Honest review time: The Tesla XT220W from Teslacigs

Here’s a look at a rather robust device sent over from a new company to me called Sourcemore. If you’ve never heard of them they’re a China based company that sells vape gear similar to sites like Fasttech, 3Fvape and Gearbest. The item they sent over for review is from Teslacigs, a company that’s fairly well known for their unusually styled products often incorporating a steampunk sort of aesthetic. This new device is no exception as it too incorporates some rather interesting design elements. Here are my honest thoughts on the Tesla XT 220w from Teslacigs care of Sourcemore.

Package contents:

Listed features and specs:

• Zinc alloy construction
• Discharge current: Above 40A
• Output Wattage: 7-220W(in 0.5W increments)
• Temperature range: 100-300’C/200-600’F
• Max Output Voltage: 7.5V
• Max Output Current: 50A
• USB: 5V/1.5A
• Output Mode: KA/TC-SS316/TC-Ni200/TC-Ti/TCR mode
• RGB LED Mode: LED M1/LED M2/LED M3/BlueM4/Red M5/Green M6/Purple M7
• Taste Mode:Norm/Soft/Hard/User
• Memory Mode: M1/M2/M3
• Resistance Range: 0.1-3.0ohm KA mode/0.05-1.0ohm for Ti/Ni 200/SS316/TCR mode
• Powered by dual 18650/20700/21700 batteries (not included)
• 510 threading connection

Packaging and contents:

The Tesla XT 220W comes in a nice cardboard box with a slide off top. On the front it’s got a line drawing of the device and on the back it lists the contents, some basic info and an authenticity check sticker. Inside the mod is protected by a thick white sponge which lifts up to reveal the rest of the kit. In the kit you get the Tesla XT 200W mod, a manual, a battery card, a QC card and a box containing a micro USB cable for charging. It’s pretty bare bones but it’s just a mod and not a full kit so it’s about what I’d expect it to be. The packaging is actually quite nice and can almost be used as a display stand.

The Mod:

The Tesla XT 220W mod is big and heavy and is made of a zinc alloy. It measures roughly 30 x 62 x 92mm and weighs in at about 220g. It’s one of the biggest and heaviest dual battery mods I’ve ever gotten my hands on mostly thanks in part to it’s ability to support the three most common battery sizes including 18650, 20700 and 21700. It’s rectangular in shape but all of the edges except the bottom are rounded and sort of bulge out to give it it’s unique shape. I have fairly big man hands and I don’t even come close to being able to wrap my hand around it if that gives you an idea of how big this thing is. The device incorporates a lot of aesthetic styling on the outside with one side bearing an embossed or indented panel in the shape of an X with the ‘XT’ logo dead center while on the opposite side it has a clear polycarbonate window that lets you see ‘inside’ the device. Ok so it’s not showing you the guts of the device but it does show off a light up emblem surrounded by light up notches in the shape of an X. All around the light-up emblem and X is a pattern that looks printed on to the exposed sub-panels. The pattern looks vaguely Mayan or Aztec in nature but I can’t say for sure that’s what they were going for. Some torx screws border the plastic window and the back embossed panel which also add to it’s new-age industrial look. I got the SS version which has a brushed metal finish to it but it’s also available in purple, green, blue and gun metal. You can tell a lot of effort went in to designing the exterior of this thing and I suppose it does look pretty neat but we all know taste is subjective.

Accessing the batteries is simple with a slide open bottom door with a hinge. It’s easy enough to open but firm enough it shouldn’t pop open by accident and when batteries are inserted it’s all that more firm. The battery door is clearly marked for positive and negative and inside the device it comes with two battery sleeve adapters so you can use it with your 18650 batteries. Without the sleeves it fits 20700 and 21700 without any issues. Even with the slight size difference between 20700 and 21700 there isn’t any rattle from either battery type and that’s without an additional adapter. At the top of the device it’s got a really beefy looking stainless steel 510 connection with what looks like a gold plated spring loaded center pin. The threads are really smooth and the connection feels really robust and everything I’ve tried on it has sat flush. However it’s ringed by part of the body that juts out a bit at the top sort of in the shape of a shield so even though the device is 30mm wide this top plate will sort of limit what can be used without overhanging. It fits 25mm gear perfectly but beyond that it’s probably going to have some overhang.

The buttons on the XT are shaped to fit the curves of the device. The fire button is sort of squarish and made of a hard black plastic. It’s easy to fire with the thumb or index and it has a satisfying click to it when pressed. Just below it is a physical on/off switch. Yes you read that right an actual on/off switch which seems a pretty uncommon feature on most mods out there. It works well and is knurled to help slide it back and forth as the buttons all sit almost flush with the face of the mod. Under the lock switch is the black and white screen. I couldn’t find it listed anywhere what type of screen it is but it appears to be OLED. It’s pretty bright and easy to see with the information on screen well laid out. Battery bar on top with percentage, wattage in big just below followed by resistance and voltage on the left, memory slot on the right and fire mode and material on the bottom. Just below the screen are the adjustment buttons. They’re a one piece button that works as a rocker switch where clicking on the left is down and the right is up, it adjusts in 0.5 increments but speeds through quickly. I should mention that all of the buttons do rattle just a bit but I’m not really the type to shake my mod around looking for it and I really don’t notice it with day to day use. At the very bottom of the face is the micro USB port for charging the device. It might also work for firmware updates but I wasn’t able to find much information about it on their site and didn’t see any updates listed there.

I really like the menu system on this thing, it’s super easy to navigate with all of the functions being displayed on the live screen and by pressing the fire button three times it allows you to cycle through all of the options. By clicking on the resistance you can manually adjust your resistance, clicking on the ohm symbol allows you to lock it in, you can also click on the battery which then shows the hardware and software version as well as a serial number which just shows tesla XT220. You can also change between four memory slots and the profiles you setup for each one are retained even after battery pulls, you can switch between normal, soft and hard fire modes as well as select between TC material modes kanthal, SS316, NI200, TI and TCR all from the main screen without entering any sub-menus. Pressing and holding fire and down locks and unlocks the buttons while pressing and holding fire and up brings you in to an LED menu for the light effects where you can change the colour, the patterns it displays in or just shut it off. Five clicks turns the device on and off but as I mentioned you can also manually switch the device off for added security.

While I’m not the most technical tester I did put it through it’s paces where it performed well in both power mode and temperature control mode. Admittedly I don’t vape at 220w so I only took it up to about 120w where it was pretty accurate from my experiences. The ability to manually adjust the resistance in temp control mode was also a handy feature and really let me dial in the TC when testing it with some SS coils. Battery life however is probably the biggest benefit of this monster of a device but obviously personal vaping habits will dictate how long it actually lasts.

Likes:

• Build quality
• Unique looks
• Performance
• Ease of use
• Simple menu system
• On/off switch
• Solid 510
• Support for 18650/20700/21700
• Battery life

Dislikes:

• Weight
• Size
• 510 plate size 25mm
• Button rattle

Overall:

The Tesla XT220 is a solid well built device. The physical on/off switch and the battery options are probably the most standout features if you don’t count the light show aesthetics. It’s definitely a bit of a beast though so people with small hands and pockets need not apply but anyone looking for something that’s built like a tank and can take almost any kind of battery this would be one to check out. Seriously this thing could probably take out a small family if dropped from a building it’s that heavy duty. Even though I have some fairly big hands this one is going to be more of a desk mod for me and a self-defense weapon if the need ever arises!!