Hotcig Sniper 80W Pod Mod Review

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Have reviewed lots of 18650 pod mods recently, including Beyond AIO, Knight 80W, Space 60W and Drag X, now here’s another player: Sniper 80W by Hotcig. The Hotcig Sniper works with a single external 18650 battery with 80W max wattage output. The Hotcig Sniper comes with attractive patterns too. It was sent from Heavengifts for the purpose of this review.

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Specifications

• Size: 45.5 x 24 x 83mm
• Output: 80W max
• Battery: 1×18650 (not included)
• Display: 0.96-inch colour screen
• Pod capacity: 3.2ml
• Coil options: 0.17ohm mesh (50W recommended); 0.4ohm mesh (26W recommended)
• USB Type C charging

In the Box

Design & Quality

The Sniper came in quite basic cardboard box packaging with outer cardboard sleeve and on opening everything included is all on one level neatly packed within individual compartments. The Sniper has striking colourful side panels which differences the different colour/design versions, these panels on very close inspection are stickers but even stickers can be done well or badly and Hotcig have done a great job and they don’t look or feel as if they are going anywhere soon!

The device has a Zinc Alloy construction and is a compact palm size device yet has some reassuring weight, it’s of solid build quality with thick metal outer shell. The shape is quite old school box style with bevelled edging to give an aesthetically pleasing form factor finished off by the battery cap up top with the edge of the top section of the pod neatly wrapping around the caps contour.

The face has a square fire button top and side by side navigational buttons bottom, the central section is where the large colour screen is housed. Moving to the base we have branding, safety marks, venting and the Type C USB port which i wish was positioned elsewhere on the device.

The Pod

You get just one pod included which is fair enough as it takes replaceable coils of which you receive 2 different ones. The capacity is 3.2ml with the standard version. The top section of the pod is delrin and protrudes out battery side where it curves around the contour of the battery cap. We have a standard replaceable 510 drip tip which is a big pro, the one provided is very comfortable but you can swap for one of your own if you prefer.

The main section of the pod is cube shaped very similar to the RPM and Vinci pods and has a very slight frosting although the frosting is that light for the purpose of viewing any liquid inside it’s as good as clear so that’s how i will refer to it.

On one side we have a silicone strip with bung which gets lifted from the side (it stays attached to the pod) to reveal a fair size fill port but i have known much bigger (it’s fine for modern Gorilla nozzles). When filling there isn’t much room between the wall of the pod and coil head so i did need to take my time but no big deal and because i took a bit of care not once did i have any issues, just a mess free fill.

The Battery

The Sniper is old school with a top battery cap like on devices such as the Pico but many still like this style with the advantage being the device it’self can have less height than the battery as this protrudes out the top.

The battery tube lining has a Silver reflective coating which attracts the light so the positive marking at the bottom of the tube stands out so unlike most devices where i moan about the visibility of marked orientation, top marks here!

The threading on the cap is just a little crunchy but it screws on and off no dramas so overall very happy!

The Sniper has a large, bright, sharp colour display and i do like how colour hasn’t been over used making it a pleasant visual experience.

Top left we have the mode and top right the battery status bar, underneath the information given we have the wattage. We then have an horizontal line of chevrons which act as a progress bar when taking a vape, underneath the progress bar to accompany it is the time of your puff given as the actual time duration.

The bottom section of the screen displays the resistance, then voltage and finally amps, so no puff counter for those who use them.

The Sniper is the usual 5 clicks of the fire button to turn on and 5 clicks to turn off and once on pressing both navigational buttons together locks those buttons but the device will still fire, alternatively 3 presses of the fire button locks the whole device.

Most Pod mods of this kind are pretty much just the working screen and adjusting wattage up and down but the Sniper does have other modes. By default the device is in standard Power mode (variable wattage) but 4 clicks of the fire button causes the mode (top left) to blink and now using the navigational buttons the mode can be changed to Bypass or Custom. Custom is the curves feature and has 10 0.5 second slots to tailor the vape you want.

The wattage can be adjusted in 1W increments but you are limited depending on the resistance of the coil head which i will explain in the next section. The device has all the usual safety features and all feedback is given via the display if one kicks in.

When the pod is installed the device will read the resistance and automatically alter to the best recommended wattage, it will also limit the maximum wattage you can adjust to to stop the coil heads being vaped at wattage’s that will give a dry or burn’t hit.

In theory the wattage will adjust to what the best at for the coil is but like with all coils you can get variants in resistance so indeed the 0.17ohm coil head did adjust to the best at 50w and would only allow the wattage to be adjusted up to 70w. The 0.4ohm coil head however that should automatically adjust when first fitting to 26w and allow the wattage to be adjusted up to 35w read at 0.455ohm so actually adjusted to 23w and would only allow wattage adjustment up to 30w which was fine because i found this coil head best at 25w.

This means if you use the RBA it will also adjust to an automatic recommended wattage and have a max wattage limit as will if using the 510 adaptor with another tank.

Using the Custom feature though overrides the max wattage feature and any 0.5 second segment can be programmed at any wattage right up to 80w and indeed when vaping using custom mode the wattage you set is the wattage given and you are no longer limited.

Performance

The easiest way of doing this is getting out the way what could improve the device because their really isn’t much wrong! The obvious one is this would be better if it had adjustable airflow as like with so many of this type of device the coil heads determine airflow and you just have to run with it, it also needs pointing out loads of air get to the base of the coils so forget any type of MTL whatsoever. The other main con is the pod needs removing to fill and really wish this had some sort of top-fill through a valve especially as the capacity is a bit down with the standard version only holding 3.2ml of liquid. The only other con and on this occasion quite a petty issue for me is the position of the USB port being on the base but then i’m not going to use it so for me it really doesn’t matter.

Now for all the good stuff! For those that do charge in the device having Type C USB is a big pro, also the fact it accommodates an external 18650 yet it’s such a palm sized compact device is a real win. I love the large viewing windows they are really fit for purpose and having the option of being able to use your own 510 is another big pro.

The device is very user friendly and the performance i found excellent but need to point out when clicking the fire button to lock or enter the menu system the device will fire because it fires instantly with no delay whatsoever. The pod fits very securely and the slots for gripping the pod to remove is an example of attention to detail shown.

I also like that the device has different modes especially the Custom mode and although not everyone will like the automatic coil detection i do, it only adjust when re-fitting the pod after removal and if it doesn’t set to the wattage i wanted it only needed a minor adjustment and i’m fine with the max wattage limit as these included coils give a powerful very warm vape within the wattage permitted.

I did try both coils but concentrated on the 0.4ohm coil simply because of the wattage i personally prefer to vape at, although this has smaller wicking holes than the 0.17ohm coil head it handled 70VG with ease. After using the device for a good while alongside the Freemax AutoPod50 the last couple of days i used it alongside other pod mods i have previously tested to give a fairer verdict.

The flavour from both coils are above average edging the Vinci and RPM coils for me but they both give plenty of air, yet the only noise is the coil firing, no airflow turbulence in sight just a really smooth vape. The 0.4ohm coil gives a semi restrictive vape while the 0.17ohm gave basically no restriction at all. I didn’t get spare coils for this and as mentioned it’s been tested for a while so no issues with coil head longevity either.

Pros & Cons

Pros:	Cons:
Solidly built Compact and ergonomic Vibrant colour/designs Top battery cap Accommodates 18650 Pod fits securely Flavor is not bad	Need to remove pod to fill 3.2ml Standard capacity below par Airflow not adjustable USB port on base No puff counter