Official Vaporesso product image. Source and specifications.
Vaporesso has released another armoured dual-battery mod, but I’m not convinced every Armour Max owner should automatically call it an upgrade.
The ARMOUR OCTA is a 220W regulated mod powered by two external 18650 batteries. The full UK kit comes with the 2ml iTank T and GTi Dual Mesh coils.
This is a look at the published specifications—not a review. I have not handled or tested an OCTA.
What interests me is everything Vaporesso has added around the usual wattage-number willy-waving.
The company claims IPX8 and IPX9K water protection, IP6X dust protection and 1.2-metre drop testing from 26 angles. Those certifications apply to the mod under laboratory conditions, not the complete kit. Please don’t pressure-wash the tank and send me the invoice.
There is also Battery Guard, which cuts the output if the difference between the two battery voltages exceeds 0.9V. That sounds like a worthwhile additional safeguard, but it is not permission to raid the battery drawer for two vaguely similar cells. A dual-battery mod still deserves a properly married pair of matching batteries.
Vaporesso has also added charging-temperature protection and an updated system intended to reduce accidental firing.
All sensible additions.
Then we reach the compromise: the OCTA only accepts 18650s.
My Armour Max accepts dual 21700s. Mine survived a trip through Namibia with a Recoil R3 fitted, and its battery endurance is one of the things I like most about it. I was used to charging every night; with the Max and its 21700s, I can often get roughly two days.
That experience belongs to the Armour Max. I have not tested the OCTA, and I am not claiming what its real battery life will be.
But physics remains an awkward old goat. Moving from dual 21700s to dual 18650s is unlikely to improve endurance.
The OCTA therefore looks less like an Armour Max replacement and more like a different choice:
- OCTA: stronger published dust and water protection, extra battery monitoring and a potentially more manageable body
- Armour Max: support for dual 21700s and the endurance advantage that comes with them
The advertised 220W ceiling does not excite me much either. The included coils operate between roughly 50 and 75W. It is useful headroom for certain rebuildable setups, but for most owners it is a number that will spend its life posing for the brochure.
What I would really like to know is how the OCTA behaves after months of ordinary abuse:
- Does the battery door retain its seal?
- How well does the 510 cope with a large RDA being fitted repeatedly?
- How much endurance does it give at normal DTL power?
- Does Battery Guard prove useful with properly married cells?
- Is the improved protection worth surrendering 21700 compatibility?
This is interesting enough that I would like to put one on the Old Goat bench beside my Armour Max and Recoil R3. A proper dual-18650-versus-dual-21700 comparison would tell us more than another photograph of water bouncing off the casing.
Would you take the OCTA’s additional protection, or keep the Armour Max’s 21700 endurance?