Lostvape Centaurus M200 Reviewed

Welcome back folks, I haven’t been around for a while, and have been taking a bit of a hiatus, getting some other projects done, but I’m back today to show you something that I’ve been mucking around with for the last few months.

When you think Lostvape, you think “quality”. Well I do, anyway. Over the years, they’ve pushed out a bunch of high end gear, nice solid pieces that just feel wonderful in the hand, and operate just as well.
Today’s bit of kit, doesn’t stray far from that thinking, if anything, that pretty much sums it up in a nutshell!

Let’s take a look at Lostvape’s Centaurus M200 dual battery device!

Big thanks goes to Lostvape and Vaporstate for sending this directly through to me for review!

Opening the box

Right from opening the box, Lostvape have done their best to show you a premium experience, and they’ve succeeded, the minimalist, and chic design of the box and inner, with only the device and smaller box shown when the package is opened is clean and professional.

You might have noticed that I have two of these babies. A pink and a gold copy. Unfortunately as many of you might have seen during facebook group discussions, the initial reviewer versions were pre-production versions, that had the additional mode and wattage lock missing. (Not ideal on a reviewers model at all but it was a pre-production version!) Not to worry though, it was all rectified by sending another unit out (the Gold) that does indeed provide all of the features, so that I can tell you all about how well they work! Thankyou to VaporState and Lostvape for sorting that out.

General Info & Photos

This is no ordinary device. It’s as simple is as simple does, and the closer you look at this the more you’ll realise that LostVape have not only brought us a really lovely looking device, but they’ve simplified things, this device really is slimmed down, yet still retains all of the features that you’d expect from a premium device.

No fancy shapes here, the Centaurus m200 is a throwback to old school dual battery devices, with it’s simple aluminium ‘block’ design, made from Aircraft grade Aluminium Alloy and neatly cleaned up with rounded chamfered edges and smooth engraving to ensure it feels every bit as elegant as it looks. And it really does. As blocky as it may look, this device is quite comfortable to hold, and feels like an expensive bit of hardware.

Coming in at a largish 93mm x 56.7mm xx 26mm, this dual 18650 battery box, can hand atomizers of up to 26mm diameter without overhang. This beast takes all of the best features of previously released mods, and brings them all together into the one device. Smooth corners, chamferred edges, spring loaded battery bay (with a ribbon!), glowing adjustment dial, on/off power slider, USB Type C charge port, magnetic replaceable doors, and gold plated spring loaded 510 connector.

Battery & Charging

As you can see, the m200 takes x2 18650 batteries to power it. The battery bay is revealed when removing one of the magnetic side panels, giving you not only spring loaded gold plated contacts, but also a battery ribbon to aid in removing your batteries.
You’ll also find a USB type C charging port on the front panel, so if you’re caught in an emergency, you can simply plug in and charge at a fast 2A charge rate.

The jog dial that operates the wattage increments not only makes all of the adjustments, but also houses a battery indicator light, to show you how much charge you have left at a glance by adjusting it’s light colour. I really like this little addition, it makes it easy to see your battery’s charge without needing to look at the screen. The different colours and battery levels are below.

• Charge level 0-20%: The LED is Red
• Charge level 20-40%: The LED is White
• Charge level 40-60%: The LED is Blue
• Charge level 60-80%: The LED is Green
• Charge level 80-100%: The LED is Purple

Usage & Features

The Centaurus m200 with Lostvape’s Quest 2.0 chipset doesn’t have conventional controls. Lostvape have spiced things up here, and while you might find yourself a little confused at first, it’s super simple to operate once you know how.

Power

Where you’d normally see x5 clicks on the fire button to turn on/off, the Centaurus m200 doesn’t actually power down like that. Instead of consecutive clicks on the fire button, they’ve provided a simple sliding switch on the front to instantly turn on/off your device.
I love this, other companies have done so, and I’ve always found it much easier when you’re stowing your device away to simply switch it off instead of button mashing before putting it away in your bag. Big up’s for this one.

Adjusting Wattage

Historically, adjusting wattage is usually done using an up and down button on the device. Lostvape have changed this too, and frankly, this is the main feature of the m200. The Jog dial that surrounds the fire button is how your wattage is adjusted. Simply spin it counter clockwise to turn wattage down, and clockwise to turn wattage up.
The wattage adjustment steps do change depending on how high you have it too. Starting on 1Watt increments you will eventually get to 5Watt increments past 100 Watts.

0 – 39 Watts – 1 Watt increments
40 – 98 Watts – 2 Watt increments
100 – 195 Watts – 5 Watt increments

The wattage adjustment also round robins, when you hit maximum wattage it cycles back down to 1 Watt if you keep going.

The jog dial, is a very welcome feature, that makes things a little more streamlined, but I have found one negative, while adjustment can be made on the jog dial using a finger to adjust, early on while the jog dial hasn’t yet loosened up, you’ll find you’ll be needing to pinch it between two fingers to adjust, meaning you need two hands to adjust.

Fire Button

Just because the device is no not turned on/off with consecutive button mashing on the fire button, doesn’t mean that these button press sequences don’t exist. Instead they are mapped differently.
x3 times : Wattage lock
x5 times : Change the mode from Normal mode to DIY ( or RDA ) mode.

Modes

As mentioned earlier, there are two modes available on the Centaurus m200, the standard Wattage mode, and the DIY (or RDA) mode. Switchable by pressing the fire button x5 times while unlocked.
There are some differences here, not a lot, but a few worth mentioning, specially for seasoned vapers, or vapers whom use custom builds.

Wattage mode

The M200 comes in wattage mode right out of the box, and the display shows minimal information, Wattage, battery level, resistance, puff time and puff counter.
I believe this is similar to an easy mode, likely to be used by the majority of vapers, put your tank on, adjust your wattage and off you go.

DIY (RDA) Mode

DIY mode has a little more advanced display, including all of the same data as the Wattage mode, but also with the addition of Voltage output. Since this device is capable of Voltage from 0.7 – 10 volts, it is handy to be able to see exactly how much voltage it is using, when throwing your more advanced builds on top of it.

On top of the voltage display, the DIY mode also seems to have quite a bit faster ramp up to the standard Wattage mode. As an example, an RTA at 0.14 ohms that I would normally vape at around 60 watts, fires up a lot faster, with a much stronger power level, so much so that I seem to get the same vape from DIY mode at only 50 Watts, compared to the 60 Watts on wattage mode. Is this mode throwing us into Series mode? I’m not 100% on that, but an interesting difference.

Pros:

• Accurate power display
• Strong and sturdy
• Fits larger Tanks and RDA’s
• Up to 200 Watts of power
• Simple and intuitive controls
• Dual modes available

Cons:

• Requires 2 hands to adjust wattage, due to the jog dial.
  

Where to Buy:

As always, you can purchase Lostvape gear through their partner here in Australia Vaporstate, and the Centaurus m200 in particular from their Centaurus m200 listing. The Centaurus m200 full kit is also available with the Centaurus Sub-Ohm tank.

Conclusion

Originally I thought that the Centaurus m200 mod might not be my thing. (I tend to go for smaller devices that I can carry around easily) However, I’ve found myself using it a lot more than I expected, especially at home, when I am running a larger RDA or Tank that I would not normally use whilst out and about.
I’ve found it to be a top quality device, not only in functionality but form also, with it’s sturdy aircraft grade aluminium, and super simple to use controls, it is a pleasure to use.
It looks wonderful with it’s engraved side panels, and central 510 connector, with the jog dial and on/off slide switch super useful features.

Lostvape you’ve done an excellent job on this one, and it’s going to go into my daily rotation of devices for sure!

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.