Innokin Kroma-R Zlide Kit Review: A Classy and Reliable MTL Kit

Product intro and specs

The Kroma-R Zlide kit bundles Innokin’s latest single-18650 mod with quite possibly the best stock coil MTL tank out there, the 22 mm edition of the Zlide. That’s the third installment in the Kroma line of mods, with the original Kroma rolled out in 2016 and the Kroma-A in 2017. But that’s the first time we see a Kroma mod taking a replaceable 18650, as both previous mods were making use of an internal battery.

While the Kroma-R is technically not a part of the Platform line of products that Phil Busardo and Dimitris Agrafiotis are designing for Innokin, I am pretty sure that the duo is endorsing it as an ideal pairing for their Zlide tank. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Kroma-R Zlide kit.

Note: If you decide to buy the kit using our affiliate link, you should make sure that you click at "colors" and pick the edition with the Zlide tank (the Kroma-R is also offered as a kit with the Ajax sub ohm tank).

Price: $59.95

Colors: Black, steel, gunmetal, bronze

The mod: Kroma-R

The third installment of the Kroma line is another no-BS mod by Innokin. The first thing that stands out when you take it out of the box is its excellent build quality. I received the black, steel, and bronze editions. The black unit is mostly matte (the stainless steel and bronze editions are brushed instead) and all of them have a metallic accent at the top and bottom and a rubberized grippy texture at the back. Plus, some awesome looking metallic accents around the up and down buttons. Overall, the aesthetics of the Kroma-R make it feel like a grown-up mod if that makes sense.

At 81 mm x 40 mm x 26 mm, the Kroma-R is maybe a bit bigger than some compact single battery mods, and it’s also a bit hefty at 187 grams with a battery on. The 26 mm width and the slightly beveled edges also limit the mod to 25 mm atomizers without overhang. The large color screen is very bright and also functions as a clicky fire bar, and there’s absolutely no button rattle on the mod. There is an ergonomic angle at the top of the back side, making it a perfect spot for resting your thumb when pressing the firing bar. Finally, the battery latch clicks in place and can be opened using your finger or your fingernail. As far as battery latches go, this one seems to be pretty well made.

As far as negatives go, I only have few things to mention. Firstly, the brushed look of the steel edition means that some stainless-steel atomizers may not be a one-to-one match—in fact, the included Zlide tank is not a perfect match either, but that’s barely noticeable. The same can be said for the gunmetal tank on the bronze Kroma-R, but the black screen and texture on the back make it a great pair for any black tank you throw on it. Finally, no USB Type-C and no 21700 compatibility. I don’t even consider the latter a big con, as most people are fine with using only 18650s. But I compared the Kroma-R to the Armour Pro and the Vaporesso mod is only 4 mm taller while being smaller in the rest of the dimensions. I personally wouldn’t mind the extra 4 mm in height for 21700 compatibility, but that’s subjective.

Using the Kroma-R

The Kroma-R is rated for 80 watts, or 7.5 volts in voltage mode. Wattage is adjusted in 0.5-watt increments up to 20 watts and 1-watt increments after that. It scrolls pretty fast, and round robins when it reaches the 80-watt max. It also fires surprisingly fast. Innokin claims a 0.003-second response time, and while there’s no way to test that, I can ensure you it fires on par with the fastest firing mods out there. Here’s a rundown of basic operations:

In there you get all your usual modes outside of temperature control. You can set soft, normal, and hard presets in wattage and voltage mode, three wattage curve modes, bypass mode, as well as submenus to set cutoff and screen timeout times.

I am not sure why they left TC out, especially considering the fact that Phil Busardo is an avid temperature control vaper. On the other hand, Innokin’s latest product (the Proton Mini) was not exactly killing it in TC, so it may be a good thing after all. But if you enjoy vaping in TC mode, you will need to look elsewhere.

Finally, Innokin lists the charge rate at 2 amps and they generally rate their devices accurately. But as always, it is advisable to use an external battery charger instead of on-board charging.

The tank: Zlide MTL

I’ve discussed the Zlide tank twice already, with my full review here and some further info here. There’s not much more to say about the tank, other than it is still my daily driver for MTL vaping, that I am rarely using rebuildable tanks since it went in my rotation, and that it is pinned at the top of our best MTL tank list since I first reviewed it. And yes, I’ve tried the Zenith Pro, but the Zlide is still my favorite MTL tank out there. So, I will use this space to discuss coils one more time.

I’ve been using the Zlide non-stop since last June, and the Z-coils on and off since I reviewed the Zenith over two years ago. I’ve given every one of them a go, and while I almost switched at some point, I have been loyal to the 0.8-ohm coil at 16 watts with two holes open for a long time now. I really like the flavor and warmth, and it is by far the longest lasting of the bunch. This coil is a workhorse! I proactively replace coils once a week or so, and there have been times when I kept it on for two or even three weeks. I actually tested one of the coils I received for this review and managed to go through almost a full 60 mL bottle. You can imagine how happy I was to see that Innokin included two 5-packs of the 0.8-ohm coil in my package. From the rest of the lineup, the only other coil I would use nowadays is the 1.6-ohm one—and that’s for the rare occasion when I am vaping on 20 mg nic salts.

There have been two Z-coils that I haven’t managed to try properly in the past, because I have gotten two bums of each: the 1.0-ohm restricted DL coil of the Zenith Pro, and the 1.2-ohm coil. Luckily, I got three 1.2-ohm coils now (one in each package) so I could give it another go.

The three coils lasted for approximately 2 mL, 4 mL, and a bit over 8 mL—but I never fired the last one over 11 watts. At this point, I am almost certain that there’s some kind of a design flaw on these coils, which is a shame because as long as they work, they are some of the most flavorful MTL coils I have ever tried. I tried opening one to see what’s inside, but I couldn’t find a way to do it. My hypothesis is that they are using very thin Kanthal wire and a small number of wraps, which causes it to heat up very quickly and burn the wick even if it’s only very slightly dry. Or it may be the wood pulp material used, as I had significantly less coil life from the four coils that have this organic cotton/wood pulp wick (0.48, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.2 ohms). But I am shooting in the dark here, and it may be another thing altogether.

Paying a visit at the Platform’s Facebook page, I saw a post by Dimitris Agrafiotis announcing that the team is going to make small adjustments to the design of the 1.2-ohm coils, as there has been a large number of people that are facing similar issues. I really hope they fix them, as there’s a lot of potential there. But until they do, I’ll stick to my faithful 0.8-ohm coil with a sprinkle of 1.6 here and there.

Pros / Cons

Gallery

Verdict