Just a note, if you want to find out really quick my overall conclusion you can scroll down to the Pros and Cons section and Conclusion to save you some time.
I was sent this by Heaven Gifts for the purpose of this review: https://www.heavengifts.com/product/ETALIENS-ET-X3-MOD.html
You get the mod of course, a rubber 18650 adapter, 1 Meter long mesh covered USB cable with ETALIENS on one end, Users Guide and rubber sleeve that is already installed. The Users guide does not tell you much, just gives you some specs and a bunch of warnings.
I received the Gun Metal first and right out off the box I was impressed. With the sleeve on there is no button rattle but with it off there is a good amount of button rattle, mostly from the up and down buttons.
The finish is phenomenal, looks to be electroplated, I even hit the bottom a few times to see if I could chip it and nothing. I then decided to drop it onto the concrete at 4 feet to see if it would chip, all I got was this small scratch:
The battery cap is smooth and easy to get on compared to my Hcigar VT75, just have to back the threads till they catch but never had any problems.
The 510 looks to be of nice quality, appears to be a brass center pin with stainless steel threading and decent amount of travel. All my tanks sat nice and flush and I had no connection problems. I did open up to check and it is held on with a nut so no press fit nonsense here.
You are limited to 26mm tanks, any bigger and you will need to use a 510 adapter to raise it up over the back lip.
Buttons are nice and clicky but on the Gunmetal I could get the fire button to stick every so often, never happened in normal use with the Matte Black but if you press and push down you can get it to stick.
The Gunmetal was the one I was using at first and was to be the one I based my review on. Within the first day I felt something was off, battery life was horrible and I kept getting "Too Hot" warnings. I do recall the outer packaging when I received the Gunmetal to be pretty beat up but the box inside looked OK. I did have an extra Matte black one so I opened one up to compare and that one is working fine, not having the same problems as the Gunmetal so I will just chalk up the gunmetal to have gotten damaged in shipping with how the outer packaging looked to be roughed up.
If you didn't know this is with there new proprietary 100W chip, they are no longer using the DNA75 and I believe that is no longer available. The new chip is pretty basic, only Kanthal (Power Mode), Ti, Ni and SS316 TC modes. 3 clicks to get into the menu, 5 clicks to lock and unlock the mod. Press and hold the up and down buttons to flip the screen and that's it. No TCR mode which would be nice to have.
With a fresh iJoy 26650 I was able to hit what felt like 100 watts with a 0.25 ohm build compared to my DNA167 and SXmini G Class. The display will actually tell you what power it is providing and goes down as the battery drains. When I used a fresh Basen 26650 the display read 93 watts and went down the more puffs I took, you definitely want to use the iJoy if your looking to run at higher wattages. I did try a single Sony VTC5A with it as well and was able to get 100 watts when fresh of the charger. With a older Samsung 30Q it limited me to about 75 to 83 watts with it set to 100 watts.
If you are vaping at 100 watts I can get too hot messages if I am chain vaping especially with lower ohm coils. This is not the mod you want to use with a high powered tank like the TFV8 or 12. I would not use any single 26650 mod with those tanks anyway, wrong tool for the job IMO.
If you are switching tanks I found that it is best to remove the prior tank, fire it so you get the " No Atomizer" warning and it clears the previous ohms. Allow 20 seconds for the screen to shut off then install the next atty and press the fire button. This was the best way to get an accurate reading on the ohms, if you attach the atty when the screen is on it will usually read it high. An example is when I was comparing the ohms of various tanks to my 521 tab and Think Vape Finder DNA167 to the ET Alien. on a 0.51 ohm coil that both devices read the same the ET Alien would read it at 0.56 but if I cleared the ohms and let the screen timeout then it read 0.53. The higher the ohms the more off it was, a 0.82 coil read 0.86 but it was really close with lower coils. 0.17 read the same on all devices and 0.26 read as 0.27 on the ET Alien.
Overall in power mode I was happy with the performance compared to my other single 26650 mods. A preheat would be nice but it fired pretty quick so no real complaints there.
Overall I have been pretty happy with it in SS316 TC, it just runs a little hot depending on the build and is a little inconsistent. With a dual SS316L Clapton build in my Smoant Battlestar RTA it is about 20f too hot compared to my Think Vape Finder DNA167 and SXmini G Class. I get a nice smooth vape from it and can vape the tank dry at 410f with no burnt hits. With my Pharoah RTA and it's big single coil 4mm ID Triple Core Fused Clapton ohming out at .44 I have to drop the temp to 390f to avoid a burnt hit. It does read higher ohm coils a little off though so that might be why it is inconsistent with the Pharoah's 0.44 build, it read it at 0.46 and sometimes 0.48.
I would say the TC is pretty close to other mods in it's price range like the Smoant Battlestar and Charon, Laisimo SnowWolf Plus to name a few. As we all know there are a lot of terrible TC devices out there but this is not one of them and I used it in TC 85% of the time.
One odd quirk is if you are in SS316 TC mode and change the battery when the mod comes back on it will be in Ti TC mode, happened every time I changed the battery. It is noticeable when you take your first draw since the TCR value of Ti is a lot higher compared to SS316.
To change the temp you need to click the fire button 3 times, select the temp mode you are using again and then it will give you the temp to adjust. Once you hit the fire button it goes back to just allowing you to adjust the power.
I have been pleased with the battery life compared to my other 26650 mods. If I keep it around 50 to 65 watts I can get most of the day out of it. I measured the battery volts after getting the weak battery warning and it was 3.4V on the nose.
I was sent this by Heaven Gifts for the purpose of this review: https://www.heavengifts.com/product/ETALIENS-ET-X3-MOD.html
Specs
- Size: 100.5 x 78.2 x 36.6mm
- Battery: 26650/18650(continuous discharge current ≥ 30A)
- Input Voltage: 3.3-4.2V
- Output Mode: WV/SS-TC/Ni-TC/Ti-TC
- Temperature Control: 200-600°F(100℃-315℃)
- Output Range: 7-100W
- Resistance Range: 0.1-5ohm (power mode), 0.1-1ohm (TC mode)
What's in the box
You get the mod of course, a rubber 18650 adapter, 1 Meter long mesh covered USB cable with ETALIENS on one end, Users Guide and rubber sleeve that is already installed. The Users guide does not tell you much, just gives you some specs and a bunch of warnings.
Build Quality
I received the Gun Metal first and right out off the box I was impressed. With the sleeve on there is no button rattle but with it off there is a good amount of button rattle, mostly from the up and down buttons.
The finish is phenomenal, looks to be electroplated, I even hit the bottom a few times to see if I could chip it and nothing. I then decided to drop it onto the concrete at 4 feet to see if it would chip, all I got was this small scratch:
The battery cap is smooth and easy to get on compared to my Hcigar VT75, just have to back the threads till they catch but never had any problems.
The 510 looks to be of nice quality, appears to be a brass center pin with stainless steel threading and decent amount of travel. All my tanks sat nice and flush and I had no connection problems. I did open up to check and it is held on with a nut so no press fit nonsense here.
You are limited to 26mm tanks, any bigger and you will need to use a 510 adapter to raise it up over the back lip.
Buttons are nice and clicky but on the Gunmetal I could get the fire button to stick every so often, never happened in normal use with the Matte Black but if you press and push down you can get it to stick.
How is it to use on a daily basis?
The Gunmetal was the one I was using at first and was to be the one I based my review on. Within the first day I felt something was off, battery life was horrible and I kept getting "Too Hot" warnings. I do recall the outer packaging when I received the Gunmetal to be pretty beat up but the box inside looked OK. I did have an extra Matte black one so I opened one up to compare and that one is working fine, not having the same problems as the Gunmetal so I will just chalk up the gunmetal to have gotten damaged in shipping with how the outer packaging looked to be roughed up.
If you didn't know this is with there new proprietary 100W chip, they are no longer using the DNA75 and I believe that is no longer available. The new chip is pretty basic, only Kanthal (Power Mode), Ti, Ni and SS316 TC modes. 3 clicks to get into the menu, 5 clicks to lock and unlock the mod. Press and hold the up and down buttons to flip the screen and that's it. No TCR mode which would be nice to have.
With a fresh iJoy 26650 I was able to hit what felt like 100 watts with a 0.25 ohm build compared to my DNA167 and SXmini G Class. The display will actually tell you what power it is providing and goes down as the battery drains. When I used a fresh Basen 26650 the display read 93 watts and went down the more puffs I took, you definitely want to use the iJoy if your looking to run at higher wattages. I did try a single Sony VTC5A with it as well and was able to get 100 watts when fresh of the charger. With a older Samsung 30Q it limited me to about 75 to 83 watts with it set to 100 watts.
If you are vaping at 100 watts I can get too hot messages if I am chain vaping especially with lower ohm coils. This is not the mod you want to use with a high powered tank like the TFV8 or 12. I would not use any single 26650 mod with those tanks anyway, wrong tool for the job IMO.
If you are switching tanks I found that it is best to remove the prior tank, fire it so you get the " No Atomizer" warning and it clears the previous ohms. Allow 20 seconds for the screen to shut off then install the next atty and press the fire button. This was the best way to get an accurate reading on the ohms, if you attach the atty when the screen is on it will usually read it high. An example is when I was comparing the ohms of various tanks to my 521 tab and Think Vape Finder DNA167 to the ET Alien. on a 0.51 ohm coil that both devices read the same the ET Alien would read it at 0.56 but if I cleared the ohms and let the screen timeout then it read 0.53. The higher the ohms the more off it was, a 0.82 coil read 0.86 but it was really close with lower coils. 0.17 read the same on all devices and 0.26 read as 0.27 on the ET Alien.
Overall in power mode I was happy with the performance compared to my other single 26650 mods. A preheat would be nice but it fired pretty quick so no real complaints there.
So how is the SS316 TC?
Overall I have been pretty happy with it in SS316 TC, it just runs a little hot depending on the build and is a little inconsistent. With a dual SS316L Clapton build in my Smoant Battlestar RTA it is about 20f too hot compared to my Think Vape Finder DNA167 and SXmini G Class. I get a nice smooth vape from it and can vape the tank dry at 410f with no burnt hits. With my Pharoah RTA and it's big single coil 4mm ID Triple Core Fused Clapton ohming out at .44 I have to drop the temp to 390f to avoid a burnt hit. It does read higher ohm coils a little off though so that might be why it is inconsistent with the Pharoah's 0.44 build, it read it at 0.46 and sometimes 0.48.
I would say the TC is pretty close to other mods in it's price range like the Smoant Battlestar and Charon, Laisimo SnowWolf Plus to name a few. As we all know there are a lot of terrible TC devices out there but this is not one of them and I used it in TC 85% of the time.
One odd quirk is if you are in SS316 TC mode and change the battery when the mod comes back on it will be in Ti TC mode, happened every time I changed the battery. It is noticeable when you take your first draw since the TCR value of Ti is a lot higher compared to SS316.
To change the temp you need to click the fire button 3 times, select the temp mode you are using again and then it will give you the temp to adjust. Once you hit the fire button it goes back to just allowing you to adjust the power.
Battery Life
I have been pleased with the battery life compared to my other 26650 mods. If I keep it around 50 to 65 watts I can get most of the day out of it. I measured the battery volts after getting the weak battery warning and it was 3.4V on the nose.
Comparison Pics to other Mods
Alien Vs Alien
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