30-Second Verdict
The XLUX Roffu wins — 7.8 to 7.6 — and it costs £24 more. But the Smono 4 Pro takes battery, ease of use and value outright, and it's the one I'd hand somebody buying their first proper vaporiser. One of these gets you there every morning without asking anything. The other is faster, sharper, and occasionally in bits on the kitchen table.
Smono 4 Pro: 7.6/10 | £85.00 XLUX Roffu: 7.8/10 | £109.00
Buy the Smono 4 Pro if: - You want the most vaporiser per pound in the entire lineup — its value score is the highest I've given - Battery anxiety is a thing you'd like to stop having: 3000mAh, 8–12 sessions, all day and then some - You want to set 190°C, see 190°C, and think about nothing else - Three years of warranty on an £85 device matters more to you than an aluminium shell
Buy the XLUX Roffu if: - Flavour is the point and you'll do the work — true convection, quartz chamber, 8.0 vapour against 7.5 - You want two devices in one housing: quartz for tasting, stainless steel for clouds - On-demand mode is what you're missing, particularly for controlled medical dosing - You like a removable 18650 and you're prepared to gamble on a QC lottery to get all this at £109
Quick Specs Face-Off:
| Smono 4 Pro | XLUX Roffu | |
|---|---|---|
| Heating | Hybrid (conduction + convection) | True convection |
| Heat-up | ~25 seconds | ~15–20 seconds |
| Battery | Sealed 3000mAh, 8–12 sessions | Removable 18650 3200mAh, 10–12 sessions |
| Chamber | Ceramic zirconia, ~0.25g | Dual: quartz + stainless steel, 0.2–0.3g |
| Modes | Session only (5-min auto-shutoff) | Session + on-demand |
| Weight | ~145g | 166g |
| Warranty | 3 years | 1 year |
| Price | £85.00 | £109.00 |
The Hook
Go to any bike shop on a Saturday and you'll find two machines pointed at the same thirty-minute journey, and the people who own them do not speak the same language.
The first is the commuter. Flat bar, mudguards, a rack you'll actually use, tyres wide enough that you stop reading the road surface. It starts in the rain, it starts in February, it starts when you're tired and late and thinking about something else entirely, and it does that for years while you never once open the toolbox. Nobody has ever stood in a car park admiring a commuter bike. Everybody who owns one has arrived.
The second is the road bike. Narrow bars, hard tyres, a saddle that requires an opinion. Measurably faster, and the ride is a different order of thing — you feel the surface, you feel the effort go in, you feel the machine give it back. It also demands technique, punishes a lazy gear choice, wants the tyres checked before every ride, and will happily leave you at the side of a road learning something about yourself. Not a worse bike. A bike with conditions.
The Smono 4 Pro is the commuter. The XLUX Roffu is the road bike. Both cost less than they should. Only one of them has hobbies.
I called the Smono 4 Pro the Aldi wine of vaporisers in its own review, and the Roffu got the Kärcher pressure washer treatment in its. Set those aside — both were about the same shock, a good device costing an embarrassing amount less than it ought to. What matters here is what happens after the shock wears off: which one you're still reaching for in month six, on a Wednesday, when you don't feel like being impressed.
One of them scores higher. It's the road bike. Here's why my commute still goes on the other one.
We stock the Smono 4 Pro at HerbVape.co.uk — details and pricing below.
Vapour Quality
8.0/10 to the Roffu, 7.5/10 to the Smono, and the gap is exactly the gap between hybrid and pure convection.
The Roffu is true convection: hot air pulled through the herb by your draw, no contact heating, no hot wall. Its review's claim is that the quartz chamber at 180–195°C separates terpenes into individually nameable things where conduction blurs them into one, and that the flavour is still there at the fifth and sixth draw. Swap in the stainless steel chamber and you get the other device: thicker, denser vapour above 200°C, with some terp definition traded away for it. The zirconia cooling spiral is the underrated part — its review reckoned the vapour arrives cooler at 210°C than the Mighty+ manages at equivalent temps, which is not a small sentence to write about a £109 device.
The Smono runs conduction and convection together through a ceramic zirconia chamber, and the ceramic is the point: it adds nothing, so your flower tastes like your flower. Its peak is 195°C — four to five draws with real character, the hybrid spreading extraction evenly enough that you can skip stirring entirely. At 180°C you get flavour clarity pure conduction can't reach; at 210°C it holds some terp presence where conduction gives up completely. What it doesn't do is the thing the Roffu does at draw five. Its own review also flags moderate draw resistance — noticeable, not obstructive, but you'll feel it going Roffu-to-Smono in an evening.
Winner: XLUX Roffu. Not by miles, and not on every bowl — but the quartz chamber does something at low temperatures that £85 of hybrid heating can't quite reach.
The Strain Test, Side by Side
A note before the tasting, because honesty costs nothing: neither of these reviews ran the site's usual control pair of Jack Herer and Wedding Cake. Both were tested on the medical rotation instead — a complex street hybrid and a terpinolene-dominant medical sativa each — so this is the closest legitimate side-by-side the record allows, flagged rather than fudged.
The hybrid test is where the machines separate most clearly. The Smono took Animal Mints, a strain built in layers — mint, then cookie, then diesel — and pulled all three out as distinct stages: two draws of pure mint cookie at 175°C where the convection component lifts the volatile menthol terpenes first, four draws of buttery Animal Cookies sweetness at 190°C, two of SinMint diesel at 205°C. Three nameable layers at £85, where pure conduction compresses them into one note. The Roffu took Jealousy — creamier, gassier, engineered to test extraction — and reported something structurally different: four draws of cream at 175°C in the quartz chamber, the caryophyllene gas arriving at 190°C on the same bowl, flavour still holding at draws five and six, before a fresh bowl went into the steel at 210°C. The Smono steps you through a strain's layers; the Roffu holds one bowl open long enough for the layers to arrive on their own. The commuter's gear range against the road bike's cadence — same hill, different way of climbing it.
The medical sativa test is closer, because both reviews independently landed on terpinolene as the thing to measure — the delicate incense-and-pine top note most budget devices simply cook off, and the same terpene that makes Jack Herer such a punishing control elsewhere on this site. The Smono took Tilray PT01 T22 at 170°C and the verdict was unambiguous: terpinolene preserved better than expected from anything under £150, the ceramic zirconia's neutrality named as the reason. The Roffu took Noidecs Delahaze at 165°C in on-demand mode and got the same terpene intact — but framed around control rather than preservation, two button-held draws with the bowl barely touched between hits. Both preserve the fragile terpene; only one lets you spend it two draws at a time. For anyone microdosing a prescription rather than sessioning it, that difference is the entire purchase.
The call: the Roffu is the better tasting instrument and the better dosing instrument, and it earns its 8.0. The Smono's 7.5 isn't a consolation prize — it preserved the hardest terpene in the cupboard at £85, without a chamber swap, a technique lesson or a second thought.
Design & Build
7.5/10 to the Roffu, 6.5/10 to the Smono — and this is the Smono's worst category on the card.
The Roffu is anodised aluminium with a bright OLED colour display and haptic feedback for readiness and session end. The chamber swap is genuinely good engineering — twist, pull, click, five seconds — and it keeps working reliably even when other parts don't. Which brings us to the asterisk: QC. Loose glass chamber screens, inconsistent button registration, zirconia mouthpiece components separating with repeated cleaning, all three documented across multiple units in its review and all three costing it points. Jake's borrowed weekend supplied the definitive data point about a screen departing of its own accord.
The Smono is plastic, and its review says so without flinching — it scratches, it flexes slightly, it looks like an £85 device from the outside. The interior tells another story: ceramic zirconia chamber, glass mouthpiece, a well-laid-out full-colour OLED. Hold it next to a Crafty+ and the interior materials are comparable while the exterior materials are not. The early-run mouthpiece looseness is worth checking on old stock; Tom's went at eight months, and even Tom conceded those eight months were brilliant. And it's covered for three years against the Roffu's one.
Winner: XLUX Roffu on score and in the hand. But note what you're buying: better materials with a documented lottery attached, versus honest plastic with three years of paperwork behind it. The commuter has a steel frame and mudguards. The road bike is lighter, and the parts are fussier.
Battery & Charging
Winner: Smono 4 Pro. 9.0/10 against 8.5/10, and this is the cheaper device's best hardware argument.
The Smono carries 3000mAh sealed, does 8–12 sessions per charge at 190°C, and takes about ninety minutes over USB-C. Its review's line is the right one: it'll outlast your desire to keep vaping before it runs out. Sealed is normally a mark against, but at 3000mAh you stop noticing, because you stop running out.
The Roffu answers with a removable 18650 at 3200mAh, 10–12 sessions and the same ninety-minute charge — more capacity on paper, plus the thing the Smono can never do, which is finish a dead cell and carry on. Two cells and an external charger and it effectively never runs flat. That's the better long-term system.
So why does the Smono score higher? Because the Roffu's swap answers a problem the Smono doesn't have. Neither makes you charge mid-day. Only one makes you own spare batteries to achieve that.
Ease of Use
Winner: Smono 4 Pro. 8.0/10 against 7.5/10, and in daily life the gap feels wider than half a point.
The Smono is a button, a screen and a number. Set 190°C, wait about twenty-five seconds, draw, five-minute auto-shutoff. No modes, no app, no chamber decision, no stirring, no technique. Its review pointed out how much that matters with ADHD — the interface asks for almost no executive function, which is the difference between a device you use and a device you mean to use. Mum called it "the smart one" because of the screen and passed the test on the spot.
The Roffu is convection, and convection has entry requirements. Grind consistency, pack density and draw speed all matter; too fast cools the heater, too slow doesn't pull enough air. Its review put the curve at three to five sessions before it becomes natural, with inconsistency until then, and stacked the chamber decision on top — quartz or steel, flavour or clouds — flexibility for an experienced user, one more obstacle for a new one. Mum test: fail, at the words "which cup do I put in?"
Both machines cost about the same amount of money. Only one of them charges tuition.
Cleaning & Maintenance
Dead level: 7.0/10 apiece, arrived at from opposite directions.
The Smono's ceramic zirconia resists staining better than metal and builds residue more slowly; the glass mouthpiece pops off and soaks clean. Its problem is the airpath, which isn't easily accessible for deep cleaning — brush every three or four sessions, ISO the mouthpiece weekly, pipe cleaner fortnightly, full strip monthly. In practice its review admits to every four or five sessions and getting away with it.
The Roffu has the opposite problem: everything is accessible, there's just more of it. Two chambers, two screens, mouthpiece components and a zirconia cooling spiral — brush every two or three sessions, ISO the screens every five to seven, full disassembly weekly, spiral monthly. Dosing capsules are the genuine fix, and its review says buy a set alongside the device: the capsule catches the resin and halves your deep-clean frequency.
Neither is a nightmare. Want the shorter jobs list, take the Smono. Want parts you can actually reach, take the Roffu and buy capsules on day one.
Portability
Winner: XLUX Roffu on the card — 8.0/10 against 7.0/10 — and this is the one score I'd argue with.
The Roffu is 166g of compact anodised aluminium that fits a jacket pocket comfortably and jeans at a push. The Smono is lighter at 145g and slim with it, sits in the "acceptable pocket bulk" bracket, and adds fragility only through its glass mouthpiece.
So the heavier one wins, and here's the thing it doesn't mention: heat. Both Roffu chambers get seriously hot and its review is blunt about the consequence — ten minutes or more after a full-temp session before the device is pocket-safe. The Smono goes back in your jacket when you're done; its own caveat is milder, that the OLED is visible in the dark, so you palm it for discretion.
The Roffu is the better-built pocket object. The Smono is the one that actually leaves the house on time. If you finish a session and immediately walk somewhere, the score table and the pocket disagree, and I'd trust the pocket.
Value for Money
Winner: Smono 4 Pro, comfortably. 9.5/10 against 8.5/10 — and 9.5 is the highest value score I've given anything.
Hybrid heating, ceramic zirconia, glass mouthpiece, OLED, degree-by-degree control, 3000mAh and a three-year warranty for £85, down from a £149 list price. Its review called it the easiest value assessment of thirty-eight reviews, and nothing since has softened that.
The Roffu's 8.5 is still excellent, and its spec list at £109 reads like a £150–180 device. The asterisk is the one its own review attached: a well-assembled Roffu is one of the best values in portable vaping, and a Roffu with a loose screen is a £109 frustration with twelve months of cover behind it.
The £24 gap buys you: a second chamber, on-demand mode, true convection and a removable cell. It also costs you two years of warranty and a QC coin-flip. That's the entire financial argument, in one line.
Score Comparison
| Category | Smono 4 Pro | XLUX Roffu |
|---|---|---|
| Vapour Quality | 7.5/10 | 8.0/10 |
| Design & Build | 6.5/10 | 7.5/10 |
| Battery & Charging | 9.0/10 | 8.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8.0/10 | 7.5/10 |
| Cleaning & Maintenance | 7.0/10 | 7.0/10 |
| Portability | 7.0/10 | 8.0/10 |
| Value for Money | 9.5/10 | 8.5/10 |
| Overall | 7.6/10 | 7.8/10 |
Three categories each, one dead heat, and a two-tenths overall gap. Read it honestly and you get the truth of the pairing: the Roffu wins the categories you notice while you're using it, the Smono wins the categories you notice while you're owning it.
Who Should Buy Which
Buy the Smono 4 Pro if you want a vaporiser rather than a hobby. You're the commuter: charged, simple, one button, 190°C, attention spent on the flower rather than the grind. It's the strongest recommendation on this site under £100 for medical patients on a budget — degree-by-degree terpene targeting, a battery that removes charging anxiety from the day, three years of cover — and the one I'd hand somebody buying their first serious device without a single caveat about technique.
Buy the XLUX Roffu if flavour is the reason you're reading this at all. True convection under £150, and you're prepared to earn it: medium grind, right pack, three to five sessions of learning. Quartz for tasting, steel for evenings, on-demand for precise dosing rather than committing to a full bowl. Buy from somewhere with a decent returns policy and check the screen seating the day it lands — that's the deal you're signing.
The wrong buyer for the Roffu is anyone who wants load-and-go, anyone who'd be genuinely upset by a QC return, or anyone buying a first vaporiser. The wrong buyer for the Smono is the flavour chaser who'll spend six months wondering what pure convection sounds like — you already know you'll end up buying the Roffu too.
How I Actually Choose
The rotation data doesn't lie, and I keep rotation data, because ADHD.
The Roffu is a Friday device. Good flower, quartz chamber, 185°C, actually paying attention — and its review's own admission holds up: on tired weekday evenings, convection technique is more than I want to give. On-demand mode is the exception that pulls it out mid-week, because three quick button-held draws for breakthrough pain beats starting a five-minute session I don't need.
The Smono is the one that goes in the jacket. It's the daily driver I recommend to everyone and the reason is boring on purpose: enough battery not to worry, enough flavour not to compromise, enough simplicity not to fuss. Dave's ongoing campaign of blind tests and Aldi wine memes is covered in its review and shows no sign of stopping; he was right, and I still haven't forgiven him.
Sarah watched me swap the Roffu's chambers mid-session one evening while the Smono sat on the arm of the sofa working unattended, and offered the only summary anyone needs: "You've got one that works and one that has hobbies." She's called them cups since the Roffu arrived and has no plans to stop.
That's the whole comparison, delivered from a sofa in eight words.
The Verdict (The Bookend)
Nobody who owns a commuter bike and a road bike thinks they own two of the same thing.
The commuter is the journey you actually make: rain, February, tired, late, and it starts anyway. The road bike is the ride you chose to make — faster, sharper, and entirely dependent on the tyres being right and the rider being present. Both get you thirty minutes down the road. Only one of them cares how you feel that morning.
The XLUX Roffu is the better vaporiser, and the 7.8 says so: true convection, two chambers, on-demand mode, a removable cell, and the best flavour I've had from anything under £150. If flavour is why you're here, £24 is nothing and you can stop reading.
But the Smono 4 Pro is the better vaporiser to own, and that's what a 7.6 with a 9.5 for value and a 9.0 for battery means in English. Eighty-five quid, three years of warranty, all-day power, an interface that asks nothing of you on a bad day, and a chamber that preserved the most fragile terpene in the cupboard without being asked twice.
The road bike for the ride. The commuter for the week. If your budget only stretches to one and you don't already know which of those sentences you are — buy the commuter, and borrow a road bike off a mate before you spend the £24.
Just one more bowl.
FAQ
Smono 4 Pro vs XLUX Roffu — which should I buy? The Roffu if flavour is the priority: it scores higher (7.8 vs 7.6), runs true convection, and adds two chambers and an on-demand mode for £24 more (£109.00 vs £85.00). The Smono 4 Pro for everyone else — it wins battery, ease of use and value, carries three years of warranty against the Roffu's one, and asks nothing of you on a tired Wednesday.
Is the Roffu's flavour advantage actually noticeable? At low temperatures and late in a bowl, yes. Pure convection through the quartz chamber holds terpene definition to the fifth and sixth draw where hybrid heating has flattened out. The Smono's counter is that it steps a strain's layers cleanly at 175 / 190 / 205°C and needs no technique to do it. A real gap, not a chasm.
Which battery lasts longer? Effectively a draw across a day: 8–12 sessions on the Smono's sealed 3000mAh, 10–12 on the Roffu's removable 18650 3200mAh, both charging in about ninety minutes over USB-C. The Roffu wins over years, because a spare cell resets the clock and the Smono's sealed pack can't be replaced.
Which is easier to clean? Neither — they scored level. The Smono has fewer parts but a less accessible airpath; the Roffu has more parts, all of them reachable. Buy dosing capsules with the Roffu and its cleaning burden roughly halves.
Should I worry about the Roffu's QC? Enough to check. Loose glass chamber screens, button registration problems and separating mouthpiece components are documented across multiple units — not universal, but common enough that its review docked points and added "if you get a good one" to every recommendation. Inspect it on arrival and buy from somewhere with a sane returns policy. Twelve months is thinner cover than I'd like.
Does the Smono's plastic housing actually matter? Cosmetically, yes — it scratches and flexes slightly, and it's why Design & Build is its lowest score. Functionally, no. The parts touching your vapour are ceramic zirconia and glass.
What temperature should I run each at? Smono: 190°C is the hybrid sweet spot. Roffu: 185°C through the quartz, 200°C+ through the steel. Both adjust degree-by-degree, so the temperature guide will do more for you than any accessory.
About Dennis M.
Dennis M. has been reviewing vaporisers and vaping daily for the best part of a decade. He works in IT, has ADHD, and uses cannabis for chronic pain management. He lives in Manchester with his partner Sarah, who refers to the Roffu's two chambers exclusively as "cups" and considers the matter settled.
Dennis owns one bicycle. It has mudguards. He has been told, repeatedly and by people he otherwise respects, that this is a choice rather than an accident, and he'd thank you not to mention it.
A note on spelling: 'vaporizer' is the de facto international spelling, but I've stuck with the British 'vaporiser' throughout this blog.
Questions, corrections, or a device you want tested? dennis@herbvape.co.uk
Related Content
Full Reviews: - Smono 4 Pro Review: The Aldi Wine of Vaporisers → - XLUX Roffu Review: The Kärcher Pressure Washer →
More Comparisons: - All head-to-heads →
New to Vaping? - The Temperature Guide →
How I Test: - Review methodology →
Get Them at HerbVape.co.uk {#shop}
Smono 4 Pro — £85.00 Buy the Smono 4 Pro → Worth grabbing with it: a 4-piece grinder — the hybrid heating wants a medium grind and nothing finer.
XLUX Roffu — £109.00 Not currently stocked at HerbVape, so there's no product link to give you — buy it from a retailer with a returns policy you trust, and check the chamber screen seating the day it arrives.
Just one more bowl.
Review Policy: I buy or borrow the devices I review. HerbVape.co.uk is my employer, but my opinions are my own — they pay me to be honest, not to sell you shite. Affiliate links and discount codes exist because running a site costs money, not because they influence scores.
A note on the strain test: this site normally runs Jack Herer and Wedding Cake as the control pair across every device. Neither of these reviews used them — both ran the medical rotation instead (Animal Mints and Tilray PT01 T22 for the Smono; Jealousy and Noidecs T20:C4 Delahaze for the Roffu). The side-by-side above compares like with like where the profiles allow: a complex hybrid each, a terpinolene-dominant medical sativa each. Strain effects vary by individual, batch and consumption method.
Medical & Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this comparison constitutes medical advice, and I am not a medical professional. Cannabis is a controlled substance in the UK; medical cannabis is legal only on prescription from a registered specialist clinic. HerbVape.co.uk sells vaporiser hardware only: we do not sell, prescribe, or recommend cannabis or cannabis products. Vaporisers are sold for use with legal dry herbs and legally prescribed medical cannabis. You must be 18 or over to buy one, and cannabis law varies by jurisdiction — check yours.
Last updated: 26 August 2026.