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Xiom Vega Asia Hybrid and Vega Europe Hybrid Review
Xiom Vega Asia Hybrid – Extremely Spinny and OFF +
Both rubbers were used on a Xiom Hayabusa ZL PRO, a relatively slow inner zephyllium blade. I will release a separate review of that later. This does not lift the ball when pressed like hurricane, but it sticks to a plastic sheet, and is relatively tacky, not just grippy. With its 50-degree sponge, it initially feels like Hurricane 3, few bounces on a bounce test.
My first impressions of this combinations on quite low pace forehand drive knocks were that it was quite slow, but so much control. Drives landed about half to three quarters down the table, and the tack gave it such control it felt difficult to miss. It felt slow, and no catapult effect like typical ESN rubbers. Then I took a step back and started looping, and when you compress the sponge, the ball flew like a rocket. It felt faster than my Rakza Z and Xiom TMXi on high effort proper shots, while keeping the immense control. Shots landed near the base line, with high spin and were high quality, and when I took a step back off the table, I never noticed any drop off in pace. I felt like when I did a low quality shot the rubber did not compensate for that, and it was not good, but when you can really rip it, you are rewarded. Slow spin brush looping did not feel the best I have tried, but a Chinese style forehand was amazing on this rubber. It feels like a very linear rubber, so I also felt chopping and defending when you were out of position completely fine. If I were to describe it, it felt like hurricane 3, with a real kick from the sponge on high effort shots. The serving felt fantastic, when you snapped the wrist and did a high-quality serve, it was remarkably high quality, genuinely nice for sidespin serves in my opinion. I felt like I got more out of it than my Hurricane on serving, but in the short touches and pushing, Hurricane had a slight edge, but it was still fantastic in controlling spin on serves and short play. Because of the kick from the sponge, forehand flicks felt amazing to execute well, and then finishing the point with a strong forehand counter loop felt like a dream. Where the rubber has some downsides is in the blocking. It felt more spin reactive than my Rakza, and on passive blocks, the rubber could not absorb the spin well. It was perfect on active blocks and short, sharp counterspins, I really enjoyed this element of the rubber. Of course, as it is not a tenergy, and has a tacky topsheet, smashes and flat hits are ideal, but feel like hurricane, with more pace.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed using this rubber, and I will be using it as my main forehand rubber. I would not recommend this to beginners, as the sponge requires racket speed to compress, due to it being 50-degrees. I would instead recommend this to heavy Chinese style smash loopers looking for something a bit more energy than hurricane 3, or someone coming into the hybrid world, from catapult style European rubbers. In comparison to other hybrid rubbers, I preferred this to Rakza Z, D09c and K3, due to how alive it felt on loops and the ease of kill – loops. K3 comes quite close to this, but this Vega provides a more linear feeling which I really enjoy. The durability seems to be quite good so far, much better than K3. Dignics 09C is the superior rubber for most people, with an easier spin generation and higher top end spin, but for my game, this is my current favourite rubber. At only 26 euros right now on promo from dandoy - https://www.dandoy-sports.com/xiom-vega-asia-hybrid.html this is a complete steal – a third of the price of Dignics, with arguably better performance, or 90 percent of it for some.
Xiom Vega Europe Hybrid – Off and Quite Spinny
This also barely lifts the ball of the table for less then a second, but sticks to a plastic sheet, so it is tacky, but less than the Asia. True to the name, it does feel like more of a European hybrid rubber, a significantly softer sponge, and did not strike me to be like either a European rubber or a Chinese rubber, quite in between. I used this on the backhand, and warming up with some backhand drives, it felt faster than the Asia in these warmup shots. It did not feel exceedingly spinny or fast, but due to the soft sponge, I felt like I couldn’t miss. When stepping back and doing some slower loops, I felt the same way, although the spin levels felt more normal. Speed was quite lacking, but more than made up in control. Compared to my normal evolution EL-D, it felt harder to generate spin or pace, but much more control. This was due to no spring sponge effect, and I quite liked it. On faster backhand loops, I felt like the rubber was not amazingly fast, around the OFF range, but quite spinny. Loops had a medium high arc, with lots of safety over the net, and landing deep into my opponent's court. This felt like a rubber ideal for intermediate players, or forehand dominant high-level players looking to improve their backhand. The safety in the rubber gives you confidence to go for the ball more in an open rally rather than just blocking and felt like something perfect for backhand development. I felt like I wasn’t getting much bite on my backhand serves and pushing, but again, I could place them where I wanted, with quite decent spin. Whether out of position or not, you could scoop the ball back on the table with it and it feels like Xiom really hit the jackpot with these two rubbers. Backhand open ups felt easy to execute, and while the pace was not extremely threatening for the opponents, the spin levels were high, and allowed you to finish the point with a strong, following loop kill. I had more success with shorter strokes, as my full stroke backhand loop felt like it was bottoming out the sponge a bit, and I was losing control. The sponge hardness allowed for amazing flicks, sidespin or winners. It was not spin reactive, and allowed for confidence to attack serves and short pushes. Because of this it was also one of the best rubbers I have tried passive blocks, as the sponge absorbs the pace and spin, and allows you to control it back, and get back into the point. Active blocks also worked well, and short stroke counters felt very controlled, allowing you to get back into the point. When in a pickle, chopping was easy to execute, and the rubber did have enough pace from mid distance to counter and lob. In long distance, the rubber did not have enough pace, but could be fixed with a faster blade. Flat hits and smashes were possible but did not have a whole lot of penetrating power.
In conclusion, in a world where rubbers are steadily increasing in price, Xiom has hit the spot in terms of managing the price to make it accessible for people to afford while being great rubbers. I feel like many players, even advanced players will appreciate the Asia, while the Europe Hybrid slots in very well to cater for developing backhands. I would not recommend it for forehands though. This is also available for a short time for 26 euros from Dandoy here - https://www.dandoy-sports.com/xiom-vega-europe-hybrid.html
Xiom Vega Asia Hybrid – Extremely Spinny and OFF +
Both rubbers were used on a Xiom Hayabusa ZL PRO, a relatively slow inner zephyllium blade. I will release a separate review of that later. This does not lift the ball when pressed like hurricane, but it sticks to a plastic sheet, and is relatively tacky, not just grippy. With its 50-degree sponge, it initially feels like Hurricane 3, few bounces on a bounce test.
My first impressions of this combinations on quite low pace forehand drive knocks were that it was quite slow, but so much control. Drives landed about half to three quarters down the table, and the tack gave it such control it felt difficult to miss. It felt slow, and no catapult effect like typical ESN rubbers. Then I took a step back and started looping, and when you compress the sponge, the ball flew like a rocket. It felt faster than my Rakza Z and Xiom TMXi on high effort proper shots, while keeping the immense control. Shots landed near the base line, with high spin and were high quality, and when I took a step back off the table, I never noticed any drop off in pace. I felt like when I did a low quality shot the rubber did not compensate for that, and it was not good, but when you can really rip it, you are rewarded. Slow spin brush looping did not feel the best I have tried, but a Chinese style forehand was amazing on this rubber. It feels like a very linear rubber, so I also felt chopping and defending when you were out of position completely fine. If I were to describe it, it felt like hurricane 3, with a real kick from the sponge on high effort shots. The serving felt fantastic, when you snapped the wrist and did a high-quality serve, it was remarkably high quality, genuinely nice for sidespin serves in my opinion. I felt like I got more out of it than my Hurricane on serving, but in the short touches and pushing, Hurricane had a slight edge, but it was still fantastic in controlling spin on serves and short play. Because of the kick from the sponge, forehand flicks felt amazing to execute well, and then finishing the point with a strong forehand counter loop felt like a dream. Where the rubber has some downsides is in the blocking. It felt more spin reactive than my Rakza, and on passive blocks, the rubber could not absorb the spin well. It was perfect on active blocks and short, sharp counterspins, I really enjoyed this element of the rubber. Of course, as it is not a tenergy, and has a tacky topsheet, smashes and flat hits are ideal, but feel like hurricane, with more pace.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed using this rubber, and I will be using it as my main forehand rubber. I would not recommend this to beginners, as the sponge requires racket speed to compress, due to it being 50-degrees. I would instead recommend this to heavy Chinese style smash loopers looking for something a bit more energy than hurricane 3, or someone coming into the hybrid world, from catapult style European rubbers. In comparison to other hybrid rubbers, I preferred this to Rakza Z, D09c and K3, due to how alive it felt on loops and the ease of kill – loops. K3 comes quite close to this, but this Vega provides a more linear feeling which I really enjoy. The durability seems to be quite good so far, much better than K3. Dignics 09C is the superior rubber for most people, with an easier spin generation and higher top end spin, but for my game, this is my current favourite rubber. At only 26 euros right now on promo from dandoy - https://www.dandoy-sports.com/xiom-vega-asia-hybrid.html this is a complete steal – a third of the price of Dignics, with arguably better performance, or 90 percent of it for some.
Xiom Vega Europe Hybrid – Off and Quite Spinny
This also barely lifts the ball of the table for less then a second, but sticks to a plastic sheet, so it is tacky, but less than the Asia. True to the name, it does feel like more of a European hybrid rubber, a significantly softer sponge, and did not strike me to be like either a European rubber or a Chinese rubber, quite in between. I used this on the backhand, and warming up with some backhand drives, it felt faster than the Asia in these warmup shots. It did not feel exceedingly spinny or fast, but due to the soft sponge, I felt like I couldn’t miss. When stepping back and doing some slower loops, I felt the same way, although the spin levels felt more normal. Speed was quite lacking, but more than made up in control. Compared to my normal evolution EL-D, it felt harder to generate spin or pace, but much more control. This was due to no spring sponge effect, and I quite liked it. On faster backhand loops, I felt like the rubber was not amazingly fast, around the OFF range, but quite spinny. Loops had a medium high arc, with lots of safety over the net, and landing deep into my opponent's court. This felt like a rubber ideal for intermediate players, or forehand dominant high-level players looking to improve their backhand. The safety in the rubber gives you confidence to go for the ball more in an open rally rather than just blocking and felt like something perfect for backhand development. I felt like I wasn’t getting much bite on my backhand serves and pushing, but again, I could place them where I wanted, with quite decent spin. Whether out of position or not, you could scoop the ball back on the table with it and it feels like Xiom really hit the jackpot with these two rubbers. Backhand open ups felt easy to execute, and while the pace was not extremely threatening for the opponents, the spin levels were high, and allowed you to finish the point with a strong, following loop kill. I had more success with shorter strokes, as my full stroke backhand loop felt like it was bottoming out the sponge a bit, and I was losing control. The sponge hardness allowed for amazing flicks, sidespin or winners. It was not spin reactive, and allowed for confidence to attack serves and short pushes. Because of this it was also one of the best rubbers I have tried passive blocks, as the sponge absorbs the pace and spin, and allows you to control it back, and get back into the point. Active blocks also worked well, and short stroke counters felt very controlled, allowing you to get back into the point. When in a pickle, chopping was easy to execute, and the rubber did have enough pace from mid distance to counter and lob. In long distance, the rubber did not have enough pace, but could be fixed with a faster blade. Flat hits and smashes were possible but did not have a whole lot of penetrating power.
In conclusion, in a world where rubbers are steadily increasing in price, Xiom has hit the spot in terms of managing the price to make it accessible for people to afford while being great rubbers. I feel like many players, even advanced players will appreciate the Asia, while the Europe Hybrid slots in very well to cater for developing backhands. I would not recommend it for forehands though. This is also available for a short time for 26 euros from Dandoy here - https://www.dandoy-sports.com/xiom-vega-europe-hybrid.html