Voopoo Argus GT Review: Test Results Are In

Product intro and specs

The Argus GT Kit is the latest Kit from popular manufacturer Voopoo. They gained huge popularity with their first mod, the Drag, for its great value as far as price, performance, and durability goes. Since then, it’s been a slow downhill climb for them with some products being solid, but many being subpar. So, we’ll see if the Argus GT can be the start of them making good products again.

This kit includes the Argus GT mod, which is a dual-18650 mod rated at 160 watts, and the PnP Pod tank which is a pod that uses an adapter to function like a normal sub ohm tank. It takes their standard PnP coils which have been used on many devices of theirs recently, like the Vinci series and the Argus Air Pod.

Price: Out of stock

Colors: Carbon fiber, vintage grey, dark blue, black and red, black and blue.

First impressions

After reviewing nothing but pods for quite a while, I am happy to see that mod and tank kits started reappearing on the market. When I got the Argus, my first thought was that it’s good that Voopoo isn’t still milking the Drag line over and over. In fact, the Argus GT mod kinda goes in the opposite direction of the Drag. While the Drag mods have been heavy and boxy, the Argus is lightweight and has a more ergonomic shape that makes it feels great in the hand.

Instead of their typical resin panels, the Argus GT takes after the Geekvape Aegis line of mods. It comes with an outliner frame and a leather or fabric wrapped backing which feels and looks great. The mod is paired with the PnP Pod tank, which is designed to be beginner friendly. It’s a refillable pod with the rubber plug and all, but instead of going on a pod device, it goes on an adapter which gives it a 510 connection and makes it usable on every mod. I thought the name would be a gimmick to go after the popularity of pods, but it’s not. It’s truly a hybrid between a pod and a tank, which I thought was a good idea.

Build quality and design

The Argus GT is a nicely built mod. It looks tactical like the Geekvape Aegis line of mods, but it isn’t IP67-rated. They even list it as “military packaging design” which essentially means that it looks a lot more rugged and tactical then it actually is. In the hand, it feels solid and not cheap or flimsy. But at 105 grams (197 grams with two 18650 batteries in) it is not heavy at all.

The fire button is a basic rectangle with an indentation, and it is placed at the front of the mod above the screen. Below the screen are the up and down buttons and on the side behind a rubber plug is the USB-C port. It features a large color screen that’s easy to see and clear and very bright. Much nicer than the ones we have seen on the Drag line lately. I didn’t see a size listed, but it’s likely a 0.96-inch screen.

For a dual-18650 mod, it’s pretty small and about the same size as the Drag 2. The 510 pin is great and gave me no issues with any atomizer. The mod is listed at 26 mm wide, but with the 510 being off center and towards the back, the 26 mm included tank has some very slight overhang on it. A 24 mm diameter atomizer will sit flush on it. The tank does look good on it so no complaints there; but it may bother others more than it bothered me.

The Argus GT comes in five color options. I was sent the Vintage Grey one. All of them are mostly black, with the color of the frame and the leather changing for the different color options. For the most part it’s a very nice-looking mod. My only complaint is that they all have this splash-like texture on the black main frame. It has these shiny little dots and it makes the mod look dirty—like you have tiny specs of juice all over it.

Branding was thankfully kept nice and simple. A welcome change from the giant “DRAG” logo on their Drag mods. There is a small “Voopoo” logo on the side and an “Argus” logo on the back, both etched into the leather. The battery door is a standard bottom latch system. It worked great with no issues, and I had no problem getting batteries in and out. It closes flush with no gaps. There is no button rattle on this mod at all either. Overall, it’s mostly a great-looking and well-built mod, but they really shouldn’t have put that speckle design on it in my opinion.

Features and functions

Using the Voopoo Argus GT

As far as the menu goes, it still needs some work but it’s better than before. There isn’t a true menu system to navigate, but you basically have to scroll through the modes. Here is a quick rundown of the usage:

Overall, it’s simple enough to use and an improvement over their past mods, but a full menu system would have been nicer.

Power mode performance

Testing on this mod was done with Sony VTC5A batteries. For listed specs, I could only find max watts which was 200 and max volts which was 8.4. I wish they would list all three (watts, volts, and amps). Still, two out of three is better than just watts.

During my testing, the max achieved wattage was 102, so the 160-watt rating on this device is really poor. It’s likely due to the low amp limit, which I found to be 25 amps in my testing. That is insanely low for a dual-18650 mod which should easily hit 40 these days—but even four or so years ago, the norm was around 30. Today, even most single-cell mods have higher amp limits than 25.

Due to this limitation, in order to test it out for 160 watts, it would have to be at 0.256 ohms, but even when I tested close to that (0.21 ohms) the device wasn’t providing over 22 amps. Theoretically, 160 could have been possible around a 0.33-ohm resistance, but I’m pretty sure it would once again get restricted by the amps. The low amp limit kills the usage of the mod for high watts. For comparison, the Freemax Maxus I recently reviewed (a dual-18650 mod also) was able to hit over 160 watts in all three of my low resistance tests, while the Argus GT couldn’t hit even close to it in any of them.

The volt limit I got was 7.679 which is pretty average for a mod without a boost circuit, but many dual battery mods have them these days. It’s also way below the listed 8.4-volt limit, which is theoretical and not realistic without a boost circuit. Overall, the specs are overrated for this mod. They feel more theoretical than actually usable.

The mod adjusts in 1-watt increments which is great. I’m glad they didn’t do the 0.1-watt increment thing. If you hold it down, it’ll scroll pretty fast as well. There is no round robin for wattage though.

During my testing the mod did a great job of not getting hot. Accuracy wise it’s pretty average at 75 watts or less, but over 75 watts is not really a usable mod. It struggles and fails to come close to the set wattage points. Overall, while not a good performer, many may not notice it if they only use the included tank which never needs more than 65 watts. But it’s still way subpar by today's standards. You can see the full test results above.

They also list a 2-amp charge rate, and while I don’t recommend charging your batteries internally if it can be avoided, I did test their rating. The max I got was 1.4 amps so, again, something else overrated. They should have listed that at 1.5 amps.

Temperature control performance

Using SS316L wire and in SS mode, I tested four builds:

The power is fully adjustable in temperature control but, as with previous Voopoo mods, it is limited to 80 watts. First off, and before I go over performance as a whole, the mod struggled to power the fancy dual-coil build—so it wasn’t putting out the full 80 watts either. Considering its power mode limitations, I’d say that it only has enough power for TC builds that need 60 watts or less.

They also still use the non-standard TCR (default 1300 for SS but adjustable). They really should go with the standard style that 90% of other mods use. In any case, while at times I could get a good vape using SS mode, I had to keep adjusting—which is a sign that TC mode isn’t working right. Overall, it wasn’t consistent enough for me to recommend it for TC, but it wasn’t awful either in the right circumstances.

Voopoo PnP Pod tank rundown

Ok, so let's do a quick rundown of the PnP Pod tank. First off, the great news is that it is compatible with all the Voopoo PnP coils from many of their past devices like the Vinci and Argus Air, which gives users lots of options. Overall, they have eight coils and an RBA head available, with options ranging between 10-80 watts. In this kit, the tank comes with two coils.

The tank itself is a fully enclosed one-piece pod that holds 4.5 mL of juice (2 mL for the TPD version) and the pod snaps onto a base with a 510 connector to use on any mod. The coil system is your standard plug-and-play (hence the PnP name). They are easy to remove and replace; just pull out the pod from the adapter base and then pop out the coil from the bottom. Note that you can't do it with a full tank; it needs to be empty.

There is no drip tip on this tank (the mouthpiece is part of the pod) and no spare pod is included in the package. The pod can be filled by removing a black rubber plug from the bottom, so it is as easy to fill as any pod system. The airflow control is smooth and easy to adjust but not on a stopper. Overall, I like the idea behind the pod/tank hybrid, and it should be easier to use than a sub ohm tank. But some features had to be sacrificed for ease of use.

Performance wise, I’ve never had any luck with Voopoo coils, and these two were no different. The 0.15-ohm coil fared best, and flavor was decent, but only lasted about 45 mL of juice—about half of what many good coils last at that wattage. The 0.2-ohm coil fared much worse and flavor was below average. It lasted only about 22 mL, which is less than half of what it should for a 45-watt coil. Not impressed with the coils, and I think that it’s an area where Voopoo needs to improve greatly.

Pros / Cons

Gallery

Verdict

Overall, this is another let down by Voopoo. It’s a worse performer than their Drag series and as far as mods are concerned, they seem to continue moving backwards since the original Drag came out.

If you want a compact and lightweight dual-18650 mod, and you’re not planning on pushing it over 70 watts, it may be what you’re after. The Argus GT looks good (except for the speckle paint) and feels new with the very nice screen and the tactical design. But from a performance standpoint, it is massively overrated as far as specs are concerned. It performs like a decent mod from 2013 and nowhere near a good performer by 2020 standards.

As for the tank, it looks good, and I like the fact that the coils are cross-compatible with other devices. But the coils themselves are subpar as well. All in all, I don’t think that this kit is worth your time or money, and hopefully Voopoo takes this feedback to improve on their next mod.

Let me know how you feel in the comments below!