EHpro SPD A5 Review

EHpro SPD A5​

Advertized Features
Original Ehpro SPD A5 temperature control 50W VW Mini Box Mod
Output Power: 5 - 50 watts
0.91 inch Mono LED screen
Material: Aluminum alloy and polycarbonate
Transparent P+R button
510 thread
Adjustable spring loaded positive pin
Charging via micro USB port
Temperature control system: 200 °F - 600°F
Powered by 1 x 18650 battery(not included)
Coil Resistance Min: 0.1ohm
Coil Resistance Max: 3.0ohm

+

• Small, lightweight
• Easy, quick removable battery
• Bright, high quality screen
• Spring loaded 510
• Decent buttons with no rattle
• Does step down
• Working Temperature Control
• Accurate in power mode (depending on resistance and battery)
  
• Inexpensive
• Reverse polarity (just as well)

-

• Atomizers over 20mm will overhang at the front
• 5 click safety feature that kicks in around 30 minute mark
• Noticeable delay when firing
• Power decreases as the battery drains

Won this in a giveaway by @GearBest over a month ago and arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Wasn't sure what to expect as I had seen a few reviews, one positive, one negative and one somewhere in between.

Out of the box it felt nice and light with a similar aluminium finish to the iStick 30 but with a thick plastic top and bottom plate with plastic running up the spine as well as the front. It has an excellent, bright screen that looks very similar to the DNA 40 big screen. The buttons are plastic, small and flat but i had no issue using them and although they moved a little they didn't rattle at all, the enclosure is very solid considering what it is made of. I received it in silver (I didn't ask about a colour), to be honest I think it would look much better in black.




Only slightly smaller than the iStick 50 but considerably larger than the iStick 30 with silicone sleeves.

It's quite light, I forgot how much it weighed but it was around the same as an iStick 30 without a battery installed. The battery is installed the opposite way you'd expect and although I knew off the bat which way to insert it I still got it wrong once and tried to fire it. Fortunately it has reverse polarity.
The battery cap is plastic and very quick and easy to remove and replace, I liked it a lot but with it being plastic I'm not sure how well it would hold up to being dropped, I suspect it would come loose, fortunately I never dropped it. Also I'm not sure how well it would hold up to being removed and replaced constantly and after time the clips might wear down but in the short time I used it I had no issue with the battery cap whatsoever and thought it was a nice touch.


I never actually noticed until looking at these pictures
that the screen is not flush

No issues with the 510 connection other than atomizers over 20mm will overhang at the front but that it not down to the 510, rather it's placement.


Again you can see you screen not flush, I think it would push back into position easily enough

I have tried temp control with a DNA 40 and a 350J and from my limited experience I found them to be completely different to each other regarding the temperature used. The SPD A5 was also completely different.

First thing I tried was a cotton burn test all the way from 350f up to 600f and only at the very highest temperatures was there any discolouration. A DNA 40 would burn the cotton if the temp was too high whereas a 350J would give a "No Juice" error regardless of temperature.
I quickly tried a single coil in a Hobo v2.1 but found the vape to be very cool even at 600f so I wrapped a 0.13r coil in a Subtank Mini which was the extent of my usage in Temp Mode.
For the most part I was set at 35w / 550f and although I only filled the tank with 1ml of juice a couple of times I never received a dry hit. Both times I even fired until there was no juice left on the coil and never received anything like a dry hit. It wasn't possible to completely drain the cotton.
All in all temp control works albeit completely different to the two chips mentioned above. I wasn't able to compare it to them but the 350J certainly felt more consistent, as did the DNA 40 and they were both better vapes due to the delay when firing with the SPD.

In wattage mode it vaped fine but there was a few things I noticed.
Firstly the delay which seems like a good half a second.
As the battery drains the power provided by the board also decreases. At 50w 0.25r build was only firing at around 37w when I tested it with a multi meter. The voltage did increase with a new battery but still not enough to get the full 50w at 0.25r.
I suspect the board has an amp limit of around 8.5A but I couldn't find any information on it. A 0.6r coil would fire no more than 5.13v and although I never fired a coil at 1ohm I suspect it would reach the advertized 50w.
That being said, within the 8.5A range I found the device to be very accurate even firing a 0.6r coil at 5w accurately (1.73v)
*Thinking about it 8.5A is probably wrong because 0.25@37w=12.1A

The wattage can only be increased by 0.5w increments up to around 20-30w where then it can only be increased by 1.0w increments.

I took the SPD to a vape meet the other weekend and everybody seemed to like it, although I am not sure if anybody actually used it. At that time I hadn't even used it myself.

My opinion

All in all its a decent little device considering it's market value. I was interested to try it out in the hope it would possibly replace one of my iSticks but I just didn't like the form factor and much prefer the feel of both my iStick 30 and 50.
A lot of people wouldn't be bothered by the atty overhang or the slight delay when firing but they do annoy me and will always opt to use a device that doesn't have those issues.

As I was given this it didn't seem right to just put it back in the cupboard hardly ever to be used so I shipped it off to someone today who seemed very keen on it and will hopefully use it far more than I will.

Anyways, thanks to Zarya and @GearBest for doing the giveaway, very kind as always.
If you're interested in picking one of these up they can be bought here for the very reasonable price of $36.99