Not to deviate from all of my reviews, let’s start off with a disclaimer. This tank was sent to me by @Heaven_Gifts after I won it in an Instagram giveaway. I will make sure that the review is as fair and unbiased as possible.
The story of how I got this tank is rather silly and interesting. In general I avoid giveaways on Instagram. Most giveaywas there want me to re-post their photo, and I generally avoid doing that. I have certain ideas for my Instagram account, and I don’t want to re-post for the sake of a giveaway. One day I stumbled upon a flash givaway by Heaven Gifts, and all I had to do was like the post and comment. Thinking that my chances of winning are an absolute zero I still entered this one, and literally two hours later, I got a DM from Heaven Gifts notifying me of my prize, and asking for the shipping details. About two weeks later I got the tank in mail, and as per my standard modus operandi here is the review 
The packaging the tank came in is the standard GeekVape box. Not much to see on the outside, and the back side of the box had the standard info we would expect to see about the company. The sticker on the back confirmed that the item I received is indeed a sample.
Inside the box was the tank itself, a spare coil, and a spare bubble glass. My first thought upon seeing the tank was: “OMG this is so pretty!” And the tank is indeed gorgeous. Airflow control is made of swirly black/gray/silver resin, and the top part sports a matching ring. The drip tip completes the color scheme.
Underneath the foam that holds the tank was the usual baggie of spare o-rings and there seem to be plenty of them.
The tank itself has a few nice and interesting features. The base of the tank has a very wide plate that connects to the coil with three raised prongs that make the contact. This design gives a lot of room for airflow underneath the coil. The surface of the plate is a bit rough (sample issue or a small defect?) but I’m not really going to make a fuss about that one. The center pin and the plate with three prongs are gold plated (for better conductivity, yada yada yada :D)
The tank refills from top, and the filling port is cleverly hidden under a spring loaded swivel held in place with a little lock. The juice port is on the smaller side, and the positioning and tall drip tip make it a big awkward to fill from large 120ml gorilla bottles (the kind that I tend to use all the time…)
Parts of the tank that are not resin are made of stainless steel. All threading is smooth, tolerances are good and the overall feel is that of a quality product.
Two coils that came with the tank are what makes this one special. Both are mesh coils, filled with Egyptian cotton. Now I’m no expert on cotton, and I have no clue whether the Egyptian variety is really better than the Japanese one. Little old cynical me still thinks that this is just a marketing gimmick (I do have to admit that I love my Egyptian cotton bed sheets tho).
The coil that came pre-installed in the tank (MM X1 coil) is a single coil type, with a massive center bore, measuring at 0.15 ohm. It’s rated for 60-100W, with recommended range being between 75W and 95W. Second (spare) coil (MM X2) is a dual mesh coil, measuring at 0.4ohm. Rating is 50-80W, with recommended range being 60W to 70W.
So how does it perform you ask? That was my first question as well. After taking it all apart and cleaning it up, I reassembled it, screwed the coil into the base, screwed the top portion on, filled it up, went for the first puff, and my mouth was full of e-juice. Apparently there is a little trick to this tank. If the coil is screwed into the base first, and then assembled, there is a tiny little gap between the coil and the chimney, and the tank will leak like crazy. The way to prevent this is to make sure to screw the coil onto the chimney first, and only then assemble the tank. Another issue worth mentioning is that I had a really hard time removing the glass from the top part of the tank. The massive o-ring that seals it got stuck to the glass and to the base, and I actually had to pry it off with a screwdriver. Once it separated I had no issues taking it off again.
The airflow control feels a bit stiff at first, but after a little use it breaks in, and it’s easy to move around. It has stoppers in each direction, and there are three openings on the base. The tank is definitely very airy when the airflow is completely open. One thing to watch out for is that it will easily skip the stopper and get stuck (especially if you are Adary and you close the tank so tight you have to use rubber gloves to take it apart) and since it seems to be all resin, it can potentially get damaged or even break if it skips. Make sure not to over-tighten the tank since there no real need for that.
The first coil I tried was the single coil. With airflow open completely, it’s extremely airy. Actually way to airy for my taste. I had to close it half way to achieve the level of restrictiveness that I enjoy. The first thing I noticed was of course the flavor. I started breaking it in starting at 50W, and even there I started getting very good flavor. I slowly ramped it up to 75W (lowest recommended range) and the flavor was very good. The liquid I used was one of my ADV mixes with 70/30 VG/PG ratio, and I never got any gurgling, crackling or spitting. The vape was very smooth, warm and enjoyable (for a sub-ohm tank of course but we all know I’m biased here). I used this coil for 48 hours straight (well, except the parts where I went to sleep) and it’s still going strong. No flavor degradation, no burnt taste anywhere, and I’m quite sure it will go on producing good flavor for at least a week (which is around the maximum I ever got out of a sub-ohm coil. This coil is a terrible juice guzzler, and the 4ml tank gets empty real fast if you like to vape a lot like I do.
The second coil was a big disappointment for me. The airflow through it was a bit more restrictive, and I kept it 3/4 of the way open, but the flavor was sub-par. I slowly ramped it up from 40w (no flavor) to 60W (little flavor) all the way up to 80W (semi-decent flavor) and nowhere along the way did I find a sweet spot that I would enjoy. Vaping it for a while at 80W resulted in slightly burnt flavor, that quickly turned into a completely ruined and burned out coil. I guess they should re-think this one.
Important thing to mention about these MM (MeshMellow) coils is that they are not compatible with any other GeekVape tank (and probably not compatible with other tanks out on the market but don’t take my word for it) and if you want to stick with this tank, you don’t have many coil options.
So what’s the verdict here? Alpha is a very decent tank. It was obviously designed to go in pair with the Nova mod, and all color options are a match to the Nova mod color options.
Would I recommend this tank to friends? This is a tough question. The tank is definitely not bad. I don’t like the fact that only one of the two coils was really to my liking, but it can definitely be a decent no-hassle tank for beginners.
Would I replace it if it got lost or damaged? No
Specs:
Material: Stainless steel/resin
Height: 41mm without drip tip, 51mm with drip tip included
Width: 25mm at base, tapers up to 27mm at base. Bubble glass is is 29mm
Color options: Refer to the photo. Too many to list here
Pros:
High quality manufacture
Good flavor on single coil
Locked spring-loaded top
Good (and quiet) airflow
Juice capacity: 4ml (2ml for TPD version)
Cons:
Leaking if not assembled in proper order
Disappointing dual coil
Potentially breakable airflow ring
Proprietary coils
Undecided
Egyptian cotton coils?
For the very end, the obligatory tank base shot
If you want to get this tank, check it out on @Heaven_Gifts
https://www.heavengifts.com/product/Geekvape-Alpha-Subohm-Tank.html
