Aspire Nautilus GT Kit Review
I'm back again with another product review, slightly later than I Imagined, but roughly one month on from using the Aspire Nautilus GT Kit with a varied opinion on if it beats its predecessor the Aspire Zelos 2 Kit.
First I'll copy in the specs and what is in the box straight from Official Aspire UK.
Inside The Box
x1 Glint Mod
x1 Nautilus GT Tank 2 ml (0.7Ω Mesh Coil Preinstalled)
x1 Extra Nautilus BVC Coil 1.6Ω
x1 Type-C Cable
x1 User Manual
x1 Warranty Card
x1 Set Of O-rings
I got mine in space grey, the best colour in my opinion. I opened the box, pulled the Nautilus 0.7 mesh coil out of the GT tank and launched it straight in the bin. Dreadful coils and quite possibly the worst thing aspire have ever made! I then went to our coil shelf and got a standard kanthal 0.7 coil and fitted that, primed it with my Kraken 9mg Nic Salt Eliquid and put an 18650 battery in the Glint mod.
After letting the coil come to terms with the liquid and properly soak in I gave it a try, adjusting the airflow to suit my vaping style. At first, the flavour seemed to be completely dead. Absolutely nothing to it at all. This worried me a little bit because I had heard a lot of good things about the Aspire Nautilus GT. I was pretty put off at this point and thought it was a no go. Once the tank had depleted I wondered If it was worth refilling it or just going back to my trusty Nautilus 2s.
For the purpose of this review, I obviously refilled the tank and suddenly it seemed that I was using something completely new again. I'm unsure if this was down to machine oil or something coating the inside of the tank, but the flavour came to life and my first opinion of the GT tank had changed. So the flavour was up there with the Nautilus 2s and I was happy. With these coils, there's only so much flavour a tank will produce, so for me this was about functionality; would it beat the Nautilus 2s on that?
For me, the Nautilus 2s was a good tank. It improved the way you fill it massively, but then introduced a whole new problem, removing the coil. What can only be described as a miniature saw blade that you had grip to remove the coil - dog shit design by aspire. One of the worst I think I have ever seen in a tank, with the likes of the Innokin Zenith you simply unscrew the airflow ring, pull the coil out, replace and refit the airflow ring. Easy stuff.
So on the Aspire Nautilus GT I was glad to find butter smooth threads for a start. To find the coil you turn the tank upside down, unscrew the main glass section and there you have easy access to a coil. You can't get much easier than that in my opinion, eliquid leaking everywhere isn't an issue and neither is seized coils. However, and it is a small however, Aspire seem to have a talent for fixing problems and creating new ones. The GT tank is top fill, same as the Nautilus 2s however its a half left turn then the whole top piece comes out, giving access to much bigger fill holes. This is definitely a plus for me but why not keep the twist and slide fill system? I know Taifun designed this but surely they have caught the Aspire curse? The fill hole size on the 2s was a pain for bottles larger than 10ml, but the turn and push system was perfect! That's my opinion anyway.
Coil life is something I'm going to touch on slightly, obviously all Aspire Nautilus tanks use the same coils so you wouldn't think that would change. I found the coils die a little quicker and I think its down to the chimney inside the Nautilus GT, the holes to allow eliquid to pass through to the coil are tiny! Silly design I think. Causing restrictions for no real season.
The Aspire Glint is the second piece to this puzzle and in terms of looks I think its spot on. It complements the Nautilus GT perfectly, it is very ergonomic and is very easy to use. The one major bonus about this device and I can't stress this enough, is the ability to charge via a USB-C. These have been around for ages now and it's taken Aspire a bit to catch up. The same on the Aspire Rover 2 kit, It just makes charging so much easier with less chance of the USB port being damaged, USB-C creates a much better connection and fixture within the device.
The Glint is a single 18650 device which means you will have to invest in some new batteries along with your new vape kit. This in my opinion doesn't really matter because I leave one 18650 inside and charge it so it makes no real difference to me. If you are using an external 18650 battery charger I would be careful on pretty much the only flaw of the Aspire Glints, that is that the battery door catches the battery and will have an impact on your battery wrap after some swapping and changing. The 'chrome' plating top and bottom are absolute finger print magnets but a quick wipe rids it of any marks. The half casing around the screen and buttons is prone to picking up light scratches, being a high gloss black finish though, I didn't expect much different.
In summary these devices are often seen as 'Starter Kits' but the Aspire Nautilus GT kit looks and feels like a device made to fit in with the rest, all whilst keeping your bad habit under wraps.
Pro's:
- USB-C Charge
- Easy to remove the coils
- Leak free
- Airflow locks in place
- Ergonomic
- Wide range of coil choice
- Great flavour
- Option for extended glass/bigger tank capacity
Con's:
- Battery door catches battery wraps
- High gloss black prone to scratches
- Top fill system could be better
- Chimney design restricts eliquid reaching the coil causing it to burn out faster.