It is not really all that complicated, AndriaD. First thing a real electronics technician would have to do when testing a mod is use a power supply that can provide more than enough power for the device. It would need to be external otherwise the analysis is also testing the power cells used. A laboratory bench power supply would be good but something that could output something like 35 Amps at 7.2 volts would be fairly rare and expensive. The reviewers could have used some cell holders for a half dozen lithium cells and built a pack that could deliver the necessary power but no reviewer bothered to do that. The failure to use an adequate power supply to test the device makes them idiots unworthy of testing anything electrical or electronic.
Then there is the problem with the kind of watts Sigelei is using. Back in the 1970s Sears and other companies were specifying instantanious peak watts for audio amplifiers instead of continuous average watts. Peak watts exaggerate the useful output power but it has been a common marketing practice to quote the inflated power ratings for over fifty years. If the reviewer had any real electronics knowledge they would have already known about "marketing watts" because it has never been a secret. it would have been fine if the reviewer mentioned the average watts were lower but to accuse Sigelei of lying when they quote common marketing watts is just crazy. Any technical reviewer that does not know about things that have been common practice in the electronics industry for over half a century should not be reviewing anything.
There is an old saying that "a little learning is a dangerous thing'. Most of these technical reviewers have the least learning about electronics I have ever seen and should stop doing fake technical reviews.
From the pictures it looks like that Sigelei 213 was a nice clean design and the only mod I have seen that used real carbon fibre composite material in the casing instead of a printed sticker. Too bad the sponsored reviewers killed the sales of that mod.
Even if the the actual power of a Sigelei 213 is closer to 150 watts it has never been made clear if the temperature control mode works okay if the power button is used normally and not pulsed. That is the main thing I would want to know about a TC mod before I bought it.
The Evolv DNA 200 specifications are impressive, conanthewarrior, but all mods that use the board are out of my price range. The iSticks are in my price range and I have three different models. An iStick mini was my first mod and all three of mine have given good service and have been completely trouble free.
It would be hard for any mod that uses just two 18650 cells to deliver 213 watts. That would require a current draw of about 30 A while maintaining 7.2 V nominal (assuming the DC-DC converter is 100% efficient). Few real cells can deliver 30+ A without having their voltage output sag considerably. Is there any mod powered by only two standard high-drain 18650 cells that can actually deliver more than 200 watts? It is important to compare like with like.
So 1st off, really enjoying the conversation
A few things I wanted to throw out there again
The idea of testing is to be done at least in my opinion with actual usage. I wouldn't use an external supply. for instance take the DNA200 as you said. with triple batteries it can do 200 watts and with a lipo (which is what it was designed for) it'll do 200 watts, but in dual 18650 mode they taper it down to 133 watts. Now the chip itself can do 200 but they don't advertise that with the dual battery mods. they advertise it 133. the FSK chip according to hohmtech is capable for 260 watts but they limit it to 171 because they aren't in a watt war and advertise at 171. So what a chip can do in certain situations isn't a fair spec to put on it, if the end user never sees it. If the fuchai can do 223 watts with a lipo per se, that is still false advertisements since they build it in a dual 18650 config.
As far as getting 200 watts from dual mods, my hexohm 3.0 clone (which is listed at 180) the battlestar (listed at 200) and the snow wolf 200 plus (listed at 235) all topped out at around 200 watts give or take a few. So they all met or exceeded their limit except the snow wolf. but at least it hit 200. the gbox which is only a 100 watt mod, also hit it's mark. So yes i have tested dual battery mods that did output 200 watts. matter of fact the sig was the only one to fall way short. So if every other mod in the same procedure was able to and that was the only one, it leads me to believe that it's the chip in the 213 and not the testing procedures or batteries since i have been able to get 200 watts out of other dual 18650 mods.
If you are looking for a good performer in your price range, the battlestar is under 40 bucks, does hit 200 watts and does good TC in SS mode. the snow wolf is the same but a little more pricey. i was lucky to get mine for around 45 bucks but i only see them for around 80ish now. There is the G2 which are still 65 bucks and one of the best chip in vaping and mine personal favorite. it's "only" 171 watts but thats more then enough for me and the TC is my favorite of any chip.
As far as temp control goes for the 213 plus, maybe you can adjust enough in the TFR to make it work but just setting it to SS mode it doesn't work for crap and i don't pulse it, i do actual usage and then also hook it up to an oscope and let it dry out cotton and drip on it and see what the meter says it's doing. it failed on the preset SS mode
not only that but the fact it put out exactly the same results when the mod was set to 160 as it did when the mod was set to 223 is very disturbing.
With that said realistically, If you only need 150 watts and don't do temp control, the mod will work fine
