Intro

Nowadays, mods that are absent of distracting annoyances & just quietly work well in power mode seem to be increasingly rare. I previously found the Armour Ultra to match these requirements very well, and have been looking out for others, hence my interest in the recently-release Armour Octa (as of Nov 2026).

At first sight, the Octa appears to be a dual 18650 version of the Ultra which has its own non-replaceable internal cell. And I can now confirm that this is a fair assessment, albeit with a few minor differences which we'll describe here.

Being truly honest, I still really wish Vaporesso had simply made a 21700 version of the Ultra, as IMO this would have been outstanding for our needs. However, the Octa is a good alternative, and while a dual cell mod is overkill for our Dimitri purposes, if you purchase one of these & use it properly, then it's very hard to imagine you being disappointed.
Just like the Armour Ultra and Armour S, I suggest leaving the Octa in Eco mode with Smart disabled, which will serve as a well-performing power mode

Armour Octa User Manual 

Summary

As mentioned, the Octa is very similar to the Ultra in appearance, user interface and performance.  As well as its size & weight, additional differences are as follows

• The Octa is powered by dual 18650 cells rather than the Ultra's internal non-replaceable battery

• The Octa incorporates Vaporesso's "V2 Overtime Protection".  Basically, this powers down the mod if, within 2 minutes, two full duration 10 sec fire cycle timeouts occur.  Unfortunately, this can't be disabled, but unlikely to be triggered during our activities.

• The Octa's Fire button is more flush than the Ultra, which makes it slightly harder to detect by feel. For me it's still acceptable for tripping in the dark, but only just. I'd much prefer a more obvious fire button feel.

• The display on the Octa is noticeably dimmer than the Ultra (when both are compared at max brightness).  It's acceptable, but a great pity since it's much harder to see outdoors. I'd definitely prefer identical brightness to the Ultra and can't see any technical reason this couldn't have been achieved.

• The Octa has an auto lock setting, which is absent on the Ultra.  I have mine disabled, but when activated (via the settings menu), the manual claims the mod auto-locks after three minutes of inactivity.  I found mine locks only after 4 minutes of inactivity starting from a display fadeout. It can be unlocked either by 4 quick presses of the Fire button, or toggling the lock slider switch.

• The Octa has an unusually narrow 510 faceplate (~24mm) for a dual cell mod, even more so than the Ultra (~26mm).  Perhaps a strange design feature, assuming the Octa was designed for larger & higher powered tanks.  Atomisers like the Blaze 26mm, Dead Rabbit V3, V4  and Arbiter 2  fit nicely without noticeable overhang, but larger ones like the Blaze Pro Max appear a little top-heavy.

• The Octa & Ultra each have three display theme options, but only one in common.  In fact all are very similar and IMO none are particularly impressive.

• The Octa has the option of displaying battery percentage as well as the individual L and R bar representation, whereas the Ultra displays both by design.

Pros & Cons

🙂 Works very well in "power mode" Simple Wattage (Power) mode is actually "Eco" mode with "Smart" disabled.  During 0.3Ω  30W load testing, Wattage delivered was about 2.0W lower than the Solo V1 standard and unaffected by the SS firmware bug, handling stainless steel coils every bit as well as nichrome Ni80 or Kanthal Ka1.

🙂 "Time to Full Charge" shown on display during charging, which is imo handy

🙂 Large Wattage field readout Wattage is refreshingly easy to read but resistance, puff counter, & TC Wattage fields needlessly small

🙂 Slightly dim display even when set to max intensity. My Armour Ultra, which appears to have an identical display, is significantly brighter.

🙁 Locking slider is imo handy, but operates with insufficient force, easy to operate accidentally.  Perhaps superfluous since 4 clicks on the fire button achieves exactly the same thing

🙁 Button design, I'd rather the Fire and up/down buttons were chunkier with a more definite touch 

🙁 Display layout During a fire cycle the only field updated is puff duration, all others are static. Also, there's no Voltage or Amps display - a slight disappointment for me at least.

🙁 User confusion Functions with vague misleading names. User manual practically useless. Almost impossible for the average user to obtain proper info on what functions actually achieve and whether they're of any use, or just gimmicks