Lost Vape Thelema Solo
The dual 185650 Lost Vape Thelema has been a mainstay of their line up for quite a while, both in its Quest and DNA 250 versions, however these are fairly big mods and for someone with small hands like myself, it’s right on the borderline of what’s comfortable to use. Fear not though because Lost Vape has the solution in the form of the newly released Thelema Solo, a single 21700 battery variant.
Specifications
- 39 x 28.5 x 97.5 mm
- 152.6 grams
- Single 21700 battery
- Output 5~100 watts / 0.7~8.0 volts
- Resistance range 0.15~5.0ohms
- 0.96’ colour screen
- USB-C fast charging
- UB Pro Pod tank
Inside the surprisingly tall box you’ll find the Thelema Solo paired with the UB Pro Pod Tank, two UB Pro Coils, manuals for the mod and the tank, and finally a box with a charge cable, spare O-rings, and a small 18650 battery adapter.
The Thelema Solo is available in a whopping eight colour options, and I was sent the gunmetal and ochre brown version for review. This has a gunmetal chassis with a brown leather wrap running along the sides and around the back. As is usually the case with Lost Vape products, this is fairly weighty due to its zinc alloy construction weighing just shy of 153 grams without a battery. It all feels well proportioned and balanced in the hand though.
The design language is unmistakably taken from the the existing Thelema lineage and as I’ve come to expect from Lost Vape, the overall build quality and mix of materials feels a notch above most of the competition, the gunmetal finish feels as if it will be durable over the long term and I particularly like the inserts running down either side which feel like they’re actually real wood veneers rather than being a cheap printed plastic that we would generally encounter. The leather pad running around the back only has minimal padding and a small Thelema logo discreetly embossed on the bottom corner, and I think the brown ochre one compliments the wood inserts and gunmetal frame perfectly. Lost Vape has, in the past, made battery covers available separately but that is generally restricted to the DNA variants and as this is part of the more budget conscious Quest range, it means it’s unlikely that we’ll see that option being made available which is a shame.
The control panel sports a vibrant 0.96 inch colour display, which is more than bright enough to be seen outside, nestled between the power and control buttons. All the buttons have a really pleasant positive click to them with no sign of any button rattle. Under this is the USB-C charge port. In my charge test, this hit a peak charge rate of about 1.4 amps which is great for those times when you find yourself away from a dedicated charger.
The 510 platform is 26mm across so will accommodate most modern atomisers easily with no overhang. If I run my finger across the top of the mod, I can feel that this is raised ever so slightly above the rest of the chassis to prevent atty rash, but this is minimal and I’ve not noticed any visible gapping in use even though the 510 plate itself is only 24mm across.
The battery cover sports a classic c-frame design and is held in place by two magnets plus two small protruding lugs which sit under the main chassis when fitted. This did have quite a bit of excess movement when I first took it out of the box, however this was quickly remedied by the old c-frame trick of gently squeezing the sides of the battery cover closer together, this now feels absolutely rock solid in use and requires a decent amount of force to free the cover from the frame.
The battery compartment is clearly labeled for polarity with a large spring loaded positive connector up top. Rather than having a completely open battery compartment, Lost Vape have opted to have the plastic “back” extend out a way, and I was initially worried that this might make inserting and removing batteries difficult but that hasn’t been the case. It also means that your battery is safely cradled in the chassis and prevents any excess battery movement which can be an issue with some c-frame designs. This easily passed both of my oversized 21700 battery tests as well so you shouldn’t have any issues on that front either.
This is of course all backed up by the superb Lost Vape Quest 2.0 chipset which in my opinion is one of the best proprietary chips on the market. You have all the modes you can shake a stick at with a wonderfully intuitive control scheme and rock solid performance throughout.
If you buy the full kit, this comes with the UB Pro Pod Tank which we’ve seen included in several previous kits. This is a cracking sub ohm tank but I can’t use the stock UB Pro Coils thanks to the choice of materials (Ni80 and SS) and my nickel sensitivity. Luckily I have the optional RBA coil from an earlier review which also performs rather well, and there’s always the option to buy the Thelema Solo separately if this is an issue for you.
Pros
- Classic “Thelema” design suitable for those with smaller hands
- Great mix of materials
- Lost Vape Quest 2.0 chip
Cons
- A little on the heavy side for a single battery mod
- Battery cover needed minor adjustment to prevent movement
Conclusion
After what felt like an uncharacteristic misstep with the Cyborg Quest kit, this feels like a return to form for Lost Vape. I always loved the design of the earlier Thelema mods but with my smaller hands they can feel a bit cumbersome in use. They’ve taken everything I like about that and put it into my favourite package as a single battery 21700 mod which is what I find myself using about 90 percent of the time. The Thelema Solo gets a very hearty recommendation from me.
Many thanks to Lost Vape for sending the Thelema Solo kit over for review.
Antony Lord
Reviewer at POTVI was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.
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