GeekVape Aegis X Review

Following resounding the success of the original GeekVape Aegis 100W and the Aegis Legend mods, the people at GeekVape are keeping the Aegis series alive with the release of a fresh new entry – the Aegis X. This latest member of the Aegis family features the same iconic design and durability, but for the first time introduces a super-large color display that users have been asking for. Let’s take a look at the new GeekVape Aegis X and see if it’s worth your hard-earned money:

A Look at the Contents

For this review I received the GeekVape Aegis X kit, which includes both the latest Aegis vape mod and the Cerberus sub-ohm tank which has been around for a while now. The kit comes in the classic GeekVape packaging – a black and orange cardboard box featuring a picture of the device on the front, and a short description, technical specification, a list of contents and manufacturer contact information on the back.

Inside the box, we have the Aegis X mod sitting snug in a Styrofoam holder, and underneath that we have the Cerberus tank, the user manual, a box of accessories (extra glass tube, o-rings and a sub-ohm coil head for the tank, as well as micro-USB cable, a backup rubber plug for the micro-USB port, and extra screws for the mod), a warranty card and a plastic foil that you can stick on the large 2.4″ display to protect it from scratches.

It’s a very generous kit, to be honest, so kudos to GeekVape for thinking about pretty much everything!

Design and Build Quality

The GeekVape Aegis X measures 129mm x 41mm x 31.5mm, and is made primarily of zinc alloy covered in a rubber coating to better handle shocks. It comes in various color combinations, from classics like red and black, to gunmetal and camo.

Design-wise, the Aegis X is not much different than the Aegis Legend (except for the much larger display); it has the same general design, complete with the metal frame holding that nice stitched leather handle in place, same style battery door, and the same style of buttons. There are some more subtle differences worth mentioning, though, like the fact that the Aegis X features bevelled edges and corners, making it more comfortable in the hand, and that the new rubberized coating isn’t such a dust magnet anymore.

But the biggest change GeekVape has made in the Aegis X is the display. Users had previously complained about the small, outdated screens on the Aegis 100W and the Aegis Legend, and the Chinese manufacturer clearly took the criticism to heart. The newest entry in the Aegis line has a massive 2.4″ color screen, multiple themes and colors to choose from, as well as a complex menu (too complex, in my opinion, but more on that later). It looks more like the touchscreen of a small smartphone, but this is not a capacitive display, just a gorgeous-looking one.

The thing that always set Aegis mods apart from the competition was their marketed durability. Their IP67 rating means that they are supposed to be waterproof, dust-proof and shockproof. That hardly makes them indestructible, but you can expect them to handle accidental drops much better than regular vape mods, and you don’t have to worry about e-liquid leaks affecting your device. The Aegis X has the same IP67 rating, but that huge display really has me worried.

It’s not that I doubt the Aegis X’s waterproof and dust-proof rating, it’s the shocks that I’m not convinced it can handle. I only received one sample for review, and I didn’t want to risk damaging it before completing the review, but the screen’s plastic cover doesn’t look like it can take too much punishment. It’s thick, I’ll give it that but I still think it’s a liability. That said, this mod isn’t made for throwing around like a brick. It can handle abuse better than the average gadget, but it’s not indestructible.

At the top, we have the same 510 connection as on the Aegis Legend, only this time around the edge of the top plate is rounded off. You can still get away with large atomizers up to 28mm in diameter with just minimal overhang, but 30mm attys will look weird. This is where you’ll find the micro-USB port as well, covered by a thick rubber plug that prevents water and dust from getting inside the mod.

The fire button and the two + and – buttons are very similar to the ones on the previous GeekVape Aegis mods, and the metallic plate they are located on has a strange angled shape that kind of makes it look like it’s been bent. The buttons are made of plastic, but they are very clicky, have no rattle at all and feel durable.

The battery door has the same latch mechanism as the Aegis Legend, so you just have to pull on the latch on the bottom of the device and the battery door will spring up, revealing the battery compartments. The battery door itself is very thick, has polarity indicators on the inside, as well some venting holes. The battery loading bays are lined with plastic and feature polarity indicators at the bottom. If you still insert batteries the wrong way, it’s on you, but luckily the mod has reverse polarity protection, so you should be fine.

The iconic metallic plate around that soft leather section looks better than ever, with a nice matte finish and large screws holding it in place, and the rubberized coating of the mod feels smoother than on the Aegis Legend. It’s also cleaner, thankfully, as it no longer seems to attract any spec of dust it comes in contact with. Hopefully, it does a good job protecting the device against shocks too.

All in all, the new GeekVape Aegis X stays true both to the general design of the previous two iterations and to their build quality. If anything, the quality has actually improved a bit, while the IP67 rating has remained the same, despite the implementation of a gigantic TFT color display.

Menu System and Navigation

The previous Aegis mods had a rather rudimentary menu system, if you could even call it that. There was no actual menu to go into, everything was done on the home screen, through repeated clicks of the fire button and the adjustment buttons. GeekVape mods have never excelled in this department, to be honest – the Nova mod was just as simplistic – but the Aegis X wants to change that, and actually succeeds, but at a cost.

Simply put, the menu system and navigation of the new GeekVape Aegis X is way to complicated even for seasoned users. I myself struggled with it for a few minutes at first, and needed to check the manual to figure some things out. The problem is that even the manual has some funky language that makes it hard to understand sometimes. Still, I’ll do my best to explain how things work.

First of all, to turn the device on and off, you have to do the classic five-press of the fire button combination. You’ll see the GeekVape logo show up on screen, and then you are presented with a huge color layout. It’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

To go into mode selection, you have to press the fire button three times. This won’t take you into a proper menu, but the current mode you are in – displayed  at the top of the screen, under the battery indicators – will change color. If you press the + or – buttons, you will be able to browse through the four programmable memory modes, and if you quick-press the fire button, you can move the highlighter further down, going through the different modes – Power Mode, Bypass Mode, VTC (power curves), Temperature control for stainless steel, nickel and titanium and TCR – three different preheat settings, coil resistance, puff counter and wattage (only in temp. control modes). If you long-press the fire button at any time, you exit mode selection.

Mode selection is pretty much all you need to know about in order to use the GeekVape Aegis X to its full capacity, but if you want to get into the cool customization options as well as some interesting extra settings, there is a proper menu that you can access. The problem is that accessing it can be quite confusing. You need to keep the – and + buttons pressed for a couple of seconds, but only while you are in Mode Selection (press the fire button three times). If you press the two buttons on the home screen, it will just lock the – and + buttons. I had a hard time figuring that out at first, but luckily the manual gave me the clues I needed, although it doesn’t explain things very clearly.

On the main menu page you can turn the Auto function on or off – this allows you to turn off Automatic Resistance Detection, so you can input the resistance of the atomizer yourself, something I don’t recommend – change the theme of the home screen (you get three futuristic designs to choose from), change the color of the screen, check the version of the hardware and software, deactivate the ABB function, and reset the mod to factory settings.

The ABB function (Automatic Battery Balancing), balances the load on the two 18650 batteries, so if you have one fully loaded battery and another that’s almost depleted, the mod will apparently “balance your batteries in the new Aegis X by sharing some of the charges from the highest charged battery to battery that’s got the least charge”, according to a GeekVape post on Facebook. Not sure how this works, exactly, but it’s an interesting concept.

All in all, the GeekVape Aegis X menu and navigation are not the best I’ve ever fiddled with, but they are definitely a lot better than on previous Aegis mods, offering a lot more customization options and a cooler-looking layout. Still, I wish they’d have made it less complicated.

Battery Life and Performance

The Aegis X is powered by two 18650 batteries – not included in the kit – and features the 2.0 version of GeekVape’s AS chip, which should manage battery life better than the old chip. Still, how long batteries last in a device like this varies on a variety of factors, from the capacity of the batteries, to the power output of the mod, and your personal style of vaping. It’s impossible to make a proper estimation, but if you don’t go over 100W, I’d say two Sony VTC5 A batteries should last most vapers about a day, at least.

The Aegis X features a concealed micro-USB port next to the 510 connection, but you would be wise to use an external charger most of the time, and leave the on-board charging for emergencies only.

Performance-wise, there isn’t much I can say about the GeekVape Aegis X that I haven’t already said about most of the advanced vape mods I’ve reviewed in the last couple of years. It fires instantly, resistance reading is pretty accurate, protections against short-circuits and reverse battery polarity work as advertised, and power output in wattage mode seems accurate as well. It’s a solid mod, and the updated As chipset makes it even faster than the previous Aegis mods.

I have been using the Aegis X for three weeks now – not exclusively, though – and so far I’ve had no issues with it whatsoever. It doesn’t innovate in any way as far as performance goes, but it does everything well, so I can’t really fault it at all.

The Tank

The included Cerberus tank has been around for a while, so it’s a tried an true sub-ohm atomizer, but it doesn’t really stand out in any way. That’s probably why GeekVape decided to put it in this kit, to ensure that it didn’t outshine their new vape mod, while at the same time deliver decent performance.

The Cerberus features top filling, and has a capacity of 4ml with the standard glass tube, and 5.5ml with the bubble glass. It has adjustable airflow at the bottom, and comes with two GeekVape Super Mesh X1 coil-heads rated at 0.2Ω resistance. The coil-heads perform well, if you like hot, flavorful vapor and lots of it. The coils are rated at 30W – 90W, but they really work best in the 70W-80W range, in my opinion.

For a relatively small sub-ohm tank, the GeekVape Cerberus is a bit on the loud side, especially with the airflow wide open, but let’s be honest, a lot of sub-ohm tank have this issue. Plus, it’s just a sound problem, because the vape itself is actually surprisingly smooth.

All in all, a solid sub-ohm tank to have in your collection, but nothing to write home about.

Conclusion

Having used both the GeekVape Aegis 100W and the Aegis Legend, I can honestly say that the Chinese manufacturer has been making progress over the years. First they upgraded from single battery to dual battery, and now they’ve listened to fans and implemented one of the nicest color displays I’ve ever seen on a mod. Other than that, the IP67 rating remains the same, and the performance is about the same as before.

So is the Aegis X worth it if you have one of the older Aegis mods? Definitely, if only because of the gorgeous, customizable display. I definitely consider myself lucky to have it in my collection. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the nicer mods I own, for sure.

The GeekVape Aegis X kit was sent to me by Sourcemore, for the purpose of this review. They currently have it in stock for just $50.99.

Tags : Aegis vape mod,Aegis X,GeekVape,GeekVape Aegis,GeekVape Aegis X,IP67 mod,mod reviews