Asvape Gabriel Choice Mod Review

Let’s cut the suspense, the Asvape Gabriel Choice, an 80W box mod has earned a score of B+ in the review below. It took many hours of constant use to convince myself that my first ‘impression’ was the correct impression, and except for one mistake of “style over substance”, the Asvape Gabriel Choice is simply superb. I’ll get to all the ‘superb’ specs and features, and that one glaring mistake, in a bit.

The number of single 18650-cell box mods that I’ve awarded a B+ score to in a review are few and far between, especially this past year. While others, including my colleagues here at Spinfuel VAPE, may award such lofty scores even higher than my B+ for ‘a few single cell mods, it was clear to me that the future belonged to the Power Mods, and Performance Style Sub-Ohm tanks. My how things change. Pod Mod anyone?

Asvape is a peculiar mod maker, always has been. We’ve written full reviews for a few of them, including the Stab-Wood Gabriel, Strider, and our favorite, the Asvape Michael. Each of these Vape Mods are made with meticulous care, ergonomic curves, and plenty of high-tech features and safety precautions. But more than anything else, each Asvape Mod is simply beautiful works of “mod art”. These positive traits carry over to Asvape’s newest Mod, the Gabriel Choice.

Asvape Gabriel vs Gabriel Choice

The Asvape Gabriel Choice is half the cost of the original Gabriel. From what I have been able to ascertain, this cost is associated with the Gabriel being constructed with a chassis of stabilized wood, or stabwood, and nothing more. Your “Choice” is spend half the money to get a Gabriel with all the same specs and features, except instead of stabilized wood the chassis is constructed using a rubberized textured, base-relief paint job displaying a choice of designs, all unique. Both Gabriel’s even come with the choice of silver or gold trim.

The Disadvantages of the Asvape Gabriel Choice

Unfortunately, the Asvape Gabriel Choice and its more expensive sister have two, well, disadvantages. The obvious one plaguing both Gabriel’s is the screw on battery cap that lies under the mod. The threading is silky, the fit is perfect, but it is a “spoke”, allowing moisture, or god forbid, water, seep into the battery chamber in an instant. When the owner of a mod can see the battery directly, that’s not a good thing. And it’s mindboggling to think that Asvape thinks this is okay, for surely, they must because the original Gabriel is several months old, and the old and the new use this spoke-like battery cap. If it were me… IF it were me I wouldn’t have designed it to leave the battery exposed to the elements, I would have found another way to vent it, and even if I was overruled, I would insist on including another 5-cent solid cap in the box just in case the owner of the mod decided not to risk water getting into the battery chamber.

The other disadvantage is Battery Management. Using a Nitecore 3100mAh 35A 18650 cell I manage to get 90 minutes, at most, running the Gabriel Choice at just 61W with a SMOK Resa Prince Tank on top. The Resa Prince fits perfectly and performs terrifically at 61W with the 0.4ohm V12 Prince-Q4 Quadruple Coil. 61 watts in Power Mode should get at least another hour of vaping than the Gabriel Choice offers.

Asvape Packaging

Asvape knows how to package their Mods. The Asvape Gabriel and Gabriel Choice are seated securely in a soft leather box with a leather snap strap. The leather is embossed with the top with the Asvape logo, and printing on the bottom with details on the company (name, address, etc.) Seated directly under the Mod is black, logoed box containing the USB cable. (a perfect place to have included the solid battery cap)

If you own the original stabilized wood Asvape Gabriel then you’re already familiar with the features, they are identical. If you’ve longed with the Gabriel but couldn’t spring the $175 price tag, perhaps you’ve already studied the feature set. If this is your first exposure to the Asvape Gabriel, here are the main features in a nutshell…

The Asvape Gabriel Choice 80W TC Box Mod is constructed as a colorful graffiti-like chassis design, soft to the touch, almost squishy.  Inside is an intelligent chipset that features a full 80W of maximum power output with a fully charged cell. The Mod defaults to Power mode when turning it on. 5 clicks of the fire button turns the device on.

Turning the Gabriel off is slightly more complicated than turning it on. The user presses the fire button 5 times, just like turning it on, but instead of turning off, it enters the main navigation. From there the user sets the various customizations and can also turn it off. Using the plus and minus adjustment buttons gets the user into the various settings.

The Asvape Gabriel is full of customizations for an experienced vaper. Along with a suite of safety protections the internal provides not just the 80W of output, but also full temperature control, Bypass mode, and VPC Variable Power Control with Power Curve adjustments. There is much the user can do even if the power tops out at 80W.

An Asvape Gabriel at half the price of its stabilized wood counterpart, this mod has to be taken seriously. I doubt that owners of the stab-wood version would want to add this one to their collection… well, wait a minute, maybe they would. The expensive stab-wood version would make an ideal collectors piece, while the less expensive one might actually get more use. So, okay I can see that happening.

I think, based on the number of years I’ve been reviewing mods of every type, that this high-end mod will appeal to those that look at SMOK. Innokin or Joyetech mods as pedestrian, just might jump at the chance to own an Asvape mod for $70. Provided water never sees the inside of the battery chamber, the Asvape Gabriel Choice will please its owner for a long, long time.

Last Word: If the owner of an Asvape Gabriel or Gabriel Choice suffers the fate of having some kind of fluid enter the battery chamber, immediately unscrew the cap, pop the battery out, and shove a soft absorbent cloth into the chamber and sop up every bit of moisture that can be seen. Once the visible moisture is gone, leave it without its battery for 24 hours in dry place. Maybe, luck will prevail, and the mod won’t suffer damage.

If anyone from Asvape reads this review; do us all a favor and in future Gabriel’s, put a solid battery cap in the box if you must maintain the current design aesthetic of spoke caps. I’m clumsy and forgettable, and I am not alone… someday I’m going to set my Gabriel down, right smack in the middle of something wet.

The Asvape Gabriel Choice is Available Now at Element Vape