Asvape Gabriel Choice Review | Heaven or Hell?

The Asvape Gabriel ‘Choice’ is the slightly more budget friendly version of the Asvape Gabriel, which costs approximately £100 more.

For all intents and purposes (bar the design) it’s exactly the same mod with the same ‘intelligent’ chip set, the same handheld ergonomics, and the same functions; it’s just not made of natural wood.
It’s a great looking vape mod with the colourful tattoo style certainly eye catching with its sinuous vibrant design but for me it has one fundamental safety flaw that make it more of a show piece than an everyday mod.

Let’s get into it!

For the purpose of this review, we’ll be looking at the Asvape Gabriel Choice Gold Edition.

Disclaimer: I received the Asvape Gabriel Choice for the purpose of this review. All opinions are based on my own experience.

What’s in the Box:

The box on its own is quite a statement. In faux leather, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a watch box. Nice touch Asvape, nice touch.

• 1 x Asvape Gabriel Mod
• 1 x Cleaning Cloth
• 1 x USB Cable
• User manual

Specs and Features

• Size: 53x91x28mm
• Battery: Single 18650
• Screen: Colour OLED display
• Output modes: Variable Wattage | Temperature Control | Bypass
• Wattage range: 5 – 80 W
• Voltage range: 1 – 8 V
• Temperature: 212 – 572 F | 100 – 300 C
• Resistance range: 0.08 – 3.0 ohm (wattage mode)
• Charging: Via micro USB
• 510 connection: Spring-loaded gold-plated 510 pin

Safety Protections:

• Low battery voltage
• Continuous firing 10 second time out
• Temperature protection
• Short-circuit protection
• Atomizer open circuit protection (device won’t work without a tank)
• Low resistance protection
• Anti-dry burn protection
• Abnormal battery protection (excessive discharge)

Design and Build Quality

The build quality on this device is really impressive. There’s no rattle and the buttons are nice and clicky. I especially like the thumb firing position of the power button but I disliked that it got hot when chain vaping!
The mod features a gold plated, spring loaded, 510 pin which can handle atomizers up to 26mm. Up and Down buttons are mounted on the bottom of the mod beneath the display.

The mod has a textured finish to it and there were no scuffs or scratches after I’d finished the testing period.

The ramp up time was seamless. This mod vapes like a dream.

The OLED display is clear, bright and colourful and displays wattage, voltage and coil resistance in power mode. It didn’t show amp draw which is something I do like to see on my mods. I also didn’t like the battery life indicator.

This is featured in the top right and mimics a mobile phone’s reception status, but it was so small I found it difficult to read. It looks clearer in high definition zoomed in but it’s not so clear otherwise (or maybe I need to get my eyes retested).
The battery ‘door’ is a twist and unscrew cap underneath the mod. This is my biggest vice with the mod and a vice big enough to make me seriously uncomfortable using it. The battery cap exposes the battery!

For all the warnings and education that the vaping community is trying to install in vapers about battery safety and Asvape bring out a mod with an exposed battery? Just no. Seriously. No. Not only does this pose a risk to metal touching metal but it also means that water can easily seep in.

Ok I’m sure vapers are more sensible than to go swimming with their vape but with this open battery cap a user has no protection against any water at all, spill a drink near your vape, have it in a pocket on a particularly wet and storm day, drop it in a puddle and who knows?

But I ain’t taking this mod out and about with me to find out. I just don’t understand the logic behind it.
Speaking of battery, the mod is a single 18650, while I found battery management to be fair overall, it would have been nice if there was a 21700 or 20700 battery option, but it’s got to the point now where everyone is saying that about single 18650 mods.

Charging the battery can be achieved via the micro USB cable, but the positioning of the USB is annoying as it’s underneath the mod. While I don’t recommend charging batteries in a mod, (it’s always better to charge in a proper external charger), if you did need to top up while out and about, you’d need to leave the mod on its side, which isn’t ideal.

Hand Feel and Aesthetics

The Asvape Gabriel is a mod that feels great in the hand. It’s built purely on hand ergonomics. There’s no risk of accidentally adjusting settings and the rubberized finish just feels nice. Hands down this is the most comfortable mod I’ve ever used.

And just look at it. For all those tattoo art fans this will certainly appeal. The art work takes on religious overtones. The arch-angel Gabriel, typically associated with wings hangs above the flames of hell.

Asvape say that there’s a thin line between angels and demons. In-between, of course, rests earth. The choice between a life of ‘guns and roses’ (heaven or hell) is ours to make, hence the name, Gabriel Choice. I’m going to speculate that the guns/hell means smoking traditional cigarettes, and the heaven/roses means vaping instead, and that we have choices and it’s about making the choice that resonates with the angels but I could be over-thinking things.

Feature Set

The Asvape Gabriel Choice has, for me, two unique features that separate it from the crowd.

Unfortunately one of them flat out didn’t work and the other one annoyed me.

Let’s deal with the latter first. The ‘intelligent’ chip set is clever because when you attach on a tank, change a coil or just power the mod up, it will automatically adjust the wattage to best suit the coil resistance.

This is indeed clever, however, the recommended wattage setting was always far too high for me, for example, I was vaping at 52watts on a 0.15ohm mesh coil but the mod was auto adjusting to 68watts.

I would power up, adjust the wattage, hit the fire button and the mod would automatically adjust the wattage again, meaning if I wasn’t on the ball I would get quite the unexpected hit.

The thing that made the difference was the firing of the power button. What you need to do is fire the button briefly then adjust your wattage and then it would stick. Bit of a faff if you ask me. Leave me to control my wattage, that is after all, why we have variable wattage.

The other feature is anti-dry burn protection. Again the intelligent chip is meant to detect when your eliquid is low and you’re about to get a dry hit. I tested it, letting my eliquid run completely out, and alas, I got one of the worst dry hits I’ve ever experienced.

I continued to hold down that fire button well after my lungs couldn’t take it and I could smell the coil was absolutely fried but the mod kept on firing. In fact, I kept firing it to the risk of the damn thing exploding and it still kept firing, I never got the dry-burn warning. Makes you wonder whether any of the other protections actually work….

That said I did check the 10 second auto-cut off and that did work which was reassuring.

Menu Functionality

The menu is simple and the instruction manual clear so I won’t go into too much of a ‘how to’ but in brief:

• To power up click the fire button 5 times fast
• To lock the device click the fire button 3 times
• To navigate the menu, click the fire button 5 times and you enter settings
• You can navigate the modes in setting by clicking + or –
• Select the mode you want, for example, T for temperature control, by clicking the fire button
• To leave a submenu option click the fire button 5 times

There should be a P in the top left hand corner but because it was flashing the camera couldn’t quite capture it in time!

Pros:

• Beautiful design and form factor
• Easy to use with simple menu navigation
• Clear bright OLED screen
• Performs exceptionally well

Cons:

• Battery cap
• Fire button gets hot with chain vaping
• Anti-dry burn didn’t work
• Battery life indicator too small to read

Final Verdict

The Asvape Gabriel Choice is a gorgeous looking mod that feels extremely comfortable in the hand. It vapes really well and it’s certainly a show stopper. Even the things that niggled me, like the automatic wattage adjust wouldn’t put me off this mod.

It’s retailing for around $60 (shipped) which for me is a reasonable price because it feels and performs like a quality mod, but it’s the battery cap that loses it for me. It just feels too unsafe for my cautious hands to be an everyday mod.

Let us know what you think of the Gabriel Choice in the comments below.