“Never judge a book by its cover…” After all these years, my mother is still right. Because when I first saw the Uwell Ironfist 200W mod kit, I was… um … unimpressed. Sure, it was an attractive enough standard box mod. The specs seemed to match what we expect from a mod kit in this category these days. And it certainly seemed durable… at least on paper.

But you know what we got instead? Damn near perfection, that’s what. I’ll go ahead and give you a spoiler for our 2019 “Best Mid-Wattage Mods” article – the Uwell Ironfist will be on it. Because I have a lot of mods in my collection, and few of them travel with me anymore, thanks to the Ironfist permanently affixed to my palm.

The tall, dual-18650 Ironfist strikes an ideal balance between durability and comfort, with a slick, leather-wrapped grip, finger-friendly cutouts near the fire button and operation keys, and a bomb-proof 510 connection that accepted every atomizer in my collection without a concern. The Ironfist seems bigger than it actually is, until you get it in your hand, and feels great no matter your grip or preferred firing style.

At first, I was a little nonplussed by my white and black test model. But once the Star Wars fan in me started seeing the Ironfist as an Imperial Stormtrooper, it all started to look amazing. And three weeks later, it still does.

That’s not to say there couldn’t be some improvement – the rest of the Ironfist is fairly standard issue, with an oversized, rectangular fire key, two-button control scheme, front-facing USB charge port, and the other usual trappings. I would have loved to see a three-button control scheme, but Uwell’s first higher-wattage chipset seems to be focused on a stripped-down appeal.

Speaking of which, the only area of improvement to be had on the Ironfist is the 0.96-inch screen and monochrome, old-school display. It all works fine – and there’s an argument to be made for a simpler user experience – but given what GeekVape and other companies are doing with monochrome readouts, Uwell’s attempt is a little pedestrian.

Finally, it took me five minutes of frustration before I noticed the simple on/off toggle on the bottom of the Ironfist. Such a simple addition. Such a simple way to keep power safely off when not in use. Such a simple idea that other companies should follow ASAP.

If the Uwell Ironfist kit only included the mod itself, it would be worth the money. If it came with the Ironfist and a pedestrian tank, it would be a great deal. But instead, Uwell dug deep and decided to include one of the industry’s most-popular sub-ohm tanks — the Crown III – making it a tremendous offering from the veteran vape company.

While we had some initial concerns with the 24.5mm Crown III, our experience turned out to be spectacular, with respectable vapor production and unbeatable flavor quality. No matter which e-liquid I used on the included SUS-system coils (0.25- and 0.5-ohm, respectively), it squeezed every last ounce of flavor from each fill. Bright flavors were more vibrant. Rich flavors were more complex.

And my vape quality never faltered. The Crown III is a tremendous tank for flavor-seekers, and each of the included coils is still going, long after most production coils would have waved a white flag.

I said it in the Ironfist kit preview, and I’ll repeat it verbatim here: I may have mods that hit harder, but none that ramp more smoothly, or sip battery power quite like the Ironfist. I haven’t put mine down in weeks, and I don’t expect to anytime soon.

Despite the antiquated menu and operating system, using the Ironfist mod is a breeze, with responsive menu entries and lightning fast changes to power and temperature. The system has intelligent coil recognition that works well, if not a little conservatively. But it’s so easy to adjust on the fly that I hardly noticed.

The fully fleshed temperature control suite is well laid out, given the narrow screen and linear menu system, and even newcomers will have no problems navigating the menu trees and setting their desired temps and resistance levels. TCR adjustments were equally easy to lock in, and were helpful when using more complicated coil types. But it never stuttered or jumped once things were locked in, and it never shifted dramatically, even after long rounds of vaping.

Most importantly, the Ironfist is a fantastically smooth-ramping vape mod, both in temperature control and wattage modes. From 5 watts to its 210-watt limit, the Ironfist escalates quickly and effortlessly, without ever hiccuping when reaching its upper echelon. And the smooth ramping continued until my 18650s were practically drained, never slowing as the cells began to wind down.

Speaking of battery life, there are few mid- to high-wattage vape mods that sip battery power as efficiently as the Uwell Ironfist. Not only did the mod give me hours of reliable performance per charge, but it even recharged quickly using the included USB cable. This technology has been improving steadily this past year, and the Ironfist might be the best onboard charging system I’ve seen yet.

Strangely, the only quirk I noticed was the Ironfist’s tendency to jump out of Bypass mode whenever my batteries fell below a certain level. Maybe this was an onboard protection measure, or just a quirk, but it’s worth noting, even though I don’t suspect many users are going to even notice.

Being a diligent reviewer, I have to dock the Uwell Ironfist mod kit a few ticks because of the Bypass mode quirk and the old-fashioned menu system. But don’t let that score fool you – the Ironfist is quite simply one of the nicest, most-comfortable, highest-performing vape mods in my collection, and one I plan on using for a long, long time. It may not be “perfect,” but I can’t imagine any mid-wattage mods coming much closer.

Score: A

Buy the Uwell Ironfist Kit at Element Vape