Rincoe Manto S and X 228W Review: With Metis Mix Mesh Tank

Although the Manto X and Manto S use the same chipset, and both take two batteries, the build quality and design are different.

Out of the box, the big deal about the Manto S is how light it is! Standing at 80 mm x 43 mm x 41.5 mm, it’s a pretty small dual-batt mod. Without batteries, it only weighs 64 grams, just about one gram more than the tank. The Manto is made of a lightweight polycarbonate plastic with a rubberized finish. It’s a pleasure to hold and, in case it drops, the material is claimed to have anti-shock capabilities. I’ve dropped mine from waist-high to a hardwood floor – the battery door popped off but nothing happened to the mod itself.

The Manto S has a spring-loaded 510 pin that’s gold-plated, and an atomizer platform of about 26 mm. The magnetized battery door is the whole backside of the mod, and it comes off easily and stays on snug. All the batteries I’ve tried fit in the mod tight but not so tight that there’s any damage from scraping, and there’s a handy ribbon in the tray to make battery swapping easy.

The buttons and screen are nicely done on this mod. The fire button is a hexagon-shaped glossy plastic that has zero rattle. It’s well placed and has a nice click to it. The adjustments are made with one button, shaped like a downward facing arrow, and it’s all easy to see your adjustments thanks to a bright OLED screen that shows up even in well-lit environments.

There are two immediate things you’ll notice when you see the Rincoe X. First, it’s super small for a dual-battery mod. I don’t have big mitts but I can practically conceal it in my hand – like it’s a stealth mod. Rincoe is saying it’s the smallest dual-battery mod available at 77 mm x 40 mm x 35 mm, but the Eleaf Invoke is just 72 mm x 45 mm x 27 mm. Still, that’s pretty amazing for a dual batt!

The second thing you’ll notice when you see it (in fact it may be the first thing you notice) is that it looks almost identical to Wismec products. Not specifically one mod from Wismec, but in general it looks like an RX something! I don’t know how much that matters to anyone reading this, but either way, it’s a reality with vaping and Chinese manufacturing. It’s not the first lifted design and it won’t be the last!

The Manto X, like the Manto S, has a spring-loaded 510 pin that’s gold-plated. Due to the atomizer platform placement, 30 mm atomizers will sit with no overhang. Unlike the Manto S, the X has a hinged bottom battery door with a solid latch. Removing and inserting batteries feels good and secure. I’ve slammed the mod down repeatedly trying to get it to “accidentally” open but it stayed locked in place!

A few things that I don’t like about the X are that the glossy black parts are fingerprint magnets, the screen is rather dim (in comparison to the Manto S and especially the original), and then the buttons. The fire button on mine has a lot of rattle, and the adjustment buttons are backwards. Someone goofed! Where you’re used to seeing the up button (on the right side), it’s the down adjustment. As much as this may be a minor thing to someone else, it irks me, and I frequently find myself adjusting it down instead of up and vice versa. At least they’re arrow-shaped buttons, which should help to make it clearer, but generally my fingers are too busy to distinguish between the two.

The Manto S and X claims to go up to 228 watts, with a full temperature suite, including TCR and Bypass mode, but the mods aren’t firmware upgradeable form what I can tell. They do have a 2-amp on-board USB charging that’s centrally located under the plus/minus bar – though I still recommend charging your batteries in a designated external battery charger.

Screen info

• Wattage
• Voltage
• Ohms
• Mode
• Dual-battery life indicator
• Hit duration

Operations

• Five clicks on and off
• Three clicks to enter menu
• Navigate with +/- button
• Select with fire button
• Press minus button and fire button for wattage adjustment in TC
• Lock resistance with +/- button press
• Switch to Fahrenheit by scrolling through Celsius
• Full wattage adjustment in TC mode

Menu Options

• TC mode: Ni200, Ti, SS, TCR,
• Bypass
• Wattage (power mode)

These Rincoe mods (just like all their others) are designed for simplicity while still having advanced features. One quick read of the instruction manual will have you up and running in a jiffy – but it’s barely needed since the mods are so easy to navigate. What I like most about the feature-set is the ability to use atomizers down to 0.05 ohms! The one thing I wish it had was temperature and wattage custom curve. But I can live without those as well as the lack of a puff counter.

I was and still am a huge fan of the original Rincoe Manto. Although these mods are more simplified than the original Manto, they perform well. Using the same atomizers for TC and wattage mode, and vaping them back to back, I got what seems to be identical performance to the original. Rincoe isn’t advertising these mods as having a 0.002-second instant fire, but there doesn’t seem to be any firing speed lag in my experience between them. That said, like with the original, I found that instant-fire speed was more specific to the original Metis. As expected, when I put other atomizers on any of these mods with lower resistances or coils with more mass, they’re not firing as fast — it really just depends on the coil.

The Metis Mix Mesh (say that three times!) is basically a super-sized version of the original Metis tank in the first Manto kit. But this tank is built to be more of a super tank… though, I can’t comment on how super it is due to the only coil included being rated for just up to 70 watts. Rincoe is supposed to be releasing multi-mesh coils, with one that’s supposed to handle close to 200 watts. But those weren’t included.

The Metis Mix is a 25 mm x 50 mm mesh tank that holds up to 6 mL of e-juice. It’s got a threaded top fill and long slots for filling. They’re not as wide as I would like, but I’ve had no mishaps with refilling. The tank comes with one 810 drip tip with dual O-rings, so you’ll be better off sticking with the tip that comes with it or using another 810 with O-rings.

The adjustable airflow ring stays in place where it’s set, and it stops when closed. The airflow ring is also removable, and it’s held on by two silicon O-rings. Being able to remove the airflow ring makes it possible to disassemble more of the tank for cleaning. One thing about the design of this tank I am not that thrilled with it that refilling it (via the threaded top cap) and replacing the coil can sometimes result in the wrong parts being unthreaded. This isn’t the only tank with that issue, but it would’ve been nice to see a design that makes refilling and replacing the coil more intuitive.

The last issue I have with the tank is what is included… or should I say, what’s not included. There is no spare glass tank! To me, that doesn’t make any sense (unless this was strictly the reviewer’s sample). I wish it had another coil (or even all of them), but I can forgive them for that. But no spare glass? That’s no good! Finding replacement glass for tanks is not exactly the easiest thing to do… and I don’t see too many shops that carry replacement glasses for products like back in the day. It’s just too many products on the market for these shops to carry parts for everything they sell. Rincoe really needs to include a spare tank.

The coil included in the kit is only rated for 70 watts, and I think that the others would’ve been more to my liking. The coils available for this tank are all Kanthal-mesh based:

• Single Mesh Coil; 0.15-ohms, 40 to 70 watts
• Dual Mesh Coil; 0.2-ohms; 60 to 90 watts
• Triple Mesh Coil; 0.15-ohms; 80 to 110 watts
• Q4 Mesh Coil; 0.15-ohms; 130-180 watts

Since I only got the Single Mesh, I can only speak on it. First off, i’s a large coil head! And it acts as its own chimney, but it doesn’t taper down to condense the vapor. It’s just a straight cylinder. So far, I am getting lackluster flavor. It’s to the point that I can’t even identify the juice I have in the tank. That said, I really have a hard time believing the other coils will be as weak in the flavor department. I’d love to try that Q4! As it is, the Single Mesh coil does put out a lot of vapor, and it wicks quickly. I put juice in my tank and proceeded to wait for about five minutes, but within a couple minutes I could clearly see the inside of the cotton was already saturated.

While the flavor has been pretty much a ghost, the vapor has been great and the coil vapes well in general. The airflow is really open with only a smidgen of resistance, and it can be a bit noisy… but not anything out of the ordinary. It’s about what you’d expect for a cloud machine like this tank. There’s been no off flavors, no spitting, and I’ve tried to make it leak, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’ve left it filled with juice and with the airflow open for over 24 hours, and it’s totally dry. But I wouldn’t recommend relying on that because most tanks with bottom airflow will eventually leak if left sitting with the airflow open.

Even with the few issues I have with the Manto X, I think it’s a really nice mod. Ditto for the Manto S. If I had to pick between the two, I’d keep the Manto X at home and travel with the S. If I could only have one, surprisingly I’d pick the Manto X due to the size. Although it looks just like a Wismec mod, and I have issues with the buttons, those are a minor annoyance compared to the upside of having such a small dual-batt mod with solid performance. To me, that’s a big deal! If you’re more interested in a light weight dual-batt mod, then the Manto S is for you.

Aside from the mods though, I was not a fan of the Metis Mix tank. No spare glass, and only one coil – that, for me, gave little to no flavor! I do believe if I could’ve tried more of the coils, I’d likely have a different opinion. But that’s just a guess! If I do get to try them, I will update this review and let you all know what I think. Until then, I have to say that I’d recommend the mods as a standalone purchase. And although the Manto X was my favorite product of the bunch, I feel more confident in recommending the Manto S above all.