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OXVA UniBox kit review by Antony Lord
OXVA asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at some of their newer products and as I had good experiences with their kits in the past I was more than happy to see what they’ve been up to recently. This was a bit of a surprise item as they didn’t actually tell me what was being sent out so I was quite pleased when their latest iP68 rated UniBox kit landed on my doorstep.
Specifications:
This came in the “blue/gold” colour (read rainbow!) which wouldn’t have been my first choice if I was buying this for myself but it is available in several more sober colour combinations as well so you should be able to find something to suit your tastes. Having said that it wouldn’t have been my personal choice it does show off the finish quite well starting at a light metallic blue at the base and gradually blending into a burnt gold colour at the top, this has actually grown on me over the last couple of weeks testing and it does stand out from the crowd, the included rainbow UniOne tank still looks like someone took a vomit in a skittles factory though.
The UniBox mod is actually quite a good looking mod with subtle curves reminiscent of modern car design breaking up the sides, these aren’t completely aesthetic elements though as I found they helped position your hand when using it in trigger fire mode along with the cutout around the back with its padded “leather” grip. It’s very refreshing to see an iP68 rated mod that isn’t dressed up like a gimp in a rubber outer shell as well.
The buttons on the front control panel are slightly textured and all have a nice firm feel with zero button rattle. The 0.96” colour screen sits between the power and up/down buttons, this is bright enough to use outdoors and all the information is well laid out and easy to read.
Up top you have a stiffly sprung 510 connector which is raised just a hair above the top plate, this means that the top is protected from atty rash but you will have a small amount of visible gapping under your atomizer. There’s ample room up here as well and this will accommodate a whopping 28mm atomizer with ease which is surprising for a relatively small mod.
The UniBox utilises a screw type battery cap on the base and this is quite chunky with a large o-ring to maintain its iP68 rating. Whilst the battery cap itself doesn’t have any polarity markings the bottom of the battery tube is clearly marked with a sprung loaded positive connector. The USB-C charge port is also located at the base under a rubber seal, in my charge test this hit a peak charge rate of 1.87 amps as well for those times you’re away from a dedicated charger.
The UniBox has a brand new board which has all the modes you could ever ask for (Power, TC, voltage, power curves, bypass modes) and is easy to use. Performance in power mode was really consistent and this appears to have a solid boost mode with up to 9 volts output.
One extra “mode” is available and that is a battery tester which rates your battery. It’s not clear what this is measuring (internal battery resistance for example) but I tried this with a range of old and new batteries and it does seem to be fairly good at picking out the duds so this might prove to be a useful tool to have in my armoury. I hope that they bring this forward into future releases, I’d be particularly interested in seeing this on a 21700 mod for example (hint, hint!).
Don’t need all those fancy extra modes? No problem there’s a windows tool for that which allows you to turn off the features you don’t want plus other goodies like firmware updates. This was pretty easy to use, a bit like an eScribe lite for anyone familiar with DNA mods, and in my case as I have turned off the TC and Power curve modes which I never use to give me a much more streamlined user interface.
The pack-in tank supplied with the kit is the UniOne tank and this is a pod style design with press fit coils. This has performed well although the fill port is a little awkwardly positioned and a bit on the small side and the large metal ring at the base means you can’t accurately gauge your e liquid levels without tipping the tank on its side.
Unlike most pod style tanks this actually has a glass top section, this can be removed by unscrewing the retaining nut on top which also pulls double duty as the 510 catch cup. This international version has a rather healthy 4ml capacity and you get a 5ml bubble glass included in the box as well.
The UniPlus coils are an evolution of earlier OXVA coil heads and now sport a modern press fit design. I was more than happy to find that they’ve stuck to Kanthal mesh in both coils as well and that this information was easily found on the UniBox product page.
One thing I criticised with earlier OXVA coils was that the wattage ratings were shall we say a little over optimistic, often performing best a full ten watts below the stated ratings. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have learnt their lesson here and once again I’d take the wattage ratings printed on the coils with a bucket load of salt! The 0.3 ohm coil is rated for 35 to 45 watts but performed best at 28 to 35 watts, and by 45 watts the wicking was most definitely not keeping up. The 0.15 ohm coil is rated for an frankly unbelievable 70 to 80 watts, which is not a particularly good match for a single 18650 mod in the first place, and I found that it started performing quite well at a much more realistic 50 watts and managed to keep up all the way to about 70 watts before it started to struggle, for me it performed best in the 55 to 65 watt range.
Despite the large airflow slots on the UniOne tank the UniPlus coils are actually quite restricted. This is most apparent on the 0.3 ohm coil which has fairly small air inlets at the base and it’s this that actually determines most of your airflow with the airflow ring itself having no effect until you’ve closed it past at least halfway point. The 0.15 ohm coil is much more open and here you can use the full capability of the airflow ring, it washes out the flavour fully open though at the wattages I suggested above so you’ll still want it closed down by at least a quarter. Flavour on both coils was outstanding as I’ve come to expect from OXVA and the 0.3 ohm coil lasted a full 10 days before it was done but the 0.3 ohm coil is obviously the better match for the mod with its lower power requirements.
Pros:
Cons:
Conclusion:
As you may be able to tell from my Pro and Cons list above I’m rather taken with the OXVA UniBox mod as most of the cons lie with the design of the UniOne tank with its awkwardly placed fill port. The UniPlus coils themselves have been outstanding for a sub ohm mesh coil but once again I’d ignore the wattage ratings listed on the coils and this is something OXVA needs to address in future. I also like the neat little battery tester feature and the UniTool application as these both give a bit of added value to the package alongside that iP68 rating.
Many thanks to OXVA for sending the UniBox kit out for review.
OXVA asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at some of their newer products and as I had good experiences with their kits in the past I was more than happy to see what they’ve been up to recently. This was a bit of a surprise item as they didn’t actually tell me what was being sent out so I was quite pleased when their latest iP68 rated UniBox kit landed on my doorstep.
Specifications:
- 89 x 39 x 29mm / 144 grams (Mod)
- IP68 rated
- Single External 18650 / Type-C 2A charging
- Power: 5-80W / 0.5-9.0V
- Resistance Range: 0.08-3Ω
- Kit includes UniOne tank
This came in the “blue/gold” colour (read rainbow!) which wouldn’t have been my first choice if I was buying this for myself but it is available in several more sober colour combinations as well so you should be able to find something to suit your tastes. Having said that it wouldn’t have been my personal choice it does show off the finish quite well starting at a light metallic blue at the base and gradually blending into a burnt gold colour at the top, this has actually grown on me over the last couple of weeks testing and it does stand out from the crowd, the included rainbow UniOne tank still looks like someone took a vomit in a skittles factory though.
The UniBox mod is actually quite a good looking mod with subtle curves reminiscent of modern car design breaking up the sides, these aren’t completely aesthetic elements though as I found they helped position your hand when using it in trigger fire mode along with the cutout around the back with its padded “leather” grip. It’s very refreshing to see an iP68 rated mod that isn’t dressed up like a gimp in a rubber outer shell as well.
The buttons on the front control panel are slightly textured and all have a nice firm feel with zero button rattle. The 0.96” colour screen sits between the power and up/down buttons, this is bright enough to use outdoors and all the information is well laid out and easy to read.
Up top you have a stiffly sprung 510 connector which is raised just a hair above the top plate, this means that the top is protected from atty rash but you will have a small amount of visible gapping under your atomizer. There’s ample room up here as well and this will accommodate a whopping 28mm atomizer with ease which is surprising for a relatively small mod.
The UniBox utilises a screw type battery cap on the base and this is quite chunky with a large o-ring to maintain its iP68 rating. Whilst the battery cap itself doesn’t have any polarity markings the bottom of the battery tube is clearly marked with a sprung loaded positive connector. The USB-C charge port is also located at the base under a rubber seal, in my charge test this hit a peak charge rate of 1.87 amps as well for those times you’re away from a dedicated charger.
The UniBox has a brand new board which has all the modes you could ever ask for (Power, TC, voltage, power curves, bypass modes) and is easy to use. Performance in power mode was really consistent and this appears to have a solid boost mode with up to 9 volts output.
One extra “mode” is available and that is a battery tester which rates your battery. It’s not clear what this is measuring (internal battery resistance for example) but I tried this with a range of old and new batteries and it does seem to be fairly good at picking out the duds so this might prove to be a useful tool to have in my armoury. I hope that they bring this forward into future releases, I’d be particularly interested in seeing this on a 21700 mod for example (hint, hint!).
Don’t need all those fancy extra modes? No problem there’s a windows tool for that which allows you to turn off the features you don’t want plus other goodies like firmware updates. This was pretty easy to use, a bit like an eScribe lite for anyone familiar with DNA mods, and in my case as I have turned off the TC and Power curve modes which I never use to give me a much more streamlined user interface.
The pack-in tank supplied with the kit is the UniOne tank and this is a pod style design with press fit coils. This has performed well although the fill port is a little awkwardly positioned and a bit on the small side and the large metal ring at the base means you can’t accurately gauge your e liquid levels without tipping the tank on its side.
Unlike most pod style tanks this actually has a glass top section, this can be removed by unscrewing the retaining nut on top which also pulls double duty as the 510 catch cup. This international version has a rather healthy 4ml capacity and you get a 5ml bubble glass included in the box as well.
The UniPlus coils are an evolution of earlier OXVA coil heads and now sport a modern press fit design. I was more than happy to find that they’ve stuck to Kanthal mesh in both coils as well and that this information was easily found on the UniBox product page.
One thing I criticised with earlier OXVA coils was that the wattage ratings were shall we say a little over optimistic, often performing best a full ten watts below the stated ratings. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have learnt their lesson here and once again I’d take the wattage ratings printed on the coils with a bucket load of salt! The 0.3 ohm coil is rated for 35 to 45 watts but performed best at 28 to 35 watts, and by 45 watts the wicking was most definitely not keeping up. The 0.15 ohm coil is rated for an frankly unbelievable 70 to 80 watts, which is not a particularly good match for a single 18650 mod in the first place, and I found that it started performing quite well at a much more realistic 50 watts and managed to keep up all the way to about 70 watts before it started to struggle, for me it performed best in the 55 to 65 watt range.
Despite the large airflow slots on the UniOne tank the UniPlus coils are actually quite restricted. This is most apparent on the 0.3 ohm coil which has fairly small air inlets at the base and it’s this that actually determines most of your airflow with the airflow ring itself having no effect until you’ve closed it past at least halfway point. The 0.15 ohm coil is much more open and here you can use the full capability of the airflow ring, it washes out the flavour fully open though at the wattages I suggested above so you’ll still want it closed down by at least a quarter. Flavour on both coils was outstanding as I’ve come to expect from OXVA and the 0.3 ohm coil lasted a full 10 days before it was done but the 0.3 ohm coil is obviously the better match for the mod with its lower power requirements.
Pros:
- Compact, stylish iP68 rated mod
- Board performed well
- UniTool app for customisation (windows only)
- Great performance from the kanthal UniPlus coils
Cons:
- Fill port on the UniOne tank poorly positioned
- Can’t accurately see e liquid levels
- Coil wattage ratings inaccurate as with previous OXVA coils
Conclusion:
As you may be able to tell from my Pro and Cons list above I’m rather taken with the OXVA UniBox mod as most of the cons lie with the design of the UniOne tank with its awkwardly placed fill port. The UniPlus coils themselves have been outstanding for a sub ohm mesh coil but once again I’d ignore the wattage ratings listed on the coils and this is something OXVA needs to address in future. I also like the neat little battery tester feature and the UniTool application as these both give a bit of added value to the package alongside that iP68 rating.
Many thanks to OXVA for sending the UniBox kit out for review.
