Aspire Zelos 3 80W Mod Kit Review: Superb Option for Outdoor Vaping

Intro

Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit is the latest entry in Aspire’s Zelos line. By featuring a max power output at 80W and a single built-in battery, it has made itself known as a beginner-friendly MTL vape kit. However, it’s actually abler than a typical MTL vape. Aspire Zelos 3 offers 7 levels of airflow for adjustments, and supports a super wide range of coil resistance from 0.1 to 3.5Ω. That would allow us to enjoy RDL vaping style as well with just a bit of tweaking in parameters.

With so many spot-on mod kits Aspire launched before, Zelos 3 remains to be an intriguing product for us since its release. We’re really thrilled to check out how would it perform in our testing. And here we are with this review. We highlight aspects we like in green, and those we don’t in red, to make your reading easier. Kick it off!

Product Info

Performance – 9

Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit comes with a 1.8ohm bottom vertical coil and a 0.7ohm mesh coil, both of which sound great for MTL vapers. As recommended by Aspire, the 1.8Ω coil is rated between 10 and 14W. We’re satisfied with its vaporization since it gave vibrant flavors and smooth inhaling. No dry hits cropped up in the test. We also rolled the power up and down repeatedly—turned out the coil was the best performer at 11.5W and 12W.

The rated wattage range of the 0.7Ω coil stands between 20W and 25W. Granted, 0.7 is a tad high for mass-cloud DTL vaping, but in terms of RDL vaping it can be the right one. Differences between the two coils are plain to see. When vaping on 0.7Ω, we noticed a lot richer flavors and harsher throat hits. It just furthers the overall sensation thanks to the lower resistance and the refined mesh shape. While on the other hand, the 0.7Ω coil drinks up vape liquid around twice faster, probably because its required wattage is twice higher as well. It honestly isn’t a cost-saving option in the long term.

At beginning we have concerns that the 0.7Ω coil might drain the battery a bit faster, and needs recharges more often.  We came to realize it’s perhaps not the case though after a couple of drags. 0.7Ω delivers more nicotine per puff and strikes out cravings in shorter time, and as a result we need less drags with it. So there seems to be an offset. While no matter which coil we attached, the Aspire Zelos 3 mod’s ramp-up is always fast enough to make for instant satisfaction.

Function – 8

Aspire Zelos 3 utilizes the brand’s self-developed ASP chipset to ensure safety on all fronts, so basically it can prevent most glitches like short circuit and overheat from happening. We could also add a double protection to the mod by pressing the fire button three times to set a lock, in case that we unconsciously activate the device and burn the coil out.

Its screen displays a catalogue of basic parameters from wattage, resistance to the battery level and how many puffs we’ve taken. By clicking the up and fire button together, we could enter the menu to change the mode, theme color and brightness.

Aspire Zelos 3 has six output modes—it’s an all-encompassing set. It covers the most common ones including variable wattage, voltage, bypass and TC modes, and adds some bells and whistles to spruce it up, that is the Customizable Power Settings (CPS) and Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR) modes. When switching to the regular wattage mode, we can let the power go up or down in a 0.5W increment.

CPS mode

At bottom, CPS mode equals to the better known “variable power curve (VPC)” mode widely applied in Geekvape products. They both ask users to enter several values, each corresponding to one second, and will memorize them in the chip; then every time we take a drag, the device will execute this changing curve rather than run on a constant watt. Generally, an ideal sequence is to rank the values from high to low, so our machine can tail off at a lower watt to avoid a burnt coil.

Design & Build Quality – 9

Mod

The Aspire Zelos 3 mod is in the shape of a cylinder and cuboid combo, with the former occupying the majority though. The cylindrical section is exactly sized to fit in our palm, and creates unexpectedly comfortable grips. The ergonomic mod features a sleek profile, sporting a quality metallic coating on the outside. We’re also fond of its compact layout. Aspire Zelos 3 places all major functional components in one panel, including a slender screen, three buttons and a Type-C charging port, and leaves all the other faces neat and clean. The overall design is minimalist, but still creates a modern stylish feel to the gadget.

At the top of the Aspire Zelos 3 mod rests a 510 adapter, so we can give various tanks a whirl. At a rough estimate, the mod can be attached to any tanks no bigger than 28mm. Aspire puts several ventilation holes on the base, mainly used for transferring the battery heat. That’s really good for extending the battery life and has also further fortified the machine’s safety system. Next to the holes is a smart power switch. We have to say this is one of our favorite design as it phases out the old custom of pressing a button for five times to power on or off a vaping device. Moreover, its isolation from function keys, that is lying separately on one face, really makes the entire operations clearer and more comprehensible.

Tank

Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit uses the Nautilus 3 Tank, an atomizer that expertly combines multiple clever ideas. The first is the airflow ring at the bottom. Airflow control is arguably a must-have in any highly-customized mod vape, and Aspire has taken the customization to the next level. It drills seven holes in different sizes on the ring, so that we can cycle through seven levels of the amount of airs. Needless to say it beats the traditional three-hole design out as we’ve got higher flexibility now. What’s more, it also shows its advantages over fully-adjustable airflow systems when it comes to more precise control over our puffs. It’s sort of a surprise to us.

Also note that Aspire wedges an e-liquid shutoff valve in the tank. In simpler terms, there’s a shutter inside, which only opens up and allows vape juice to flow in when we push the coil in. It closes right away once the coil is removed off, and thus eliminates leaking concerns when we replace coils. Our testing showed that the anti-leakage design did work. We have yet to run into any sort of leakage problems till the end, which is also a great sign that the tank has great sealing.

The Nautilus 3 Tank employs the easiest slide-open top filling. There’s a red arrow revealing the exact position of the filling port, and you just push the top cap across to get your refills done.

Battery

Aspire Zelos 3 mod is outfitted with a Type-C port featuring a 2A charging rate. It, without any doubts, can meet the latest craze for fast charging. Moreover, the battery capacity reaches 3200mAh, sufficient for all-day-long vaping.

Ease of Use – 9

The operations of Aspire Zelos 3 mod might sound complicated, after all it’s not a puff-to-vape device and sometimes we have to use the key combinations to finish those more advanced setups. While its user manual has offered a detailed guide to everything. We found no difficulty in following the instructions to do anything we want. More importantly, the mod adds a toggle switch specially for turning itself on and off, saving the hassle of pressing a button consecutively as we did in the past. It’s honestly a good choice for those who always vape out of the house.

No matter it’s refilling or coil changing, we could always maintain the Aspire Zelos 3 hands down. For example, its top fill system gives up the conventional top cap, replacing it with an easier slide-to-open covering. Also, changing its coils is as effortless. Its coil and tank utilizes a press-fit connection. All we need to do is merely unscrewing the tank base, plugging the old coil out and sliding the new one in. By the way, Nautilus 3 Tank comes compatible with all coils from the Nautilus series, which is crowned as the most popular Aspire coil series for its fabulous flavor delivery. Currently the series has released six different coils, whose resistance ranges from 0.4ohm to 1.8ohm.

Price – 8

Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit: $54.12 (at NewVaping by today)

In contrast with other 80W vape kits available on the market, the price of Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit is slightly above the average. Devices of this sort have quite a wide price range, from as little as $20s to as much as $70s. The above-$50 price tag of Aspire Zelos 3 tilts more towards the bigger-budget side. But rest assured that it can’t be anything like certain meaningless investment. The mod’s user-friendly clever designs and incredible vaporization are bound to deserve some more costs than the average level.

Verdict

Aspire Zelos 3 mod is a perfect entry-level mod vape that can ease all the concerns common in beginners, like “would the settings be too complex?” or “would it require tricky maintenance?” The mod solves them all with a series of user-oriented designs, and could get you satisfied even if you’re completely new to this. Besides, its conjunction with Nautilus 3 tank has just made it rise through the ranks even further. In terms of the vaporization and build quality, it does exactly what it says on the tin and make us impressed.

If you happen to vape a lot outside, Aspire Zelos 3 would be your exact match. So, have you tried the Aspire Zelos 3 mod kit yet, or are you planning to get one? Feel free to leave your comments to share your thoughts on the device. In any case, we hope our review is helpful for you!