In the text below I will talk about my attempts to join stealth vaping through the TARGET MINI kit from Vaporesso. Spoiler: unsuccessful attempts.
I don’t even know why, but I always wanted to have something extremely compact, hiding in my fist. But at the same time able to satisfy my desire to soar. There were a lot of options, starting with the mechanical 4nine mod (as the name implies – only 49 millimeters high), then through the Chinese clone Simple for an 18350 battery to small boards. australian vape The ultimate dream was the Mini Volt from Council of Vapor, but at the time of its appearance there was neither money nor the opportunity to buy it. So I had to settle for the classic iStick Pico from Eleaf.
And then I saw him. Target Mini. A fire lit up in the eyes, the heart skipped a beat and a feeling of an awl appeared below the back. It was a sign. Want! Around March 2020, I managed to get myself this baby, but by that time the craving for compact devices had already faded away and I took it rather to close the old gestalt. I used it for a couple of days and put it on the shelf. And recently I found and decided to write this text.
Next there will not be very many photos, a minimum amount of technical part and a little more of my impressions. Moreover, the site already has a review of this particular device authored by kroix.
Packaging and components of Target Mini
The set was clearly positioned as “premium”, and this was justified by the chic packaging, more typical of some luxury mobile phones. The inside of the box opens like a book with a fabric label, a chic charging cable in a metal braid, a bunch of instructions, a modest set of orings, two drip tips and a pair of huge replaceable evaporators. Was it necessary to overpay for all this? It had to, because there were essentially no alternatives.
Target Mini design
The first thing that came to mind when picking it up was how tiny it is! And then confusion arose. Why add such a huge tank to such a tiny thing? Which in height easily competed with the battery pack, and when screwed onto the mod it seemed even larger, causing dissonance and visually outweighing the pair.
I’ll just keep silent about the glamorous blue color, although three years later it no longer seems as provocative to me as at the time of its release, thanks to the large zoo of disposables. But then it was a challenge, even pink or gold looked more appropriate than this.
Target Mini Battery Pack
The shape of the mod is very similar to some kind of tiny tactical additional grip for a weapon. Rounded corners, a protruding platform at the top above the trigger guard (Fire button), a grooved thumb rest on the other side, carbon overlays and decorative inserts on the sides. Well, it looks like it!
Even decorations, like the inscription with the name on one side (again I’m silent about the color), had a little place. But then the disappointment began. This baby didn’t feel right in my hand from the word “at all.” I literally had to hold it with three fingers. Press the Fire button with great care, because it’s inconvenient and that’s it. The carbon inserts didn’t help the grip at all, and the included tank seemed to constantly weigh down and create an imbalance during use. And the small control buttons under the screen also infuriated me. These are just three small rattles, not labeled in any way, that rattle with every touch and even slight rocking of the device.
Charging port and controls
A huge plus is the standard 510 connector and housing designed for installation of evaporators with a diameter of 22 millimeters. I still didn’t plan to use the supplied tank, but I never got around to choosing something adequate instead. At the bottom there is a charging connector, microUSB, which was current at the time of release, so it won’t cause much irritation.
A little more about the thumb rest on top, I constantly wanted to press it, the location and size just screamed that it would be more convenient than a tiny “trigger,” but the designers decided otherwise. The earth is glassy to them.
Charging process
There are no complaints about the built-in battery. Charges relatively quickly, 0.8 Amps out of the stated one. The capacity is adequate, approximately 1250 mAh after three years of lying on a shelf of 1400 passports.
The controls seem simple, but for some reason they are infuriating. The three rattling buttons are “-”, “+” and menu. The screen, as expected, has little information, but for this size it is quite adequate. The device can operate in thermal control and variable wattage modes. The first is not needed in principle, but the second allows you to select power from 5 to 40 Watts, which is just under MTL. Fortunately, the resistance is maintained from 0.15 Ohm, which is also beyond the eyes for MTL. The responsiveness of the chip itself took some getting used to, I felt microfreezes after pressing the button, it felt like the mod was always smoothly raising the power from zero with each puff. This may be good for longer battery life, but it’s downright annoying when you’re in the habit of vaping with short puffs. For example, strong tobacco.
Guardian Tank
Oh, that’s a different story. I don’t remember a more wild and inadequate device (but at the same time technically competent). Firstly, it is huge, but only holds 2 milliliters of liquid. Secondly, it is wildly inconvenient to maintain, although more on that below.
Outwardly, it is quite attractive and, apart from the battery pack, even looks harmonious. Large viewing windows on the sides, top air intake, which means no spillage, a well-thought-out system for adjusting the intensity of the air supply and replaceable 510 drip tips.
Connector
At the bottom there is a standard 510 connector, and at the top there is a more complicated access system to the refill and evaporator, but let’s talk about drip tips.
There are two of them. The first is simply low, cute and simple, the second is taller, designed to be tight and anatomically shaped. And also a long tube at the base, which enters the steam pipeline shaft, thereby reducing its diameter. It seems like an interesting solution, but absolutely meaningless. With the same success, one could simply reduce the bore diameter in the drip tip itself and not have to worry about complicating the technical part of the type. And compatibility with other devices would clearly increase, although the engineers clearly did not think about this.
Access to the filling hole is extremely strange; first you have to unscrew the “counter cap” with a left-hand thread (the arrow is drawn on it for a reason). Then unscrew the normal cap with the air supply adjustment mechanism. It is physically impossible to unscrew two at the same time. This may be intended to be childproof, but I can’t recall a single documented case of children drinking liquid from the tanks.
Filling holes. In the photo they seem large, but in fact they are very thin and pouring liquid through them is quite an adventure. It is much easier to take out the evaporator and simply splash the liquid into the tank, the design allows this.
The trick there is that the evaporator is not attached in any way inside the tank. It is simply inserted and then pressed with both covers. All air ducts are located inside the evaporator, so you can safely lower it into the liquid and then fix it. A similar design is often used in AIO devices, where the tank is part of the body, but why it is there is unclear. I won’t even say anything about the uniqueness and incompatibility of evaporators, this is already clear.
But I will praise the air intake mechanism. We’ve thought about it. You can choose one tiny hole, one larger one, or two at once. And if you need a loose tightening, twist the ring further and go to a large and long gap.
I can’t say anything about the taste of this miracle. Nothing good. I didn’t have a special evaporator for MTL, but for a free puff it didn’t surprise me at all.
Total
This is exactly the case when, apart from the appearance, there is absolutely nothing worthy in the set. Even the tiny size is absolutely not pleasing due to the poor ergonomics. I tried to install some tiny evaporator on the mod, for example Deringer and Origen v2 drips, but due to the way the board works, I couldn’t get any positive emotions. Let it stand on the shelf and surprise guests with its unusual appearance. This mod is not good for more than that.
