My Personal Guide to Rubbers on Aliexpress

[Doum]

Did you try Palio The Way 40+?

I played with this rubber with my first racket. It's a little tacky, but very grippy. The sponge is soft. I think the 48-50 degree is similar to 42 degree ESN. My black Palio The Way have a yellow sponge, similar to the HK1997. It play well and it's spinny.

 

[damszelfly]

I played with this rubber with my first racket. It's a little tacky, but very grippy. The sponge is soft. I think the 48-50 degree is similar to 42 degree ESN. My black Palio The Way have a yellow sponge, similar to the HK1997. It play well and it's spinny.

According to my experiences, the sponge of Palio The Way can be as stated. I ordered a pair of them several months before, it was labelled as having 48-50° hardness, and it feels exactly like that (maybe there could be versions with different sponges out there, or there could be some variance in how the sponge feels). The sponge feels somewhat Chinese (as it should), but it is of the more reactive ones - after an initial dampening on low impact force hits, it has a very respectable top speed if you swing it properly - I play with long medium/medium-low arcs most of the time (the blade was used for testing: Palio Way 005).
My concerns could be instead with the topsheet: it indeed feels somewhat tacky, but the texture is coarse, so thin contacts do not feel so good with it - arcs are created somewhat less efficiently than I would expect.
I tried Friendship 729-08 ES, and I had the same problem, but to a greater extent - the topsheet of that rubber is also coarsely textured, and somewhat tacky.
For some reasons, I could say, Rakza Z has a fairly similar topsheet in these regards, somewhat less coarsely textured, only a little/somewhat tacky - but it grips the ball better by a huge margin, so it seems so otherworldly compared to these rubbers.

 

[TareqPhoto]

I ordered few rubbers from Aliepress and i am yet to try them all but soon, only tried two so far and they are just meh, not a big deal, so i keep continue.

The only bad thing about Aliexpress about rubbers is that i couldn't find the rubbers i want at thinner sponge like 1.4mm-1.8mm, almost all of them are 2.0-Max, i prefer thinner sponge rubbers in my FH than thick, also i like to have the choice optional rather than forcing me to a fixed certain thickness, i wanted to buy H3 rubbers or even that Big Dipper at about 1.8mm thickness, i failed to find, and thus i ordered from TT11 which surprisingly holding those rubbers at different thickness.

 

[Aung Thuya]

Over the past 12 months, I have sought to find and test the best rubbers available on Aliexpress. I wanted to write this personal Guide to the best rubbers on Aliexpress so everybody else can buy the rubbers easily. Most of the rubbers are available for under $15. I will categorize the rubbers as FH and BH rubbers, and will rank them by my opinion of their overall quality. These are just my opinions, and I am heavily biased towards a topspin offensive style emphasizing spin and power. I also gave preference to rubbers that don't need booster.

FH Rubbers

Friendship Bloom Power - Bought for $11, but price has risen to $17 now. This is my favorite rubber and has great speed and great spin, but also feels controlled. It is very tacky, and can pick up a ball for a few moments. Unlike many Chinese rubbers, this does not have that dead feeling, and it is bouncy and fast. While being fast, it still feels like a Chinese rubber. It doesn’t suffer at all in the short game. Also, the purple sponge looks very nice. Overall, outstanding rubber that I cannot praise enough.

Yinhe Big Dipper - $14. Another amazing rubber, with outstanding speed and spin. It is a hybrid rubber and has a very innovative and modern look and feel to it. Less controlled than Bloom, and feels more tensor. It has a clicky speed glue feeling. This rubber will give you overwhelming topspin loops. Short game control is much better than tensors, but a tad less control than Bloom. This is a rubber that I recommend to everybody that I play with.

Yinhe Jupiter 3 - $15. I’ve read that Jupiter 2 was supposed to be Yinhe’s version of H3 and that Jupiter 3 is a big upgrade on Jupiter 2. Actually, I think this rubber is closer to Big Dipper than H3. It is about the same tackiness as BD, and less tacky than H3. But it is bouncier and faster than H3, probably because its factory boosted. Probably has a denser and more traditional feel than BD, whereas BD has a more clicky feel. Excellent choice for a FH rubber, capable of strong spin and speed.

Loki Rxton 5 - $11. This is another rubber quite similar to H3. The sponge feels very hard and dense. It has a somewhat traditional Chinese dense feeling, but bouncier and faster than H3. It has a quality looking grippy topsheet, but maybe a tad less grippy than H3 and Target. It’s not factory boosted, so out of package it is a little harder and more difficult to use than BD or J3.

Friendship Battle 2 - $24. I think this is quite similar to Bloom. Very tacky and spinny topsheet, with a faster bouncier sponge than H3. It is more expensive than Bloom though, so I would personally just recommend Bloom. If you don't mind the extra cost though, this is everything you want in a fast and spinny FH rubber.

DHS Hurricane 3 Neo - $23. The spinniest rubber, with excellent grip. However, it is very very slow, with an extremely dead feeling. I can’t recommend this rubber unless you plan to boost it. If you do boost it, and if you can generate enough power on your own, this rubber can produce extremely overwhelming topspin loops. And of course the short game control is world beating.

Reactor Thunder - $11. Bought this rubber because there were some positive reviews on TTD. Quite light and somehow “modern” looking with a quality looking black sponge. Topsheet is tacky and grippy, but the rubber itself is slow without booster. I can’t recommend this rubber without booster, but with booster, this would be a fine choice for producing powerful FH loops.

Target 90 - $11. I think of this rubber as a mini H3 or a H3 lite. It shares many traits of H3 with high spin and high short game control. It is semi-tacky (hence the 90). Despite being semi-tacky, the topsheet grip is superb. This is a very spinny rubber, and keeps the grip for a long time. Even after weeks of play, the topsheet still looks very grippy and new. The sponge does have a somewhat dead feeling. But because it's less tacky than H3, it doesn’t feel as dead as H3. The red sponge on the black topsheet looks very luxurious though, so that can be appealing for some. Overall slightly less demanding than H3, but shares many traits.

Loki GTX - $23. Bought this rubber based on another review, and the idea of a tacky topsheet on a porous sponge sounded very interesting. But this is a very disappointing rubber. Topsheet really isn’t very tacky, and lacks grip. The sponge feels rather dead out of the package, and has a very strange, dull, and unappealing feeling when hitting. With booster, the rubber transforms and increases in speed dramatically. But still the rubber feels uncomfortable with the lack of dwell time and arc. Loops have a tendency to either go into the net or go long, due to the lack of dwell/arc of this rubber. Unlike HK1997 though, at least the rubber is hard as advertised. Update: After applying booster, I applied a light layer of baby oil. This seems to have fixed many of the initial problems and greatly increase the dwell time and control. With the combination of booster and baby oil, speed and dwell/arc are added to the rubber, and it becomes very similar to a boosted Hurricane.

Reactor Tornado V5 - $7. This is probably the best rubber for $7. Quite a high quality topsheet, and it feels very grippy. Sponge is not super fast, but because of the high spin, you can produce high quality topspin loops. For the price, it feels like quite a bargain. With booster, it performs a lot better.

Palio HK 1997 Gold - $12. Rubber is marketed with the AK47 line, but actually it is completely different. Topsheet is on the low side of medium tacky. Sponge is porous, but not very hard. Sponge is much softer than advertised (49d but feels more like 39-40d). Rubber is slow and dead without booster, so I wouldn’t recommend it out of the package. It’s still a pretty cheap price though. With booster, it has some decent speed, but it lacks power on the top end. The sponge is way too soft and tops out very quickly.

Loki Arthur Asia - $30. Medium fast rubber with medium tack. The tack goes away quite quickly, and the speed just doesn’t live up to the price. Much better options for half the price. Also, this rubber is the heaviest rubber I have seen, so it can be quite uncomfortable to use. The higher price is probably due to being made in Germany, but its not worth it. The rubber itself isn't bad, but it just feels overpriced.

BH Rubbers

Palio AK47 - $13. This is the best Chinese made BH rubber overall. Light, fast, bouncy, elastic. Matte topsheet look. Not a perfect replacement for tensor rubbers, but very close. Red is the fastest, but yellow and blue are also similarly fast and bouncy. Topsheet grip is quite good as well and produces surprisingly good spin. Overall very good value for money and my best recommended BH rubber on Ali.

Friendship Presto Speed Max - $22. Presto Speed is actually a little faster and more elastic than the AK47. The sponge is supposedly made in Japan. This is a very good alternative to the more expensive tensor rubbers. Sponge is quite soft. Topsheet is grippy as well. It does cost more than AK47 though, so for most people I would just recommend AK47. But if you don’t mind spending a little more money, Presto is a little higher quality. Half price compared to most ESN rubbers, and the speed/spin is similar to ESN.

Yinhe Moon Speed - $13. A good alternative to AK47. I think it has slightly less speed, and slightly more spin than AK47, but it's basically a substitute. Topsheet has a more attractive, richer color than AK47. Also, I think the sponge is the same as Big Dipper, so I think this rubber would react very well to booster. Overall, I highly recommend this rubber. Also because the rubber looks so nice, I enjoy having this on my blade and playing with it.

Loki T3 - $17. A little more expensive than other popular rubbers. Comes with a black sponge, and is quite fast. Also, it has little placement marks on the topsheet to show you where to cut the rubber and how to line it up with the wings of your blade. These little placement marks and even the packaging gives the rubber a fairly premium feeling. Matte looking topsheet rather than the richer/flush look of Moon Speed. I think it's basically the same speed as AK47 (and slightly faster than moon speed) and is a very good option for BH. AK47 has a slightly more light and “airy” feeling, while T3 has a more solid feeling. I don’t think it's worse than AK47 or Moon Speed, and in fact it has a slightly premium look and feel to it. But I don’t think it's necessarily worth the extra $4, hence its slightly lower on the list.

Palio Hadou 40+ - $12. Medium soft porous sponge with a medium tacky topsheet is a interesting combination. The spin and arc is good, but it is slow out of package. This rubber probably needs booster if you plan to use it.

Friendship Aurora Max - $12. Similar look and feel to Moon Speed with a rich red topsheet color and nice looking red sponge as well. Maybe slightly slower than Moon Speed, but I’m not certain. A fine option, but feels less dynamic than the others on the list.

Reactor Ckylin Pro - $11. This is Reactor’s attempt to clone Donic Bluefire, so it has a similar look. It’s slightly slower than AK47, but easier to control. However, the biggest downside is that the topsheet is significantly smoother and less grippy than AK47l. Not bad by any means, so if you really want to save an extra dollar or two you can go for it. But it feels slightly less dynamic than other rubbers on this list. Probably makes sense if you aren’t ready to unlock the potential of the higher rubbers on this list.

Loki Rxton 1 - Bought this for $5, but price has now risen to $7. A good all-around rubber that can do a little bit of everything. Feels like very good quality for the money. The look of the rubber does not look like $7, but feels quite high quality. It’s not very fast, but not slow either. Maybe slightly faster than H3, but some may find it lacking in speed for BH. Still, enough speed and spin for most people.

Yinhe Mercury 3 - $15. Some revspin users called this a true tensor, so I was curious about this rubber. It's very disappointing, because it is not very fast. It has a soft and user-friendly feeling. But it just doesn’t have enough speed and rebound to be a great BH rubber.

Loki Arthur Europe - $30. Similar to Arthur Asia, but less tacky. Medium fast rubber, with decent grip. Not as heavy as Arthur Asia, but there are just better options for a cheaper price. The higher price is probably due to being made in Germany, but its not worth it.

Thanks for your sharing bro and do you have any experiences about yinhe earth 2. I read about that it is a soft and spinny tensor like rubber and I wanna use as bh rubber because I just wanted a little control, now I am using focus 3 snipe. Thanks for your advice me to take Jupiter 3 as fh too 🙏.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Thanks for your sharing bro and do you have any experiences about yinhe earth 2. I read about that it is a soft and spinny tensor like rubber and I wanna use as bh rubber because I just wanted a little control, now I am using focus 3 snipe. Thanks for your advice me to take Jupiter 3 as fh too 🙏.

Never tried Earth 2, but i would say generally Chinese backhand rubbers are somewhat distant from real German tensors. I tested mercury 3 because some people said its like tensor, but i was disappointed. It was much slower.

Ak47 is the closest to tensors, and 95% matches tensors. Yinhe moon speed has good feeling and spin, but is slightly slower than tensors. Loki T3 is fast like tensor, but doesnt has the same spin.

 

[thomas.pong]

Never tried Earth too, but i would say generally Chinese backhand rubbers are somewhat distant from real German tensors. I tested mercury 3 because some people said its like tensor, but i was disappointed. It was much slower.

Ak47 is the closest to tensors, and 95% matches tensors. Yinhe moon speed has good feeling and spin, but is slightly slower than tensors. Loki T3 is fast like tensor, but doesnt has the same spin.

Great useful list and reviews, thanks for this Michael!

I might have to try your top 3 for FH and BH in the future!

 

[TensorBackhand]

Great useful list and reviews, thanks for this Michael!

I might have to try your top 3 for FH and BH in the future!

Yes, try the top 3 FH rubbers. I really think people will be surprised how good these rubbers perform despite their low price. Let me know how it goes. I'm currently using a lightly boosted Big Dipper. Every time I loop with it, I'm still surprised by how much power and spin I get with it.

For BH rubbers, yes please do give AK47 a try. My favorite is AK47 red, it has great speed and also quite spinny with nice catapult. If you like softer, then AK47 blue might suit you.

 

[Funk Fu Master]

Thanks for your sharing bro and do you have any experiences about yinhe earth 2. I read about that it is a soft and spinny tensor like rubber and I wanna use as bh rubber because I just wanted a little control, now I am using focus 3 snipe. Thanks for your advice me to take Jupiter 3 as fh too 🙏.

I've been playing with Earth II, on a 5-ply ALL+ blade.. I bought it, just to experiment with, since it was priced at just $8. Although, it says Earth Soft, neither the topsheet, not the sponge seem too soft.

At first, I tried it on un-boosted, on another 5 ply ALL blade.. It was decent. Since it did not like the blade, I thought, I'd glue it onto another blade. I'd run out of regular water glue. However, I did have the old' brain-cell killing speed glue. So, in a moment of what-the-heck, I decided to use it. Within a few seconds of applying the glue, the rubber started to dome (inverted, since the was facing sponge up). The transformation in the playing characteristics was rather dramatic. There was a 2x or 3x increase in Speed, Bounce, Arc, and Kick. Most of my playing partners asked me, what rubber I was playing it, and were surprised to hear that it was a $8 rubber, producing the same effect as one of their $40+ tensor rubbers. The rubber is fairly spinny. Its quite bouncey. Looping against back spin is pretty good. Good speed and spin too. It does seem fairly reactive to spin, on service returns, BH side. I have mixed feelings on how it performs on FH flat hits.

All-in-all, whether boosted or un-boosted this rubber offers excellent value. Boosted, this rubber offers the same value as that of rubbers costing 4x or more.

 

[TensorBackhand]

I've been playing with Earth II, on a 5-ply ALL+ blade.. I bought it, just to experiment with, since it was priced at just $8. Although, it says Earth Soft, neither the topsheet, not the sponge seem too soft.

At first, I tried it on un-boosted, on another 5 ply ALL blade.. It was decent. Since it did not like the blade, I thought, I'd glue it onto another blade. I'd run out of regular water glue. However, I did have the old' brain-cell killing speed glue. So, in a moment of what-the-heck, I decided to use it. Within a few seconds of applying the glue, the rubber started to dome (inverted, since the was facing sponge up). The transformation in the playing characteristics was rather dramatic. There was a 2x or 3x increase in Speed, Bounce, Arc, and Kick. Most of my playing partners asked me, what rubber I was playing it, and were surprised to hear that it was a $8 rubber, producing the same effect as one of their $40+ tensor rubbers. The rubber is fairly spinny. Its quite bouncey. Looping against back spin is pretty good. Good speed and spin too. It does seem fairly reactive to spin, on service returns, BH side. I have mixed feelings on how it performs on FH flat hits.

All-in-all, whether boosted or un-boosted this rubber offers excellent value. Boosted, this rubber offers the same value as that of rubbers costing 4x or more.

If you saw my comments on the Friendship Aurora Max, it sounds quite similar.

Do me a favor, wait a few days for the speed glue to wear off. Try boosting the Earth 2 and see if it has the same strong reaction to the booster.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Thanks for your sharing bro and do you have any experiences about yinhe earth 2. I read about that it is a soft and spinny tensor like rubber and I wanna use as bh rubber because I just wanted a little control, now I am using focus 3 snipe. Thanks for your advice me to take Jupiter 3 as fh too 🙏.

Oh, by the way. I haven't personally tried it yet, but I have heard really high praise on the new Yinhe Moon Speed 53. Apparently they use the normal Moon Speed topsheet (which I already like very much) and use it on a Japanese made sponge. Apparently the result is quite fast and and spinny and nice.

Moon Speed 53 is also quite prominently featured in Yinhe's latest catalogue, so maybe they really believe in this rubber.

 

[Spinsanity]

Over the past 12 months, I have sought to find and test the best rubbers available on Aliexpress. I wanted to write this personal Guide to the best rubbers on Aliexpress so everybody else can buy the rubbers easily. Most of the rubbers are available for under $15. I will categorize the rubbers as FH and BH rubbers, and will rank them by my opinion of their overall quality. These are just my opinions, and I am heavily biased towards a topspin offensive style emphasizing spin and power. I also gave preference to rubbers that don't need booster.

FH Rubbers

Friendship Bloom Power - Bought for $11, but price has risen to $17 now. This is my favorite rubber and has great speed and great spin, but also feels controlled. It is very tacky, and can pick up a ball for a few moments. Unlike many Chinese rubbers, this does not have that dead feeling, and it is bouncy and fast. While being fast, it still feels like a Chinese rubber. It doesn’t suffer at all in the short game. Also, the purple sponge looks very nice. Overall, outstanding rubber that I cannot praise enough.

Yinhe Big Dipper - $14. Another amazing rubber, with outstanding speed and spin. It is a hybrid rubber and has a very innovative and modern look and feel to it. Less controlled than Bloom, and feels more tensor. It has a clicky speed glue feeling. This rubber will give you overwhelming topspin loops. Short game control is much better than tensors, but a tad less control than Bloom. This is a rubber that I recommend to everybody that I play with.

Yinhe Jupiter 3 - $15. I’ve read that Jupiter 2 was supposed to be Yinhe’s version of H3 and that Jupiter 3 is a big upgrade on Jupiter 2. Actually, I think this rubber is closer to Big Dipper than H3. It is about the same tackiness as BD, and less tacky than H3. But it is bouncier and faster than H3, probably because its factory boosted. Probably has a denser and more traditional feel than BD, whereas BD has a more clicky feel. Excellent choice for a FH rubber, capable of strong spin and speed.

Loki Rxton 5 - $11. This is another rubber quite similar to H3. The sponge feels very hard and dense. It has a somewhat traditional Chinese dense feeling, but bouncier and faster than H3. It has a quality looking grippy topsheet, but maybe a tad less grippy than H3 and Target. It’s not factory boosted, so out of package it is a little harder and more difficult to use than BD or J3.

Friendship Battle 2 - $24. I think this is quite similar to Bloom. Very tacky and spinny topsheet, with a faster bouncier sponge than H3. It is more expensive than Bloom though, so I would personally just recommend Bloom. If you don't mind the extra cost though, this is everything you want in a fast and spinny FH rubber.

DHS Hurricane 3 Neo - $23. The spinniest rubber, with excellent grip. However, it is very very slow, with an extremely dead feeling. I can’t recommend this rubber unless you plan to boost it. If you do boost it, and if you can generate enough power on your own, this rubber can produce extremely overwhelming topspin loops. And of course the short game control is world beating.

Reactor Thunder - $11. Bought this rubber because there were some positive reviews on TTD. Quite light and somehow “modern” looking with a quality looking black sponge. Topsheet is tacky and grippy, but the rubber itself is slow without booster. I can’t recommend this rubber without booster, but with booster, this would be a fine choice for producing powerful FH loops.

Target 90 - $11. I think of this rubber as a mini H3 or a H3 lite. It shares many traits of H3 with high spin and high short game control. It is semi-tacky (hence the 90). Despite being semi-tacky, the topsheet grip is superb. This is a very spinny rubber, and keeps the grip for a long time. Even after weeks of play, the topsheet still looks very grippy and new. The sponge does have a somewhat dead feeling. But because it's less tacky than H3, it doesn’t feel as dead as H3. The red sponge on the black topsheet looks very luxurious though, so that can be appealing for some. Overall slightly less demanding than H3, but shares many traits.

Loki GTX - $23. Bought this rubber based on another review, and the idea of a tacky topsheet on a porous sponge sounded very interesting. But this is a very disappointing rubber. Topsheet really isn’t very tacky, and lacks grip. The sponge feels rather dead out of the package, and has a very strange, dull, and unappealing feeling when hitting. With booster, the rubber transforms and increases in speed dramatically. But still the rubber feels uncomfortable with the lack of dwell time and arc. Loops have a tendency to either go into the net or go long, due to the lack of dwell/arc of this rubber. Unlike HK1997 though, at least the rubber is hard as advertised. Update: After applying booster, I applied a light layer of baby oil. This seems to have fixed many of the initial problems and greatly increase the dwell time and control. With the combination of booster and baby oil, speed and dwell/arc are added to the rubber, and it becomes very similar to a boosted Hurricane.

Reactor Tornado V5 - $7. This is probably the best rubber for $7. Quite a high quality topsheet, and it feels very grippy. Sponge is not super fast, but because of the high spin, you can produce high quality topspin loops. For the price, it feels like quite a bargain. With booster, it performs a lot better.

Palio HK 1997 Gold - $12. Rubber is marketed with the AK47 line, but actually it is completely different. Topsheet is on the low side of medium tacky. Sponge is porous, but not very hard. Sponge is much softer than advertised (49d but feels more like 39-40d). Rubber is slow and dead without booster, so I wouldn’t recommend it out of the package. It’s still a pretty cheap price though. With booster, it has some decent speed, but it lacks power on the top end. The sponge is way too soft and tops out very quickly.

Loki Arthur Asia - $30. Medium fast rubber with medium tack. The tack goes away quite quickly, and the speed just doesn’t live up to the price. Much better options for half the price. Also, this rubber is the heaviest rubber I have seen, so it can be quite uncomfortable to use. The higher price is probably due to being made in Germany, but its not worth it. The rubber itself isn't bad, but it just feels overpriced.

BH Rubbers

Palio AK47 - $13. This is the best Chinese made BH rubber overall. Light, fast, bouncy, elastic. Matte topsheet look. Not a perfect replacement for tensor rubbers, but very close. Red is the fastest, but yellow and blue are also similarly fast and bouncy. Topsheet grip is quite good as well and produces surprisingly good spin. Overall very good value for money and my best recommended BH rubber on Ali.

Friendship Presto Speed Max - $22. Presto Speed is actually a little faster and more elastic than the AK47. The sponge is supposedly made in Japan. This is a very good alternative to the more expensive tensor rubbers. Sponge is quite soft. Topsheet is grippy as well. It does cost more than AK47 though, so for most people I would just recommend AK47. But if you don’t mind spending a little more money, Presto is a little higher quality. Half price compared to most ESN rubbers, and the speed/spin is similar to ESN.

Yinhe Moon Speed - $13. A good alternative to AK47. I think it has slightly less speed, and slightly more spin than AK47, but it's basically a substitute. Topsheet has a more attractive, richer color than AK47. Also, I think the sponge is the same as Big Dipper, so I think this rubber would react very well to booster. Overall, I highly recommend this rubber. Also because the rubber looks so nice, I enjoy having this on my blade and playing with it.

Loki T3 - $17. A little more expensive than other popular rubbers. Comes with a black sponge, and is quite fast. Also, it has little placement marks on the topsheet to show you where to cut the rubber and how to line it up with the wings of your blade. These little placement marks and even the packaging gives the rubber a fairly premium feeling. Matte looking topsheet rather than the richer/flush look of Moon Speed. I think it's basically the same speed as AK47 (and slightly faster than moon speed) and is a very good option for BH. AK47 has a slightly more light and “airy” feeling, while T3 has a more solid feeling. I don’t think it's worse than AK47 or Moon Speed, and in fact it has a slightly premium look and feel to it. But I don’t think it's necessarily worth the extra $4, hence its slightly lower on the list.

Palio Hadou 40+ - $12. Medium soft porous sponge with a medium tacky topsheet is a interesting combination. The spin and arc is good, but it is slow out of package. This rubber probably needs booster if you plan to use it.

Friendship Aurora Max - $12. Similar look and feel to Moon Speed with a rich red topsheet color and nice looking red sponge as well. Maybe slightly slower than Moon Speed, but I’m not certain. A fine option, but feels less dynamic than the others on the list.

Reactor Ckylin Pro - $11. This is Reactor’s attempt to clone Donic Bluefire, so it has a similar look. It’s slightly slower than AK47, but easier to control. However, the biggest downside is that the topsheet is significantly smoother and less grippy than AK47l. Not bad by any means, so if you really want to save an extra dollar or two you can go for it. But it feels slightly less dynamic than other rubbers on this list. Probably makes sense if you aren’t ready to unlock the potential of the higher rubbers on this list.

Loki Rxton 1 - Bought this for $5, but price has now risen to $7. A good all-around rubber that can do a little bit of everything. Feels like very good quality for the money. The look of the rubber does not look like $7, but feels quite high quality. It’s not very fast, but not slow either. Maybe slightly faster than H3, but some may find it lacking in speed for BH. Still, enough speed and spin for most people.

Yinhe Mercury 3 - $15. Some revspin users called this a true tensor, so I was curious about this rubber. It's very disappointing, because it is not very fast. It has a soft and user-friendly feeling. But it just doesn’t have enough speed and rebound to be a great BH rubber.

Loki Arthur Europe - $30. Similar to Arthur Asia, but less tacky. Medium fast rubber, with decent grip. Not as heavy as Arthur Asia, but there are just better options for a cheaper price. The higher price is probably due to being made in Germany, but its not worth it.

@Michael Zhuang - Wonderful, wonderful post - this is gold! Thank you very much for putting this together and sharing.

I only use Chinese rubbers on my FH. I have tried most of all the popular ones and my favourite are 729 Bloom Power and Friendship Battle II too! Totally accurate assessment of their characteristics in your post - Bloom Power is the most overlooked and underrated diamond of a rubber that there is. Nothing comes close in terms of power (grip + speed + spin).

Among non Chinese rubbers, I love and use Nittaku Fastarc G1, MX-P for my BH. The only non- Chinese rubbers that I give a chance to for my FH are DHS GoldArc (the different variants) and Fastarc G1 (and some Xiom Omega variants in the past). Butterfly rubbers (Tenergy, Dignics) never suited my game or satisfied me in the FH at all. I found them under powered for top end FH loop kills (in terms of the spin and the insane kick) as compared to the 729 monsters. Chinese rubbers have comparatively insane spin - and so I coined the term 'spinsane' (spin insane) to describe this joyous characteristic of theirs (now you know what my username means).

Butterfly rubbers were good for the BH though.

I have been looking for a Chinese rubber for my BH for the last decade and tried some including AK 47 (I loved the now discontinued DHS GoldArc 3 for my BH, which was Tenergy 05 like). Have to give it another try since you recommend it and since your opinion on the other rubbers match mine so much. I want to say good bye to expensive Jap/Euro rubbers for my BH ASAP.

Thanks again for your great service to the community with your post.

Regards

 

[Reaper]

Over the past 12 months, I have sought to find and test the best rubbers available on Aliexpress. I wanted to write this personal Guide to the best rubbers on Aliexpress so everybody else can buy the rubbers easily. Most of the rubbers are available for under $15.

If you're still in this task, may I suggest you trying 61second kangaroo and eagle. They're quite good

 

[TensorBackhand]

@Michael Zhuang - Wonderful, wonderful post - this is gold! Thank you very much for putting this together and sharing.

I only use Chinese rubbers on my FH. I have tried most of all the popular ones and my favourite are 729 Bloom Power and Friendship Battle II too! Totally accurate assessment of their characteristics in your post - Bloom Power is the most overlooked and underrated diamond of a rubber that there is. Nothing comes close in terms of power (grip + speed + spin).

Among non Chinese rubbers, I love and use Nittaku Fastarc G1, MX-P for my BH. The only non- Chinese rubbers that I give a chance to for my FH are DHS GoldArc (the different variants) and Fastarc G1 (and some Xiom Omega variants in the past). Butterfly rubbers (Tenergy, Dignics) never suited my game or satisfied me in the FH at all. I found them under powered for top end FH loop kills (in terms of the spin and and the insane kick) as compared to the 729 monsters. Chinese rubbers have comparatively insane spin - and so I coined the term 'spinsane' to describe this joyous characteristic of theirs (now you know what my username means).

Butterfly rubbers were good for the BH though.

I have been looking for a Chinese rubber for my BH for the last decade and tried some including AK 47 (I loved the now discontinued DHS GoldArc 3 for my BH, which was Tenergy 05 like). Have to give it another try since you recommend it and since your opinion on the other rubbers match mine so much. I want to say good bye to expensive Jap/Euro rubbers for my BH ASAP.

Thanks again for your great service to the community with your post.

Regards

If you're looking for a Chinese rubber for backhand, here are a few that I have tried that work really well.

AK47 Red - fast, light, powerful backhand rubber. Fills the fast tensor role very well.

Big Dipper 38 degree - very good on its own, but I recommend even boosting it a little. Very powerful, very spinny

Friendship Aurora Max - useless rubber unboosted, but with booster it is completely transformed into a backhand monster. Very fast, very powerful. Faster than Dignics or Evolution MXP and other popular tensors

 

[TensorBackhand]

If you're still in this task, may I suggest you trying 61second kangaroo and eagle. They're quite good

Can you describe what these rubbers are like? Hard sponge or soft or medium? tacky or untacky? bouncy or dead-ish?

 

[Funk Fu Master]

Another low-cost (I bought it for less than $10) Chinese branded rubber, definitely worth trying is, Yinhe Earth II... It does not seem very popular, nor is it easily available..

it seems to have medium-high speed, without boosting, and has a fair amount of bounce, arc, and catapult.. Currently I've (speed)-glued it to an ALL blade, and even though it's on an ALL blade, the speed is incredible,, It's not the spinniest rubber out there, but still produces respectable amounts..

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

Another low-cost (I bought it for less than $10) Chinese branded rubber, definitely worth trying is, Yinhe Earth II... It does not seem very popular, nor is it easily available..

it seems to have medium-high speed, without boosting, and has a fair amount of bounce, arc, and catapult.. Currently I've (speed)-glued it to an ALL blade, and even though it's on an ALL blade, the speed is incredible,, It's not the spinniest rubber out there, but still produces respectable amounts..

I have a sheet of it from Cole and it is indeed fairly bouncy and fast, it just doesn't grip the ball all that strongly when you stretch the topsheet. Overall I felt it a bit soft and mushy but it plays well for the price

 

[Funk Fu Master]

I have a sheet of it from Cole and it is indeed fairly bouncy and fast, it just doesn't grip the ball all that strongly when you stretch the topsheet. Overall I felt it a bit soft and mushy but it plays well for the price

I bought the hard version, and even after applying speed-glue on it, it does not seem soft/mushy

 

[JJ Ng]

I tried Sanwei Target National. It was good but not grippy enough. I found Sanwei Target provincial, Big Dipper and Mercury II on Aliexpress. The first two feel "hybrid" like but not too much catapult. The only I like is Mercury II which is like $6.8 a sheet including shipping and import tax (from the BEO store on Aliexpress). It is very very grippy. After boosting lightly, the speed is about 80% of hurricane. The spin is really like the same as hurricane. I am so impressed that I splurged and paid $40 for 4 sheets of medium and 2 sheets of soft to try it out more. I will try them out on different blades (carbon blades of different speed) and see how I like it.

Another rubber I like is Sanwei T88 ULTRA Spin Table Tennis Rubber Half-sticky Speed Training Pimple. It says it is a training rubber for $4.99 Plus misc fees. But it plays really well!

Loki Rxton 1, Rxton 3 and Rxton 5, I really do not have an opinion yet. I like the soft black sponge of Rxton 1. But it is a bit too soft and I often hit the ball into the net. In that series, I got pink and blue Rxton 3 so the prices I paid for these four rubber ranged from $12-$14 a piece. Rxton's topsheet is tacky but not sticky sticky for Hurricane.

So you want a "hybrid" rubber, I actually find Sanwei Target (provincial or national), Big Dipper, Sanwei T88 and Rxton family to be very good choices.

But if you want to a true Hurricane replacement, I have to say the $.6.80 per sheet of Mercury II is up to the task!!!

The only problem with Mercury II is that I have trouble feeling my loop or missing the loop completely. I think Mercury II only comes in 2.0mm. H3 neo I have bought has always been 2.2mm (the ESN rubber I use on the backhand side are all max sponge too). That slight difference can account for a couple instances where I miss the loop completely (I brush very thinly to generate a lot of top spin). Also the speed is a factor so I need to adjust my angle a bit. Regardless, weird, the cheapest rubber is the only one that intrigued my interest enough that I "splurged" $40 to get 6 more sheets to play around with! Once I get the new treatment, I need to boost the Mercury II sponge with three layers at least and see if it comes alive more! But the stickiness of the top sheet is just beautiful.....

 

[Reaper]

Can you describe what these rubbers are like? Hard sponge or soft or medium? tacky or untacky? bouncy or dead-ish?

The Kangaroo I've only used it on 1.5mm in 40° and 42° for a while. Even At that thickness is a little bouncy . I'm guessing it could be a rocket at 2.2mm but I haven't tried.

I'm currently testing the Eagle at 2.2mm and 36°, searching for replacing my japanese FH for something similar but affordable , even at the softest sponge it feels firm but not dead.

They're both tacky, neither won't lift the ball off the table but if you use plastic rubber protector it will stay stuck to the Rubber unlike japanese ones that slides off . Kangaroo is a little bit stickier, both top sheets are hard but manageable.

I like that you have 3 thickness and 3 hardness to choose from at an affordable price

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

I bought the hard version, and even after applying speed-glue on it, it does not seem soft/mushy

I believe I have the soft version, it is pretty mushy. I'll have to try it in a harder version