Advken Potento Pod Review

I’ve kind of fallen in love with what I’ll be reviewing today and have totally been delaying my review just so that I can use it some more before moving onto something else.

But I think it’s safe to say that this will likely be one of my carries for a while to come, it simply just hits the spot as far as PODs are concerned.

The Uwell Caliburn has been king of the PODs for a long while now, and few have been able to stand next to it with the sufficient power and quality of the vape.

That is exactly what the new Advken Potento is going to be compared to by many, will it stack up?

Let’s take a look at the Advken Potento!!

Big thanks goes to Vaporstate, who are the Advken global partner in Australia, for sending this through for me to review!

Photos

General Info

The Potento falls squarely in the Stick Pod category, sharing similarities with other popular setups such as the Uwell Caliburn, the Vaporesso XROS, the Yearn, Smok NFIX and many more. They are typically auto-draw devices with more of a Mouth to Lung tighter airflow and designed to be super portable, easy to slip into your pocket.

Measuring in at only 121mm x 22mm and a dainty 12mm thick, it’s definitely portable, with PODs that take up to 2.5mls of e-liquid, a Potentiometer that can dial in your voltage between 3.2 and 4.2 volts, a 580mah battery combined with 1.2ohm PODs, and USB Type-C charging port with a 1 amp charge rate, this is designed to run all day long.

The Body

The Potento has quite a long narrow body to it, sporting a uniquely patterned set of embossing as well as accent lines down each side of it’s aluminium frame, nothing drastically different to other stick pods but looks classy, and has a quality feel to it.

Up top, you have your POD recess where the POD simply clicks into place. The Potento has gold plated connections and also an auto-draw tube here, airflow comes in from two small inlets in the side of the body and up through the the bottom of the coil.
Further down, you’ll find a small LED and on/off button, which can also be used as a battery indicator turning ‘red’ once you get down to 30% battery capacity.
On the other side you’ll find a USB Type-C charging port for quick charging at 1amp, that also allows you to vape while charging, a must have for this type of device!

The bottom of the frame is where you’ll find the Potentiometer. It’s a largish dial marked with Roman Numerals, allowing you to adjust your voltage on the fly, to any increment between 3.2 and 4.2 Volts that you feel comfortable with. A blast from the past, but also a really cool way to offer adjustable power which is sorely needed in the stick pod space.

The PODs

The POD for the Potento is an all-in-one, a true POD, you cannot remove the coil and you’ll need to throw the entire POD away in one piece when your coil is spent. A lot of people have issues with these, due to their fully disposable nature, but they serve a purpose for new vapers wanting to keep things as simple as possible. Personally, I would have liked to have seen replaceable coils considering how well built these PODs are!

Made out of PCTG plastic, these are strong, and able to withstand some pretty rough treatment. PCTG is known to be quite a durable plastic.
The PODs are tinted, a little too dark for my liking, but you can make out your e-liquid levels easily enough when holding up to the light.

The mouthpiece of the POD tapers off slightly, offering up quite a smooth and comfortable tip for MTL draws.

Your fill port is on the side of the POD, hidden by a silicone plug, this plug is actually great, there’s plenty of silicone to grab hold of to lift, and sits quite deeply in the fill port, ensuring no e-liquid escapes.

You’ll get 2 PODs in the box, both are 1.2ohms in resistance and will hold up to 2.5mls of e-liquid. While not the largest capacity, considering that you are running only up to 3.5 Amps at about 14 Watts, that e-liquid is going to last quite a while, as will the 580mah battery.

Airflow

The airflow on the Potento is actually quite good, It’s been a long time since I’ve found something that resembles the Caliburn in airflow with it’s powerful auto-draw, but the Potento is quite similar. I’ve noticed that its a little more restricted than the Caliburn ever so slightly, which is excellent in my opinion, the Caliburn was a little too open.

You’ll notice that the airflow comes in from the sides of the body of the device, via two small airflow holes, and then up through the bottom of the POD. There is no adjustable airflow here unfortunately, but it does put out what I consider an almost perfect MTL draw, slightly more open than a really restrictive MTL, and tighter than the Caliburn, but combining that with the adjustable power Potentiometer on the bottom, you can bump your power up just that little bit more, to get the hit you desire easily.

Speaking of which, the auto-draw is excellent. It’s really responsive, without any lag, or hesitation, it hits instantly.

Battery

As mentioned earlier, the Potento comes with a 580mah internal battery, which is plenty to support the 1.2ohm coils, and should give you a good day of battery life.

The provided USB Type-C charging port (which also has pass-through) will get you a full charge in about 45 minutes.
While charging, the white LED will pulse, and when complete, will stay on constantly.

The LED also acts as a battery level indicator. From 30% > 100% it will shine white when you draw, and turn red when you get to under 30% battery. I think a few extra levels would have been useful here. I’m finding that by the time it switches to ‘red’, there is not a lot of vaping time left, and need to get to a charger pretty quickly. An intermediate colour between 30% and 50% would have been helpful, to notify a little earlier.

Filling

Filling is pretty easy, pop the silicone plug up from the fill port on the pod and fill, while holding the pod at an angle to get maximum e-liquid in there.

The coil and mouthpiece tube inside restricts the e-liquid a little, separating it on each side of the chamber, so sometimes you’ll find that you’ll fill, and still have a lot of room, or air left in the POD, not completely full. It can be a little tedious to get 100% full.
If you’ve used a 2 chamber cigarette lighter before, you’ll know what I’m talking about, the gas sits in two distinct chambers, and you can manipulate it to move between them. With these PODs they don’t manipulate easily.

Advken, this probably should be addressed, a little bit more of a gap between the internal coil/tube and the wall of the pod would allow the air bubble to pass between it for easier filling.

Any Leaks?

I’ve had the tiniest bit of seepage from the bottom of the PODs, which is to be expected, considering that this has been in my pocket 24/7 for the last week or so. It’s not enough to be an issue, and a quick wipe down with a tissue every few days (if you care) is sufficient.

Usage

There’s not much to add here that I haven’t already mentioned. The side button (only button) can be used to turn the device on/off with x5 clicks, with the LED flashing and lighting up as you do so.

It can also be used to check your battery level, with 1 click, lighting up the LED. 100% – 30% it’s white, and below 30% the LED turns red.

Using the Potentiometer is super simple too, there are 4 markers on it to roughly show the various levels, but there’s no real accurate way to know how much voltage you are getting, only that it will be between 3.2 and 4.2 Volts. Turn it clockwise for a warmer vape with higher voltage, and anti-clockwise for a cooler, lower voltage.

Pros:

• Sleek and stylish
• Lightweight and portable
• Variable Voltage
• Excellent MTL draw
• Long lasting PODs
• Long lasting battery with 1.2 ohm PODs
• Passthrough charging
• USB Type-C charge port
• Very responsive auto-draw
• Excellent flavour
  

Cons:

• Filling can be a pain if you’re not used to it
• One piece POD/coil
• Too few battery indicator levels
  

Where to Buy:

The champions over at Vaporstate sent this through for me to review, so I’ll plug them here, head on over to Vaporstate’s Online Store and you can pick up the Advken Potento kit for $55 AUD. A great price for a reliable, variable voltage POD!

Secret Code: ADVKEN2020

Conclusion

The Advken Potento has been an absolute pleasure to use, and quite honestly, I still can’t believe that they managed to get the auto-draw working so well. Only one POD has had such a responsive auto-draw until now and that is the Caliburn. Advken have achieved what many others couldn’t, and putting the Potento side by side with the Caliburn would result in a pretty close contest.

I like the fact that Advken have included variable voltage, and a Potentiometer is a fantastic way of doing it, the PODs are great, the airflow fantastic, and a 1.2ohm coil is the perfect resistance for a MTL device allowing that battery to not only last all day, but provide an excellent and powerful MTL vape too.

I know, you need the question answered, Is it a Caliburn killer? In my opinion, yes! The Caliburn was great but tended to leak a decent amount the older the PODs got, and I often had juice in my mouth, I have had none of that with the Potento, and as an added bonus, it has variable voltage!

Top notch job Advken! Looking forward to seeing what you come out with next!

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.