Dovpo x TVC Topside Squonk Mod: Test Results Are In

Product name

Expand

Product intro and specs

The Topside is a single-battery squonk mod by Dovpo. It is designed in collaboration with TVC (The Vapor Chronicles), the reviewer behind the widely popular Drop series of RDAs. This is Dovpo’s second squonk mod, after the dual-battery Basium that got released back in July.

The Topside is a 2×700 mod, which means that it can be used with 20700s, 21700s or 18650s (with the included adapter). It is made to compete with the line of popular 2×700 squonk mods like the Vandy Vape Pulse X and HCigar Aurora.It is rated at 90 watts and, true to its name, it is designed to be filled via the top without removing the bottle. Keep reading to find out how it performed in my in-depth testing.

This mod was sent to me free of charge by MyVpro, where it’s currently available at a discounted price.

Price

Colors

First impressions

When I first got this mod, I was pretty impressed with the design. I really like the top-fill of the squonk bottle — it’s a great and innovative idea. This is no doubt a big and heavy mod, which makes it feel solid and well-built. It’s also really slick; I noticed it slides down in your hand pretty easily. The 0.96-inch black and white screen is basic but bright and easy to read, so no complaints there. Out of the box, however, it does NOT come with temp control mode. The only available modes are power mode and bypass, which irked me a little bit; but more on that later on.

Build quality and design

The Dovpo Topside reminds me a bit of the Squid Industries Double Barrel in its shape and is quite comfortable to hold in hand. Weighing in at 190.5 grams, it is heavier than most, if not all, single battery squonk mods I’ve used. For comparison, the Pulse 80W mod weighs in at 89.3 grams so more than double the weight of that one. I personally don’t mind the weight at all, but it’s worth noting for some that like their mods smaller and lighter.

The Topside is available in six colors, all with black on the top and bottom. I got the blue one, and the coloring is excellent. It’s like a royal blue, almost teal-ish color, and has an anodized look to it. I’ve been using it a lot and it has shown no signs of wearing or chipping. The fill cap has a nice knurling texture to it. It matches my black Mjölnir RDA perfectly, which has been my favorite RDA to use with the Topside.

There is no button rattle at all on this mod, the 510 pin is great and gave me no issues with any atomizer. The 510 platform itself can fit a 25 mm atomizer, and this type of mod isn’t really for anything bigger, so overhang won’t be an issue. One slight thing that bothered me though is that the 510 platform is placed asymmetrically on the bulged-out part of the mod. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to see it centered, since it’s only off by a few millimeters.

The USB port is on the side of the mod, and the fire button is large and clicky. The battery tray is a standard latch bottom system and while I had no issues getting batteries in and out, and it doesn't damage wraps, it is very hard to open and shut due to the bottle system getting in the way. All in all, the Topside is a nicely designed mod with only some nitpicky details being a little bit off.

Features and functions

The Dovpo Topside is a pretty basic mod, especially out of the box since it only comes with power and bypass modes. Not a fan of bypass mode, as it doesn't make sense to have on a mod like this, but I won’t complain about an extra mode I don’t need to use.

There is a firmware update available which is supposed to add temperature control capability, but mine would not update. It’s the first time I had an issue updating a mod, and I’ve probably updated like 30-40 of them in my lifetime, so that was disappointing. They really should have waited to ship them until they had the final firmware done. Leaving off half the functionality of a mod and adding it right after release just seems rushed and shouldn’t have happened. Also, there is no pre-heat options, watt curves or anything, so the mod just really lacks features.

Using the Dovpo Topside

Navigation on the Topside is pretty straightforward:

Squonking is one part they nailed with this mod. The top fill is very convenient and feels just like filling up a tank. The cap comes with some nice knurling for grip and smooth threading, making it very easy to unscrew. After you unscrew it, you pull it out, and you have two large fill holes for your bottle. Then push it back into place and push down while screwing back on. It’s much easier than removing a bottle to fill like other squonk mods; kudos to Brian at TVC for the idea.

Removing the bottle is easy enough, but as mentioned earlier, the battery door is very hard to open and close. Outside of that though the bottle is housed in a bracket, so you pull the whole bracket out then remove the bottle to clean it. We’ve seen similar bracketed bottles in mods like the Aspire Feedlink, and it works well. The squonking itself works great with no issues or leaks for me either, and the bottle is a large 10 ml bottle, which is larger than most. My only complaint is that they didn’t include a spare bottle and spare bracket which they should have, especially with this price tag.

Power mode performance

Testing on this mod was done with Samsung 30T batteries. They list the specs at 90 watts and 8.5 volts, but no amp limit listed. I wish they listed all three as I feel every company should do that. During my testing the max achieved wattage was 105, So it is accurately rated and capable of doing a bit more than the 90 listed.

The amp limit I got was 27, which is inside the average range for single battery mods these days (25-30). However, that was with a 0.12-ohm build and 89 watts so it’s possible the amp limit is even a little higher than that as I was capped off by the watt limit. The volt limit I got with a 0.59-ohm coil was 7.889 which shows there is a boost circuit like there should be in this style of mod and I was once again limited by the watts, so it could be higher. I consider it accurately rated.

The great thing about this mod is I was never capped off by the volt or amp limit meaning I was able to get the full 90+ watts with all my tests which had resistances from 0.12 to 0.59 ohms. The mod adjusts in 0.5-watt increments which is great. I’m very happy they didn’t go with the 0.1 increments many mods do.

During my testing, the mod did a great job of not getting hot. Even when pushed to its limits, it never got hot, which is very impressive. It also proved to be a pretty accurate mod; it does, however, hit a little on the high side so I’d suggest starting around 10 watts lower than you normally would with a different mod to compensate for that. It didn’t struggle at all with the 0.12 ohm build either, which is impressive. Overall, a great performer in power mode.

Temperature control mode performance

Once again, this mod does not come with temperature control. To add that feature you need to update the firmware, and sadly mine would not update, so I was unable to use temp control to judge it properly on this review.

Pros / Cons

Verdict

Overall, Dovpo did a good job with this mod. It’s not without its quirks, but that’s the case with most mods as nothing is perfect. It is a good performer in power mode with a very innovative fill method that works well. Yes, it is a bit big and bulky which may be a turnoff to some, and I really wish it came with the temp control firmware out of the box. But if you don’t use temp control and don’t mind the size and lack of features, this one is worth taking a look at for a single 2x700 squonk mod.

What do you think of the Dovpo Topside squonk mod? Let me know in the comment section.

Dovpo Topside