Apex Blades, New Brand!

Apex Table Tennis Blades


Apexis a new brand from the Middle East. In fact, it is the first tabletennis producer from the Middle East who manufactured their ownblades. This is made in Oman. I got to reviewer this since I wasapproached by them to try out their new blades. Apex has released 2blades which are the Apex OFF and Apex Def blades. They are still constructing their website as of the moment.

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ApexOffensive blade
Thickness:6.2mm
Plies:7 (Limba,ZLC, Limba, Ayous Limba, ZLC Limba)
Weight:90 grams approx.
Headsize: 158x150mm
Speed:Off

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Atfirst look, you could mistake it as a blade coming from a popularChinese factory or company. This is because the quality and finish ofthe blade is on par with Yinhe or Sanwei. The handle is not roughthough the wing part needs a bit of sanding but never presented as aproblem for me. They decided to have a bigger head size which is 1 to2mm larger than most blades in the market today. Also,they decided not to place any logos on the handle’s side andinstead just opted with the metal logo at the bottom of the handle.


Howdid this play during the drills? The Apex OFF has this softness onball impact and it was not too fast for its speed. When I bounced theball onto the bare blade, the ball did not bounced too high. I candirectly compare the speed with that of the Yinhe T-11+’s rangewith a difference that the Apex Off seem to have a softer feeldespite having a ZLC composite layer. Every ball impact felt mediumstiff and I can say that the blade has some flex. I tested this withTibhar Aurus Prime and Sanwei National Pro Blue rubbers. The SanweiNational Pro Blue was fast enough on this blade with a medium arcwhen looping while the Aurus Prime Withthe Sanwei rubber on the fh, it was good until middle distance fromthe table. It’s power still felt by the person blocking the shots.With the Aurus Prime, it is a great counter looping blade far fromthe table.


Justto give everyone a comparison of blades probably feel close to thefollowing blades that I will be mentioning. First, it felt like aCarbonado 145 but a tad slower and has more flex. Carbonado also haslimba outer plies and ayous core but has Textreme carbon instead ofZLC. Also, the arc of the Carbonado 145 is much higher. This alsofelt like a softer and slower Jun Mizutani blade. You will appreciatethe blade’s inherent looping properties because of being userfriendly even by an intermediate level player. Looping is very muchappreciated in this blade due to the great balance in speed andcontrol plus awesome feel.

ApexDefensive


Plies:5 (Limba+soft carbon, Ayous, softcarbon, Limba)
Weight:92 grams
Headsize: 150x160mm
Thickness:5.3mm
Speed:Def to ALL-

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Thisis an oversized defensive blade with a soft carbon layer on eachside. This has very high positive feedbacks among defensive playerswho co-tested this with me since I am not a chopper but can only chopa few times against a slow loop a few times and not that consistent.Also, I am more of a forehand chopper than a backhand one. I glued aTsp Curl PR1 to test its defensive properties and also aXiom Vega Pro rubber for the forehand.


Theblade does not feel too slow. A few testers say that it is slowerthan Chen Wei Xing blade but for me it is a bit faster. The Stiga DefClassic which I have reviewed before also is slower while the StigaDefensive Pro blade felt harder and a tad faster. The Apex Def has agood amount of flex since it is a very thin blade at 5.3mm. It waseasy to chop with despite having a soft and thin carbon layer. Thesoft carbon has similar characteristics to that of the Andrei Grubbacarbon blade that has an all+ speed rating. The blade has a morewoody feeling than a carbon composite blade. I would attribute thisfeel mostly due to the thin carbon layers. I was hitting smashes withthe Apex Def and it felt like an all around blade that does not feelvery slow. With the Chen Wei Xing, I would struggle more because youwould need to apply more effort in hitting smashes or doing topspinswith the incoming ball.


Withchopping, all testers agreed that it can chop with ease producingvery hard underspin balls against. Theyseem to enjoy the blade’s ease of countering incoming topspin ballsand at the same time switching to either blocking with long pips orchopping from middle to far distance away from the table. I theorize,short pip chopping style would work well on this blade and also evenhardbat players will appreciate this blade.
 
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TT market needs slow zlc blade

It looks like something you dont want to buy but it will makes your game more simple. Sometimes we buy fancy blades Just to play worse game and think too much about equipment
 
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Another brand, even more blades? There are gazillions of different blades and rubbers available already, why do people still think they have to add even more to the market? Most likely they have created something that already exists from another brand with a different name.

Someone should develop the ultimate P-Ball instead that is durable, looks good, sounds good, is perfectly playable to a price that is appropriate for a few grams of plastic.
 
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Jul 2019
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TT market needs slow zlc blade

It looks like something you dont want to buy but it will makes your game more simple. Sometimes we buy fancy blades Just to play worse game and think too much about equipment

Can that even work ? Isn't it the whole point of carbon to increase speed ? What would the structure of a slow ZLC be like , a 3+2 ?
 
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