Uwell Caliburn G5 Review: An XROS User Switches Sides!

I have been a die-hard Vaporesso XROS user for years — the XROS 5 is my daily go-to kit, and I genuinely thought nothing would budge it. Then the Uwell Caliburn G5 turned up, and after a week of heavy testing and the best part of five bottles of e-liquid, I have some explaining to do.

From XROS Loyalist to Caliburn Convert?

Let me come clean before we start: I'm an XROS man. The Vaporesso XROS 5 has been my daily go-to kit for years now — I love the way it feels in the hand, I love how easy it is to refill, and above all I love that the pods simply do not leak. The only time we ever see an XROS leak is when the mouthpiece cap isn't clicked in all the way (it has to be fully seated, no gap) or it pops off in a pocket. Click it home and it's foolproof.

So when the Uwell Caliburn G5 landed on my desk, the bar was set extremely high. Uwell's Caliburn family is the other great dynasty of pod kits — the original Caliburn is the device that converted a generation of smokers — so a new flagship G-series kit deserved a proper test.

And a proper test it got: I vaped the G5 as my only kit for over a week, fed it nothing but the same 10mg nic salt, and then dragged my trusty XROS 5 back out afterwards as a sanity check. Let's dive in!

Included with the kit:

• 1 × Uwell Caliburn G5 device
• 1 × 0.6Ω GPP Alpha pod (2ml)
• 1 × 0.6Ω GPP pod (2ml)
• 1 × 0.9Ω GPP pod (2ml)
• User manual and quick-start card

Yes, you read that right — three pods in the box. I have honestly never had a pod kit come with three pods before. Two is generous, one is the norm, and three is frankly insane value at this price. Off to a flying start.

Design and Appearance

The Caliburn G5 is machined from aluminium alloy with a refined matte finish, weighs roughly 65g, and measures a pocket-friendly 116 × 28.9 × 16.8mm. It comes in seven colourways, and each one gets its own colour-matched theme on the screen — a small touch that makes the whole device feel considered. Mine is the blue one with a gorgeous marbled resin-effect panel, and it looks even better in person than in photos.

The best way I can describe the G5 is this: it's as if the XROS and the Caliburn had a love baby — and it inherited the best features of both parents. You get that slim, rounded, pocketable frame I've always loved about the XROS, combined with the Caliburn's pod platform and a proper colour screen. I like the shape of it a lot.

Now for the thing I didn't expect to care about at all: the mouthpiece. The G5 uses a soft-touch TPU mouthpiece — a sort of hard rubber that feels like ordinary plastic to your fingertips. But your lips are far more sensitive than your fingers, and the moment you actually take a draw you notice this remarkably soft, cushioned mouthfeel. It's genuinely hard to explain — you have to experience it to understand it.

I'll be honest: at first I thought it was a bit gimmicky. Then, after a day or two on the G5, I went back to my XROS for a sanity check and instantly realised how much I preferred the G5's soft feel. It's one of those features you don't notice until it's gone.

As for durability, mine has held up well against scratches so far — though in fairness, I'm quite careful with my kits. Keys live in their own pocket, and the vape rides in a jacket pocket with softer company. If you're the type to throw everything in together, your mileage may vary, but the matte aluminium certainly seems hard-wearing.

Interface and Features

Display Screen

The G5 carries a 0.85" HD colour screen, and it's a beauty. You get your battery percentage, wattage, coil resistance and a puff counter at a glance — no guesswork, no traffic-light LEDs. I love the screen, and I really love the puff counter; it's weirdly satisfying watching the count climb on a new pod.

Each colourway ships with its own animated screen theme that matches the body panel — mine swirls with the same blues as the marbled panel, and there are alternative themes to flick through if you fancy a change.

Smart Triple-Tap Control

There are no fiddly buttons cluttering the G5's clean frame. Instead, Uwell's Smart Triple-Tap Control lets you tap the body of the device three times to switch power modes, change the UI theme or adjust brightness. Firing is fully draw-activated — you just inhale and go, exactly like a disposable.

Adjustable Airflow

Airflow is handled by a stepless slider on the side, taking you from a tight MTL (Mouth To Lung) draw — like sipping through a coffee stirrer — to an airier RDL (Restricted Direct to Lung) style. I run mine fully open, and I love it: the open airflow is exactly how I like to vape, smooth and effortless without ever feeling loose or spitty.

If you prefer a tighter, more cigarette-like draw with stronger nic salts, slide it down and pair it with the 0.9Ω pod. The beauty of stepless adjustment is you'll find your spot, not the nearest notch to it.

Battery Life and Performance

The G5 packs a 1600mAh battery — a healthy step up from the XROS 5's 1500mAh — and Uwell quote up to six days of typical use. I won't pretend I'm a typical user (I vape a lot), but even for me the battery life is really good; this is comfortably a kit you can leave the charger at home for.

When you do need to top up, 2A USB-C fast charging gets you back in business quickly, and the G5 supports pass-through vaping — you can vape while it charges. That sounds like a small thing right up until the morning you really need it.

One small heads-up: there's no charging cable in the box. Most of us have a drawer full of USB-C cables by now, but it's worth knowing before you order.

Pods

The pods are where the Caliburn G5 goes from "very good" to "take my money". I said earlier that XROS pods are basically foolproof when it comes to leaking — well, the G5 takes that to a new level.

The headline act is the new GPP Alpha pod, built on Uwell's AlphaCore longevity tech. Uwell claim it holds its flavour for 17+ refills, and for once the marketing undersold it: I put four or five 10ml bottles through a single pod and the flavour was still good. I only swapped to a fresh pod to check whether I'd been slowly losing flavour without noticing — and honestly, the new one tasted roughly the same, maybe marginally cleaner. These pods last a very long time.

Because the G5 sits on Uwell's G Pod Platform, it also takes every GPP pod from 0.4Ω to 1.2Ω — including the GPP Alpha replacement pods — so if you're upgrading from a Caliburn G3 or G4, your existing pod stash carries straight over.

The Best Refill System I've Used

The top-fill caps snap off and on with one finger, and underneath sits a clever spring-loaded fill port: you push your bottle nozzle down into the hole, the spring gives way and the port opens for filling. Pull the bottle away and it snaps shut again, sealed tight. You can see exactly how it works in my video below.

There's an extra layer of security too. If the cap isn't seated correctly, the design blocks off the airflow port to create an airtight seal — so the classic "cap popped off in my pocket" leak that occasionally catches XROS users out basically can't happen here. Between the spring-loaded port and that fail-safe, this is the most leak-proof pod system I have ever used. Over a week of pocket carry, not a single drop.

The E-Liquid Window Problem

And now, my one genuine gripe. Here's the thing: the G5's pods are actually fully transparent, just like the XROS's. The difference is where they sit. On the XROS, the clear part of the pod stands proud above the body, so you can read your e-liquid level at a glance, any time. On the G5, the pod drops almost entirely inside the device with only the mouthpiece poking out — so your only at-a-glance option is a small peep-through window below the pod, a carry-over from older Caliburn designs. The problem? That window is only open on one side of the device. With no opening on the other side, no light gets through from behind, so when you hold it up to look... you see almost nothing. It's simply too dark in there.

I genuinely don't understand how this made it through every design review without someone flagging it. Yes, you can shine your phone torch through it, or pop the pod out of the device to check it — but both rather defeat the purpose of a quick-glance window. The fix seems obvious: open up the same area on both sides of the pod bay so light passes through, or failing that, add a little LED that illuminates the window at the press of a button. Maybe in a future version.

To be fair, the pods last so long between refills that I check far less often than I used to — but this is the one area where the XROS 5 remains clearly better. Because its clear pod sits in plain view above the body, you never have to wonder how much juice you've got left.

Vaping the Uwell Caliburn G5

Day to day, the G5 is an absolute joy. Draw activation is instant, the open airflow is silky-smooth, and the flavour — I'll just say it — is amazing. Crisp, clean and full from the very first puff, and thanks to those AlphaCore pods, still crisp several bottles later.

My test juice for the whole review was Dojoliq Pineapple Ice nic salt — and by the way, banging e-liquid. I really rate the new Dojoliq range; I think Bar Juice 5000 is going to get a serious run for its money with this stuff.

The real test came after the review period, when I went back to my XROS 5 for a couple of days. I kept reaching for the G5. The combination of that soft mouthpiece, the open airflow and the flavour just won me over — and from someone who's been an XROS user for years, I don't say that lightly.

Who Should Get the Uwell Caliburn G5?

Vapers moving on from disposables. It's draw-activated (no buttons to learn), comes with three pods, and the refill system is the easiest I've used. If you've been put off refillable vape kits because they seemed fiddly or leaky, this is the kit that fixes both.

Pocket carriers and leak-phobics. If your vape lives in a pocket or the bottom of a bag, the self-sealing pod system is the most leak-proof I've come across. A week of pocket carry didn't produce a single drop.

XROS users curious about the other side. You'll feel at home immediately — same pocketable format, same easy top-fill philosophy, but with longer-lasting pods, a nicer mouthpiece and a proper screen. Just know the clear pod hides inside the body here — you can't read your juice level at a glance like you can on the XROS.

Who shouldn't? If being able to see your e-liquid level at a glance is non-negotiable, the XROS 5 still has the edge there. And if you're chasing big sub-ohm clouds, this MTL/RDL kit isn't built for that job.

Accessibility

We like to include accessibility notes in our hardware reviews — a huge number of adult smokers making the switch are exactly the people that fiddly tech shuts out.

For users with dexterity issues: the G5 is excellent. There are no buttons to press — it's entirely draw-activated — and the pods click in and out positively. The snap-off fill cap needs far less fine motor control than screw caps, and the spring-loaded fill port is forgiving: push the bottle down and it opens, let go and it seals itself. Hard to spill, even with shaky hands.

For visually impaired users: a mixed bag. The bright HD screen with a large battery percentage is much easier to read than indicator LEDs. However, checking your e-liquid level through that dark window is genuinely difficult even with perfect eyesight — low-vision vapers will be far better served by a kit whose clear pod sits in view above the body, like the XROS 5. The triple-tap control also takes a little practice to get the rhythm right, though once learned it's easier than hunting for small buttons.

Pros & Cons

Summary

I went looking for flaws in the Uwell Caliburn G5 and came back with exactly one: that frustrating e-liquid window. Everything else is a winner. It takes everything I've loved about my XROS for years — the feel, the easy refills, the leak-proof pods — and levels each one up: an even more leak-proof self-sealing fill system, pods that shrug off four or five bottles before fading, a gorgeous colour screen with a puff counter, and a soft mouthpiece I now miss on every other kit.

To borrow my own scribbled testing notes: banger of a kit. At £22.99 with three pods in the box, I really can't recommend the Caliburn G5 enough — it has genuinely earned a place as my daily go-to, and for an XROS loyalist of many years, that's about the highest praise I can give.

You can grab the Uwell Caliburn G5 right here at Vape Green, along with GPP Alpha replacement pods and our full range of 10ml nic salts to feed it. Got questions about whether it's the right kit for you? Our expert customer service team is always happy to help.

Happy vaping!