Review: Vaporesso Gemini RTA


Imagine this for a second: It’s a warm, sunny summers day. The smell of freshly cut grass and barbeque fills the air. You can hear people laughing and your neighbor is playing Pumped Up Kicks while having beer and playing ping pong in the shade next to the pool.

You hear an ice-cream truck approaching from a distance, getting closer and closer and you go fetch your wallet in the house. It comes to a standstill right in front of your house and you notice that they have Chocolate Brownie flavor ice-cream. It’s a bit more expensive than the other regular flavors but it looks amazing so you don’t mind paying a little extra. As you watch the ice cream man slowly swirl it onto a freshly toasted sugar cone, you’re the happiest you’ve been since your girlfriend dumped you last summer. He finally hands it to you… You don’t waste another second. You’ve waited long enough. You take a huge bite and IT TURNS OUT TO BE GORILLA SH*T. WITH PIECES OF NUTS AND CORN IN. As you spit it out in disgust, the ice cream man flips you off as he drives away laughing.

This is my experience with the Gemini.

I was so excited from the moment I first saw it, I could hardly contain myself. Those big juice holes. The top airflow. The huge velocity deck. It had everything I wanted. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to be at the time, it also had the one thing I hated: A sh*tty, rushed, half-assed design flaw. Something so easily unavoidable it begs the question “Was the concept developed by a genius and the actual final design done by an asshole?”

Lest we jump into the pro’s and cons:

PROS

This device is not only sleek and beautifully finished, but it boasts every feature a modern day RTA should have and the best version thereof. The velocity deck is huge compared to that of the Crius for instance, as are the juice holes. Airflow is incredible and even a bit overwhelming if you’re not used to taking large breaths. I ran full open at the bottom and half open at the top and that was perfect for me. The wide bore delrin drip tip is not too big and doesn’t give you that Greyhound-bus-exhaust feeling, and the 510 adapter fits flush and snugly in the wide bore hole should you wish to use it that way instead. Some people complain that it guzzles juice, but I think that’s a pro rather than a con. A RDA also guzzles juice. That’s why it’s so awesome. You want to build big and consume small? Nothing in life works like that. Buy a Twisp. This thing is made for chasing with a tank.

While it’s working, it works like a charm. Even though it only holds a fairly small amount of juice thanks to the large build deck diameter, I would not go so far as to say that it’s an uncomfortably small amount. It’s more than enough for me to take to work and still have a bit left when I get home without ever refilling (24ga 3.0mm 8wrap duals @ 45W-50W)

CONS

Holy sh*t. If I designed a fighter jet and it had every bell and whistle imaginable but no engine, people would look at it in stunned, confused silence. Fully automatic flight, target acquisition and AI smart enough to make split second critical decisions that could save the lives of millions! But it can’t go anywhere, because it has no f*cking engine.

This is the Gemini in a nutshell. After all of those amazing features that had vapers worldwide drooling in anticipation, they pull this shit.

a) The post screws: Huge build deck with massive post holes to throw on those claptons you’ve always wanted on a tank, yet you have to tighten the screws with only your eyelids or they strip, irreparably. Not the screws, the thread in the posts becomes inconceivably f*cked. This due to the combination of ill-fitting grub screws (I managed to resurrect one post hole by trying another screw) and a 0.1 micron stainless steel wall that expands when tightening beefier leads

b) This is my absolute favorite: The geniuses at Vaporesso press-fitted the velocity style deck into the base of the atty, i.e. it’s permanently fitted and cannot be removed without severely damaging the atomizer. Unfortunately, BOTH the negative and positive posts are held in place by screws, the ends of which are situated… where? You guessed it, in the base, unreachable by any tool known to man. But wait, it gets better! While the negative post is screwed directly to the deck from the bottom, the positive post is press-fitted loosely through the deck into a retainer with a floating plastic washer located in the inaccessible base, attached to the gold plated center pin screw! If you remove that screw, it loosens the positive post and you’re f*cked. If you tighten that screw, it pulls the retainer off the positive post and you’re f*cked. Basically, if you touch that screw, you’re f*cked, and because they made it longer than a elephant’s cock, it completely f*cks up your spring loaded center pin on your mod (or at least it did on my Cuboid).

SUMMARY

I mentioned this is a mail to Vaporesso and explained that my R600 atty is now useless AF after all this sh*t, and what did they say?

Quote:
“Sorry, some rarely happened before. Now we have solved this problem. We are responsible for our products.”

I rest my case. I won’t buy another. Viva Crius.

Disclaimer: (1) This review was written not long after the Gemini failed on me, and as such my feeling of dismay was still pretty fresh, hence what could be referred to as a “raw” review. (2) The version of Gemini that I had was most likely one of the early batches which were still very buggy. While I am certain that the design did not change, Vaporesso did confirm that the post holes stripping has been remedied in new versions.


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