Gan 356 Air Review

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The Gan (or Gans) Air looks very similar to the original 356. The stickers are the half bright shades that you will find on the Advanced and Masters edition as well as the Ultimate edition for the 357. The internals are very similar as well. The core is metal and the pieces are made with two different parts that are screwed into each other, each piece having a cap. The pieces themselves are a bit flatter than the regular 356. There are fewer tracks on the corners making the cube feel much smoother.

The major thing with this is the weight.  This cube is just a little but heavier than a GuanLong. and about 20 grams lighter than the regular 356.  

What really sets this cube apart is its versatility.  In the Masters edition you get 3 extra spring sets on top of the ones that are installed and in the GrandMasters edition there are three others as well.  In the masters edition there were 8 of each extra spring which is a big plus because I always tend to lose at least one spring somewhere.  What is amazing about this though is that the spring and nut is one mechanism and is color coded to tell you which one they are.  The springs are similar to the S6, S7 S8, and S9 of the original Masters edition but now integrated.  

The original springs are built into the clear plastic while the rest are color coordinated in the order of the rainbow.  The clear ones fit between the orange and yellow.  So the Red is the heaviest, orange a little less but still tighter than standard, and the yellow is lighter than the standard.  

I personally like the orange springs and it’s easy to tell which ones you have in just by pulling the center cap off.  I was able to change all of the springs in just about a minute without any fear of losing springs.  I also put a little bit of weight 5 lube from speedcube.com.au to slow it down a bit.

At the competition I was at this past weekend a few other people had a Gan Air and all three were completely different.  They felt like all very different cubes. Depending on the springs you put in coupled with lube you really can cater this to however you like it to be.

There can be small catches but I have found on tighter tensions it mainly goes away and the ones that still occur will cut through easily.

This can easily be a main for someone and it might just be my favorite Gan cube yet.  

​I know a lot of people want to see the springs compared as well as a solve comparison with the 356s v2. I found that the video footage looked the exact same on both. This really is a cube that solves like the 356 but lighter and with the ability to be either slow/controllable or fast/flexible. The cube itself flexes the same amount with each spring set when the cube is pushed together but is just more resistant to it when solving the cube on the tighter springs.

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