Vaporesso Target PM80 SE Review

Up for review today, I have something that has been out for a little while already. I kind of missed hype when this one came out at the beginning of the year, and I never got around to trying one out. So when I got offered a chance to try one, I jumped on it to see what all the noise was about back then!

Vaporesso are known for their great quality products, so it was a win-win for me, and so assumptions were made as they usually are, and a touch of anticipation spiced with some high hope was placed on this device while it was on the slow boat getting delivered to me.

Let’s take a look at the Vaporesso Target PM80 SE Pod Mod! Is it all that the hype train touted? Did it meet my high expectations? I’m going to show you the in’s and outs!

Big thanks goes to SourceMore for sending this through for me to review!

Photos

First Impressions

First impressions were set and eager anticipation crept in on opening this baby up, right there in front of me was one of the sleekest, comfortable Pod Mods I’d seen. Vaporesso do a great job of presentation.

Vaporesso have improved on the original PM80 which was a 2000mah internal battery by introducing and external battery with the SE, accessible from the flip battery bay on the bottom of the mod.

Also boasting a maximum wattage of 80 watts, a 4ml e-liquid capacity in the POD, great styling and a lovely fit in the hand, the PM80 SE looked to be an impressive little unit!

The Main Body

The main body is sleek and stylish, with soft textured insert on the back, and a shiny metal frame, it’s not bulletproof, but solid enough to be able to throw into the pocket without worrying about damaging it.

The fit and feel in hand is brilliant, the high quality finish, making all the difference, you really do feel like you’re holding a high end device.

The size is just right coming in at 120 mm in height and 33×24 mm in width and depth, it’s large enough to grip in your hand with all of the buttons lined up with your fingertips, but small enough to slip into your jeans pocket without any dramas.

I received the silver version, and really like the look and feel of the texture at the back of the mod, it’s a little classy, with a slightly soft feel to it.

From top to bottom, you’ve of course got the POD recess, where you’ll find 2 connection points for the POD as well as 2 large magnets that help hold the POD on. These magnets hold the POD in nicely, but you won’t want to throw this around to much or flick it, because that POD is going to come flying off!

The large fire button is nice, and offers up a bit of a click when firing. It’s a soft fire, and a little too soft for my liking. Don’t forget to turn this off when putting in your pocket, that button is very easily triggered, and you’ll have it firing away.

Below the fire button you’ll find a 0.91 OLED screen, it’s black and white, not like the original PM80 colour screen which is a little disappointing, but you can do what you need to with it. It displays all of the information you need in a neat and tidy layout.

Your two up and down buttons are next, one above the other, they are a nice size and slightly more difficult to activate than the fire button, which is what I would expect.

Off to the side is your Micro USB port for charging (hopefully you wont be using this too much since you should be charging your 18650 batteries in an external charger, but it’s nice to have in emergencies, the PM80se also allows pass-through charging, so you can vape while this is on charge.

On the bottom you’ll find some venting holes as well as your flip cap for the battery bay. The battery bay is subtle and well thought out with a really easy slide and flip design. It just works. No complaints here.

The POD

Vaporesso were kind enough to put 2 PODs in the kit which is always a bonus. These pods will carry up to 4ml of e-liquid, a nice amount without going overboard. They’re crystal clear with a black top, and built in drip tip. I would have liked to see a 510 drip tip here, but I’m noticing that the integrated tip is something that is becoming more popular with POD mods, so it’s a bit of a trend thing. It would have still been nice to have the option of changing it up if I wanted to.

Speaking of trends, the PODs for the PM80se very much adhere to what others are doing in the POD space at the moment, push in coil, silicone plug for filling, with large magnets to hold the POD in place. Nothing really out of the ordinary or different here.

Coils

As you can see, Vaporesso supply 2 types of coils with the Target PM80SE kit.

• 0.2 Ohm GTX Mesh Coil (45–60W)
  This coil was lovely, and produced a flavoursome and really dense vape experience, I found that I could wind it right down to about 40 Watts before it affected performance, and right up to about 65 before noticing a slight burning note. For the record, the PM80SE liked to automatically set this coil to run at 70 Watts.
  
• 0.6 Ohm GTX Mesh Coil (20-30W)
  The 0.6ohm seemed like it might be a MTL coil, but it isn’t exactly, you’ll notice a little less flavour, but be able to run at a much lower wattage than the 0.2ohm. This one is for those who don’t hit their vape too hard, and would prefer to have a bit better battery life, at the expense of flavour.
  
  

Airflow

The airflow is nice and smooth, coming in from the side of the mod, under the POD and up through the coil. There’s no real adjustment provided by Vaporesso, except for a few silicone plugs in the box that you can cut and plug into the outside airflow holes on the side of the Mod body. It would have been nicer to see some type of built in adjustment, but I suppose once you dial in your airflow, you won’t be changing it out much, so the silicone plugs do work ok. I’m a little disappointed by this, it’s not really a solution.

Battery

The battery bay provided for inserting your 18650 battery works well. In fact it simply works. It’s a slide and flip type of door where you then slide your battery into the device and then close. There’s nothing really special about it, but it is well integrated with the design of the device.

I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to charge the external battery from within the device, I don’t like to use USB charging, but from my quick test, it pops up a charge screen with battery percentage and how long is left for it to get to 100%. A nice touch and something that should be on every device these days.

I noticed that you can also vape on the PM80se while charging too, so pass-through works, which is great for those who only have the one device, or if you’ve run out of spare batteries.

Filling

Filling the PM80se POD is super simple, you remove the POD, peel back the silicone plug, fill and close it back up again. A no-brainer really.

Any Leaks?

Yes, unfortunately. I’ve had quite a lot of leaking. Often I’ll notice a bit of e-liquid on my hand, and remove the POD to find a bunch of e-liquid under it. I’m not certain where it’s coming from, perhaps seepage from the coil, or another theory I have, is that it’s the fill plug. The silicone bung that you fill from, has a piece that holds it to the POD that seems to go all the way into the POD to anchor the silicone plug. I’ve noticed a little juice flex out from this silicone.

Either way, wherever this leak is coming from, it’s not only disappointing but very annoying. We should not be having leaking issues with vaping devices in this day and age.

I’ve experienced this leaking with both PODs, and both coils provided.

Usage

While not the most advanced in displays on the market, the PM80SE The Target PM80SE has a few different vaping options built in, they might not be easy to find, but they are there.

Some general usage instructions can be found below:

• Fire Button 5 Clicks – Device On/Off
• Fire Button 3 Clicks – Locks Device
• Click Up/Down Button – Adjusts power in 0.5w increments up to 80w
• Press Hold Up/Down – Enter Menu Options
• Fire and Up – Flips Screen
• Fire and Down – Displays Serial # and Axon information

From the Options menu, you can choose between ‘Smart VW’, ‘VW Mode’, ‘VV Mode’ and Default.

Pros:

• Great flavour
• External battery
• Feels great in the hand
• Solid quality build

Cons:

• Pods leak (annoying)
• Issues with battery drain
• Minimal options
• Resistance reading jumps around
  

Where to Buy:

You can purchase the Vaporesso Target PM80se kit right now directly through the Sourcemore online store or through any of the many stores that stock their products. It’s priced at approximately $27.99 USD right now which is a great price compared to similar devices.

Conclusion

I really really wanted to love this device. I’ll admit, it hit the mark on pretty much everything except for the janky readings and display and the leaking PODs. Super smooth, flavoursome vape, with a nice airflow, really nice design, and form factor, and lovely size and quality feel.

But the two things that it should do, and should do well, are just complete deal killers. As far as the leaking is concerned, a little seepage I can understand, this is a device that holds liquid after all, where liquid is it will find a way, but random leaking for no real reason, almost like it’s positive tank pressure drops on the occasion flooding the underside of the coil, is just too much to ignore. I’ve heard others mention this also, so I know this one isn’t just an isolated issue.

Regarding the janky display, on both supplied coils, resistance moved around from 0.17 to 0.49 to 0.27 and back again. I could move the POD slightly in it’s recess and the resistance would randomly pick one of those and set the wattage accordingly. This is just not on. Taking the device out of my pocket, turning it on, only to have it read the resistance wrong, which I’d try and fix by jiggling the POD around until it read the correct resistance? Not something that I’d put up with as a consumer, and I’d quickly be looking to a different product likely from a different manufacturer to replace it with.

I know that others likely will have had a different experience with the Target PM80SE, unfortunately mine turned out to be a bit of a dud, so I cannot recommend it. Such a shame because every other Vaporesso product that I’ve come across has been top notch!

Thumbs down!

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.