I never bought a Smok mod, despite their popularity (except the AL85, but I gave that to a friend when people said that they were having issues w/ TC; she only does wattage anyway). I wasn't even considering a 2-battery mod when the Aliens came out, so I never grabbed one. There's been quite a few Smok mods (especially the Alien) that have issues of one sort or another, so I decided Smok wasn't for me. I now have a Therion, 3 Tesla Steampunks, and a Rolfvape Warlock that are all 2-battery mods... and I thought I'd never buy one!
Mind you, each one of those mods were purchased because I love the looks of them, otherwise I may never have bought them, but I haven't had issues with any of them yet. Unfortunately, they haven't gotten much use, as I am spoiled by the size, weight, portability, and cuteness of the Eleaf Pico (I've got back ups, back ups for my back ups, & back ups for those back ups, etc.
), so the bricks pretty much stay at home.
There have been quite a few Aliens that have died a young death, so I count myself lucky that I steered clear of them. Perhaps their QC did improve along the way, but I'll wait for the proof in people's take on them, before I decide to test the waters myself. I've read that Smok's temperature control doesn't work all that great and the paint is said to flake off if you look at it funny, so that's another couple of nails in Smok's coffin for me. There are plenty of mods around the same cost or cheaper that have better track records, IMO. (FYI: even my old, original Eleaf iSticks are still working trouble free, despite people calling them crap.)
As for the Invoke, it's less expensive than the Alien, has a centered 510, and is 27mm wide, so it will handle wider tanks pretty well (Alien is 30mm though, but the 510 is off to the side), and I believe it is (or should be) ArticFox software compatible, so you can fine tune your vape with that 3rd-party software. I have a ton of Eleaf mods (especially the Pico) and I run ArticFox on all those that are firmware upgrade able.
I am sure that others will chime in on other 2-battery mods (I'm assuming a dual battery is what you're after to replace the Alien) that they have experience with. Despite the heft of it, the Tesla Steampunk 120 has the easiest menu system that I have ever seen in a TC mod and it will allow you to set up power curves to fine tune your vape, but it is not firmware upgrade able nor does it have USB charging. The Tesla Punk 220 is the updated version of this (I don't have it), but it seems to be a winner with people who grabbed one (Tesla added the USB port for charging & firmware to that one now).
Sorry this has gotten so long, but I'm sure the great people on this board will steer you to something that will last more than 7 months.
