Member
Hello. There are often a lot of questions about comparing different DHS Rubbers and often we are left with conflicting information with the rubbers. I have tested and will compare the following rubbers.
(Unboosted, commercial versions) DHS Hurricane 3 NEO, DHS Hurricane 2 NEO, DHS Skyline TG 2 Neo, DHS Skyline 3 Neo, DHS Hurricane 8.
Hurricane 3/H3 = Hurricane 3 Neo
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DHS Hurricane 3 Neo
Speed: I find that initially, the neo tuning is quick and that adjustments need to be made to accommodate the arc it produces.
Edit: upon recent trials- I have changed my opinion.
After the NEO layer wears off, I think that it plays very nicely and is much more predictable.
Spin: Possesses a great amount of spin due to its tacky nature. A little bit of physical effort is required to lift back spin.
Feeling: The feeling of this rubber is good. I can really feel the ball engage the rubber when looping under
Throw Angle: The throw angle is average.
Personal Thoughts: This rubber is stable and is my go-to if I’m unsure of what rubber to choose. It has good control over the short game and does well with service. I think that this rubber’s top speed is easily reached compared to the Skyline series. It spins extremely heavy at lower gears. .I also agree with PandaPong’s opinion about having to be conscious of racket angles with the commercial version. Having tried a boosted national 40 deg blue sponge, I can agree with his findings.
DHS Hurricane 2 Neo[width=406px]
Spin: It’s hard to discern the difference between this and the H3 neo. However, I think that it has less spin potential/ceiling than the H3. Spins about the same in high gears and less in lower gears. Service is of typical chinese rubber.
Speed: Initial speed is faster than Hurricane 3 Neo. Lower gears are faster, when looping hard, about the same.
Feeling: I would say that it has a tad bit more feeling than Hurricane 3. But it is unique and crisp. Provides a clickier sound compared to H3.
Throw: I disagree with the popular belief that this is a super low throw rubber. I think that the throw angle was not an issue for me and not something that I worried about when using this rubber. I would actually say that the throw is about the same as Hurricane 3 Neo, if not maybe a smidge lower.
Personal Thoughts: As soon as I tried this rubber out, I noticed that the sponge was firmer than H3. My initial impression is that it plays really safely and I was able to execute loops without having to worry about the ball going long. It felt really easy to spin the ball, and has a quicker initial speed than the h3.
DHS Hurricane 8 (mid hard)[width=448px]
Spin: This rubber spins the easiest with the least amount of effort.
Speed: This rubber is probably the quickest “regular” DHS rubber (exclusion of rubbers like h3-50, skyline 3-60, h8-80). It is the bounciest DHS Rubber w/o boosting.
Feeling: The ball feeling of this rubber is about the same as H3. It is not as crisp feeling as the H2 due to its softer topsheet.
Throw: Throw is average. I did not have to consciously adapt to the rubber’s throw angle.
Personal thoughts: I think that this rubber is fast by Chinese standards. I thought that spin + speed was the easiest to generate with this rubber. Because of this trait, I found that it was hard to control for my level. It is pretty stable and is faster than H3. In this regard I would say that Hurricane 8 is the quickest rubber out of the ones being compared. The Initial Speed is faster than hurricane 2, but the spin potential and speed potential -especially on lower gear- is greater than hurricane 3. There is a stark contrast after the factory booster wears off and it plays much more controlled. Post factory tuning, it is like a hurricane 3 with a slight speed boost with and a somewhat springy sponge.
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DHS Skyline TG 3 Neo
Speed: Similar to H3. It is slower than H2, H8. It’s average speed.
Spin: I think this rubber is the easiest to apply heavy spin on. More So than hurricane 3. It feels like I don’t have to try to spin so heavily.
Feeling: This has the greatest feeling out of all DHS rubbers. Compared to H3n where I can only feel the ball grab the topsheet, this has a more natural feeling.
Throw: Medium/Medium Low.
Personal Thoughts: My friend was using this rubber, and it is the first one where I visually saw from him that the ball was kicking off the table. It has a lot of spin for the lower gear, and it has a more linear feeling (more power, more speed) than Hurricane 8. In many regards, I think that this is a tamer version of the Hurricane 8. This rubber is not as tacky as Hurricane 3, but still maintains the advantage of short game.
DHS Skyline TG2 Neo[width=459px]
Speed: By Far the slowest DHS Rubber in the test. If many people consider H3N a dead rubber, this is as dead as it can get.
Spin: Immense amount of spin in every gear. In chopping to fh openups, this rubber was very easy to use. Force was however required to get the ball up to speed.
Feeling: It is average, it is similar to the Hurricane 3, but less “grabby” of the ball and is duller than Skyline 3 neo.
Throw: Low throw. The ball has little clearance over the net.
Personal Thoughts: I don’t usually think of using booster, but this rubber was very very slow. Given that it’s also the Neo version, this rubber is very slow and is somewhat comparable to DHS PF4 or Reactor Corbor, which are both historically known as “dead” rubbers. To get the most out of this rubber, you will need to swing very fast and hard, otherwise a lot of shots will take effort because of the speed. I genuinely feel that when I had this on my setup that it felt like I was playing with an ALL+ Blade. It has been said online that it generates the most spin and speed but takes great efforts to attain that. I can definitely agree with their statement about spin, however the claim about speed is questionable.