I agree that 2008XP can be used on either side. It is pretty good quality for the price. Some people like things that are a little more high end for FH but it would work fine.
However, I think you guys are answering a different question than the OP asked. The OP said that he has always and only used high end gear. And wanted to know how much difference between the high end stuff and the low end stuff.
So, let's differentiate. Liten's blade, the Banda Waldner is definitely high end but he got a deal from someone who did not know its actual value. That is different.
Those products from China like Yinhe and Friendship that are very reasonably priced but quite good and almost as good as the high end stuff but not quite. I don't think he is asking about that.
That kind of stuff that is LOW end, which is designed for recreational play: think of them as toys. The wood is an arbitrary, unthought about piece of plywood with a handle. The rubber is made up of a very cheap piece of foam and a very cheap slab of rubber which has very little grip and can't really grab or spin the ball.
That being said, I have seen certain people who are able to play decently well with one of those. If you use one for a few months they start playing like anti-spin.
But how I would think of that stuff is that they are TOYS. What we are using is equipment. But a racket like that is a toy.
An analogy I use for people here in the USA is this. You can go to a toy store like Toys-R-Us and buy a skateboard for $10.00 but that is a toy. It looks a bit like the real thing but not if you know what to look for. If you got one and tried to do real things on it like skate a vert ramp, you would be in trouble. Whereas, a professional skateboard from a good skate shop will be a completely different animal.
Same thing.
There are some tables that are lower end were the bounce is not too bad. But then there are others where, if you play on them, you wonder how anyone plays on them because the ball just doesn't bounce. Those are for those people who play ping pong: NOT TABLE TENNIS: you know, where they hold the racket completely wrong, they stand with the right foot forward and only hit love tap backhands; where they aim the ball up 3 feet above the net and the ball goes so slow that it still falls and lands on the table even though there is no noticeable amount of spin on the ball.
I think that actually answers your question more properly.
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