Stentorian Basilisk 200W Review
Resin mods are all the rage these days, and the Stentorian Basilisk 200W box mod is one of the best looking ones on the market. Unlike other resin mods, which only feature a few resin-made design details, the Basilisk is made primarily of resin, and because of the way this stuff is made, no two devices look exactly the same. On the other, hand, the Basilisk doesn’t seem particularly impressive in terms of functionality, especially due to the complete lack of temperature control. So is it worth the hefty price tag? Read my review and find out.
In case the “Stentorian” brand doesn’t ring any bells, the company is actually a sister brand of Wotofo, a Chinese manufacturer known primarily for innovative tanks and RDAs, like the Serpent Mini.
A Look at the Contents
The Stentorian Basilisk mod comes in a large cardboard box with a clear plastic lid that offers a clear view of the gorgeous device inside. Underneath the Basilisk, you’ll also find a small zip bag with the user manual (in multiple languages) and a bunch of small plastic disks. These are supposed to be placed underneath your atomizer to act as a buffer between it and the metallic finish of the mod and prevent scratching.
You’ll notice that the micro-USB cable is missing from the box. The Stentorian Basilisk doesn’t even feature a USB port, so you can forget about on-board battery charging and software updates.
Design and Build Quality
This is without a doubt the strong point of the Stentorian Basilisk. If you’re a fan of resin mods, there’s no way you’re not going to love the look and feel of this thing. It’s about 80% resin, with only the top and bottom plates and the small control panel on one side made of zinc alloy.
Basically, the whole thing is one big piece resin, with the metallic plates attached to it with metallic screws. That makes it a fantastic showpiece, but it also poses some risk in case of accidents. I haven’t dropped it yet, luckily, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I did. The Basilisk is primarily made of a hard plastic, so I imagine the risk of it cracking or at least the metallic plates coming off is pretty high. For this reason, I’ve been really careful with it these last couple of weeks, and I suggest you do the same.
The resin looks simply amazing, and is super smooth to the touch, so if you’re a fan, I guess the risks of spending a considerable amount of money on a somewhat fragile device is worth it. The resin currently comes in five different colors, each of which are actually combinations of various colors. My sample was labeled yellow, but it’s actually an abstract combination of green, yellow and purple. Because of how the resin casting process is done, no two devices are exactly the same.
The Basilisk is a classic box mod. It has a rectangular design with rounded edges and slightly beveled corners for improved ergonomics. That means that even though the corners look sharp, they won’t burrow into the palm of your hand while you’re holding it, like those of the new VooPoo Alpha One, for example.
The device measures 85 mm x 55 mm x 26 mm, which puts it in the mid-sized category of mods. However, for a dual-18650 battery device, the Basilisk is on the large side. It’s definitely larger than say the SMOK Procolor or the Wismec Predator, and due to its classic rectangular shape, it’s not as comfortable in the hand as those devices either.
The 510 connection features a gold-plated pin and accommodates atomizers up to 26 mm in diameter without any overhang. I recommend you use those plastic disks included in the box, if you want to keep the Basilisk looking pristine, because the zinc alloy plate on the top scratches very easily. The connection is flush on the mod – mine is actually to be a hair lower than the plate, actually – so the risk of the atomizer leaving a circular scratching pattern on the mod is very high.
The battery door on the bottom of the Stentorian Basilisk is one of the best I’ve seen on a dual-18650 mod. It’s hinged, and that’s always a plus for me, but it’s also very easy to open and close with minimal effort. Just use your thumb to slide it outward and it will just pop up. Once you’re done inserting the batteries, after checking the polarity symbols on the inside of the battery door, just press down on the door, slide it in and you’re done. It’s really simple and there’s no rattling at all.
Finally, the control panel on the Basilisk 200W mod has a classic layout, with a large circular power button near the top, two adjustment buttons at the bottom, and a large rectangular OLED screen in the middle. I love the display they used on this device, everything is large and easily visible, but it’s not as bright as I would like it to be, I don’t know if it has a tinted protective screen, or if the screen just isn’t very bright, but I suspect it won’t be very visible in bright sunlight, and there’s no way to adjust the brightness from the menu either.
Menu System and Navigation
The Stentorian Basilisk is a very simplistic dual-battery mod and the menu system mirrors that perfectly. You only have a handful of options and everything is done on the home screen, instead of having to go into a complicated menu.
The mod can be turned on and off with five quick presses of the fire button. If you want to flip the orientation of the screen, just press the fire button and the “-” adjustment button at the same time, but keep in mind that the “-” and “+” buttons won’t change with the screen.
By pressing the fire button and the “+” button, you can choose between three pre-heat levels. There’s “Standard”, “Powerful”, “Powerful+” and “Rebuild”. The first three are similar to the pre-heat options on SMOK devices like the T-Priv, allowing you to bump up the power for the first couple of seconds of the draw to get your coils hot faster. As far as I am concerned “Standard” is pretty much useless, because the ramp up takes so long, even with simple coils, that the vape is almost always unsatisfying. I only use the Basilisk in “Powerful”, and when using beefy exotic coils, I switch to “Powerful+”.
The “Rebuild” mode is basically what most vapers refer to as “Power Curves” mode. It basically lets you set the wattage for the first six seconds of the draw, in one second increments. You adjust the wattage with the “-” and “+” buttons, then jump to the next second with the fire button. When you’re done, just long-press the fire button and press either “-” or “+” to return to the home screen.
Rebuild mode seems to reproduce the set wattage levels for the first six seconds very accurately, but there’s something strange about it that I just don’t understand. If you vape for longer than six seconds, it just round-robins through the curves, which makes no sense. Most devices just go through all the set curves and if you vape for more than the number of set seconds, they just hold that last wattage input for the rest of the draw. This one just goes through the whole wattage graph on a loop until you reach the 12-second cut-off.
I for one never draw for more than six seconds, so the weird implementation of the Rebuild mode doesn’t really bother me, but for those who do, I think it would have been much better to bump the number of adjustable seconds from six to ten and not have it round-robin.
Since the Stentorian Basilisk doesn’t feature temperature-control functionality or firmware upgrading, that’s really all there is to the menu. It’s probably the simplest advanced mod I’ve ever used, from this standpoint.
Battery Life and Overall Performance
Battery life depends on a variety of factors, like the capacity of your 18650 batteries, the wattage you are vaping at and how often you are using it, so it’s virtually impossible for me to offer an accurate estimate. What I will say is that the lack of temperature control and other options we usually see on advanced mods may actually increase the battery life of your Stentorian Basilisk, because the board doesn’t have to use as much power monitoring. Personally, I haven’t noticed a big difference compared to the battery life of my other dual-battery vaporizers, but it’s theoretically possible.
One thing I have to say is that the battery life indicator on the Basilisk’s display is pretty much useless. I don’t know how they ended up going with it for the retail version of the mod because it just sucks. First of all, it’s just one indicator for both batteries, so there’s no way to tell if one depletes faster than the other. But that’s not even the worst part. The percentages it shows make absolutely no sense. For example, I have been using the Stentorian Basilisk pretty heavily for the last 4 hours, and the battery life indicator still shows 100%. There’s no way that’s accurate.
From what I’ve noticed, the battery indicator will display 100% for a really long time, than drop to around 70% all of a sudden and keep dropping dramatically after that. It just makes no sense so I don’t pay any attention to it.
As far as vaping performance goes, the Stentorian Basilisk is actually pretty darn impressive. It activates the battery and gets your coil sizzling as soon as you press the fire button, but just make sure to switch from Standard to Powerful or Powerful+ to get a sense of just how instant the firing is.
The power output feel very accurate as well, and even though I would never vape at 200W, according to Daniel DJLsb Vapes, the Basilisk can actually reach that output in certain conditions (right battery voltage and low enough atomizer resistance).
The only gripe I have regarding performance is that the atomizer reading on the display keeps fluctuating by around 0.2Ω. It’s not a huge deal, but it definitely shouldn’t be this unstable.
Conclusion
The Stentorian Basilisk 200W is among the best-looking resin mods on the market today, but just keep in mind that it is a bare-bones device, as far as advanced mods go. It doesn’t have temperature control functionality, doesn’t support firmware updates and doesn’t even feature a micro-USB port for on-board battery charging. If you just want it as a showpiece, by all means, go ahead and buy it, but if you’re looking for an all around great dual-battery mod, there are definitely better options out there.
Last but not least, the price is not exactly a big draw either. The Basilisk is currently priced at over $100 on most online shops, which is probably way over the budget of most vapers. But then again, I like to think of it as a collector’s item, so maybe for some people it’s worth it.
