Essential Reliability: Vaporesso’s Gen Max

The best aspect of Vaporesso’s Gen Max vaping system is that it’s reliable, affordable and simple.

By Mike Huml

The Gen Max is Vaporesso’s latest high-power, dual-battery mod offering that leans heavily into the old school billet box aesthetic while packing in a lot of modern features. The kit also includes the Vaporesso iTank T subohm tank to complete the package. The Gen Max is a powerhouse of unique features and another testament to the quality that Vaporesso is known for. But can a billet box, albeit a fancy one, compete in today’s vaping market?

The Gen Max is a lightweight aluminum box mod that’s powered by dual 18650 batteries in series for a maximum output of 220 watts. It technically uses single-button operation, but that button doubles as a dial for making adjustments and navigating the menu. A physical toggle switch below the primary button can lock the Gen Max to prevent accidental misfiring.

The battery door is completely removable and is held in place securely with magnets, and although the batteries can be removed for charging, they can also be charged internally via an included USB type-C cable. The screen is located on the side opposite of the battery door and is housed within a round window to give the screen a unique porthole-like look. The 510 connection is centered at the top of the mod and looks best with tanks or atomizers with up to a 24 mm diameter. All in all, it’s a very straightforward and minimalistic design, if a bit safe.

The iTank T is standard subohm tank fare, and that’s intended in the best possible way. It’s top-filling with top-down airflow, which completely eliminates leaking and gurgling and makes filling the tank very simple. The top cap is opened by pressing against the red arrow symbol to slide the cap to the side, revealing the fill port. The port is large and partially covered by silicone flaps to reduce messiness while also allowing for pressure to be released when filling.

The bottom cap of the tank unscrews to provide access to the coil, which is removed by simply pulling it out of the tank. Naturally, a new coil is then pressed in and the bottom cap replaced. By default, a bubble glass tank section is installed, which holds 6 mL of e-liquid, but a normal glass tank section is also included that allows the tank to hold 2 mL of liquid. Between the Gen Max mod and the iTank T, the Gen Max kit is a powerful yet simple setup with the potential for mass appeal. However, it’s a mixed bag with a few pain points that really hold it back.

Visually, the Gen Max is clearly crafted to high-quality standards, but billet box mods were never necessarily known for their looks. The centered 510 connection tends to look top-heavy, particularly when paired with large tanks such as the iTank T. An RDA might look more proportional, but even then, many RDAs and tanks these days have a diameter of 25 mm, and anything past 24 mm will cause overhang with the Gen Max mod, including the 24.5 mm iTank T.

That’s right—the tank that’s included with the kit overhangs the mod, even though the base of the tank tapers down to this diameter. It’s not so much that the tank is too big—it’s just not a perfect fit for the mod. Granted, the mod is relatively small, but a better tank option should have been included with the kit.

The tank itself is wonderful. It’s easy to use, quick to set up and vapes like a dream. Vapor is easily produced, and the flavor is mouth-filling with zero break-in time. One slight gripe is the difficulty of removing the coil. It’s a bit more recessed than some similar tanks and might require the use of fingernails to remove. Luckily, Vaporesso’s GTi mesh coils are long-lasting and don’t require frequent replacement.

Aside from that, everything else is fantastic, the airflow in particular. Not only does the iTank T allow for a wide range of airflow options with its smooth-turning airflow ring, but the airflow is incredibly smooth. Almost no turbulence can be detected, and the airflow is very quiet, although this can depend on the airflow setting. It’s a shame as there is simply no way around the fact that it looks goofy atop the Gen Max.

Speaking of the mod, it also can’t escape from a few odd quirks. First the positives—it uses two 18650 batteries, which are readily available and are the de facto standard for high-power mods. Every vaper has these laying around, and they’re reliable workhorses. The Gen Max is very lightweight and is a top contender for something portable for those no-compromise vapers out there.

The battery door has a bit of wiggle room, but no movement can be detected during normal use. The magnets that hold the door onto the mod are very strong, but the door is still removed easily enough thanks to a small groove at the bottom. Additionally, the screen is incredibly vivid—one of the best on the market to date—and the faux-porthole look is indeed eye-catching. Two curved LEDs on either side of the screen, along the edge of the porthole, really sell the effect. At the end of the day, however, it’s still a vertically oriented rectangular screen.

Due to the single-button and dial operation, navigating the menu is very easy. Three clicks of the button will bring up the menu options where the user can select from different themes, change the vaping mode, adjust the brightness and toggle Smart mode. However, the dial also inherently carries some downsides, chief of which is the accidental adjusting of the output power.

The dial is a bit on the loose side and small, and inadvertent adjustments are common while the device is being fired, and there is no way to lock the power output while still allowing the device to fire. What’s more, the output power cannot be changed unless the screen is active. That means if the user wanted to change the power output, they would need to fire the device for a split second before they can do so. And it can’t be ignored that the Gen Max is yet another mod with two separate ways to lock the device and no way to lock the output power alone.

Pressing the fire button five times in quick succession will turn the mod on or off while moving the toggle switch underneath the fire button will lock the device—virtually the same thing as turning it off. This oversight is even more egregious when it comes to the Gen Max because, as mentioned, the dial system is more vulnerable to accidental changes to the power output compared to standard three-button mods.

The screen is very colorful and crystal clear. It displays the remaining battery life of each individual battery, the output power, the mode, whether the Gen Max is locked or not, atomizer resistance, and a puff counter or puff length. There’s also an animated graphic according to which theme is selected that changes once the device is fired. For example, when using the UFO theme, it blasts off once a drag is taken.

Three clicks of the fire button will enter into the menu. Once inside, themes can be changed to the user’s liking, but it’s not very customizable and, frankly, seemingly arbitrary. The three themes are default blue, a soccer theme (called “Football” within the menu) that’s orange and a UFO theme that’s purple. The user cannot choose colors and graphics independently, which means if someone wants an orange color scheme with a UFO graphic on the screen, they are out of luck.

What do soccer and UFOs have to do with vaping? No clue—it’s completely arbitrary, even random. There is a setting titled “LED,” which one would think changes the color of the curved LEDs lining the porthole, but all it does is allow those lights to be disabled. It’s a missed opportunity as the screen does look great and so much more could have been done creatively here.

The output modes are also strange. The Gen Max features four total modes: F(t) mode, which is the default; Pulse mode; Eco mode; and VV mode. VV mode is variable voltage—a little antiquated, but fine. Eco mode is the standard variable wattage mode that most people go for and also provides the longest battery life. Then there are F(t) mode and Pulse mode, which are virtually the same, for all intents and purposes.

In theory, these act like temperature control modes to prevent overheating and burning of the coil. To quote the user manual:

“F(t) mode is by adjusting temperature, heating speed and time. F(t) mode releases the flavors of e-liquid adequately, delivering the perfect balanced tasting experience consistently from the first puff throughout.”

“Pulse mode is a mode to improve vaping experience through constant voltage output, delivering optimal flavor production, throat hit, nicotine satisfaction and perfect temperature cloud continuously.”

[Sic]s all around.

There are a few ironic buzzwords throughout these descriptions, namely: “consistently,” “constant” and “continuously.” They’re ironic because in practice, they introduce the worst part of temperature control, which is when the power suddenly cuts out in order to prevent burning. It’s the same sensation as when the battery dies mid-puff—it’s jarring.

It’s also the opposite of “consistent” or “continuous.” At lower power output settings, these modes feel exactly the same as Eco mode. At higher settings, power cutoff starts being introduced. In addition, when set to F(t) mode or Pulse mode, there is no way to adjust the temperature, only the wattage, and based on the descriptions in the user manual, it’s unclear what these modes actually do.

In practice, the Gen Max is strictly a variable wattage device. F(t) and Pulse modes are too niche, and even with the user manual, it’s hard to find a situation where these modes would offer an advantage over Eco mode. VV mode is simply obsolete and inferior to variable wattage in most usage scenarios. It’s not the end of the world, as most users opt to use variable wattage on any given mod anyway—it’s just yet another missed opportunity.

One last setting that doesn’t quite find a purpose is Smart mode, which can be toggled on or off in the menu. When used with Vaporesso’s GTi coils, Smart mode will automatically set the “optimal” power output. However, this only happens at the moment an atomizer is attached. For example, with Smart mode activated and a 0.2 ohm coil installed with the iTank T, the Gen Max automatically sets itself to 70 watts when the tank is attached.

That’s it. The power can still be adjusted from there via the dial, just as it could with Smart mode turned off. It may be called “Smart,” but more goes into an optimal power output than just the resistance. Airflow and user preference are arguably much bigger factors and ones that the mod can’t account for. Again, another missed opportunity and added bloat to the menu system.

The Gen Max should have embraced either the simplicity mindset or added more useful features. Instead, it sits in the middle with a simple menu system that’s easy to use but with no settings that are really worth changing. The button/dial is unique and gives the Gen Max a reason to have a button this big, harkening back to the billet box design aesthetic. Unfortunately, with no way to lock the dial (but two ways to lock the device) and no way to adjust the power output until the screen is activated, it seems like a gimmick rather than a well-thought-out feature. And that pretty much sums up the Gen Max in its entirety.

There are a lot of good concepts that were never really fleshed out, almost like Vaporesso had too many chips and had to figure out a way to use them. The Gen Max could have had true temperature control as an option, power curves, more themes that could have been chosen independently of the color scheme, more color schemes, and a physical switch that locked the power output while still allowing the device to fire, and it would have been a home run.

Instead, we have a good-looking mod that appeals to nostalgia but ends up being just a run-of-the-mill variable wattage device. If that sounds harsh, it’s because there are so many mods that do try to push the envelope and offer something unique that when a mod that’s only OK comes around, it ends up standing out for all the wrong reasons.

The Vaporesso Gen Max is not a bad device by any means in the sense that it’s well made and it puts electricity through a coil, consistently, when the button is pressed, and that’s really what matters most. It also has a really nice screen and the start of a good idea with the graphic animations and porthole design. More customization would go a long way, possibly with a future firmware update. On the plus side, the mod and the tank together retail for about 60 dollars, which is very competitive.

Batteries are not included, and with a little more space optimization, the Gen Max could have been powered by 21700 batteries instead of 18650s, giving it another avenue of appeal. As it stands, the best things the Gen Max has going for it are that it’s reliable, affordable and simple, which are not bad things. With a little more refinement and thought put into the functionality, the next Gen Max could truly be something great.