This is a good improvement to the Lotus - The height of the cavity is slightly taller, not much, though - The walls of the Lotus are also a little thinner - This means, overall, that you can fit bigger coals in there, for example, 3 Cubes, with less hassle - Furthermore, the thinner aluminum improves heat-up times of the Lotus - My Lotus heated up to usable temperature in roughly 4-5 minutes using 3 natural coals - The heat is somewhat dependent on the shisha being used and the pack - Since the heat is more intense, I have to take one of my three coals out to keep my shisha from over heating and burning or have the vents fully opened in the early stages - The lid seems to sit on the base a little easier and rotates with less effort thanks to the thinner material - The bottom of the Lotus now has some "reverse heat sink" fins - This allows the heat to transfer into the bowl while keeping the coals lit longer - The fins can prevent coals from sitting flush especially once they have less than 50% mass - I find the first half of a bowl amazing - its hot, burns well - The second half, once the coals start going out, need a lot of tending - The Aura coals, the semi-circular coals made for the Lotus, especially have issues transferring heat once they have dropped to below 50% mass - They tend to fall between the fins - Most cases, unless I under-pack the Vitria bowl, I will need a second set of coals to smoke everything with no wasted shisa - I personally, think this worth the money - I prefer to use my hookah with re-usable components - No foiling my bowl every time - I also like the coals being contained and safe inside the Lotus when I walk away - When used with the Samsaris Vitria Bowl, the whole bowl system works wonderful - I can smoke anything from dark Tangiers to lighter Social Smoke with no issues -