GeekVape Zeus X RTA Review

The GeekVape Zeus is one of the most famous RTA series in the history of vaping, with some going as far as calling it iconic. After two memorable iterations, the Chinese manufacturer has come out with the Zeus X, the “final edition of the Zeus series”. It’s a massive top-airflow RTA that promises a leak-proof vaping experience, effortless coil mounting and exceptional flavor. That sounds intriguing, but then again it could just be aggressive marketing, so let’s take a look and see if the new GeekVape Zeus X RTA is as amazing as its manufacturer claims.

A Look at the Contents

The Zeus X comes in a small cardboard box printed in GeekVape’s now classic black-and-orange configuration, with a picture of the RTA over a thunderous background on the front, and a short description, a list of package contents, company contact information and a scratch-and-check authenticity sticker on the back.

Inside the box we have the Zeus X RTA sitting snug in a black Styrofoam holder, next to a smaller box where you’ll find most of the included accessories. They consist of a spare glass section, some spare o-rings, replacement grub screws for the build deck, an Ultem 810 drip tip, a 510 adapter for fans of the old 510 drip tips, an Allen key, a GeekVpe triple screwdriver, ready-to-wick cotton strips, and two N80 fused clapton coils. At the bottom of the box you’ll also find a user manual and other reading material.

This is actually one of the most generous RTA kits I’ve seen in a while. Most RTAs these days don’t even include pre-made coils, let alone a second drip tip and a 510 adapter. Well done, GeekVape, I guess!

Design and Build Quality

The new GeekVape Zeus is a beefy-looking atomizer, especially with that pre-installed bubble-glass. It measures 47.8mm from the drip-tip to the bottom of the 510 pin and is 29mm in diameter (with the bubble glass). If that’s too fat for you, just switch to the classic glass section, and you can slim it down to 25mm. Just know that you’ll also be reducing the juice capacity from 4.5ml to 3.5ml by doing that.

Design-wise, the Zeus is pretty cool looking, with that low-profile 810 Delrin drip tip, a massive top cap and the famous Zeus logo on the chimney. Its insides are even cooler, but we’ll get into that later on. Mine came in a rainbow color, which actually looks pretty nice on my new Eleaf iStick Rim, but if you find it to conspicuous, it’s also available in black, blue, stainless steel, red, red&black and gunmetal.

Starting at the very top, we have that Delrin drip-tip I mentioned, which, while very cool-looking, isn’t really my favorite tip. I like to wrap my lips around the drip-tip when I vape, but there’s not a lot to grab on this RTA, so I find my lips touching the top cap almost every time. Granted, I’ve never burned my lips vaping the Zeus X, but then again I only used it in single-coil mode, at around 45W, so it didn’t get very hot. But there’s definitely a possibility of that if you ramp up the power and chain-vape.

Then we have the top cap sitting on top of the fill port, and an airflow ring on the outside. To access the two fill ports, you have to half-turn the top cap counter-clockwise and then lift it up. The problem with that is that it’s easy to accidentally do it when you’re adjusting the airflow. The airflow ring is pretty narrow, so a lot of times you accidentally grip the top cap as well. I have small hands and I always make sure I only grab the airflow ring, but I see a lot of users having issues with the top cap coming off when they least expect it. They could have probably found a way to lock the top cap in place, but it is what it is.

They we have the chimney connecting the top of the tank to the base, as well as the glass section. At the bottom, we only have an adjustable, gold-plated 510 pin. But there’s actually a lot going on on the inside.

Those two massive airflow slots on the top of the Zeus X RTA are slanted at a 45 degree angle and guide the air into the chimney, which also has a smaller chimney section on the inside with dozens of punctured airflow holes positioned right over the coils. Then we have a really interesting build deck that makes installing coil a breeze. the juice should sit right under the build deck, with the cotton leads reaching in to feed juice to the coils. It’s a cool design , but you still have to pay attention when wicking the coils to make sure the deck doesn’t get flooded.

That second chimney I mentioned has two cut-outs at the bottom, which align with a couple of notches on the base of the Zeus X, ensuring that the airflow holes are positioned right over the coil/coils. The thing is that it doesn’t lock in place in any way. You just have to align the notches with the cut-outs, then assembles the rest of the tank. I’ve never had any issues with it falling off or being misaligned, but it does seem a bit loose when you’re putting the whole thing together.

The main quality of the Zeus X build deck is versatility. Thanks to the smart post design, you can easily snip the coil leads under the deck, and it also leaves a lot of free space for the coils, allowing the user to opt for a single or dual coil setup. I opted for the former, but you can easily fit two decent size coils on here. Just make sure to align them in such a way that they don’t touch the chimney that goes over the deck.

As is always the case with RTAs, wicking is crucial to a satisfactory vaping experience. In this case, you want to leave your coil leads long enough so they reach into the juice well under the deck, but only just. Leaving them too long isn’t going to make them wick better, quite the contrary, and cutting them too short means you’ll have to tilt the tank so the e-liquid actually reaches the cotton. It’s really not that hard, but you may need a second try, if you’re a beginner.

All in all, the Zeus X is a nice, robust atomizer which introduces some interesting design ideas, like the slanted airflow slots, the perforated chimney section, as well as a very versatile build deck. It does have a few flaws, or imperfections, if you will, but nothing that can be described as a deal breaker.

How It Vapes

If you can get past its minor shortcomings, you will discover that the GeekVape Zeus X is a rather impressive device. From its “leakproof” qualities to the exceptional flavor it produces, this thing surprised the heck out of me. It’s been a while since I’ve used a top ariflow RTA – if I’m not mistaken the Augvape Intake RTA was the last one I reviewed, and that was last summer – and honestly I’ve never really been a huge fan of them, simply because the flavor I got from then didn’t really live up to my expectations. With the notable exception of the OBS Engine, I always preferred bottom airflow RTA’s. But the Zeus X really is something else.

There is just something about the way the airflow is designed on this tank – with the air coming in through the slots at a 45 degree angle, and hitting the coils through those punctured holes on the inner chimney, and hitting the coils before going up through the chimney and into you mouth – that produces some damn flavorful clouds of vapor. It’s really hard for me to describe just how good it is, but if you’re a flavor chaser like myself, I suggest you give it a try.

Vapor production depends on what kind of build you have installed, but even with just one of the coils included in the kit , at around 40W – 50W, you get plenty of vapor. I’m sure it does even better in dual-coil mode, but I wasn’t curious to try it for myself.

If I were to complain about anything, it would have to be the noise of the draw. The Zeus X’s massive airflow slots can get pretty noisy when they’re wide open, but it’s really not that big of a deal. Plus, you get used it after a while.

Conclusion

I hadn’t used either of the previous Zeus RTAs, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but the new Zeus X really blew me away with its impressive performance. It’s not perfect, not by a long-shot, in fact its iffy top cap and less than perfect machining ma put some users off, but when it comes to flavor, this is definitely one of the best, if not the best top airflow RTA I’ve ever used. It’s definitely a great addition to the series, and if this really is the “final edition”, as it says on the box, at least it’s going out in the blaze of glory.

The GeekVape Zeus X RTA was sent to me for the purpose of this review by VapeSourcing. They currently have it in stock for $32.90, which is a damn good price for such an impressive device.

Tags : GeekVape,GeekVape Zeus X RTA,RTA,tank reviews,Zeus X,Zeus X RTA