VOOPOO DRAG H40 Pro Review: MTL or DTL, The Choice is Yours

Design & Build Quality

The Voopoo DRAG H40 Pro retains the familiar chunky, cylindrical shape seen in many of the earlier DRAG-series devices. At 116mm tall and 27mm wide, it isn’t huge, but you will certainly feel the difference if you are used to handling devices like the OXVA XLIM Pro 3.

It weighs in at a relatively heavy 120g, which feels about right for the size and gives the device a nice solid heft. I found the size and cylindrical shape very comfortable to hold, but it does feel a bit bulky in my jeans pocket.

The body of the device is high-quality zinc alloy, but is almost entirely wrapped in leather. A few sections of the metal are visible, and the contrast between polished metal and matte leather gives the DRAG H40 Pro a really classy look. The leather wrap helps to soften the feel of the device in your palm and makes gripping it easy, even with sweaty hands in hot weather.

The TFT display and all of the controls are housed on a raised panel at what can be considered the front of the cylindrical body. Like the rest of the body, the panel and the buttons are metal, and the buttons have been shaped and textured to give them a very precise feel.

Aside from an embossed logo in the leather wrap, nothing else mars the sleek and simple outline of the DRAG H40 Pro, not even an airflow slider (the airflow is integrated into the pod, but more on that in a moment).

The DRAG H40 Pro is available in eight different colors/designs. All feature the previously mentioned mix of metal and leather. Most use a natural leather finish, but a few feature patterns or embossing for a bit of extra flair. The available colors/designs are:

• Grey Metal (patterned)
• Glow Pink (embossed)
• Spray Black
• Cocoa Red
• Moss Green (patterned)
• Snow Blue (embossed)
• Modern Red
• Lake Blue

Pods

You have a choice of two different pods to use with the DRAG H40 Pro, depending on the kit you choose to purchase. One is designed for MTL and the other is designed for DTL vaping.

The main difference between the two is that the MTL version (which is the version I got to test) has a tall, thin drip tip and tighter airflow, while the DTL version has a short, fat drip tip and looser airflow. You can use either pod with the same battery section, so while you only get one or the other with each kit, you can buy the alternative version of the pod separately if you want to try the other vaping style.

The standard versions of the pods have a 5ml e-liquid capacity, while any unlucky users in TPD regions will have to be content with 2ml. The 5ml capacity is great in the MTL version, as a full pod seems to last for ages. I imagine it is adequate in the DTL version, although you will obviously burn through the vape juice faster with the higher wattage and lower resistance of direct lung vaping.

The DRAG H40 Pro kits come with two removable PnP X-series coils. You get 0.6Ω and 0.8Ω with the MTL version, while the DTL kit has 0.3Ω and 0.45Ω. You can use any coil in the PnP X range with either of the pod versions, which means the device has a resistance range between 0.3Ω and 3.0Ω.

Although it makes sense that you would use the lower-resistance coils with the DTL pod and higher resistance with the MTL pod, nothing is stopping you from using the 0.3Ω coil with the MTL pod if you so desire. While that would be a strange choice, it does show just how adaptable this device is.

The PnP X coils are easy to fit into the pod and reliable, both in terms of lifespan and leakage. PnP X coils have been a popular choice for vapers pretty much since they were first released. The latest iteration, having been improved several times over the years, features thermo-stable cotton for a longer lifespan (up to 100ml of e-liquid per coil) and better atomizing efficiency, mesh-distributed heating, and a 4-layer anti-leak system.

The airflow is drawn in through the top of the pod rather than through channels in the bottom. That airflow is controlled by rotating the top of the pod against the tank section, with a total of six inlet holes (three on each side) that can be opened or closed in pairs. There is a significant difference between fully open and fully closed, and most MTL vapers should easily be able to find a sweet spot that suits their vaping style.

The drip tip can be removed and features a standard fitting, meaning you can change to almost any third-party drip tip if there is one you prefer.

Features

The DRAG H40 Pro has clearly been designed as a vaper’s pod vape, because while it is efficient and adaptable, it has not been packed with supplementary features that don’t add anything to the core vaping experience. In fact, aside from a choice of display themes, there really isn’t anything “extra” to discover. Which is no bad thing in my opinion.

There’s a small-ish TFT display, which provides a readout of wattage level, battery level, resistance, puff count, and lock status. The screen is full color and fairly bright, but as it measures just 0.72 inches, the text on it is not the biggest. Nor is it particularly crisp, which can make reading the small text even harder. It can be read, but I often had to take a proper look rather than being able to see what’s what with a quick glance.

There are three buttons on the device, one of which is the fire button. The device is button-fire only, which not everyone will love, but it does provide better control over each draw. The other two buttons are used to cycle up and down through wattage levels, and move through the very simple options menu (accessed by tapping the fire button three times).

The only other features are those I have already touched on above, i.e., the airflow slider, the coils, and the internal control chip. The control chip, which Voopoo does not explicitly state for this device, is likely one of the Gene-series chips that Voopoo uses in most of their vapes. These chips are quite advanced and are capable of providing several pro features.

The only ones evident in the fuss-free DRAG H40 Pro are Smart Wattage control, which detects and automatically sets the wattage level based on the coil being used, and a suite of safety features. These include over-time protection, over-temperature protection, overcharge protection, low battery protection, and output overcurrent protection. This might seem like safety overkill, but features like this are particularly important with button-fire devices such as this one.

Battery Life & Charging

If you have used any of the other devices in Voopoo’s DRAG series, the 2450mAh battery in this device likely won’t be too much of a surprise. Similar devices, such as the DRAG S3, have batteries of at least that capacity and often much higher, although it is a significant upgrade over the original DRAG H40’s 1500W. If you are more used to small pod vapes, a battery with that capacity will seem both unusual and very welcome.

During my testing, the battery life proved to be exceptionally good. After using the pre-installed 0.6Ω coil at 22W for a full day, vaping as heavily as I often do on the first day of testing a new device, I was actually a little shocked to see that the battery readout was still showing 82%. I continued to vape for another four days, admittedly less heavily, before the battery was even close to needing a recharge.

Battery drain was even less with the 0.8Ω coil, with which the device defaults to using 15W. Across the two coils, at an average of 18W, I never got less than five days of use from a single full charge, and often significantly longer. As I write this, I am just hitting seven days since I last changed the device, and there is still a sliver of battery power remaining.

If you have the DTL kit with the lower resistance coils, using wattages of around 30, battery life is obviously going to drop significantly. Even so, that 2450mAh cell is still going to be ample to provide multi-day vaping from a single charge.

Thankfully, Voopoo sensibly chose to use a 2A-rated USB Type-C charging port in the DRAG H40 Pro, which means full fast charging is available. It still takes a while to refill if you are starting from empty, but that is hardly surprising given the battery capacity. The average over the four times I have recharged the device in the past couple of weeks is around 80 minutes from empty, which is about as good as I could expect from a 2A socket.

While charging, the display not only shows the battery level, it also provides an estimate of the time remaining before it is full. Both the power readout and the time-remaining estimate seem to be pretty accurate.

Performance

Although the DRAG H40 Pro is capable of offering an MTL, RDL, or DTL vaping experience, the kit I tested was the MTL version, so that is mainly how I used it. I was able to tweak the setup enough to give a decent RDL experience, but without the very low resistance coils and the DTL pod, I didn’t have the option to try true direct lung vaping.

The draw goes from pretty loose to very tight, thanks to the very efficient airflow slider. I was easily able to set the flow of air to a level that provided a satisfying MTL draw, particularly when using the 0.8Ω coil, but also with the 0.6Ω. The thin drip tip, similar in shape and feeling to a cigarette, is perfectly suited to the MTL vaping style.

After swapping the drip tip to a wider tip I had lying around, and ramping the power up to the maximum the Smart feature would allow with the 0.6Ω coil (23W), I was able to get a satisfying RDL draw from the device. Good airflow, good vapor production, and while not massively voluminous, I managed some modest clouds at times. I would probably want to try the 0.45Ω coil to really begin testing its RDL chops.

Flavors seemed slightly muted with both the 0.6Ω and 0.8Ω coils. It is likely better with lower resistance coils, but when compared to other pod vapes, including the Voopoo Argus G4 at 0.7Ω, it lacked intensity and clarity of flavor with some e-liquids. It seemed to work best with strong, single-flavor juices (think blueberry or strawberry), and less well with the types of e-liquids I enjoy, which have a more subtle mix of menthol, berries, aniseed, etc.

The firing button is generally pretty responsive, although a few times I had to press it twice before the heating element would kick in. Not a massive problem, but slightly frustrating on the few occasions it happens. The button feels very solid, so you don’t need to be afraid to press it with a bit of force.

As mentioned above, the coils are designed to last for around 100ml of e-liquid. I have probably put around 50ml through each of the coils that came with my kit, and both are still going strong, with no noticeable drop in performance.

Verdict

Despite liking the DRAG H40 Pro, and enjoying the vaping experience it offered, I did struggle slightly to understand the idea behind it. It certainly makes for a decent upgrade over the original H40, with the battery capacity alone probably being enough for fans of the earlier device to think about changing to the Pro. However, the H40 was much more squarely aimed at DTL vapers, and if this is aimed at those users, the MTL pod option would be pretty redundant.

I can only assume that this device is aimed at both DTL vapers who want a less complex device that offers a fuss-free experience and MTL vapers who are thinking about changing to RDL or DTL vaping and want to start with something that doesn’t throw them in at the deep end. Adaptability in a vape device is good, and I guess that if a single device can offer the user a choice of multiple vaping styles without too much compromise, that’s no bad thing.

The MTL version offers a great MTL experience, with the bonus of a huge battery and good e-liquid capacity, and I do not doubt that the DTL version would provide the great direct lung vaping experience the DRAG series has become well-known for. Flavor reproduction isn’t the best I have ever experienced, but it certainly isn’t bad, and I would like to see if that improves when using the low-resistance coils and the higher wattages of the DTL kit.

If you want a full DTL vape, there are likely better options available in the DRAG series and elsewhere. And if you are set on simple, fuss-free MTL vaping, there are also likely better options out there. However, if you are looking for a device that provides vape-style adaptability, simple operation, great performance, and a very generous battery life, the Voopoo DRAG H40 Pro is well worth checking out.