A quick Gewo Hype Kr review.
Having played with a tacky chinese rubber on FH on an off- class carbon blade for almost 3 years, the inner EJ has won and I decided to try some new equipment after the end of the league season in April. Thought I'd give OSP Expert a try and put MX-S on FH and EL-S on BH. Played 3 tournaments with the new setup since then.
In short, everything Dan and yogibear wrote about MX-S/EL-S in their reviews is true. Both rubbers are plenty fast even on the Expert and are very spinny. El-S in particular is a very nice rubber that is very easy to play with no matter how tired or how out of position you are. MS-S is awesome until you're about to play your 10th match on the day of the tournament and are feeling a bit tired
So, I decided to EJ a bit more and try something other than MX-S for my FH. Tried EL-S but it felt a bit too soft. Picked GEWO's Hype Kr and purchased a pair of sheets in max thickness in early June. Since then I practiced about twice a week on average with the new setup, and here are my thoughts on Hype Kr.
Anyhow, the gory details. The first thing one noticed after opening the Hype Kr package is the booster smell. It is almost sweet and nothing like EL-S/MX-S. The tuning effect is quite noticeable when rubber is laying flat with the sponge down - the corners of the rubber curl up a bit.
Visually Hype Kr looks almost the same as EL-S aside from the sponge colour. The topsheet surface and the pips feel and look identical to me. The sponge structure and bubble size seems very similar as well.
Hardness-wise (under the highly unscientific finger press test) Hype Kr feels somewhere in between EL-S and MX-S.
Playing impressions:
Short game: Hype Kr is very similar to both ES-S (and MX-S) in the short game. Very grippy topsheet, similar spin sensitivity to EL-S.
Attacking shots: This is where the boosted nature of Hype Kr shows itself. I agree with Paul - Hype Kr is a very responsive rubber, definitely faster than EL-S, with much stronger catapult, and consequentially lower arc, longer throw. I would even say it is at least as fast as MX-S on full effort shots. Most importantly, much less effort is needed to engage the catapult as compared to MX-S. Spinwise it seems to be just as spinny as EL-S on slower loops and as MX-S on faster loops with full sponge engagement.
TLDR: IMHO, Hype Kr is a very interesting rubber with a lot of potential. Ideal target audience - players with good technique who need a spinny and fast rubber, with strong catapult effect, that retains the best properties of both EL-S and MX-S but is easier to play with than MX-S.
I am about to play two tournaments, which ought to be a real test for the rubber. Will do a follow up afterwards.