Normally, I get upset when vape companies create too many different product names and SKUs. The Joyetech ESPION Infinite is the exception, because this next iteration of the ESPION series shares nothing in common with its predecessors, other than…. It’s a vape mod … and…well… That’s it, actually.

While the original ESPION was a compact, dual-18650 mid-wattage vape device with an executive look and feel, and the ESPION Solo was similar, with a single 20700/21700 format, the ESPION Infinite is something else entirely. It’s like someone went to Joyetech, threw a rave and added a fever dream for good measure. Then they made the thing larger, added battery capacity and brought some nice beveled glass to the party.

Yep, the dual-21700 (or 18650 with included adapter) ESPION Infinite is its own animal. But none of the lightshows and club-ready pulsing means nothing if the Infinite doesn’t vape like a champ. And that, my friends, is where the party ends.

At first glance, the ESPION Infinite seems innocuous enough. My metallic blue and silver test model looked like any other mid-wattage vape mod, with a fairly standard box shape, a handful of jutting edges, and some oddly placed up/down control buttons atop the device. It’s only after you power up the Infinite that the weirdness begins.

First, the default LED settings match the color of the exterior, so within seconds, my Infinite turned bluer than Memphis on a rainy evening. Flashing, pulsing, undulating… the lightshow is one of the most “in your face” I’ve seen – and we’ve seen some loud ones.

Plus, the beveled glass creates a “3D” type reflecting effect that only makes the show more over the top than anything else on the market. But after all the lights dim, THAT isn’t even the biggest problem with the display. Instead, it’s the size of the screen itself, versus the amount of other real estate wasted on LEDs and quasi-3D effects.

You see, despite the huge layered glass section on the front of the mod, the display is a pedestrian 0.96 inches, vertically oriented. In other words, it’s damn tight. Does Joyetech do a good job cramming the information on the screen in a legible manner? You bet. But why did they need to? There is plenty of room to expand the screen size while still giving the LEDs their due. Preference wins out here, but I can’t imagine too many people preferring a vape rave instead of a screen that’s easier to read.

That said, once you’re in the menus, the Infinite is fairly easy to navigate, with straightforward menu trees and user-friendly controls. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but newcomers have nothing to fear with these onscreen layouts.

Interestingly, the ESPION Infinite is one mod on which I recommend leaving the lights ON. Because with them turned off, the front of the display is just bare, empty, hollow glass, with a screen that seems THAT much smaller as a result.

The screen issues aside, the Infinite is well-constructed, with a ding-proof paint job, awesome fire button, and solid controls. I may not like the up/down controls atop the mod, since it was difficult for me to operate them one-handed, but the buttons themselves are solid and responsive.

We’ve already covered the lights, so let’s get down to the other key feature of the Infinite – power. With dual 20700 or 21700 batteries installed, the Infinite hits a VERY respectable 230 watts with relative ease. And though the literature didn’t indicate anything about it, the Infinite got me to 220 watts with dual 18650s in place… though it did stutter a bit during some heavier use.

Overall, the power performance was okay at best. But there were a lot of misfires when using anything other than 21700 cells. Yes, most customers will probably default to the big batteries anyway, but why have the option for smaller cells if they’re not going to work well? Even with the included adapter, power flow was erratic in 18650 mode, with misfires galore.

One big problem people are going to have with the Infinite is its claim that it can accommodate 30mm atomizers. TECHNICALLY, this is a true statement, and the mod is wide enough to handle those diameters. But if your 30mm atomizer juts out even a little bit, the up/down adjustments are near impossible, thanks to the awkward button placement. If Joyetech had just gone with a more traditional format, the Infinite could have won over a lot of extra customers.

Thankfully, the centered 510 connection handles most tanks and RDAs flawlessly, so at least you’re not relegated to using the included ProCore Conqueror tank, which was a shockingly poor sub-ohm tank atomizer. I’ve enjoyed other ProCore tanks, but the ProCA and ProCD coils were both limp in flavor, vapor production and longevity.

And not for anything, but the ProCore Conqueror design is nothing more than a squattier take on the far-superior TFV12 Prince, right down to a “cobra” patterned resin drip tip, extended glass section and hinged fill method. Hell, if it was anywhere NEAR the Prince’s performance, I’d be thrilled. But the less digital ink we use on this tank, the better.

By now, you’re probably not expecting a sudden change of heart, and you’d be correct. But what was so shocking about the Infinite wasn’t that the performance lacked in spots… it’s in how many spots in which it lacked.

Like we mentioned, the power performance was erratic. On one hand, the 230-watt claim is accurate, as long as 21700 cells are installed. However, while the Infinite didn’t struggle hitting those marks, the coil resistance constantly jumped above 200 watts, leading to some harsh hits, inconsistent flavor, and a warning or two on the minuscule screen.

In temperature control, things really started to jump off the rails. I won’t bore you with the details, but no matter which of my four TC test coils I used, I never once had the same experience… varying wildly from puff to puff. Resistances jumped, even after being locked in, random error messages appeared for no reason whatsoever, and the Infinite simply didn’t want to read my stainless coils without having to enter the TCR levels manually.

In fact, even when things seemed to be steady onscreen, the Infinite still performed erratically one puff to the next. Needless to say, I jumped out of TC mode as soon as testing was complete, and haven’t been back since.

Sadly, even though power performance wasn’t perfect, it was light years ahead of the TC performance, and should be where most customers spend their time with the Infinite.

For the better part of two years, I’ve repeatedly harped on the fact that LED lightshows are a waste of time. The Joyetech ESPION Infinite might be the first mod that has suffered for having them. Because if the company had spent half as much time fine-tuning the performance and layout as it did making the glass screen light up, the Infinite might have had a different result.

Instead, we have another dual 2×700 mod that doesn’t offer any appreciable performance improvements, countless firing issues, a too-small display, and an entirely broken TC mode. Unless you absolutely HAVE to have every LED-enhanced mod in existence, I can comfortably recommend choosing something else.

Over the past 7 years we’ve reviewed so many Joyetech vaping devices I can’t remember them all, not even close. I do know that Joyetech had made some very excellent devices, both mods and tanks, and it’s downright confusing to me what Joyetech had in mind for the ESPION Infinite.

Score: D+