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This blade suprised me! I was about to buy a JOOLA Rosskopf Emotion when I run into this blade. I have owned many other blades, like IF Zlc, LSW, TB Alc, TB Zlf, TB W5, Hayabuza ZX, Donic Waldner Senso Ultracarbon, Ludeack Fleet, Acustic, PG7, Darker Speed 90, Viscaria, SK7 tactics. But, apart from TB Alc, I have never used them for more than six months. I really don't know if the reason was EJing or the blades themselves. But now I own 2 Joola TPE Fight, have played for a year and half and could say that I'm very satisfied with both of them. This blade have a soft feeling (hinoki outer plus Kevlar carbon as 3rd ply) but also could generate lots of power on fast drives. The feeling also enables a better control of the dwell time and helps me to generate more spin. Both blades plays similar with the same rubbers (Cornilleau Target Pro GT H47 and M43). The only problem is that sometimes, if you do your stroke to passively the ball bounce foward too fast. Otherwise it is a very controlled blade.

It is a very hard rubber! When I played with it, I did not have the technique to exploit its strengths.

Brush looping is great, because of the tacky surface. It help me develop this heavily brushed opening loop. However, it is very hard to make a quality shot by engaging the sponge. The throw is therefore often low. Nonetheless, the tack helps for controlling the ball on topspin rallies. It is pretty tiring to use.

Blocking is good, because the rubber is kind of dead and retains the ball because of the tack, so you can annihilate your opponents' spin and speed. However, it is quite sensitive to spin.

Pushing, chopping and serving are all great, because the tack helps impart huge amounts or spin on these brushed and light shots. If you are used to non tacky rubbers, you might push the ball into the net at the beginning. It requires good control of spin.

Overall, an advanced rubber.

I used it on my forehand. The blue sponge is cool! This is the most flexible rubber I know of, When holding the fresh new sheet, it flexes so easily. It takes about a week to break in. I think this is a good softer, higher throw alternative to Tenergy 64-FX. I bought it at a discount.

It is awesome for looping. The ball is catapulted with good speed, spin and sound. The arc is pretty high indeed, so it is great for looping backspin. Looping is this rubber's strength, but it might be too bouncy for beginners to fully grip the ball. That being said, the topsheet is very grippy. It is one of the spinniest rubbers I have played with.

Serves are awesome too. My previous rubber was Hurricane 2 Neo. With the Bluefire, I developed my feeling of the ball sinking into the rubber. The serves are very spinny, when the ball sinks into the topsheet (maybe not the sponge, though) and gets catapulted. All kinds of serves work well.

Pushing and short game is a little bouncy. Flicking with the backhand is effortless, but the ball can go long, as it is a high throw and bouncy rubber.

Durability is not as good as the Sriver G2-FX. The grip goes away quicker. It died after a year. But it is still fine.

Overall, a very fun rubber to play with. It makes your shots POP with spin and effortlessly imparted speed, which allows for all kinds of crazy sidespin or slap hits. I would not recommend it to beginners, but to players who have some good touch already.

It is a very balanced rubber that does well in most aspects. Compared to Sriver, it is like an improved version in every department, but it is softer, less tacky and maybe lower throw. It has a very soft and flexible topsheet.

It is ok for looping, topspins are not very fast or spinny, but it can be very spinny if you brush a lot. It has a low throw, so it is good for backhand loops, as you can play a very strong and brushed shot and it will still land on the table. I like it for RPB. However, I sometimes find it difficult to grip the ball (compared to other ESN and H3), which is surprising, given the softness.

For pushes, it is not very spinny, but it has that soft topsheet and sponge that absorb the ball, so the control is great. It is not sensitive to spin. I find it OK for the short game, not too bouncy. For the usual backhand flick, ou have to brush a lot, so it is a little difficult.

At first, I was a little bit disappointed by the lack of spin, but it got better after breaking in. It helped me develop my backhand loop, as it forces me to use good technique, especially for backhand open ups.

It is very durable, I do not train but I play casually very often and the rubber died after 2 years. I still find it very expensive for its performance.

Overall, it is a very balanced rubber. You will get good control and decent spin and speed if you have a good technique. I am not sure if it is good for beginners, as it is not very easy to play with. I think the original Sriver is better for learning.

Rate: 8.5/10
Stiffness: Nearly stiff
Type: Wood 5plys

Im using this blade with Hurricane 8 on FH and Xiom Omega V Pro on my BH.
What i first noticed about this blade is that it has a wide sweet spot and is very controllable.
Blocking is effortless with this blade.
It is really good in mid distance. Doesnt require that much effort when playing in mid distance.
I got this blade for 70$ and im quite satisfied with it.
***The only problem is that the top outerveneer is too thin.
Would recommend for any developing player!

Rate:8.8/10
Hardness: Hard
Tackiness: Not so tacky(Less than H3 and H3 Neo)
Thickness: 2.15mm
Type: Inverted

I have been using Hurricane 8 on my FH for about a month now.
When compared to H3 and H3 Neo, this rubber is not as tacky and spinny but it gives more control in every shot.
During FH play, it is really good close to the table but requires effort when in mid distance and far from the table.
*** When pushing, it requires a precise timing to push or else the ball will go off the table.
It is also very good for looping. When looping, it require effort and skills but when you have both of them.
Looping with this rubber is perfect!
After a month of playing, the rubber lose some of its grip and lose some of its spin.

Would recommend for intermediate player and players who likes hard sponge.
*** not to forget that it REQUIRE EFFORT and for people who used to use EUROPEAN rubber it requires a bit of change in technique.

Rate 9.5/10
Rubber type: Inverted
Hardness: Medium Hard
*High throw angle*

I have been using this rubber for about 1 months now on my BH.
During my first game with it, I start to love it. This rubber is just awesome. It is a modern rubber, designed for plastic ball.
It has a hint of tackiness and is grippy. It give you a really safe play with its high throw angle. What i noticed about this rubber is that the durability is really good since i have been using it for 1 months already and it hasnt lose in speed or spin.
During BH topspins, this rubber gives you a very spinny BH with an awesome amount of control. Even when away from the table, you can do a BH topspin with a medium effort.
What i like most about this rubber is BH flick! During BH flicking, i find it really easy to flick with this rubber. With the help of the high throw angle, my flick was effortless.
I would recommend this rubber for intermediate level and above!

We tested alot of the new three star poly balls in my club to find the best one for league play and we decided on the Nittaku 3* Poly Ball.

If i had to chose my favourite 40+ ball it would be this one.

It plays smiliar to a celluloid ball. The bounce height seems to be constant and not too high or too low, much better than balls from XuShaoFa.
The ball are very round and have all around the same hardness.

Still the ball suffers from one of the big poly ball problems: Durability

Bad durability together with the high price is a costly combination.

Still i think the Nittaku 3* Ball is the best choice if you want a poly ball.

I hope my review could help you in any way

This is a good ball, comparing the price. Costs around 120rupees in India, which is cheaper than nittaku by a margin. Though nittaku balls seem best to me, stag balls at this price seem reasonable to me. Got perfect shape, a little less gloosy finish than nittaku. The spin is good, but nittaku is better. If price is to be kept in mind, stag ball is great. If best ball in market is the choice, nittaku!

I've been playing with some plastic balls, and mostly with 3*** DHS 40+, but sometimes with 3*** Stiga 40+. My first DHS 40+ ball broke within 1 session of playing. It might have hit the edge of the blade, but then I have hit the edge of my blade many times with other balls, and they don't break immediately. So this may indicate its weak durability.
In terms of gameplay feel, I think it is acceptable. I am perhaps not at a high level to tell the exact difference between a Stiga 40+ and a DHS 40+, but for general matches, I am happy to use either. Just that with using DHS 40+, probably a good idea to bring a few extra for any unexpected accidents.

After reading some reviews about this rubber I decided to try out the 2.2mm Genesis S to replace my Tenergy 80FX (BH)
My initial feeling on this rubber sheet is not great. This rubber is very very slow and with a hard surface even tough I went for the soft version!
There's almost "no spring" into it and the speed and power are really not there. On the other hand this rubber feels OK (control wise) and its surface produces good spin.

Some people were saying this could be Tenergy "alternative" but reality it couldn't be further out from the truth...

I don't recommend this rubber for any decent skilled offensive player.

Xiom Vega Asia DF Rubber
Weight: 58 grams uncut, 42 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 42.5°
Hardness: Soft/Medium
Speed: Medium/High
Spin: Medium
Blade used: Xiom Vega Tour blade (Dan), Xiom Stradivarius blade (Tom)


Written Review

Initial

The Xiom Vega Asia DF rubber was released in June 2016 alongside the Europe DF Rubber. The rubber uses Xiom’s signature black sponge and has a glossy topsheet. We've noticed this type of grippy surface in a lot of new rubbers post celluloid ball era.

The Xiom Vega Asia DF is the newest rubber in the VEGA series, with the DF standing for Dynamic Friction Technology designed for the plastic ball. This technology was also used on the Omayga 5 rubbers. The Vega Asia DF is slightly softer than their predecessor Vega Asia rubbers. The sponge hardness on the Vega Aaia DF is 42.5 degrees.

Topspins

At the beginning you can feel right away that the Asia DF is a fairly soft rubber and is softer than the original Vega ASia. Although a soft/medium rubber, the impact is very stable and has an impressive loud sound on impact.

Tom found during topspin strokes (as seen the in the video) that the Asia was more direct with its trajectory than the Europe DF. This gave Tom a bit more speed and strong attacks.

Me and Tom both came to the agreement that the Asia worked better for both of us on the backhand side, we felt that this was because of the rubbers more direct nature. The ball did not fly out as much on the backhand side with both rubbers but especially with the Asia.

Open ups and Spin

A big plus point of the DF rubbers are that they are both very spinny. The grippiness of both of these rubbers mean that they both produce considerably more spin than the the original Xiom Vega rubbers. The new tech that XIOM have used with these certainly act well with the plastic ball. The Asia was a bit harder to lift against backspin then the Europe, however we felt a more aggressive shot was produced when we timed the ball well with the Asia.

Speed

In the rally we could generate a fair amount of speed in my shots and enough to put the opponent under pressure. These rubbers are not designed for sheer power however, and would fall in the in the all round offensive category. The Asia DF felt slightly faster than the Europe DF.

Backhand Flicks

The softness of these rubbers allow for superb control especially in the short game. For example, backhand flicks were easy and I had a high room for error especially on 4th ball attacks.

Away from table

This control can be seen when myself and Tom took a few steps away from the table. The rubber gave great safety in our shots with a high arc and not requiring huge amounts of effort. It did feel the Europe had slightly more feel and control than the Asia DF.

Conclusion

Xiom have definitely designed rubbers that have a good ratio between spin, speed and control but are slightly more towards the controlled side. Both the new Xiom Vega Df rubbers are packed with control and posses a topsheet that grips the ball producing lots of spin. As mentioned previously the major advantage with this rubber is its ability to stay in the rally with ease.

The rubbers are not too responsive to spin and are very easy to play with due to sponges softness and stable topsheet resulting in high safety in your strokes. If you are looking for more spin and slightly more arc in your strokes we would recommend the Vega Europe DF. The ball really soaks into the sponge producing lots of spin and acceleration. The Vega Asia DF is slightly harder and a touch faster than the Europe DF, suited for players who want a slightly more direct trajectory.

The Vega DF rubbers are also both excellent when blocking and receiving spinny balls. We would recommend Vega Europe and Asia DF rubbers for developing players looking to improve their stroke efficiency and shot quality. Or for players who want a spinny well controlled rubber without the extreme speed of high end fast rubbers such as the Tenergy 05 or Tibhar Evolution mxp. Xiom have created a well balanced offensive rubber and is a good addition to their rubber selection.

Xiom Vega Europe DF Rubber
Weight: 58 grams uncut, 42 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 37.5°
Hardness: Soft
Speed: Medium
Spin: Medium/High
Blade used: Xiom Vega Tour blade (Dan), Xiom Stradivarius blade (Tom)


Written Review

Initial

The Xiom Vega Europe DF rubber was released in June 2016 alongside the Asia DF Rubber. The rubber uses Xiom’s signature black sponge and has a glossy topsheet. We've noticed this type of grippy surface in a lot of new rubbers post celluloid ball era.

The Xiom Vega Europe DF is the newest rubber in the VEGA series, with the DF standing for Dynamic Friction Technology designed for the plastic ball. This technology was also used on the Omayga 5 rubbers. The Vega Euro DF are slightly softer than their predecessor Vega Asia and Vega Europe rubbers.
The sponge hardness on the Vega Europe DF feels very soft and is similar to the Rasant Beat rubber which is 37.5 degrees.

Topspin

You can feel right away that the Vega Europe DF is a very soft rubber and is softer than the original Vega Europe. Although a soft rubber, the impact is very stable and has an impressive loud sound on contact.

Tom found the trajectory a little higher with Europe than the Asia, which gave him more safety in his shots. Both rubbers produced consistent topspins on both the forehand and backhand side.

With this rubber we found you need to brush the ball with a lot of precision on strong shots to get the ball to dip onto the table. If this was not met the ball could fly out quite easily.

Speed

In the rally I could generate a fair amount of speed in my shots and enough to put the opponent under pressure. These rubbers are not designed for sheer power however, and would fall in the in the all round offensive category.

Open ups and Spin

A big plus point of the DF rubbers are that they are both very spinny. The grippiness of both of these rubbers mean that they both produce considerably more spin than the the original Xiom Vega rubbers. The new tech that XIOM have used with these certainly act well with the plastic ball. When playing against backspin the Europe felt more easier to lift backspin than the Asia. The slightly softer sponge had greater dwell which helped generate high spin on the ball.

Flicks

The softness of these rubbers allow for superb control especially in the short game. For example, backhand flicks were easy and I had a high room for error especially on 4th ball attacks.

Away from table
This control can be seen in the video when myself and Tom took a few steps away from the table. The rubber gave great safety in our shots with a high arc and not requiring huge amounts of effort.

Conclusion

Xiom have definitely designed rubbers that have a good ratio between spin, speed and control but are slightly more towards the controlled side. Both the new Xiom Vega Df rubbers are packed with control and posses a topsheet that grips the ball producing lots of spin. As mentioned previously the major advantage with this rubber is its ability to stay in the rally with ease.

The rubbers are not too responsive to spin and are very easy to play with due to sponges softness and stable topsheet resulting in high safety in your strokes.

If you are looking for more spin and slightly more arc in your strokes we would recommend the Vega Europe DF. The ball really soaks into the sponge producing lots of spin and acceleration. The Vega Asia DF is slightly harder and a touch faster than the Europe DF, suited for players who want a slightly more direct trajectory.

The Vega DF rubbers are also both excellent when blocking and receiving spinny balls.We would recommend Vega Europe and Asia DF rubbers for developing players looking to improve their stroke efficiency and shot quality. Or for players who want a spinny well controlled rubber without the extreme speed of high end fast rubbers such as the tenergy 05 or tibhar evolution mxp. Xiom have created a well balanced offensive rubber and is a good addition to their rubber selection.

Very good rubber for this price.What I don´t like if want to hit realy hard power topspin winner after service it becomes uncontrolable ball goes out or to the net.I like it more than vega pro .Vega Europe DF has softer feeling,but maybe too soft..Vega pro seems to me dead feeling.

This is a copy/paste of my review from another site which I wrote a month ago. I still feel pretty much the same about this rubber.

First of all, I'm a recreational player of modest to low tt skills and knowledge and I don't have much experience with various blades/rubbers. My playing style could be summed up in two sentences.
1. Typically, I tend to open the game very early in the point with BH topspin and then, during the BH exchange, wait for my chance to take over with FH drives/loops.
2. When I step away from the table, I play FH almost exclusively.

Anyway, last week I changed my complete setup.
My old racket: Avalox BT 555 / Acuda S2 (2 mm) / Butterfly Sriver FX (1.9 mm).
My new racket: Donic Waldner Senso Carbon / Acuda P2 (2 mm) / Xiom Vega Elite (1.8 mm).
I wanted to upgrade my BH by making a transfer from Sriver to a tensor, and I wanted it to be as painless as possible. So, my choice had to be some soft, forgiving tensor and after some research I chose Xiom VE.

After unpacking, I've noticed that VE sponge was colored creamy white and that rubber curled up, which is in contrast with Omega V series rubbers which all have black sponges and are flat upon unpacking. Immediately after gluing I had my first training (2 hours) with this new setup. The training included 1 hr of simple topspin exercises and 1 hr of sparring with a much better player, a semi-pro who limited his game to pestering me with pushes, chops and blocks with occasional to rare punishing drive/loop in order to let me be aggressive while constantly pushing me to the limits and out of my comfort zone.

Naturally, what changed the most was the new energy booming from my BH. My loops took less effort and had a lot of additional spin and power, and I had less problem lifting the chopped balls over the net regardless of the amount of underspin or the ball distance from the net. Also, blocking with VE felt great, as if I had an additional control over the ball so I could block more actively and be more dangerous instead of just being clay pigeon for the opponent's spins.

I did have some problems with short game, pushing and passive serve receive though, but that just means that I need to spend some time to adjust my technique.

One final remark. During my training, especially while blocking, I could often hear/feel the ball sink all the way trough the rubber/sponge and hit the top ply of the blade, and the whole bat vibrated and sounded weird after a stronger hit, but I don't think it affected the quality of my shots. This might be due to the Senso handle and might have nothing to do with the VE per se. Or it could be a combination of those two factors - a soft sponge and a hollow handle.

Anyway, all in all, so far I'm really satisfied with Xiom VE, I think it's a good and controllable tensor that could sit well on a BH side of some spin-oriented allround attacker's blade. I also recommend it as a BH gateway rubber in transition from some classic rubber to a tensor.

I used this rubber for 3 months and I found that this is offensive rubber which can do almost everything. This rubber is grippy style which make me counter topspin easily even when the opponent using very spinny dangerous topspin (if I fast enough to manage it lol) . My topspin is direct and fast enough to kill the point with this rubber. Smashing and punch blocking with this are the best in my opinion. The only thing I don't like in this rubber is serving with this rubber is not spinny that much because of non-tacky surface but with this kind of this rubber's surface giving me good control on service receive. I would recommend this rubber to intermediate level player who want to make the opponent shiver with your aggressive smash and power topspin.

Well balanced blade. You can really feel that huge sweet spot, it's really not a marketing trick and it helps to place more balls on the table. Also why I like it more than all ALC blades - because of the feedback/feeling, you can feel blade better.

Some comparisons with popular Butterfly blades:
Zhang Jike Super ZLC (also huge sweet spot blade): Carbonado gives more feedback to your hand and price is 2x less.
Viscaria: Carbonado gives more feedback to your hand and has bigger sweet spot. If someone using viscaria is thinking about upgrade - I would suggest Carbonado 145. Speed is a little bit slower than Viscaria (just a tiny bit), but better control (you'll really feel it).

Actually I really like Carbonado very much, but there's one bad thing - Stiga quality.. It's full of forums, also I experienced this myself and few of my training partners - outer layer starts to recoil after some time, some wood chips comes off, some coloring on handle logo goes off.. And it's only after using the blade for 1 year. This almost never happens with Butterfly blades. This is the reason why I'm thinking to switch to Butterfly blades - durability. I hope Stiga reads this and tries to fix those quality issues in some time, because technology-wise their blades plays really good.

-This rubber definitely outperforms its low price of just 38 US dollars
-Nice feel
-Good speed and spin, but not uncontrollably fast. In fact the control is outstanding
-Very nice soft feeling
-Topsheet feels fragile and chips away easily
-The sponge has a unique black colour (just as many other Xiom rubbers are)

I have been exploring ST handles, and discovered I very much like rounder ST handles (as opposed to the more square ST handles found on TB-ALC, for example). Donic has the shape I like. I also hoped to find a composite blade with a feel as close to my Viscaria as possible. The Donic Ovtcharov True Carbopn out to be what I was looking for, even more so than the ZJK-ALC I had purchased earlier. The True Carbon is a little faster than my Viscaria blades, whereas the ZJK-ALC ST handle blades were a little slower. So, with plastic balls, this is the winner. Mine is 92 grams, and the handle is very slightly larger than that of my ZJK-ALC, and has no sharp angles, and it makes it very easy to change grip between FH and BH shots. The thickness is identical to the Viscaria. I don't know what the composite material is, but it looks exactly like the ALC material in Btfly blades, at least from the side of the blade.

Build quality was perfect. I have read that this blade might be made by Soulspin. From the quality, I think that is certainly possible.

I have been using MX-P on the blade (both sides) because I didn't want to buy two sheets of T05 for a new blade I had never tried before that I might not like. It turns out they go together really well I have played so well with this combination the last two times I played that I think I will stick with it for awhile.

Hi all,

My name is Craig Bryant, I'm a Joola sponsored player, via Bribar Table Tennis. I have a new website and social media pages promoting my coaching services, if you fancy taking a look, follow the links here: Top Edge Table Tennis.

You can also find me on the socials:
Facebook
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Take a look below for my review of Samba 27:

Samba 27 is an ideal rubber for the out and out attacking player. It's fast and its fairly hard sponge means the rubber is very reactive (it comes off the racket almost immediately). If you're the type of player that likes to play with power, then I'd recommend trying the rubber out. It's high friction surface allows for a high level of spin, especially when serving.

The level of grip that the rubber offers, makes it an ideal rubber for players that use counter topspins as a tactic.

Similarly for touching and pushing heavy, the vast amounts of grip means that it's easier to keep the ball lower over the net, as well as crucially adding on those extra rotations on the ball.



I hope you found this to be a useful review.

Thanks

Craig