SMOK Novo Bar Review: Tight and Tasty

Product intro and specs

The SMOK Novo Bar is the latest device from SMOK, a simplified disposable version of one of its most popular vapes called the SMOK Novo.

The Novo Bar is a low-capacity disposable vape with 15 flavorful options to choose from, designed for the MTL vaper. The Novo Bars are TPD compliant and contain 2 mL of nic salt e-juice at 2% nicotine concentration. Due to their low capacity, the puff rating is only at 600 per Novo Bar, as is their mAh rating.

Price: TBA

Flavors: blueberry, grape, icy cola, lychee ice, mixed fruit, orange soda, peach ice, pink lemonade, banana ice, energy ice, mango ice, strawberry ice, watermelon ice, cotton candy ice, kiwi passion fruit guava.

Size, look, and feel

The Novo is a small disposable by today’s standards, but not necessarily in size as much as in overall capacity. At only 600 mAh and 2 mL, the device is geared toward the TPD standards, thus the size is smaller.

The design of the Novo Bar is based on SMOK’s popular Novo pod vape and has a similar snakeskin design embossed on the outside of the body, but the Novo Bar is plastic.

The colorways are done well in the Novo Bars, too. They’re bright and saturated, suggestive of the flavors. In my opinion, they look like that of Starburst candy. That said, I’d prefer less bright colors despite how good I think these look.

The mouthpiece is just like the Novo pod vape, a short and stout duckbill with a backstop. Different from the Bar over the Novo Pod vape, the mouthpiece has a transparent outer layer of plastic, like the Flum Float and Dragbar, but it’s only like that on the tip of the Novo Bar.

What I really like is how light the devices are. They only weigh about 28 grams, and with the mouthpiece being broad and flat, you can easily hold the vape in your mouth…like I’m doing as I type.

Getting started

Take the device out of the package and start vaping. As an aside, there is a lot of packaging. The box it comes in, a plastic wrapper, a user-guide book, and silicon covers over the bottom and tip of the device. For the capacity of these, that’s going to be a lot of waste for a 2 mL device.

As for the actual device, there’s no charge port or adjustable airflow, just a small inconspicuous vape light on the bottom of the device that turns on as you take a hit.

How does it hit?

A tight MTL that’s warm, silent, and consistent. It’s so tight, at times it almost feels like there’s something plugging up the airflow—which can happen with your hand accidentally covering up the bottom airflow hole (something to be aware of). But even without accidentally covering up the airflow, the draw is still tight. I love it! Very much like that of a cigarette.

Although the SMOK Novos I have are only 2% nicotine, and I generally vape higher than that with salt or even freebase, the SMOK Novo hits so well that I could easily be satisfied with these. This should be great news to those under TPD constraints, or to those in the states that want a satisfying vape without the high nicotine content that other disposables have.

Are the flavors any good?

I received all 15 flavors. I’m not exaggerating here: there’s none that turns me off. Granted, there are probably 11 or so that I really like compared to four that I’ll vape if they’re near, but that’s still a strong showing for SMOK. It’s rare that I enjoy flavors in disposables as much as I enjoy the SMOK Novo Bar flavors.

Most of the flavors are bright, clean, accurate, and tasty. Even the ones that lag a bit in flavor production are still good enough to not discard prematurely.

Blueberry: Sweet and tart. Equal ripe and natural with candy blueberry taste. Mild to moderate cooling.

Grape: Classic vape flavor. Nothing complex here. Light candy-flavored grape taste.

Icy cola: Simple cola flavor with a medium level of cooling and a fair amount of sweetness. There’s no artificial sweetener taste like I’ve had in some soda juices. It’s good, but a bit of a one-trick pony.

Lychee ice: Sweet, floral, and fruit with only a moderate amount of ice. Incredibly good. Unique. One of my favorites.

Mixed fruit: Almost like lychee ice, but without the floral note. It’s a sweet mélange of fruit flavors that has several fruit notes working harmoniously. A favorite. It tastes just like the mixed fruit in RELX prefilled vapes.

Orange soda: Easy to identify but a bit simple in flavor. Moderate cooling.

Peach ice: Accurate but light peach taste with a modest amount of cooling. Decent but a bit underwhelming.

Pink lemonade: The familiar taste of pink lemonade with more cooling than some Novo Bars that say “ice.”

Banana ice: Natural and candy tasting with a hefty cooling. It’s like a Now and Later banana with a bit of a baked banana aroma. Medium cooling. Very good if you like that profile.

Energy ice: Like Red Bull with cooling, but I think it tastes better than a Red Bull.

Mango ice: Natural tasting mango with a light puree taste. Heavy cooling. A bit light tasting for mango, but still good.

Strawberry ice: One of the best strawberry flavors I’ve had in a while. Sweet with no odd strawberry funk. It leans more toward an icy strawberry cream than plain strawberry. One of my favorites.

How long do they last?

Being only 2 mL, the Novo Bars can be easily depleted in a day. Once the battery light on the bottom of the device starts flashing, the battery should be officially dead.

But, like in some other disposables, sometimes when you think the battery is dead, you can still get a few more hits if you pull lightly. I'm not sure why that is the case, but unless the flavor is done and tasting dry, you might still have a few puffs if you take gentle hits, even if the battery light starts flashing.

In general,  there's not a lot of run time with these. And the stated 600 puffs is a bit of a stretch, unless you take super tiny puffs. I take long drags.

Pros / Cons

Gallery

Verdict