Palio AK47 is hands down the best budget rubber in history. I have glued this rubber on several blades and they all have played well. They do not play like tensor rubbers. It's like a mix of tensor rubbers and typical Chinese rubbers without the bounciness and tackiness. The topsheet are grippy in my opinion and the sponge is porous.
First time experience was for testing purposes. I bought a fake Timo Boll ALC (named Timo Boer lol) on AliExpress and glued AK47 Red on forehand and AK47 Blue on backhand. This setup was extremely fast and spinny! I ended up selling it to a friend and I still have regrets letting it go.
Getting my feet dipped in Palio, I was very curious on their blades and bought a Palio Energy 03 blade. 9 layers with 5 wood and 4 being soft carbon, that just sounded very interesting. Super 999T on forehand and Palio AK47 Blue on backhand. I can't remember much but the AK47 Blue played fine on backhand, no issues or complaints. Great feeling with hitting backhands far from table. The Super 999T was too slow so I flipped the paddle out of curiosity and absolutely enjoyed ripping forehands far from table with the AK47 Blue. Read more reviews on AK47 and decided to replace the Super 999T with AK47 Red for more spin and power. This setup was just too good. It's crazy to think that it played so well yet being so cheap. I feel that the blade and rubbers really complimented each other. The rubbers wore out losing spin and I glued the same new rubbers on. They still play great, but not as great as it once was. Unfortunately, the quality control might just not be the absolute best. I've played with this setup for a long time now and it has really helped me developed my strokes. My favorite is definitely banana flicks. Again out of curiosity, I flipped the paddle and played AK47 Blue on forehand and Red on backhand. I did not like Red on backhand due to the lower throw angle, I kept hitting into the net. The throw angle on Blue is just right for my backhand. As for Blue on forehead, I am guilty to say that I think I might actually like it better than Red. Plan is to change the forehand to Blue once the Red is done. Wouldn't it be cool to see that blue sponge on a black rubber; people will think it's the special Blue Sponge on Hurricane lol. I also found that the durability and playability of Red and Blue are very well acceptable. I still think this is the best setup any money can buy for the value.
With me absolutely loving that setup, I ended up ordering another Palio Energy 03, but this time I went with Yellow for forehand and Blue on backhand. (This happened before I tried Blue on forehand that I mentioned above...) Choose Yellow cause I thought Blue would be too soft. This setup played very different.... The first setup was great for aggressive attack and good even for defensive. This setup struggles to be aggressive, but plays amazing defensively. Again this goes back to my comment about quality control on the rubbers and in this case, the blade as well... I still play with this setup from time to time when I want to play defense. A seemiller player I play with thinks I'm playing with pips or anti-spin lol.
Another training purpose, I glued Red on forehand and Blue on backhand to my Xiom Hayabusa ZXi. This setup was a little weird. I didn't like the feeling and feedback, but I was still able to play fine. Again back to my comment that these rubbers just work... It played a little more on the aggressive side. Good speed and decent spin. Only issue I had was on the backhand, if I hit the ball on the center of the rubber surface it was dead. Don't think glue job was the issue, but could have been.
All in all, absolutely love these rubbers. I asked Gambler when they'll have the Fire Dragon Fast flared handle back in stock and was told it's coming in the next shipment. I already have a AK47 Blue ready to go on the backhand hehe.
