"Forgive me father for I have sinned..."keeps ringing in my head every time I hop off this monster of a scooter. Although maybe "police officer" could be often replaced in the sentence. I know that this is a vintage gadget's blog but I cannot help review-ing this beast with all it's quarks and features. So, to make this review, I needed to get acquainted with the Apollo Pro, the second most fastest scooter the Canadian company produces.
So, to make this review, I got the new Apollo Pro next to my Xiaomi Pro 2 scooter, just to get an idea of the differences between a "regular" electric scooter and a "monster" of an electric scooter. Apollo Pro is believed to be one of the fastest scooters sold at the time of this review. I can also can say that after riding the Xiaomi for some time, getting on the Apollo was like switching from an ordinary car to a Tesla Model 3 Performance for example. It is simply mind blowing and also scary. To start off, the Apollo Pro that I have is a 1000W/wheel scooter that can be driven either single engine or dual. This means that the power will double, reaching a whooping 2000W power. I got the 52V model with regular brakes.
Also, I got the normal tires, nothing too fancy, just the regular tires fitted from the factory. To sum up the technical details, this is what the manufacturer tells us about the scooter:
Top Speed - 65 Km/H
Distance - Max 90 km
Weight - up to 130 kg
Suspension - Dual springs
Brakes - Dual disc
In order to make the review I organised a PRO and CON list of the Apollo based on which I will detail every aspect as it will follow
Pros
1.Speed
2.Comfort
3.Suspension
4.Tires
5.Brakes
6.Quality
7.Voltage indicator
8.Key
1. One thing about this scooter is that Speed is what it loves. If you were to ask me about five years ago if I would try to ride an electric scooter with 65km/h I would have laughed about it for a while. But the Apollo takes speed to another level. I haven't experienced something like it. From my 25km/h Xiaomi to the Apollo's 65km/h I needed a sufficient dose of courage and some strong prayers. But in all it's fairness, the Apollo isn't only about high speed. It takes care of it's rider at normal cruise speeds and is a delight to just tap it in order to swoosh past someone on a bike...for instance...or another electric scooter.
2. Because it is a fast scooter, comfort is as important as the speed, and I highly appreciate it as it is smooth and easy to ride it, although it is a bit higher than the Xiaomi.
3. Suspension. Well, comfort is also related to suspension, which I absolutely love. It is like riding on a cloud. Nothing so far has been on my way that the suspensions couldn't take it. And also, the suspension can be adjusted for the rider's comfort and according to his/her wishes. Standard, they come pre-adjusted to a medium level.
4. The tires, are wider than the Xiaomi's more thought for speed and look like they were ment to be for speed.
5. If you need to go fast probably you will need to stop. The brakes are decent, not the best I've tested but they do their job. The scooter distributes perfectly the brake power to the wheels.
6. Overall quality is good, the speed and comfort departments seemed to be in perfect harmony when designing the scooter. Some plastic lack the same overall quality but I will get into that in a while.
7. Voltage Indicator is not for me. I know it can be useful but I lack to follow more details than the speed/battery level when riding the scooter. After all you don't have the option to stand on something and have some time to waste when cruising, like you would in a car or on a bike maybe. On a scooter, especially as fast as this one, concentration is key to making every ride perfect. So, for some people this can be interesting to have, for me, not.
8. I love the key idea. Feels more like a serious scooter than the Xiaomi. I really enjoy the key and of course it is very useful.
Cons
1.No App!
2. Almost no indication of eco/turbo on the display
3. No indication for one wheel or 2 wheels traction
4. No illumination for any buttons
5. No regeneration of the batteries
6. Not too many accessories such as better lights
7. Lights
8. No cruise control
9. No charging indication other than the charging brick
10. 2 charging ports and one charger in the box
11. Price
12. Small community
13. Awful plastics
14. Voltage indicator
15. Unlabelled tool and key
16. Acceleration knob
1. Why, oh why would you bother making such a great scooter but not invest in an app? I mean, Xiaomi has one, maybe all of the budget electric scooters come with an app but you don't? The app that Xiaomi has isn't like configuring a Nasa spaceship before launching with 25km/h but has some cool features such as Cruise Control, Regeneration level for the batteries, Lock/Unlock the scooter via Bluetooth and...one of my favourite...it shows when you are charging the scooter and how much it has charged. All of this in a simple enough app!
The Apollo team mentioned that the only app available for the moment, is for the Apollo Ludicrous which is a more expensive, much faster scooter than the Pro. So, they bothered making one app for one scooter but not for this one that could be more affordable. Anyway, that what they didn't do and I really really really hate this aspect.
2. At times, I feel like they added bits and pieces here and there so they could make a product that could be called "ready".
Also, the buttons sometime you don't know if they are pressed or not, they almost look the same when they are so, anyone's guess if they are or not. Sometimes, i don't know how and why, if you press Eco/Turbo there is an indicator (red) shown on the main dial that I guess shows you that the button is pressed.
3. No indicator for the two or single motor option makes me feel, again, that they kind of rushed this scooter to the market. Otherwise, anyone can add a button on it's scooter.
4. I guess in Canada it never gets dark. Otherwise I cannot understand how they designed the scooter without taking into consideration 2 aspects: lights. For the lights aspect that the scooter is equipped with I will come back later. For the illuminated main dial and the other two buttons on the handle, they didn't fit any lights.
There were only 2 buttons on the dial - Power On/Off and Mode. Riding at night is not comfortable knowing that you might want to change the Gears, for instance. You cannot do it from anywhere else, by the way.
5. Ok, this aspect is kind of strange in my opinion. Xiaomi has a regenerating system set for 3 modes: Low, Medium and High, so, depending on what you choose, once you let go of the acceleration the batteries start to recharge from the speed. Thinking that Xiaomi Pro 2 has a built speed of around 25km/h it would have made a lot more sense for the Apollo Pro to have a system like this, at least. But they decided not to, so, another aspect I find it odd for such a manufacturer not to include it into their device.
6. If you, for some reason, are thinking of customising your Apollo Pro, the list is not that long as accessories are not that many. I would have loved to buy an additional light for the scooter but none was what I have hoped for. Also, their webpage is quite...limited: https://apolloscooters.co/collections/accessories
7. Lights are one of the worst I have ever seen. I was riding on one occasion on a very dark road and the scooter, was not able to deliver almost no light more than 1m away because of it's low beams mounted on the deck. There are two "lights" that I thing that Apollo thought that they should be enough as long as they sell it like it is.
One aspect I really like is the back lights that flash when you break but that is about it. Also, on the Xioami, they blink when you pull the break but the stop led is more powerfull and the front light is AMAZING good.
8. Cruise control. Oh my God. I wish Apollo would read this. Why would you not look at the competition and learn? I can almost bet that putting a Cruise Control option on this scooter would not have hurt anyone, would not have changed the price radically. I absolutely LOVE the cruise control that the Xiaomi has. I am a big fan of Cruise Control when I drive so, having a scooter with this option could have been super nice. Also, it is a very powerful machine, sensitive to every touch of the throttle so a Cruise Control could have made it a bit chilled and a better cruiser on long distances.
9. I am curious to know how they managed this. Who's idea was it not to include ANY other indicator that the scooter is charging, besides the small LED on the charging brick. I mean, common. Who wouldn't like to look at a nice display where the battery shows that it is charging with more "juice"? Nokia 3310 showed when it was charging. Many phones from the '90's showed this "feature" without any problem.
10. As long as we are talking about charging, here is an interesting aspect. 2 charging ports for cutting the charging time in half. Ok. But the box comes with only one charger. So, in order to charge your scooter faster, you need to buy a second charger.
On their official website you cannot but that, only the fast charger which, at the time of my review is on offer.
But, for this review's sake, I have an interesting idea. A Xiaomi Pro 2 costs around 470Euro or USD560. It's range is 45km. The Apollo Pro was around 2300Euro or USD2700. So, if you would like to have 2 brick chargers around why not buy 2 Xiaomi Pro 2 and save some money?
11. So, somehow I have managed to mention the price of 2300 Euro or USD2700 and that it is what I have paid for my scooter, here in Denmark. In the box there was the scooter, obviously, the charger, a multi purpose tool, some deck stickers that look...well...crappy and that is it. In the Xiaomi's Box, I got again, the scooter itself, the charger (duh) and a second tire. Just in case. Thank you Xiaomi. I think that Apollo could have speared at least the tire sealant: https://apolloscooters.co/products/tire-sealant
I think for a scooter like Apollo Pro the price is not too high neither too small. I really wanted a scooter that could do all the speed and comfort that the Apollo does but I feel that they cut some corners, a lot actually....
12. Small community. This is an aspect that will be felt if the company doesn't go on making great products and better quality every time. In Denmark, there is only one shop that has this kind of scooters. Unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the shop either, very poor diversity of products, not only from Apollo but from other brands as well. It is true that it is a new area that needs time to evolve but I still feel like i spent a lot of money still buying it from a very obscure shop. Because of this, there are not very many scooters like Apollo in Denmark. Another "shop" close to Denmark was in the UK, which meant ordering. So, Europe is quite a new space for this Canadian company as I could understand, meaning that maybe the warranty situations could have to suffer in any case. But I hope for the best.
13. How bout the plastics?
Not impressed on the way they cut the costs but I guess it was the thing to do in order to get the performance and comfort. I could live with this plastic being bad. But maybe other people will not like them so I thought it is worth mentioning them.
14. Voltage indicator. Again, I can say it is both Pro and Con having one. I feel I am not the one to appreciate it but people that want to know this Voltage aspects now they have it. I would consider it not a good thing having to distract your attention from the ride but that is my thought.
15. I guess that cutting corners would mean that unlabelled parts of your product could be either unnoticed by the consumer or not considered very important. I really think they are important elements from which I could see a strong, powerful company and a small, still under very much development-tomorrow-can-shut-the-door company. Not that I would care very much but I kinda like the product they built, with all of it's flaws and crazy things it can do. But for me as a consumer, to see that the costs have been cut in such a manner in which you don't even label your accessories, doesn't give me a lot of confidence in you.
16. On the official website, we can find: https://apolloscooters.co/products/apollo-thumb-throttle
On the scooter, as standard, we can find:
One of the worst throttle I can imagine. First of all, the precision of the speed lays usually on the right foot. When riding an electric scooter it's usually with a thumb that you accelerate as it is already a common thing to do and also it is more precise.
The index finger is a bit different as it needs to grab the handle better in certain conditions. This means letting go off the throttle but maybe there is no need to do it or it is dangerous to do so at that point. But using the thumb it more secure and easier to keep it at a certain speed as long as the scooter doesn't have Cruise Control. I don't specifically like the throttle as it is now but I guess that is that, I will not pay more money to change.
Conclusions: I must say that the ride quality, the speed is what won me over. I love everything about those two aspects. I also love the Xiaomi's Pro 2 scooter that is more a gadget than a scooter, with even a solution to mod it to 34/35 km/h. But the two are two worlds apart really, one is cool and in trend with the others, the other one is raw and not that friendly.
Also, my Apollo Pro came with a small defect, I would say:
I really hope Apollo will make it in the future. I hope their stratagies will be well thought out as it is not the first time a company from Canada rises.
There you have it, my Pros and Cons of the Apollo Pro. One big bad scooter with a lot of faults that I could find from the short time of owning it. I hope they will change some details in order to make it better and better. I will also make a speed test video and full to empty real world test of the batteries so be sure to stay connected to the website and the Facebook page. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to send them to me. I will try to respond as quickly as possible.
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