Butterfly Dignics 05

I have bin playing with this rubber on my forehand for about two months now and i love it! The looping ability is great, especially close to the table. its also great for blocking and control/placement of the ball. Its not as direct as tennergy 05 and its a bit worse for smashing, but I really enjoy having both T05 and D05 on my blade. It makes it easier to adjust to different situations.
I Just got the Harimoto innerforce alc, so i might post my thoughts on that in a little while. Peace!

My review in YouTube:

Just switched to D05 from MXP on Acoustic Carbon Inner for my BH. I loved the feel and crisp feeling of MXP, but playing it for 3 months, it definitely started giving out after first 6 weeks or so when the factory booster wore off. D05 plays about the same, but just slight adjustment (my ball keep going into the net). It feels slower at weaker stroke, but a lot more power when you do a stronger stroke. I'm definitely loving it. Super easy lifting heavy back spins and generating top spins. Very Forgiving too for blocking heavy top spin.

I am revoking my initial review of this rubber which was only a 3 star review.
I recently gave this rubber a second chance and got to appreciate it for its controllability and precision in shots. This rubber gives you a lot of confidence in active strokes because of the long dwell time and its control in general. It plays well close to the table as well as far from it. I found that shots right off the bounce work very well as the ball digs into the rubber and the rubber can wrap around the ball easily. Also, banana flicks are ridiculously easy to execute if you know how its done. The only negative I can think of is that it might seem slow on passive blocks etc. However, all in all a really good rubber. Definitely more of a backhand rubber for me due to its safety.

Rubber: Butterfly Dignics 05
Weight: 68 grams
Blade used:
Dan: Timo Boll ALC
Tom: Stiga Hybrid Wood

Hey guys! Here's our latest review of the new Dignics 05 rubber by Butterfly! This is a new series by Butterfly using the their latest tech, Spring Sponge X. We compare this to the popular Tenergy 05 and more.

I'm joined by Tom in the TableTennisDaily Studio where we give the rubber a full in depth analysis on how it performs!


Written Version:

Initial inspection:

I've been looking forward to reviewing the new Dignics 05 for a long time. Right out the packaging its got that premium feel you get with Tenergy, high tension rubber. The sponge is a reddish colour and using Butterfly’s latest technology the Spring Sponge X which is meant to be more elastic than Spring Sponge, found in the popular Tenergy series.

The Sponge hardness of Dignics 05 is 40 degrees which sits between Tenergy 05 at 37 and Tenergy 05 hard at 43 degrees.

For me the most interesting thing about Dignics is that the topsheet is meant to be grippier which I find exciting. Comparing here to a Tenergy 05 it does feel the surface is more tackier.

The weight of Dignics 05 is 68 grams so sits at the same weight to Tenergy which is 68 grams.

Okay guys so I used the Dignics on my Timo Boll ALC blade to give this a fair test and tom used it on his Stiga Hyrbrid wood blade. Lets get to the action.


Topspins:

So 10 years after the release of Tenergy 05, here we go Butterfly’s latest high end rubber, the Dignics 05. As always we started with topspins and this rubber is something else. The sheer amount of grip you get during topspins is incredible and immediately noticeable.

What's so unique about this rubber is the arc, it’ pretty direct but with tons of spin, usually you only get this amount of spin with rubbers that produce a higher arc like Tenergy 05 or rubbers with lower arc but with less speed like Hurricane 3. This made my shots very effective and hard for Tom to block as they came in sharp and spinny.

Where I particularly loved this rubber was on my backhand side, it really is a joy to use and really stood out to me. I found it to be extremely consistent and the grip gave me the safety in my strokes. I have found for example Tenergy 05 can be hard to control at times on my backhand due to its responsiveness.

Due to the grip the rubber produces it works really well from mid distance to the table, you can take a step off the table and feel very confident in your strokes.


Spin

Okay guys as expected with a rubber with this amount of grip, playing topspins against backspin with Dignics 05 was fantastic, tons of spin and bite on the ball. Interestingly, playing against backspin reminded me of using Tenergy 05 hard as you can really accelerate into the ball as you have a lot of control. At first I found that due to the slightly lower arc the ball sometimes went into the net which meant i had to slightly adjust my stroke and brush the ball more, to get it on the table.

The amount of time Dignics 05 holds the ball onto the rubber was again extremely noticeable and very useful during shots over the table such as the backhand flick, allowing you to produce a lot of rotation on the ball and play hard and fast. This is where the rubber really shone for me and allowed me to pick up the ball even when it was low with a lot backspin.


Passive play:

When you’re on the backfoot in the rally Dignics 05 has superb amounts of control when you need to block. When Tom attacked I was able to literally just put my bat behind the ball without adjusting my angle that much, and the ball went over sharp and effectively. I am very use to Tenergy 05 and when I block on the backhand side I have to make quite a bit of adjustment, with the Dignics 05 it felt quite a bit easier due to the less responsive, and solid impact.

The stability and control that Dignics 05 gives you when playing away from the table is fantastic, in particular this really helped with my backhands away from the table as the ball doesn’t just fly out so easily which is what happens usually when you use fast rubbers.


Short Game:

Here we try some short touches over the net. Dignics 05 allows you to play passive shots like this very easily due to the grip and control. Although it’s great for this area we still had to have soft hands and solid technique to feel the ball well over the net.This rubber is also not only good for touching, serving with this rubber is superb, you can really get a lot of spin keeping it short with ease

Like with backhand flicks, forehand flicking is also very effective with the rubber whether that is guided or aggressive flicks, its very strong here off the short ball. The ball doesn’t just fly off the end of the table and you have a lot of control to play with high quality.


Conclusion:

Alryt guys, there was the review of the Dignics 05. Thanks to Butterfly for sending us this new gear in the post. This new high end rubber by Butterfly to me doesn't knock Tenergy 05 off the top spot however i would say it joins it there, it’s got its own uniqueness.

Dignics is simply different and I feel caters for a broader range of players. Tenergy is for advanced players and so is Dignics but I feel Dignics is better in the passive game and will give people that Tenergy feeling but give you greater control and spin. After using Dignics now for a few weeks me and Tom both feel that Dignics 05 is slightly slower than Tenergy 05 especially during passive shots like serving, blocking and touching short but during max effort, high speed shots like forehand topspin there is less of a difference, whilst there definitely more spin.

The great advantages of Dignics 05 is how easy it is to handle in fast situations. The rubber really holds the ball which gives you a lot of spin and stability in your strokes.

Now will I use this rubber? 100%! For me I will still stick with Tenergy 05 on my forehand side just so I can get more ease of speed when I need it and Dignics 05 on my backhand. The Dignics 05 on my backhand gives me much greater control and feeling and really bites into the ball well.

I have Dignics 05 2.1 on both sides of a Harimoto Innerforce ALC. I have used regular Innerforce ALC in the past. I must say the Harimoto blade feels slightly softer with a little more feedback . On the scale both sheets of Dignics 05 weighed 68 grams each. With a few layers of Rev glue and cut to size the rubber weighs 48.5g each. Just remember Harimoto ALC has a slightly larger head shape so it may weigh a little less on your blade. Dignics is basically the same weight as T05 maybe a gram or 2 lighter. From the first few hits with Dignics you notice it has a slightly lower arc and is more direct than T05. Even though Butterfly claims Dignics has a higher throw I feel it's more like T80 . Maybe the longer trajectory makes it seem lower. You will also notice the softer top sheet. It feels grippier than T05 on service but during game play the spin is similar. Dignics is slightly faster than T05 but still controllable. Now onto my favorite part about Dignics. It is much easier in service and short game control. It doesn't have quite the bounciness of T05 and even with grippy top sheet it doesn't seem as effected by incoming spin. I actually prefer Dignics 05 on my BH currently and will probably stick with T05 on my FH but will give Dignics a month or so before I make that final decision. The main issue with Dignics is going to be price. Honestly the only way the price can be justified is if the rubber is as durable as Butterly claims and we won't find that out for months so the jury is out on that.

Played a couple of matches with the rubber. It is, in my opinion, an improvement over tenergy 05. How much of an improvement is certainly subjective. The spin is definitely more, I found there was better 'put away' power and rotation when you engage with spin/speed. The downside for me personally was blocking, but that may be simply because I did not have enough time to really adjust and tell if it is definitely worse. Serves, opening topspins and put away loops felt great, the grip was first class, and in all, I dont regret the money spent on it. I for one will be using this over Tenergy 05 going forward. One small tip - if you used to boost 05 - go easy on boosting Dignics 05 - as it is just feels softer imo.

Finally got my Harimoto blade today. Put on Dignics 05 (FH) and Tenergy 80 (BH), and just finished my training an hour ago.


Some specifications first, blade weighs only 86g despite the larger head size (my Innerforce Layer ALC weighs 89g) and with the rubber on it weighs 183g (2 layers of Butterfly Free Chack II on blade and rubbers, one layer weighs roughly 0.5g).


Now the impression of the rubber, I'm comparing the entire paddle against my Innerforce Layer ALC with T05 (FH) and T80 (BH) since the construction of the blade is basically the same. Spin is definitely much easier to generate, this is observed through my short backspin serves since this way I can minimize push and maximize brush on the ball. What I observed is the ball bounces backwards with more speed after hitting the other side of the table. I also tested with a top side spin serve, with the same motion the ball ended up on the side of the table instead at the corner where I can consistently serve to with T05, and I had to add a bit more push to get it go to the corner. As for the loops, it felt like when I tried out T05 Hard after using T05 for quite a while, the trajectory is a bit higher because of the easiness to generate spin, so I ended up closing my paddle a bit to make it hit the same position as T05, but the adjustment is not as much as needed for T05 Hard. The change in speed of the ball isn't noticeable by naked eye (it might be different but with the force I'm using I can't say for sure it's faster or slower), but I liked how the ball goes flatter after hitting the table since it has more spin.


All in all, I like the rubber, and I'd get it over T05 any day even with the higher price. Reason being I used to play tacky rubber such as Hurricane 3 on my forehand, but tacky rubbers wears me out too fast, since I had to use a lot more force to make the ball go at the speed I wanted, that's why I switched to Tenergy rubbers in the first place. Though the bounciness of tenergy rubbers always bugged me a little, since I'm used to brushing the ball to generate spin and dwell time of tenergy rubbers makes it a bit tricky. With D05 I think I finally found a rubber that fits me, I like how it has the bounciness of tenergy rubbers and also increased the dwell time which makes brushing the ball a lot easier. Is it a game changer? I can't say it is for sure, I need more time with it to get a better feel, but I do like the characteristics it improves over tenergy. Also tbh I don't think the price is that high, if you don't like it because of the price, you are missing out a lot of fun.

I only had a couple of sessions with it at this moment and my first impressions are : It has higher arc then tenergy 05, It grips the ball a bit better so its easier to attack half long balls for example or lift underspin. The overall feeling is similar to boosted tenergy 05 ( I enjoyed it more then 05) and it feels a notch softer than tenergy 05 but very similar hardness overall. It provides a loud noise and it is abit lighter then tenergy 05 (67 uncut comparing to 70). Although it has alot of control I wouldnt recommend it for a backhand rubber unless you are a pro because it has high arc and long catapult effect. It is rumoured to have a very good durability so maybe the price comparing to tenergy 05 is barely acceptable but still very overpriced. I can say at the moment for my game and the feeling it provides its a nice upgrade and I am using a blade with low through so it paired nicely.