I have a couple of these batteries and absolutely LOVE them. The size & shape is great in-hand and the 1000mah lasts me all day.
They've replaced the 400mah Vision Spinners as my daily pocketable battery. I really like the Spinners but at 400mah I go through 2 a day, not a big issue as it's easy enough to have one battery charging while using another, but with the Winders I get twice the run time (not surprising since the mah is more than twice as much).
Size wise I was surprised to see that the 1000mah Winders aren't all that much taller (longer?) than the 400mah Spinners, though of course they are fatter (bigger boned?
). The 1000mah Winder is roughly 5/8" longer than the 400mah Spinner.
The button of the Winder is better than that on the Twist or Spinner, though it's flush enough as to be harder to find by feel than the Twist/Spinner's button. The button is larger and feels nicer (and higher quality?) than those on the Twists and Spinners. The stepped collar and button placement is about perfect (well, until someone makes a battery where the Ego connector is offset at the bottom of the battery so that your tank/carto/clearo runs along side the battery and that has a button on TOP of the battery).
The weight of the 1000mah Winder (without anything attached) is about that of an 18650 battery, which isn't surprising. It's heavier than any of the Twists/Spinners I own (and since they're all 350-900mah they SHOULD weigh less than the 1000mah Winder) but not uncomfortably so. Since I don't own any Twists/Spinners over 900mah, I'm not sure how the weight compares to those models.
My only quibbles about the Aro's are VERY minor (so I wouldn't let them overly influence my future purchasing decisions):
- Finish: While the paint certainly isn't the fingerprint magnet of other glossy items, I wish it was a little more impervious to nicks/scratches. It's pretty darn good, and maybe the best we'll ever see in a pv, but the stainless holds up better after much use/abuse than the colored ones. The Aro finish holds up WAY better than the "rubbery" black of the Ego Twist and Vision Spinner, but I do like the tactile feel of the "rubber", just that it ends up looking pretty beat up quickly.
The other minor benefit (or drawback) of the rubber finish of the Twist/Spinner is that different colors have a different feel (i.e. without even looking you can feel the difference). Since I sometimes carry 2 in pocket, if one is the "rubbery" finish and one isn't, I don't have to look to tell which is which. With the Aro Winders all feeling the same it's not an option.
- Finish Part II: The finish on the collar is brushed, and very nicely done, but for some reason it was decided that the finish on the button and adjustment dial shouldn't match (they're shiny chrome and not brushed). On the stainless finished Winder, the different finish on the button/dial looks pretty decent as it adds a little bit of variety and appears completely intended. However, on the painted Winders it looks a little hodge-podgy since you have the paint color, the brushed finish of the collar, AND the shiny finish of the button and dial.
Depending upon what's attached, the finish can look better or worse. For instance, with an Aero Tank Mini attached (with has a brushed finish) it makes the Winder look
better (especially nice on the uncolored/stainless Winder), but since most other items (Vivi Nova, Evods, T3, M3T, etc.) have more of a shiny chromed finish, they don't looks as nice on the brushed collar (the Twist and Spinner both have shiny collars).
I'm not a huge stickler for appearance, function is MUCH more important to me, it'd just by nice if the Winder had a consistant finish (not brushed AND chromed) that matched the bulk of the items attached. (then again, it's what is inside that counts, and the Winder has a great personality!)
- Voltage Adjustment: The Winder is MUCH easier to read and adjust than the Twist (which is darn near impossible to read) or Spinner. However, I have noticed that the Winder isn't as smooth and tends to have inconsistant tension. I'd describe it as feeling like there's some sort of particles in the dial/pot. (And all of my Winders have had this feel to them right out of the box). This inconsistant resistance to dial adjustments is very minor though as they are MUCH easier to read than the Twist/Spinner and they stay where you put them, just that it adds a slightly "cheap" feel to what otherwise is a stellar feeling and performing VV battery.
Summary:
I love the 1000mah Winder. They last me a day+ in about the smallest vv package available. They're quite pocket friendly (5-click off and the Winder's button is inset due to the collar's "step" shape, unlike the Twist/Spinner which have buttons that slightly protrude beyond the collar). They perform very well, look pretty darn good, and they handle use abuse over time better than the Twist or Spinners do.
