Innokin Ares FINALE Review

The Innokin Ares tanks have been a godsend to many, bringing the taste, clouds, and sheer enthusiasm of DIY coil-building to mouth-to-lung vape kits. The most recent release, the Ares FINALE, builds upon the success of its predecessors but with significant improvements in flavour performance. Plus, it is easier to build on. Here’s the Innokin Ares FINALE review by MIST. 

Review Disclosure: Innokin provided MIST with the Ares FINALE Tank for this review. However, the brand did not influence our review. 

I’ll mention now that I’ve never regularly used an RTA, though I have in the past. Considering that the Ares FINALE is aimed at a less-hardcore MTL audience, it will be good to see whether a relatively inexperienced person like me can master its use.

Video Review

Build Quality

Score: 4.5/5

The Ares Finale RTA is shorter in height than the previous Ares II RTA. The ‘bell’ which covers the coil arrangement returns, though this time with a more detailed underside that funnels flavour and vapour up the mouthpiece even faster, resulting in a more intense initial hit of flavour.

Innokin saw fit to remove the sliding top-fill feature of the Ares II, which may disappoint some vapers as the FINALE requires you to perform a quarter turn and lift off the lid to reapply vape juice.

The Ares FINALE once again features dual airflow adjustment settings, on both the usually outside ring of the tank and also within the coil deck, right underneath where your coil sits. This gives you total control over the intensity of your vaping session.

The deck itself has also seen some alterations, with a new coil-building space. It is technically smaller than the one featured in the Ares II. However, the new design of raised bronze posts makes fitting single coils easier than before. The Ares FINALE is only intended for single-coil builds.

Ease of Use

Score: 3.5/5

There’s no point in lying about it; RTAs are harder to use than regular vape tanks. But the Ares FINALE was remarkably approachable.

The kit comes with everything you need to start building coils. In fact, it even includes two pre-made coils in the pack to give newcomers a good template for what they should be building.

The very first coil I installed on the Ares FINALE RTA sat perfectly and did a great job of conveying rich and tasty 50/50 vapour. And I can say that not only was the taste great, there was tremendous satisfaction to be had from successfully building a coil for myself!

Cloud Production

Score: 3.5/5

I found that the Ares FINALE produced a bit more vapour than I’d expect. Still, it’s not going to fog out a room like a traditional dual-coil RDA completely or RTA would, so you don’t need to worry about the Ares FINALE being an anti-social vaping device.

Flavour Output

Score: 5/5

This was the standout aspect of the tank, which should come as no surprise! The taste of vapour atomized from freshly installed and wicked cotton is as pure a taste as you’ll ever get from a vape tank.

And one of the best things is it’s entirely up to you when you do need maintenance. Feel like a brand new coil every day? Well, wire’s cheap to get coiling! Or do you just enjoy the taste of fresh cotton? No problem, leave the coil and just change your wicks every morning!

Of course, certain aspects of flavour will come down to the vape juice and cotton variety that you’re using, but the Ares FINALE does its best to ensure a flavoursome experience.

Summary

The Innokin Ares FINALE RTA surprised me. I was ready to call it a great piece of kit for experts that beginners should probably avoid. But after a week of using it, I’m genuinely very fond of both the tank itself and the time I put aside to work on building coils.

There really is something special about putting your own sweat and labour into a daily process like vaping. It helps to personalise the process and gives you a much greater sense of control, something many people desire when getting through too many disposable vapes.

I think that many DIY vapers may be a bit put off by the decidedly MTL/RDL concept of the Ares FINALE, but mouth-to-lung vapers who want to get involved in the real nuts and bolts of vaping are going to love the DIY journey that the Ares FINALE takes them on.

I certainly did!

The MIST Favourite Feature: 

Flavour Output: The rich and intense flavour of raw vape juice is yours to enjoy with an RTA like this. With handmade coils featuring minimal designs, there’s very little that can impart impurities onto your e-liquid. And being able to change the coils whenever you want means you’re always just minutes away from the pure, fresh flavour.