Latest reviews

Pros
  • Control + Feel + Sweetspot
  • Wide Range of Gear
  • Good Speed
Cons
  • Ain't Cheap
  • Still Testing Durability
Timo Boll ALC is an outstanding blade.
-In my opinion, one of the blade with best control and touch for its speed range.
-Suitable for players seeking to win through precision in addition to speed and power (not suitable for total powerplay or hard hitters imo).
-Arylate carbon provides larger sweetspot = larger margin for quality shots even during unfavourable position + consistent ball feedback and return.
-Ply formation gives wide range of gear - supports various strokes in all phases of the rally (your skill is most likely the limit!).
-Blade head comparatively small = good maneuverability over the table for quick shots such as backhand banana flick.

Rubbers reccomendation:
Your preference, the blade is compatible with quite an extensive range of modern rubbers.
I personally prefer medium to medium-hard rubbers on this blade (currently using the blade with H3Neo Provincial 39deg on FH and Bluefire M2 on BH).
Speed
8.5
Control
9.2
Hardness
6.5
Durability
8.5
Pros
  • Good looks
  • Champ's name
  • Proven formula
Cons
  • Price high
Cost more than all Butterfly ALC blades. Probably paid the extra premium for the Grand Slam Champion's name alone. But the craftsmanship and package is simply first class so the higher price is justified somehow.

Weight is manageable at a tad under 180g with Max Tenergy both sides. Well balanced and not head heavy. Crisp with slight flex and sweet amount of vibration. Got one of the best FL handle in the market. Too bad it is overshadowed by Viscaria because of the choice of ZJK.
Speed
8.5
Control
8
Hardness
6.8
Durability
8.5
Pros
  • LOW price!
  • Fast enough
  • Good control
This is a good overall blade from Butterfly. The best part with the blade is that it's so cheap; it can be bought for about 30-35 USD from some stores. Fits perfectly for any offensive player. Thanks to its low price you don't either really have to be "scared" (breaking the bat) of taking some risks when hitting half long balls. Breaking a 30 USD bat instead of a 200 USD bat is quite a difference :D

I've been using this blade probably like 5-7 years and I think it's good combined with Tenergy 05 rubbers. There are definitely better blades out also but this is a good choice for an offensive player who doesn't want to spend a fortune to his racket's bat.
Speed
8
Control
8
Hardness
4.3
Durability
7
Pros
  • Official Ball
Cons
  • Durability
  • Price
Lucky if you can get more than 15 minutes out of it. I learnt to play smart and avoid using this ball when the other side is a hard hitter. Then it all comes down to how hard your wall and floor is. This ball should be restricted to loops and chops only.

Durability aside, it has all the typical characteristics of seamed plastic ball. Bounce low, not going forward as much as celluloid, less spin and speed...etc. Yet I don't think it is making life easier. The ball bounce low and not going forward means you have to move into position quicker. That is more running back and forth. Also less spin and speed needs more of your own effort in return. Still it is not the end of the world. One should be able to get the hang of it and forget about the passing celluloid within days.

I hope DHS will work hard on iimproving their balls in their future batch.
Roundness
8.8
Hardness
8
Speed
7
Durability
2
Pros
  • Not much
Cons
  • Not round
  • Bounce weird
  • Price
Have bought this new plastic balls along with 3 stars for test. Not round as expected for 1 star quality. You can add inconsistent bounce to all the negative comments given to DHS balls. But to my surprise I can get more life from it than 3 stars. That is Hours compare to Minutes! Seems like using different material to me. Price is still high. Good for fun only. Yet that is quite a challenge to play if you want to get serious.
Roundness
4
Hardness
8
Speed
6
Durability
6
Pros
  • Awesome control
  • Great spin
  • Versatile rubber
Cons
  • Durability
This is the rubber I've played with probably 7 years now. I have used it all that time as my BH rubber and nearly all the time as FH too (I used XIOM omega V Asia as FH rubber a couple of years until changing that also back to Tenergy 05) . IMO the best part with this rubber is its control that allows you to really do what you want with your strokes while letting you still hit the ball with a great speed and spin.

Another great thing with this rubber is that it is good for many different playing styles. No matter if your playing style is very aggressive or more block/defence sorted, this rubber fits you really well.

The only bad side with this rubber (IMO) is that it doesn't maybe last as long as other rubbers. I think the rubbers' grip gets worse faster than other rubbers I've tried. I have still been able to use it 2-3 months while playing a lot (5-10 times/week), but I know many that likes to change the rubber every 1 month. Remember that this is though from a perspective of a player who play(ed) a lot every day and week.

This rubber combined with a Timo Boll Forte- bat is simply awesome. That is the combination I've enjoyed to play the game for several years. If you want to try a rubber with good speed, great spin and awesome control - Tenergy 05 is a great choice :)
Speed
8.5
Spin
9
Durability
6
Control
9.5
Pros
  • Tacky
Calibra LT Spin is the 2nd softest in the Calibra LT Series from STIGA (Sound > Spin > LT > Plus)

The rubber is a good spinney rubber for people who play an a spin/attacking game - very good forehand or backhand when playing against Backspin..

If you demand spin - this rubber is for you!
Speed
9
Spin
10
Durability
10
Control
10
Pros
  • Perfect BH Spong
  • Great for Flips
  • SPINNY
Cons
  • Mainlygoodfor BH
In my opinion this is one of the best rubbers for Backhand. This is my favorite backhand rubber. I had this on my racket and a friend who is a pro was using T80. I asked if I could see how his racket played. He had H3 on FH and I wanted to try that. He used my racket and said, "I like your backhand rubber. It is better for backhand than mine. I am going to switch to that!" Hahaha. He saw how easy it was to do over the table backhand loops (banana) with 05FX. Nothing is as good. The ball sinks into the sponge so well on backhand so that you can really spin the ball when you flip. Not as fast for backhand as T64, but a bigger arc and a higher throw angle.
Speed
8.7
Spin
9.3
Durability
9
Control
9
Pros
  • Grippy Topsheet
  • Amazing Sponge
  • Perfect Speed
This is one of my favorite rubbers. The sponge is amazing it lets you feel the ball better and it gives you a greater window for contact. If your contact is a little off you can still really get the ball to sink into the sponge and spin the heck out of it. It is not too fast so it has plenty of control. It is very spinny and more than fast enough. It does so many things well. It is good for serving; you can make your serves very spinny when you want, you can keep them low. It is good for giving back spinny returns or for flipping the return. It is good for looping close to the table, at mid-distance, and is still pretty decent if you have to get backed up. This is the rubber I like best for my forehand. But I could use it for my backhand as well.
Speed
9
Spin
9
Durability
9
Control
8.6
Pros
  • Grippy Topsheet
  • Sponge has gears
  • Great for flips
I would like it if this rubber's sponge was a tiny bit softer. But it works really well. You get a ton of pace for over the table flips with backhand. It is good on forehand as well. The topsheet grabs the ball nicely. I think the sponge is a bit hard for my backhand but it plays great on both wings. Good for looping close to the table, over the table and at longer ranges. It seems to have a slightly lower throw angle than Tenergy 05. But I really think this is a darn good rubber. I just started using it for my backhand and am still more used to 05FX for backhand which I used for about a year. But it has more pace and power than the 05FX. I just like how I could easily get the ball to sink into the sponge with my backhand.
Speed
9
Spin
8.9
Durability
8.1
Control
8.1
Pros
  • Great spin
  • Excellent speed
  • Good touch
Cons
  • Responsive
This rubber is used by many around the world! It is ideal because it lasts a very long time and has a tremendous balance between speed, spin and control. I find I am able to generate great speed when needed but also able to maintain control in the serves and shot game.

Away from the table you can get great arc on the ball, and even when out of postiion you can use the rubbers built in spring sponge to propel the ball over the table. I sometimes find blocking slightly difficult if the ball has been hit hard, due to the rubbers hardness. Overall an excellent rubber!
Speed
9.2
Spin
9.2
Durability
9
Control
8
Pros
  • Great control and feeling
Cons
  • Lacks speed far from table
  • Small head size
Using this combined with Nimbus Sound (really soft) on FH and Primus on BH.

Blade offers a lot of control and feeling, especially in blocking or looping near table. Speed is perfect for me as a near-table offensive player, but you have to work hard when playing topspin far away from the table.
Overall a very nice blade for allround to offensive players.
Speed
7.5
Control
8.5
Hardness
5
Durability
8.7
Pros
  • Cheap
  • Good finish
  • Nice handle FL
Cons
  • Low grade of wood
  • Too much weight
Good for close to mid distance attackers that like a solid controllable all wood blade.
Speed
9
Control
8
Hardness
9
Durability
8
Pros
  • Great Rubber for BH
  • Ball Sinks generate good spin
  • Soft sponge allows greater feel
Cons
  • Price
  • Durability could be better
I guess the downsides of this rubber are price and durability. It would be nice if something that costs that much lasted a really long time. But, table tennis rubbers don't really last that long for the most part. On the positive side of things, I think this is one of the best rubbers out there for the backhand. The ball sinks in really well so you can generate massive amounts of spin with a great deal of control. With the short stroke of a backhand you can really get spin and pace with this rubber. It is definitely the best rubber I have used for my backhand. It flips great. It loops great. It counter loops great. I spent a lot of time trying to find other rubbers that were good enough. But this really is a top notch rubber.
angle
7.8
Tackiness
5.5
Hardness
4
Consistency
9
Speed
8.1
Spin
8.9
Durability
6.6
Control
8.4
Pros
  • Good Dwell Time
  • Off Speed, not too fast
  • Consistent
Cons
  • Nothing Special
  • Very Expensive
So I tried this blade for about 30 min a week ago. The blade was fine. There was nothing bad about it. It did everything adequately. The dwell time was good so you could get decent spin. The carbon made it so that it was hard to feel the ball. The most glaring thing about this blade was that there was nothing special about it, and for a blade that costs as much as it does, at least in my opinion, that is not good.
Speed
7.5
Control
7.8
Hardness
5.8
Durability
8.9
For W968 in Blades
Unboxing the blade was like Christmas eve and I could wait to have a look at the DHS W968. The quality of the blade is top class and the size of the is similar to the Hurricane Long 3. Also to notice the wings is a bit wide compared to the HL3. It is a large head looping blade with a ALC composite layer close to core.
Speed
8
Control
9
Hardness
8
Durability
10
Pros
  • Great spin
  • Excellent control
@Dan used the Timo Boll Spirit blade and @Tom used the Stiga Hybrid Wood NCT blade in the review which looked at the Butterfly Tenergy 80 FX rubber's on both sides of their blades. The review looks at various techniques and a range of shots used in today's modern game of table tennis and also which types of players this rubber is suited to. Thanks to Butterfly, Daniel Ives, Tom Maynard, and Kingfisher Table Tennis Club in the making of this review. You can buy Butterfly's Tenergy 80 FX Rubber on the Butterfly website here.

angle
8.5
Tackiness
8
Hardness
7.5
Speed
8.8
Spin
9
Durability
9
Control
9.2
Pros
  • Great Dwell Time
  • Great Control
  • Great Feeling
Cons
  • Price
The only downside to this blade is, I do think it is a bit expensive. But this is a great blade. I love this blade. This is my blade of choice. It is crisp and the topsheet is hard but the Zylon under the topsheet gives it softness, great dwell time and a lot of spin. When you really dig into the ball you feel a snap that I just love feeling when I crush the ball. It has great control. It is not too fast but it has more than enough speed. Because there is Zylon but there is no carbon you can feel the ball on the blade face really well. It has as good feeling as any all wood blade but the Zylon gives this blade extra gears. It has control and touch for short game, a ton of spin for looping and more than enough speed when you dig into it. This blade might lose a little pace when you are back from the table. But I have to say that I don't actually notice this. I feel I can use it at any distance. It combines really well with Tenergy 05 and 05 FX.

I really think this is one of the best blades out there.
Speed
7.5
Control
9.3
Hardness
5.7
Durability
9.5
Pros
  • Hard
  • Cheap
  • Great Feeling
Cons
  • Cons in video
@Dan and @Tom both used the Infinity VPS blade in this review using the Stiga Calibra Tour Medium rubbers. The review looks at various techniques and a range of shots used in today's modern game of table tennis. We found this blade to be similar with Stiga's hardwood series of blades including the Ebenholz and Maplewood blades. Video review below:

Speed
9.5
Control
9
Hardness
8.5
Durability
8
Pros
  • Spinny
Cons
  • Feelingless
  • Too slow for backing off
I've used this rubber on my FH. It's best-suited for playing heavy-topspin shots near table. The medium-low throw and speed allow you to put your full power into these shots. However, it lacks power when you try to play powerful strokes. For power-play as well as blocking I really felt like I lacked feeling.
Not really important, but the "Sound" was nothing special to me.
angle
3.3
Tackiness
2
Hardness
6
Consistency
7
Speed
6.8
Spin
8.5
Durability
5.5
Control
7.8
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