In 2018, Aspire became one of the most interesting vaping companies on the planet after years of releasing products that often failed to differentiate themselves in a world of colorful devices from the likes of SMOK and Vaporesso. If Aspire hasn’t been on your radar for a while, we don’t blame you. When you read about the new Aspire SkyStar mod, though, we think you’ll agree that it’s time for this company to regain some of its lost prominence.

What Is the Aspire SkyStar?

The SkyStar is Aspire’s flagship mod for early 2018. Topping out at 210 watts, it is the most powerful mod in Aspire’s product lineup. It also has an appearance that’s light years ahead of Aspire’s rather utilitarian mods of the past. If you want a mod that’s sleek and modern — and you’re not into flashing LEDs, loud colors or resin swirls — you’re going to find that the SkyStar is a breath of fresh air. It looks great, and it feels even nicer. The curved design makes the SkyStar feel much smaller in the hand than many other dual-18650 mods. The magnetic battery cover doesn’t shift or rattle. The center-positioned 510 connection is a great design choice that allows the SkyStar to support wide attachments — up to 25 mm in diameter — with no overhang. You could even go slightly larger without compromising the mod’s appearance. In terms of hand feel, build quality and fit and finish, the SkyStar earns top marks.

The Aspire SkyStar Revvo kit includes Aspire’s new Revvo tank. More on that in a bit.

Aspire SkyStar: Features

These are some of the primary features that the Aspire SkyStar offers.

• Maximum power: 210 watts
• Supported batteries: 2 x 18650 cells (not included)
• Included tank: Aspire Revvo with Radial Coil
• Display: 1.3-inch monochrome LED touch screen
• Available colors: Black carbon fiber, white, simulated wood grain, blue camo, slate blue
• Supported vaping modes: Wattage, voltage, temperature control, bypass, wattage curve
• Spring-loaded 510 connection
• Supports USB charging and firmware upgrades
• Center 510 connection and fire button

Aspire SkyStar Review

Fit and Finish

Our first impression when unboxing the Aspire SkyStar was as noted above — that it’s a really nice looking and feeling mod. It’s very well built. It feels great in the hand, and the surfaces — at least on the white version that we received — aren’t magnets for fingerprints, dust or lint. As for the design choice of positioning the 510 connection and fire button in the center of the device, that’s up to personal taste. Cradled in the hand with the screen facing away from your palm, the thumb rests comfortably on the fire button. We love it. By positioning the 510 connection in the center and giving the SkyStar gently sloping sides, Aspire created a mod that supports some pretty wide attachments while looking and feeling extremely svelte.

In general, we aren’t big fans of magnetic battery covers. They rattle and shift. The magnets fall out. They often make mods feel cheap. The Aspire SkyStar is the first mod we’ve ever used that gets the magnetic battery cover completely right. It doesn’t rattle at all, and it doesn’t move unless you want to remove it. None of the magnets have fallen out of our review sample. Most importantly, the magnetic cover doesn’t cheapen the mod at all. Although it’s thin and plastic, it feels heavy and solid when it’s attached to the mod. Great job, Aspire.

Operation and Firing Delay

In writing this review, we tested the Aspire SkyStar with a variety of different attachments. We also used power settings exceeding 100 watts, and we found that the SkyStar fired every coil we tried without any delay or ramp-up time. While there might be faster firing mods out there, we haven’t used any of them. The Aspire SkyStar has the shortest firing delay of any high-wattage mod we’ve tried to date. If you happen to require a little more juice because you’re using a high-mass coil, one of the SkyStar’s built-in wattage curve modes should do the trick for you.

Touch Screen Interface

The touch screen interface brings some interesting benefits to the Aspire SkyStar, but the interface is also one of the device’s small failings. On one hand, we like having a mod with no buttons except the fire button. Having no adjustment buttons means never changing your mod’s settings accidentally. It is virtually impossible to change a setting on the SkyStar unless that’s really what you want to do. Another benefit of the touch screen interface is that you don’t have to reference the mod’s instruction manual when you want to change a setting. Swipe up twice to change your wattage or temperature. Swipe down twice to view the main menu. Everything else is self explanatory.

Although the SkyStar’s touch screen interface brings some very real benefits, the interface also has some drawbacks. If you’re the type of person who constantly changes your device’s temperature or power level while you vape, you’ll find that the process is slower with the touch screen. The second drawback is that, while the screen is definitely more responsive than the touch screens of the past, it’s not going to compete with your smartphone. You’ll occasionally have to execute the double-swipe motion more than once before the device recognizes it.

What About the Aspire Revvo Tank?

You can find a detailed Aspire Revvo review elsewhere on this site. In short, though, the Aspire Revvo is a great tank. If you’re already using a tank that you love, though, you may not want to replace your current tank with the Revvo.

The Aspire Revvo tank is truly innovative and unusual. While so many other companies in the vaping industry are trying to differentiate their tanks by packing more and more wires into their atomizer coil heads, Aspire has completely rethought atomizer coil design with the new Radial Coil. It looks like an electric stove element, and its high surface area allows it to produce enormous vapor clouds at relatively low wattage settings with no ramp-up time. Thanks to the big cotton pad on the bottom of the coil, the Aspire Revvo supports near-constant chain vaping with no wicking issues.

Although the performance of the Aspire Revvo really is remarkable, we found the coil life unimpressive in our tests. In total, we used 13 coils with our Aspire Revvo tank. With unsweetened e-liquids, the Revvo darkens and begins to produce burned flavors after about a day. With sweetened e-liquids, the coil life is even shorter. If you prefer sweet e-liquids and can’t tolerate burned flavors, you might go through more than one Aspire Revvo coil per day — and that can become expensive very quickly. The Revvo tank design is something special, though, and we can’t wait for version 2.

Aspire SkyStar Review: Conclusion

Is the Aspire SkyStar the best mod for you? Ultimately, the choice comes down to your personal design preferences. In terms of its capabilities and build quality, the SkyStar is worth every penny of the extremely reasonable asking price. Only you can decide, though, whether the mod’s aesthetics and design choices are to your liking. We love the understated appearance of this device. We also love the centered 510 connection and fire button. If you prefer an offset connection and fire button, though, the SkyStar might not be for you. As far as we’re concerned, the only real failing of the Aspire SkyStar is that the touch screen isn’t particularly responsive. We tend to choose a setting and stick with it. If you make constant adjustments to your device, though, you might prefer a mod with physical buttons.

Aspire SkyStar Review: The Last Word

The Good

• Classy, understated appearance
• Lightning-fast firing
• Center-mounted 510 connection and curved edges make the device feel small in the hand
• Terrific build quality with a rock-solid magnetic battery cover

The Not So Good

• Touch screen often fails to detect input

Pictures courtesy of Aspire.

About the Author: Jason Artman

Jason Artman founded eCig One after switching from smoking to vaping in 2010 and has been a professional writer and SEO consultant since 2007. His work has been featured on television and in leading publications, and it has been referenced in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Jason works with leading vape brands around the world to generate targeted web traffic and increase their revenue.