the pod will be sucked out of your hand before you manage to place in on the device. Once in place there is no movement and to remove the pods you have to give it a good pull to disconnect the magnets.
Coils are installed into the bottom of the pods and are press fit. You just need to ensure you line up the coils correctly; there are flat sides on the otherwise circular bottoms of the coils that line up with the flat ridges on the base of the pod. This ensures that the coils are aligned properly to the airflow slots on each side of the P5.
The pods are a tinted black colour and it’s not difficult to see the level of liquid in the pods.
Coils
The Scar P5 comes with one coil pre-installed in each of the pods. In the RPM pod is an RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil, while the RPM 2 pod has an RPM 2 Mesh 0.16ohm coil.
The RPM Mesh 0.4ohm is rated for use at 25W. Smok suggests this coil is for MTL use.
The RPM 2 Mesh 0.16ohm is rated for use between 25-50W and is best at 40W. Smok suggests this coil is for direct to lung use.
As mentioned above, both coils are press fit, so it’s easy to pull out an old coil and push a new one into the base of the pod.
Performance
I first used the RPM pod with the pre-installed RPM Mesh 0.4 ohm coil. I figured the RPM 2 coils must be better, so I’d save the best for last.
I filled the pod with liquid and left it to sit for about 5 minutes, to allow the coil to saturate with liquid. I went straight in at the recommended 25W. It took about twenty draws for the coil to start releasing a good flavour. Once it did, I was very impressed. The flavour was crisp. I couldn’t believe I was vaping this at 25W. I was literally chain vaping this, it was so good.
Smok says this coil is for MTL. On the Scar P5 the airflow is not adjustable, and it definitely is not mouth to lung. It’s a very slightly restrictive direct lung. To be honest, I didn’t care because it vaped so well. I got a good solid week out of the coil before it started to lose flavour. Cloud production was very impressive.
On one hand I was disappointed that there wasn’t another of these coils provided, on the other hand I was excited to try the RPM 2 pod and coil.
Again, I filled the pod and let it sit for about 5 minutes. I went in at 40W and got a muted flavour. Not to worry, the RPM coil took about 20 draws to break in. But this one never did break in. I tried up to 50W, down to 25W, even up to 60W. I only get a muted flavour on this coil.
It could have been a dud coil, but if not, the RPM 2 coils are not a match for the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm one.
Again, cloud production was impressive on this coil.
Battery life has been really good, especially using the RPM Mesh coil at 25W, which I couldn’t stop chain vaping due to its stellar flavour.
The only time I started to encounter any leaking on either pod was when the RPM coil came to the end of it’s beautiful life. I had a little bit of liquid which had seeped out of the bottom of the coil. I suspect this was due to the cotton degrading and not holding on to liquid as well as it did when it was new. Cleaning up the little bit of liquid was easy enough to do with a tissue.
Verdict
The Smok Scar P5 with the RPM pod and coil has been an absolute pleasure to use. The flavour was actually banging, all at 25W. When the coil died after a week I was genuinely gutted.
The P5 with the RPM 2 pod and coil was an utter disappointment, especially after the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil performing so well.
The P5 itself performs really well. Nice to hold, responsive buttons and great battery life.
The non adjustable airflow was not a problem for me, I thought the airflow was spot on for both pods.
I’m going to have to compare the P5 to the Aegis Boost Plus, due to Smok going for a similar design.
The P5 is not quite as comfortable to hold as the Aegis Boost Plus, I find the leather cushion to be thinner than on the Aegis Boost Plus.
I prefer the pods on the Scar P5, they feel solid and are easier to see your liquid level.
The Scar P5 is strictly wattage mode, whereas the Aegis has temperature control modes. This is more of observation as many people will not need temperature control mode.
The flavour on the P5 with the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm beats the Aegis Boost Plus hands down.
The Scar P5 can fire up to 80W, the Boost Plus up to 40W. This is neither here nor there really, because all that matters is where the flavour is at, which is 25W on the P5 with the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil.
Overall, I have loved the Smok Scar P5 when paired with the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil and been really disappointed with the RPM 2 Mesh 0.16ohm coil. I could have been a dud coil, but I only had the one so I can only say what I experienced.
Would I recommend the Scar P5? I’d have to suggest reading / watching some other reviews to find out what they thought of the RPM 2 Mesh 0.16ohm coil. If mine was a dud and they actually perform as well as the RPM Mesh 0.4ohm coil then I would definitely recommend the Scar P5.
Jamie Gann
Adam Alhiraki
Robert Barnes
Russ Ware
I didn’t like the rpm2 coil either- at first. The coil’s taste was muted,as the reviewer observed,and I too was disappointed. But being stubborn, I continued to vape the tank out and refill it; and I’m glad I did! The second tank,and subsequent tanks really tasted great. I’ve put over 1400 draws on this factory supplied coil now,and it’s just starting to lose it’s flavor. Very surprised and pleased at my discovery,Smok coil’s are really advancing in my humble opinion. I have the Thallo S that uses the rpm2, and I’ve just ordered the P5 recently as I too really enjoy the.04 rpm coil. Sometimes a coil takes a while to break in,and I hope the replacement coils produce as well as the one that came installed on the Thallo S.
mesh 2 coil keeps spitting to mouth and recommends?
This is usually a sign that too the coil is saturated with too much ejuice. You can try increasing the wattage (don’t exceed the recommended wattage range on the coil though) and vaping it until the spitback stops. Then go back to a lower wattage but make sure you’re staying in the recommended range for the coil to prevent this from happening again.
Spot on and very informative review! I encountered the same problem with the rpm.16 coils. They all sucked. I ran multiple different juices through 3 brand new rpm.16 coils over the course of a week, all fresh out of the foil and they all were awful tasting. One of them gave me an immediate suffocating dry ash cotton hit which I choked on and then threw in the trash once I caught my breath.
On the contrary, my rpm40 coil got 5k hits on the first one and I’m 4k into the second and it’s still so smooth and flavorful. A little advice to smok is pull those .16 coils and throw em in a deep hole.
Absolutley love everything about the device itself. Only a couple slight pitfalls of the machine. First off, the battery compartment opened up in my pocket about 3 or 4 times since I got it a couple months ago. And second but definitely most annoying is the wattage constantly changing itself and changing the screen color and even reset my puffs once and potentially even fired the coil, although I didn’t notice I assume it’s a possibility. This is all despite “locking” the wattage which is just pressing the 2 up and down buttons at the same time. Granted my pockets always have 4 or 5 other somewhat heavy items in it, I wish the wattage lock came with a little bit more effort required to undo it than pressing 2 buttons attached to each other. And for the battery compartment, maybe make that magnetic also or just thread it, anything but the spring opener. You will never make a spring loaded battery compartment with a spring that works as intended. Especially being located at the bottom corner, you drop it and it’s gonna burst open and send the battery flying. Still, the machine is practically indestructible. Mine looks like I dragged it behind a car on the highway by a rope but still works like day one.
I got a scar P5 to replace my geek vape aegis boost pro which died whilst I was away working. RPM coil- no flavour and leaks horribly. RPM 2 coil-good flavour and leaks horribly. These results are after 2 days. Wish I hadn’t wasted my money. Looking forward to getting home and buying another boost pro. Absolutely useless.
And they eat batteries like they hate them. I could get most of a day on 1 battery with the boost pro. I’m using 3 with the scar