Part 2
Now on to the mods. As I mentioned before, The Gen has been out for a few years now, and we were looking forward to trying out what the GEN 200 had up its sleeve. Immediately, the size of it was welcomed by all members of the group, with a couple of them providing size comparisons to the original.
@Gitchy provided the pic below, so you can see how they stack up
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The 80S and 200 both have the same coating, giving a good grip.
@Astral notes “The coating is the real piece de resistance here though. It's gorgeous. I really love the handfeel of these mods and the rubberised surface not only looks great but feels sensual to the fingers too. I'm glad they've kept this from the previous Gen, it's a real winner”.
The overall aesthetics of the mods were well received, and the finish on these mods are excellent. The buttons are easy to operate, secured well, and do not rattle! The battery panel on both mods are held on with decent magnets, and there is no rattle, creaking, or movement in these at all. Good job!
In use, one thing was noticed straight away by all members when comparing to the original GEN, the new GEN 80S and GEN 200 are both missing a feature. One feature that the original GEN did quite well too. Yep, the new mods are missing Temp Control as a function. They come with 3 main modes of operation: Wattage, Pulse, and F(t). There are also DIY modes: VW (S, N, H), VV, and BP.
I asked Vaporesso why TC was missing and if it could be available as a firmware upgrade, but I was told the 80S and 200 use the new Axon 2.0 chipset and cannot be upgraded. However, they took the feedback onboard to see if future iterations of these mods can have this implemented.
So, for the modes:
Wattage, plain old wattage mode, the bread and butter of every mod available.
Pulse, in Vaporesso’s words, boosts power every 0.02 seconds to bring a consistent vape.
F(t) mode, provides precise heating rate control, but in a non-TC way.
Initially some members didn’t see a difference between modes. I’ve used these features previously on the Target 200 mod, with other tanks fitted. I have had a brilliant experience in Pulse and F(t) mode using the Blotto 1.5 RTA on top of the Target 200, and you can really tell the difference between them. In F(t) mode with the Blotto (0.3 ohm dual NI80 coils), it was extremely close to giving the same flavour output as my Zeus X Mesh RTA when vaping the same juice in both tanks. I set away
@hack400 testing one of his RTA’s on the GEN 200, at the same wattage on each mode. He reported back that “There's a fairly noticeable difference between wattage mode and the other 2. A slight noticeable difference between pulse and Ft”.
The mods themselves are easy to operate, and menus easy to navigate. 5 clicks of the fire button for power on/off, 3 clicks of the middle button to enter the menu (press and hold for the main 3 modes only), and up/down for wattage control in 1w increments. The wattage doesn’t round-robin when you get to the highest or lowest setting however.
The 510 top is nicely finished, and does have a sprung positive pin.
One common issue we’ve seen with both mods, is that they sometimes show low battery when replacing with fresh ones. It’s a bit of an oddity that it remembers the previous battery level. However, this does not happen when pressing the fire button once you’ve removed the battery. Doesn’t happen all the time, but we decided this was not a deal-breaker.
Now, we will cover the mod specifics below.
The GEN 80S, is the lightest of the two mods, weighting in at 49 grams before adding the tank and battery. The buttons on this mod are in-line with the screen and easy to operate comfortably.
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Paired with the iTank, it was immediately apparent that it was top-heavy once the tank is screwed onto the mod.
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Also as this is a single 18650 mod, we thought this was a bit of an odd pairing (not in terms of looks), and felt that the mod would have suited an MTL tank instead, Otherwise you’d be carrying extra batteries to get you through the day (based purely on the supplied coils). That impression could change once the new 0.5 GTi coil is released though, as this coil may see your battery lasting longer.
The GEN 200 is where we saw some excellent potential. Weighing in at 76 grams before adding tank and batteries, this has to be one of the smallest/lightest dual battery mods going!
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As I like taking things apart (I think I’m on the spectrum), I decided to have a look inside to see how they managed to centre the 510 on the top, with no gap between the batteries inside. All I can say is,
@Vaporesso whoever designed this needs a good pat on the back for ingenuity! I didn’t take any pics of this, as it doesn’t form part of the review (unless you are DJLsb of youtube stardom) but, I thought it was worth mentioning how well they designed this mod.
The button layout on this mod is slightly different. Fire button is on the side, and adjustment is below the screen. Despite its looks, having the screen on the side seemed to have won over the testers in the group. With the batteries in, and tank on top, it still felt light, as well as comfortable to hold. One thing about the display on this mod, is that it is slightly dimmer than the 80S, not sure why, but worth pointing out.
Plenty space up top for larger tanks, as
@hack400 found, it will easily take a 28mm tank with no overhang too.
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Class swot
@hack400 also managed to get some battery usage stats for each mod and coil used
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While both mods perform brilliantly, there are a few things we have noted for improvement, and Vaporesso have taken these on-board for feedback.
Firstly, it would be nice to see a brightness option for the screen.
Secondly, if it would be possible to change the colour for each mode. Pulse mode displays red, which can be a little difficult to read in bright light or sunlight. A stealth mode would be a good addition too.
Thirdly, Re-instating TC mode.
@Gitchy noted “I feel the Gen range is the premier Vaporesso range and should have the full functionality for the users that want it. The Gen S rivalled Yihi and DNA mods in my opinion. Not quite as adjustable as a DNA but the functions worked really well and were a good substitute. I feel that this Gen is oversimplified and not as focused as the others.”
And lastly, if there are further versions of this GEN line-up coming soon, it would be nice to see with the option of 21700 batteries. If Vaporesso have managed to shoe-horn 2x 18650’s into the GEN 200, it should hopefully be easy enough to do dual 21700 in the size of the original GEN shell.
So, now for the scorecards. These will appear below at the end of this review, so the individual scores for each criteria can be seen.
Overall scores are out of 10 (10 being highest obvs)
GEN 80S / GEN200
@Astral 8.9 / 8.8
@Sam Andrews 8.0 / 8.5
@WaitFor1t88 7.3 / 7.4
@Gitchy 8.3 / 8.3
@ForestMagpie 7.8 / 8.0
@JohnNada 8.5 / 8.6
@hack400 8.3 / 8.3
@richierich 9.0 / 9.1
Giving a group average score of
8.3/10 for the GEN 80S, and
8.4/10 for the GEN 200
While the scores are widely varied, we have all enjoyed using these kits. Even after the test had finished,
@hack400 said “The worrying thing is, I am still using both devices. I have yet to go back to my RTA's”. When asked if any of the group would keep the GEN mods in their daily rotation, I didn't get a no, which is re-assuring.
Vaporesso were kind enough to supply some extra kits, which are going up for Giveaway here:
https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/...aporesso-gen-80s-and-gen-200-giveaway.212208/
EcigOne have kindly supplied a 5% discount on the Vaporesso
Gen 80S and
Gen 200 kits using the code
POTV5 at checkout
And finally, Please give a thumbs up if you have enjoyed this review. If you have any questions, ask away and one of us will happily respond to you!
Thanks for your time
