Lost Vape Lyra Review | MTL or a Restricted Lung Hit
Product intro and specs
After the popularity of the Orion series of pod vapes, Lost Vape is back with the Lyra. It’s an AIO meant for MTL or restricted lung hits. Although it has no airflow control, the Lyra has two included coils with differernt airflow amounts.
The Lyra is a slender and pocketable all-in-one device with a classic Lost Vape flair for colorful options and finishes. It has a 1000 mAh battery capacity and a range of 9-20 watts accessed via three power modes. Coming equipped with two coils, a “regular” 1.2-ohm coil and a 0.6-ohm mesh coil, the Lyra can accommodate high-strength nic salts or even low-strength regular juice. The Lyra’s pods hold 2 mL and feature Lost Vape’s new “pinch and pull” mouthpiece removal design for easy and convenient top filling.
Lost Vape sent me this device free of charge for the purpose of this review.
Price: $29.95
Colors: black/lava, black/leather, blue/leather, blue/ripple, green/leather, green/peacock, rainbow/leather, rainbow/vortex, silver/fantasy, silver/leather
Specifications:
- Dimensions: 96.3 mm x 30.8 mm x 15.8mm
- Integrated 1000 mAh rechargeable battery
- Max wattage output: 20 watts
- 3 power levels
- Single button operation
- Optional threaded lanyard attachment point
- LED battery life indicator ring
- Snap-in pod connection
- 2 mL capacity pod
- Top fill system: dual port
- 0.6-ohm mesh coil
- 1.2-ohm MTL coil
Kit Contents:
- Lyra battery
- Lyra pod
- 0.6-ohm mesh coil
- 1.2-ohm MTL Coil
- Lanyard
Build quality and aesthetics
The Lost Vape Lyra is a good-looking, well-built AIO. What else are we to expect from Lost Vape?
The Lyra is operated by a clicky fire button encapsulated by a circular LED that identifies battery charge status and power levels. The button has no rattle and the LED is easily covered up if you’d like to be stealthy. The Lyra also comes with a nylon draw-string style lanyard with a tiny little screw (to be placed in the side of the device) that makes for easy attaching and removal. The little screw isn’t the easiest to put in, but once it’s there it stays in place. It works well and it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.
The device measures 96.3 mm x 15.8 mm x 31 mm, and it weighs about 70 grams fully assembled and loaded with juice. I received the black/lava option and brown leather. Overall, they look good. But the panel material feels cheap. The leather option feels like pleather, and the colorful swirl patterns on both sides of the device are not real resin. It’s a glossy plastic. Although the plastic panels aren’t actually resin, the aesthetic appeal of these devices is pretty high. Although some of the materials are of lower quality, the Lyra looks refined in body-styling and outward appearance.
Some of the color options come with a cartridge tinted with the same color of the device. That’s not something we see too often. I think it looks sexy. Even the rainbow/vortex looks good—which is kinda shocking to me! I’m actually considering getting that one despite my loathing of most rainbow colored vapes. It has an snazzy thing going on that appeals to me as an artist.
Cartridge and coil head system
The Lyra may look like a pod vape, but it’s an AIO with a cartridge and coil-head system consisting of:
- a removable mouthpiece
- a dual-sided top-mounted refill plug
- a coil head (two are included with the kit)
- an empty cartridge that holds 2 mL of juice.
The cartridges have a large juice window that shows the entire juice level, and even the dark shaded ones are easy to see through.
This cartridge system is designed to be secure, while make refilling easy and the coil swap mess free. Much of that’s accomplished, but there are a few parts of the design that undermine its ease of use and cleanliness.
Note: To refill and swap coils, you have to remove the entire cartridge from the battery; then remove the mouthpiece.
Cartridge
The cartridge slides into and clicks in the battery via a track system. To take it out, grab the cartridge by the juice window and pull up. The cartridges are held in by relatively strong magnets, unlike the weak magnets that we usually see in most of the vapes of this category. But if you drop it, the pod will likely pop out.
Mouthpiece
To remove it, pinch the sides of the cartridge in and pull up on the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece pops right off without having to squeeze hard at all. I prefer this over the Breeze 2 mouthpiece that requires prying off with a fingernail.
The mouthpiece is ergonomic and comfortable to draw on. It’s a sturdy plastic, but it’s a bit thin and flimsy to hold.
Coil swap
The Lyra comes with a 0.6-ohm mesh coil and a 1.2-ohm regular coil. Each coil has a knurled knob that makes screwing it into the cartridge super simple.
The problem I have is that this is yet another device that doesn’t allow you to swap coils with a full tank. You can do it with 1/3 juice left, but you’ll need to put the pod on its side. If you have more than 1/3 juice, it’ll leak out of the airflow holes or the coil head housing. Luckily, the juice ports are large enough that you can easily pour out juice if you have to.
Refill
The Lyra has a dual-sided top fill under the mouthpiece. You can fill it on either side. Just remove the plug from the ports. They’re wide enough to fit any bottle style I have, including glass pipette droppers. I like the refill ports and their placement. I haven’t had any issue with refilling and never got any juice on the outside of the cartridge.
Settings and adjustments
There’s no adjustable airflow on the Lyra, but each coil provides different airflow quantity that should ideally be suited for the draw they’re made for.
Adjusting the power levels is a simple three-click of the fire button to scroll through and select the output. The power levels are different depending on the coil used.
1.2-ohm regular coil:
- Green (high): 3.65 volts / 11 watts
- Blue (medium): 3.45 volts / 10 watts
- Red (low) 3.3 volts / 9 watts
0.6-ohm mesh coil:
- Green (high): 3.5 volts / 20 watts
- Blue (medium): 3.3 volts / 18 watts
- Red (low) 3.1 volts / 16 watts
It’s important to know that while vaping, the LEDs serve as battery indication–and those LEDs use the same three colors (green, blue, red). If you want to see which power level you’re at, you’ll need to do the three-clicks again, but it’ll go to the next setting.
Performance
I’ve refilled each of the coils several times. There’s been no noticeable loss of performance with either, though it hasn’t been many refills in total. Maybe five or so on each.
- 1.2-ohm regular coil: I find the 1.2-ohm MTL coil to be a decent MTL vape, though slightly on the loose side. That said, I don’t need to use my lungs to hit it, so I consider it officially MTL. The throat hit is solid, and the flavor is definitely better than average. I first used this coil with Halo high PG juice in 24 mg/mL regular nic. My second fill was 50/50 nic salts at 48 mg/mL. The coil has a fairly quick ramp up, and I prefer to vape this one on its low and mid power levels because the high feels a touch too warm.
- 0.6-ohm mesh coil: The hit is closer to a restricted lung hit, although you could get away with a loose MTL draw (similar to the Calirburn). Flavor performance is clean and pronounced. It’s better for flavor than the 1.2-ohm coil, and that one is already good. The juice I’ve been using is Bantam e-liquids max VG with regular nic at 3 mg/mL, mixed with their nic salt line of 50/50 at 36 mg/mL. I can’t say the exact nicotine strength I’m using—it’s probably about 12 mg and about 60 VG. Either way, I like this coil with thicker juices and a lower nic due to larger wick holes and more airflow. I keep this coil at high most of the time. Unfortunately though, even at the highest setting, this coil feels slightly underpowered.
I haven’t had any real performance issues at all. I only had some leaking and juice in the mouth once, but that was probably due to a botched coil swap with too much juice left in the cartridge. Other than that, it’s been smooth sailing (or should I say, smooth vaping). My inital favorite coil was the mesh coil, but now I find myself using the MTL coil the most.
Battery life and charging
The battery life is good for about a full day and a half of vaping. But it also depends on which power setting you’re using.
The battery status will show when you press the fire button to take a drag.
Green: 65%-100%
Blue: 15%-64%
Red: 0%-14%
I think the charge is a bit long. I clocked it at around 1 hour 25 minutes which is slightly longer than other devices of 1000 mAh. Making matters worse, the Lyra doesn’t have pass-thru charging. I forget how irksome it is to have to sit and wait for a full charge. Granted, I can always unplug and vape, but still. I’d prefer to vape while it charges.
Pros / Cons
- (+) Some stunning color and finish choices
- (+) Good build quality and solid hand-feel
- (+) Convenient lanyard attachment
- (+) Cartridges are relatively secure yet easy to remove
- (+) Ergonomic mouthpiece is a pleasure to use
- (+) Knurled knob on coil heads makes removal easy
- (+) Refill ports can accommodate any dropper
- (+) Juice window shows the entire cartridge contents
- (+) Two included coils
- (+) MTL draw on the 1.2-ohm coil
- (+) Flavorful restricted lung hit on the 0.6-ohm coil
- (-) Mesh coil feels a tad underpowered
- (-) Coil swapping can be messy when over 1/3 full
- (-) No pass-thru charging
Verdict
If you’re relatively new to vaping and moving up from a closed system, I think the Lyra could be a really good device to move up to. Or, if you’ve been using something like the Aspire Breeze 2, the Lyra could give you a similar platform with an overall better vape.
But there are things to remember: It’s built well, but not totally up to the Lost Vape standards in terms of quality of materials. Some of the materials like the plastic panels and faux leather feel a bit cheap. Additionally, the Lyra could use a higher power level for the flavorful mesh coil, and the device needs an airflow controller.
Having said all that, it at least comes with two coil options with their own draw types, and they both work well for flavor. Most MTL coils are simply not that great for flavor. This one is. Plus, the two coil types add to its versatility, considering you can use high nic or low strength juices of varying viscosity. I’ve been vaping the Lyra with all types of juice! In conclusion, the Lyra doesn’t have the best of everything, but it’s good enough in key areas that I’ll continue using it even after I finish this review. It’s turning into a device that I use often throughout the day.
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Article Written By:
Jeremy Mann
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