Anthony Vapes: Aspire Nautilus AIO Pod Kit Review

[SirRichardRear]

Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Aspire Nautilus AIO Pod Kit, please see the bottom for disclaimers and links. Note this is not marked as a sample version.

Introduction:
The Aspire Nautilus AIO Pod is the latest Pod Kit from popular vape manufacturer Aspire. They been around a long time in vaping and are pretty popular and well liked in the community. I haven’t reviewed a ton of their products lately, in 2018 i think just the puxos, breeze 2, spryte, skystar and, feedlink and for the most part they make really good products especially pod systems. The Nautilus AIO is a rectangle style AIO Pod system like a breeze 2 or innokin EQ with refillable pods and a built in 1000mah battery and is press button to fire. It feels like the spiritual successor to the breeze 2 in looks and design. It’s available in 6 colors Black, Purple, Jade, Red, Blue and Silver. Elementvape has them for 26.95 all colors in stock so good price point. Replacement coils are pretty cheap as well 9.95 to 11.95 for a 5 pack and replacement pods are only 4.95 and come with 1 coil as well so really good prices on replacement coils and pods.

Manufacturer's Specs:

• Dimensions - 87.5mm by 37mm by 21mm
• 4.5mL Maximum Juice Capacity
• Integrated 1000mAh Rechargeable Battery
• Constant Output Wattage: 12W
• Single Fire Button Operation - LED Backlit Light
• Soft-Touch Satin Finish
• Snap-In Connection - Pod Release Button
• Adjustable Airflow System
• Protective Drip Tip Top Cap
• Bottom-Fill System - Silicone Plug
• Aspire (BVC) Bottom Vertical Coil Technology - Nautilus
• 1.8ohm Nautilus BVC Coil - Rated for 10-14W
• 1.8ohm Nautilus BVC NS Coil - Rated for 10-12W (Optimized for Nic Salts)
• Bottom Ventilation Hole
• Micro USB Charging Port - 1A Max Current
• Available in Blue, Green Jade, Silver, Black, Red, Purple

Included in box:

• 1 Nautilus AIO Device
• 2 1.8ohm BVC Coils
• 2 Extra O-Rings
• 1 Silicone Seal
• 1 Micro USB Cable
• 1 Warranty Card
• 1 User Manual

Coil Options

• 1.8ohm Nautilus BVC Coil
• 1.8ohm Nautilus BVC NS Coil (green o-ring)

Picture Album
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Kit Rundown
The Aspire Nautilus AIO is a rectangle style AIO (all in one) Pod kit, meaning there isn’t a separate mod or tank that can be used with anything else. It does have replaceable pods so you can carry spares, but those are sold separately and the coils themselves are replaceable inside the pod much like the aspire breeze 2 or Smok Nord. It’s a pretty small size all things considered and comparable to the breeze 2 and Smok Nord and innokin EQ in sizing and shape. There is adjustable air as well like most of the aspire pods like the breeze 2 and spryte which is pretty cool. It has a large capacity of 4.5 ml. It doesn't look like it does but i measured it with a syringe and sure enough it does hold 4.5ml with the coil already installed and primed. The battery is listed at 1000mah so pretty good size based on the size of the device itself and one of the larger capacities in a pod system i’ve seen. No complaints there. It features built in USB charging where they list a max limit of 1A charging. I tested this 4 times with 2 different inline USB meters and for the charge rate it bounces around a bit but stays between .4 and .79 mostly so not true 1A but good enough for the rating and mostly charges around .76 to .79A. Battery size wise my 4 tests had results between 832 mah and 905 mah so slightly overrated but nothing too crazy and still quite a good size for a pod system. It charges in about 1.75 hours. Nothing way overstated form what they list it as which is all i’m looking for so good ratings. It does have passthrough vaping as well which is great. The drip tip is proprietary and part of the pod itself. The Nautilus AIO is very nicely built but a bit lightweight due to the plastic body instead of a metal body. The coloring is also nice. I got the blue one which is like a nice sky blue and not shiny but not matte either. Somewhere in between. It’s showing no signs of wear and looks good. I also know fo complaints about the plastic clips that hold the pods in breaking from people on this and the breeze 2. Both of mine are not broken still. I went ahead to stress it by removing and putting it back in 60 times in a row. Which based on the large fill capacity would be 2 to 4 months of refilling under normal use for most and the clips have no issues so my best guess is they break from multiple drops. I went ahead and dropped it a few times as well and they still didn’t break. So i think it’s much more user abuse than an actual issue with the device itself.

The Pod itself should be easy to to fill but oddly isn’t. I’ll explain in a bit. The pods attach to the battery via a clip in system and are easy to get in and out and fit really well so good job there and fit it nicely with no wiggle or play. To remove the pod just squeeze in the 2 buttons on the side to release it and it pops out. To fill them it uses a standard rubber plug you remove to fill and the fill hole is large enough to use with a fine tip bottle easily. The rubber plug though is easy to get out but the side that is supposed to stay in to hold it on the pod doesn't stay in well and gets in the way. I found it easier to remove the entire plug and put it back in when done. Also with AFC the coil screws into gets in the way of the bottle so you can only insert the tip a little and you have to angle it to try and prevent juice from bubbling back and it still bubbles back a little. It’s easy to fill with a syringe but that shouldn’t be needed. With a bottle it’s much harder to fill then most pods.

Usage is pretty easy. It’s a simple fire button device with just the 1 button and no modes or anything. You can click fire 5 times to turn on and off. It’s direct output but you don’t notice much of a drop off until it’s really low. There is a large bright LED that is easy to see through the fire button. It’s only on when vaping and lets you know the battery charge. Blue and Orange (looks purple) means 3.8V or more, Blue means 3.5V to 3.8V and Orange means below 3.5V. It cuts off at 3.2V. Good enough battery meter not great but not bad. The pod is also fully exposed so easy to see juice level for the most part but is tinted quite dark so hard to see in some lighting. I really wish companies would stop tinting pods. IDK how many times i have to say this.

 

[SirRichardRear]

Coil Performance and details
The Nautilus AIO Kit comes with 2 coils which is great. All kits should always include 2 coils/pods, so happy they did as a lot of them seem not to. No spare pod but you can buy those seperate if you please if you wanted to carry a spare. There are 2 total coil options. A 1.8 ohm BVC Coil, a 1.8 ohm NS BVC coil (green o-ring). They list both wire types as Ni80 as well. The “NS” coil stands for nic salts i wish companies didn’t buy into this labeling as it confuses people and both coils are made for high mg nicotine which includes nic salts but also freebase as well. The NS is their new coil while the non NS coil is an older coil from their other products in the nautilus line. I do like how aspire keeps their coils compatible with other devices and continues to support them. Both coils come in the kit as well.

Performance wise though i used both coils in the kit. I used all 50/50 and 60/40 nic salt juices 20-25 mg nicotine. I started with the NS BVC coil and and with the air turned down a lot it’s a nice solid MTL vape. Flavor was good though not great. Below the breeze 2 coils about even with the spryte coils so a “tier 2” nothing wrong with that. Life wise though it only lasted 9 ml of juice so a bit below my personal minimum standards and quite below several other pods i’ve used. Then i used the BVC one. The vape on this is isn’t much different if any different from the NS coil. Lifewise though it fared a little better with a respectable 14-15 ml so good enough life. I usually look for around 10 ml per coil from pod devices and one of these coils exceeded that slightly and the other failed to reach it. Flavor is a “tier two” as in not one of the best i’ve used for a pod system but still more than good enough. The pricing structure is also quite cheap at around 2-3 bucks per coil replacement and the replacement pods are only around 5 bucks and come with 1 coil.

Pros:

• color options (6 total)
• Great 4.5 ml capacity
• Good build quality on battery
• nice simple looks
• good paint job
• small size for easy portability
• Passthrough Vaping
• good enough ratings for battery size and charge rate
• good flavor for a pod system
• pods are easy to remove and install as are coils
• good enough battery meter that is easy to see
• comes with 2 coils
• very large battery
• price point for device and coils
• coil options (2 options)

Cons:

• Juice level a little hard to see due to pod tinting
• coil life should be better
• filling pods is harder than it should be

Conclusion
So with all that said, do I recommend this POD kit or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one leans a little towards the no for me. It’s not a bad device, it just feels like a newer version of the breeze 2 that doesn't perform as good as that one and is even bested by the spryte as far as coil life goes. Aspire makes some good stuff but this feels like a step back and I feel you’d be better off with a breeze 2 or spryte if you wanted and aspire pod over this one. I won’t be adding this to my spreadsheet of recs which is linked below.

This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.

Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Elementvape

Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.

Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done around 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.

Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here

Spreadsheet of Recommendations here

Best of 2018 list here

Best of 2017 list here