Yinhe Big Dipper 5 Review: A Budget No-Boost Alternative to Hurricane 3 Neo with Some Tradeoffs

[victormanriquey]

Hey all!

This week I'm back with a small pause in my Donic BlueGrip adventures and with a review of a rubber that I wanted to test in depth for a long time, I'm sure many of you have wondered how the Big Dipper 5 plays as well!

It's an interesting budget rubber, for the price it has, the value is really good, it is not better than a boosted provincial H3N (feeling, spin and trajectory mostly), although it gets close in important areas (speed, serves, pushes, blocks, etc)

For the full blogpost check this out: https://www.tabletennisequipmenthelp.com/blog/yinhe-big-dipper-5-review

And for the TL;DR if you are in a hurry, see this table:

Category	Yinhe Big Dipper 5
Weight	Heavy-ish, around 71-73g uncut and ~50g cut to my blade
Sponge & Topsheet	Hard and tacky rubber feeling, similar to the Hurricane 3 Neo
Speed & Gears	Many gears, starts explosive then calms down a bit after break-in period
Spin potential	Very high, but a bit less than a good Hurricane 3 Neo
Throw angle	Medium throw overall, flatter trajectory than expected
Drives & Loops	Good but not as confidence-inducing as Hurricane 3 Neo
Serves	Very spinny, similar to Hurricane 3 Neo serves, bit tougher short serves
Pushes	Very good for aggressive and short pushes
Flicks	Good on forehand but requires confidence and closed angle
Blocks	Very good control and passive blocking
Flat hits	Similar to Hurricane 3 Neo, it's just not the rubber for this
Boosting	No immediate need, could possibly benefit from it
Price & Durability	Amazing value for the money, durability seems very good

Hope you like the review and I'm sure this one is going to spark a good discussion, so bring your questions, comments, concerns or anything else and let's discuss!

Thanks for reading and taking the time as always,

Victor

 

[oophyte]

Previous generation BDs were semi-tacky and fast. Would you say that it is a departure from that and more aligned with the H3 niche?

 

[victormanriquey]

Previous generation BDs were semi-tacky and fast. Would you say that it is a departure from that and more aligned with the H3 niche?

I have not tried the previous BD gens so I cannot comment on it, but definitely not a comeback to H3, those were very very tacky and the new tacky normal is indeed only semi tacky, and indeed BD5 is for sure faster than a normal H3

 

[golden_son]

Great review, as always. I do wish you had experience with the original BD to compare it to, as I've had a good experience with the OG BD but heard mixed reviews of BD5 in comparison. One thing I've seen mentioned is that BD5 is more tensioned and has a flatter arc than the original, leaning slightly more toward ESN-hybrid than Chinese-hybrid. I suppose it's cheap enough I'll just need to try it for myself.