Product intro and specs
The Innokin Klypse Mecha is the latest addition to the Klypse lineup of beginner-friendly refillable pod vapes. But while the previous Klypse pods were pretty standard as far as design goes, the Mecha is, well…different.
The Mecha adopts a clockwork/automaton design with steampunk vibes, making it one of the most uniquely designed vapes I’ve ever held in my hands. It comes in two colors which can be described as dark metal and light metal. It features a rotary button that fits the theme perfectly, as well as an OLED screen that kinda doesn’t—at least until you find out that it can show the time.
The device takes the Klypse 2 mL pods, houses a 900 mAh battery, and offers airflow and wattage adjustment. With all these features, the Mecha seems like a departure from the simplicity of the previous Klypse pods. Keep reading to find out if that’s a good thing.
Price: $49.99 (at Element Vape)
Colors: Moonshadow ink, stardust silver
- Battery capacity: 900 mAh
- Wattage range: 6-18 watts
- Minimum / maximum voltage: 1-4.5 volts
- Cut off time: 3-10 seconds
- Maximum output current: 5.5A
- Resistance range: 0.6-3.5 ohm
- Charging current: 800 mA
- 1 x Klypse pod (2 mL/0.6 ohm)
- 1 x Klypse pod (2 mL/1.2 ohm)
- 1 x USB-C charging cable
- 1 x Quick guide
- 1 x Warning booklet
Build quality and design
The build quality of the Klypse Mecha is category leading, and I don’t say that lightly. The device has the perfect weight to it, the construction is partly metallic, and the hand feel is excellent. The button is a joy to use, and the airflow adjustment notch has the perfect resistance. The only con here is that the Mecha seems susceptible to scratches, and due to its shape and weight, I’m not sure how it would do with drops.
As far as the design goes, I’ll say this: the Mecha is not for everyone, but for some (me included,) it’s one of the best-looking vapes out there. I am not a fan of busy designs, and my first thought was “that’s a lot”. But that thought quickly went away, and I started thinking of the Mecha as a jewel. The craftsmanship on the front is striking, and what I really like is that the back side is much simpler—although it does give an awesome illusion of a curvy design. I’m sure it’s a love-it-or-hate-it design, but I obviously love it.
The only concern I have with the design has to do with the button. I really like the way it works, and it feels well made, but it is a potential point of failure for the device because it protrudes a bit too much. I guess time will tell, but if you are wearing a tight pair of jeans, I’d suggest a bit of extra caution when pocketing it.
Getting started
The original Klypse was one of the most beginner-friendly refillable vapes I had tried. The Mecha, on the other hand, comes with an array of features. But the truth is, you don’t need to use any of them outside of the airflow adjustment. Once you insert the pod, the chipset recognizes the resistance and sets the wattage automatically. Then, you just need to set the airflow and inhale to vape. If you like the vape you are getting, you don’t even have to enter the menu.
But if you want to change things up, operation is fairly straightforward:
- Push the button three times to turn the device on/off.
- Keep the button pressed to activate wattage adjustment.
- Rotate the button to set the wattage and keep the button pressed to register it.
- Push the button two times to enter the menu.
In the menu, you will find three submenus: coils, settings, and cutoff. Note that you’ll need to use prolonged presses of the button to enter menus and change settings, which can get a bit cumbersome after a while.
In the coil menu you can choose between wattage and voltage. I don’t see a reason to use voltage, but there is something thematic to it. In any case, I’d advise you to just use wattage.
The settings menu has three options: time, screen, and query. In there, you can set the time, set the screen timeout, and see info like resistance, voltage, and the puff counter. I wish the puff counter was visible on the main screen, because navigating these menus to check the puffs is not very practical. And unfortunately, the clock doesn’t seem to be working properly on the units I received. It will randomly reset the time on its own occasionally, and when it doesn’t, it’s slow.
Finally, in the cutoff submenu, you can set the puff cutoff. As I’ll discuss in the following section, I’d advise setting this to 4-5 seconds.
All in all, the operation of the Mecha is not that complicated, but the prolonged presses of the button, along with the fact that the device tends to go quickly to the main screen when setting the time, take away some of the user experience. But once everything is set, you won’t have to spend much time inside the menus anyway.
Performance
The Klypse Mecha comes with two pods in the box: a 0.6-ohm pod and a 1.2-ohm pod. There is a third pod in the lineup (0.8 ohm,) which I tested in my original Klypse review and can be purchased separately. It’s a solid pod, but I think that the two new pods will probably cover all your needs. There are also prefilled pods for it, but I haven’t tried any, so I can’t speak for them.
I tested the 1.2-ohm pod with 20 mg hybrid nicotine juice (50/50 salt/freebase). The chip sets the wattage automatically at 10 watts and limits it to 11 watts for this pod, and that’s where I liked using it at. It didn’t shine with this juice (I think it’s a better fit for higher-strength salt), but the flavor was great. I had the airflow almost fully closed to help with the throat hit by adding a bit of warmth, but I did feel like it needed an extra watt or two for this juice. In any case, if you are using something like 35 mg nicotine salt, this coil will be great. As for coil life, expect to go through 15-20 mL before having to swap pods.
For the 0.6-ohm pod, I used 9 mg regular nicotine and 20 mg nicotine salt. The max wattage for this coil was 18 watts, but I preferred using it at 16 watts with the airflow a quarter open. That’s the most flavorful coil of the lineup, and it can even do a bit of RDL if you slipstream it with the airflow fully open. But it shines as an MTL coil with mid-strength juice. I changed the pod after eight refills (16 mL,) but it could still take a refill or two.
However, I did have an issue when testing this device. The screen would occasionally light up on its own, which is usually indicative of auto-firing. I didn’t notice any auto-fires, but I did a quick check online and did find one review that mentioned it. In that case, it happened right after the device failed to register a hit, which never happened while I was testing the device.
I wouldn’t put much weight to it, but I had received comments about auto-firing on the original Klypse review. This puts me in the uncomfortable position of suggesting setting the puff cut-off to four or five seconds just to be safe.
Battery life and charging
Battery life seems to be one of the weak points of the Klypse Mecha. It’s not bad per se (around 2.5 mL of juice on a charge,) but it’s comparable to the battery life of the original Klypse, which was a much more compact 700 mAh device. The Mecha is rated at 900 mAh, and with that footprint, I’d expect at least 100-200 extra mAh.
Then there’s charging. I used one of the two units I received down to 0% battery and left it unused for a couple of days, to the point that it wouldn’t turn on (it would give a “low volt” error). I’m guessing that the screen turning on randomly was slowly draining the battery even further.
I then plugged it in, and it would stay at 0% for more than half an hour. I was convinced I had a faulty unit, so I did the same with the other device I was testing, and again, it would stay at 0%. I left it plugged in and went on with my day, and around 45 minutes later, I saw that it was at 48%. In the end, both devices charged, but I am not sure what to make of it. Note that they didn’t act like that when they weren’t fully drained.
In any case, Innokin rates the charge at 0.8A, so I’d expect it to need close to an hour and a half to fully charge. Anything over an hour is too long in my opinion, but it does support passthrough, so you can use it while it’s plugged in.
Pros / Cons
Gallery
Verdict
I’m a bit torn with the Innokin Klypse Mecha. On the one hand, it’s a great-looking device with excellent build quality and high-performing coils. A stunning vape that performs as well as it looks? A couple of years ago, that would have been enough to place it at the top of the best pods list.
But on the other hand, I faced a variety of issues when testing it. The screen would randomly light up on its own, the clock wouldn’t keep the time, and charging would need a long time to start when fully drained. Plus, I was not impressed with battery life and charging time.
None of these issues are deal breakers, especially since I did not experience any auto-firing—even though the screen lighting up was a bit suspect. So, if you value uniqueness and overall build quality over the issues mentioned above, the Klypse Mecha may do the trick for you. But for everyone else, there are more hassle-free options out there that perform comparably.
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