Xiom Ice cream AZX

First of all I would like to thanks TTD member hils4ever and XIOM for giving me the opportunity to test the new XIOM Jung Youngsik Ice Cream AZX blade.

Unboxing
The Ice Cream AZX comes in a beautiful purple, orange and silver presentation box which has a trapezoid shape to simulate an ice cream. On top of the box the symbol of Jung Youngsik is shaped like and arrow. It looks good and the details are held simple and clean. My first impressions when grabbing the blade I could feel the finish was smooth and the quality is in the high end of the scale. I wish though that the edges of the wings were sanded down a bit instead of having a sharp edge. The design of Ice Cream blade is very appealing as well. The color scheme from the presentation box is to find on the handle of the blade where the black color is used as background, the purple color on the Zephylium Carbon side (ZLC) and orange color on the Arylate Carbon side. On the blade faces there is some marketing text and JYS signature is on the ALC side of the blade. Near the wings the Xiom has printed an A and a Z to distinguish the sides of the blade. The logos on the handle looks great and are made metal. It is getting more common that the companies are letting go of the plastic lens which has been used for decades. In the bottom of the handle the a logo saying Ice Cream, XIOM and JTTAA. It has a bit of 3D effect when looking at it from an angle. I don’t know if it’s for checking genuity of the blade, but if not, it is a nice detail.











The sample I got is FL and has these specs:
Composition: Koto-ALC-Limba-Kiri-Limba-ZLC-Koto
Weight: 85g
Thickness: 5.7mm
Handle size: 100x23x33mm Width at narrow flared section is 25mm
Head size: 157x150mm















I wanted to do a frequency test, but forgot to do it before gluing the rubbers on. I will add it later.

Comparing the handle with a Viscaria the Ice Cream seems to be a bit smaller than Vis, but not as small as some newer DHS blades.

Test setup will be 2 times Xiom Omega 7 Pro max on each side ending up a total weight at 183g which isn’t that bad considering having two max rubbers glued on blade. Review is based on 5 training sessions of approx. 2 hours each.



Drive
When hitting the ball I could immediate feel the blade and the combination with Omega 7 Pro was fast. The balance of the blade is towards the center which I like more than head heavy setups. Hitting with the A side the vibration is similar to other ALC blades which is a bit numb, but still you have the slight feeling of the ball. I try to twiddle the racket and play with the Z side. Here there was a noticeable difference! Playing with the Z side the vibrations was a lot and it felt more soft than when playing with the A side. The sweet spot of the blade is large making it very consistent to play with.

Loop
When looping with the A side the impression of power and using the high gear of the O7P the full potential of the Ice Cream blade was pretty obvious. I had to adjust a bit coming from with a chinese rubber with flatterer trajectory, but when the adjustments were made it was easy to land the balls on the table. The A side has a medium-high arc and medium throw and the dwell was very good even with a 47.5deg rubber. The O7P is making a nice click sound like the good speed glue era. My impression of the Z side when looping was that is was a bit slower and the dwell was greater than playing the A side. The throw of the Z side is low-medium and the arc of the ball was medium. Engaging the ZLC layer I could the extra dwell compared to the ALC, but this is without compromising the balance of the blade.

Block
The passive game with the Ice Cream blade together with O7M it excels good control and consistency from the large sweet spot. In terms of sides I prefer blocking with the Z side in BH and A side in FH. Still when punching a bit or being active on the incoming balls you still have the feeling of having good control.

Short/Flick
In the short game you need to have a good touch to be able to keep the 2nd ball short due to bouncy rubbers and the outer koto. The O7P are not so sensitive to incoming spin as e.g. T05 which is good if you struggle with spin when receiving the ball. Flicking with Z side in BH is preferable for me, The dwell from the blade using the low gear of the O7P making the easy to flick. You still need to be active on the ball. Flicking with the A side in FH you only need to use a short stroke because the catapult effect from the rubber and the hard koto. Again here if you have a good technique it is easy to flick with less effort.

Conclusion
The Xiom Jung Youngsik Ice Cream AZX is a high end signature blade which comes at a price of 159.90 EUR which is pretty similar to other composite blades from Butterfly. The blade is really nice and the durability is good. I like the overall design of the whole package, but for my personal preference the blade is a bit too fast. I would rate it on par with the Viscaria in terms of speed and maybe a little faster. The blade is definitely for experienced players that like to play from close to mid distance from the table. It is a looping blade which is great in the blocking game. Flicks using the ZLC side is noticeably one of the strong attributes of the blade. If you are the type of player that builds you game with some of the aspects above I would recommend this blade to this person.

Weight: 87 grams
Thickness: 5.8mm
Speed: OFF+
Plies: Koto - ALC - ??? - Kiri - ??? - ZLC - Koto
Stiffness: Stiff

I admit I am one of those people that is very much curious why in the world did Xiom name this and the AZXi as Ice Cream blades. I specifically ask Xiom about this and I was a bit laughing on their honest answer. The reason why they call these blades as ice cream blades is that it is like ice cream wherein remote places or villages do not have them. The AZX and AZXi are not the first composite blades in the market but Xiom claims that they are the first successful composite hybrid blades. According them, other existing blades of similar construction seem to be not balanced. One thing I am thankful about Xiom is that they listen to their consumers. People who have used the Feel series blades are saying that they like the older design for the neck and wing part of the blade more than the new design. Guess what, I told Xiom about this and they have shown that they have listened to the request. With the AZX, the neck and wing part was reduced and not as wide as the Feel series blades. It is actually closer to the older blades like that of the Stradivarius. I measured the flared handle at this base where it is the widest and the cross sectional size is 25mm x 33.5mm using an electronic caliper. Just as an added info on the blade, the orange side is the ALC side with a letter "A" mark on it while the ZLC side is the one with the purple sie with a letter "Z".

This is a very fast blade. People might think the ALC side is the slower compared to pure carbon blades but it is not. I saw their pdf files about the blade and they describe it as the ALC being the faster side while the ZLC is the slower side. I immediately asked them why they rated it that way and I got an answer where they said they made the ALC layer thicker to balance the blade. I used several rubbers in the test - DHS Hurricane 3, Omega V Europe and Omega VII Pro . I tested this for 3 days and I was careful to use the same rubber on each side with the exception of the Hurricane 3 just to test the characteristic of each side. Speedwise the ALC side is very bouncy. it is almost as bouncy as the ZLC side. I can surely say that the Viscaria is much slower than the ALC version of the AZX. At first, I tested the Hurricane 3 first because it is my preferred rubber in the forehand. I was surprised that it was really bouncy. If I compare it to the Timo Boll Spirit, the AZX is faster though the stiffness is less comapred to the TBS blade. The ZLC side is more or less identical to the ZJK ZLC blade. I cannot fully say which of the 2 is faster. Anyway, I have observed the ALC side during drills and matchplay that the throw when looping the ball is is a bit high. Honestly I had to do some adjustments with the throw and the long trajectory of the ALC side. The AZX is a very fast blade. I had to step back middle distance from the table because even with a Hurricane 3, some of my loops are going off the table. It took me a few rounds to adjust the the H3 and the AZX combo. The ZLC side on the other hand is the opposite of what I was expecting. I thought this was the faster side but it was very controllable despite the great amount of speed. The ZLC side has a bit lower throw compared to the ALC. I would say the throw is about low to medium arc in the table with long trajectory. If comparing the 2 sides it would be approximately like this - ALC high throw, long trajectory, ZLC low throw, long trajectory. Both sides are almost as fast but differ in the throw. Both sides are powerful even far from the table and not just at the middle distance from the table. When I used the H3 on the ZLC side I think it was more controllable for me because of the lower throw. I also adjusted easily with the ZLC side. DO not get me wrong, I like the feel of the ALC better than the ZLC and this is a personal preference but because ALC is much thicker in this case, I preferred the ZLC side.

I changed the rubber to Omega V Europe which is a medium soft rubber and also the Omega VII Pro which is a thick sponge, thin topsheet rubber. I could see the purpose of this blade the moment I used German rubbers on it. It is an all out attacking blade whether you are into ALC or ZLC, it does not matter. Both sides of the hybrid blade will give you more than enough power for your offensive shots far and middle distance from the table. It is just a question whether you would want a high arc or low arc long trajectory. The Omega VII Pro actually works well with both sides with the ZLC side more controllable. When you are hitting through the sponge using the Omega VII Pro, you would love the feeling of hitting the ball all the way deep into the sponge. The O7P gives you a good amount of control when using it in the Ice Cream blade when used on each side. I would not call this a looping blade because despite producing heavy amount of spin, it favors more of a direct hitting and counter looping strokes. Control is more of a personal issue wherein it needs to be used by a player who practices a lot and this should be used and highly recommended for advanced level type of players. It is a fast blade that rewards you with powerful shots that enables you to finish the point quickly any distance from the table. For blocking, it favors more of the active or punch blocks than passive blocks.

The blade concept is quite new to me and I was a bit confused with the ball felling at first because even if one side is different from the other, it produces some sort of a hybrid feel by both composite layers. You would need a bit of time to have the feel sink into your senses and then that is the time you can truly appreciate the blade. Is it a good blade? Yes not just good, it is awesome. Imagine that you can have the performance of ZJK ALC/Viscaria on one side and ZJK ZLC on the other side. All you need to do is just decide which side will be your forehand or backhand.