Mega 4x4 Comparison

Before I get started I want to give a big thanks to SpeedCubeShop.com.  Most of the cubes you see are available there and you can use the discount code CubeReview for 15% off of your entire order!

Now the cubes we will be looking at today are the older and newer Cyclone Boys, the mini and full-size MoYu Aosu, the Shengshou 4x4, Yj YuSu, and the Yuxin 4x4.

I’m going to talk about each one individually and then compare them all going over what you might like best at the end.

Let’s start with the Cyclone Boys.  They had the 62mm 4x4 out for some time.  The outer layers are amazingly smooth.  Even more so than the Shengshou which is often the king of smooth feeling puzzles.  The inner layers are the exact opposite.  They feel extremely crunchy and not smooth at all.  I feel like the pieces are ready to pop out of place when turning the middle layers even though I have yet to have a pop on this cube.  That coupled with the very square pieces means you can easily have catches on this thing.

The mini 60mm Cyclone Boys cube commonly called the G4 is a completely different feeling cube.  The inner layers are not at all as crunchy, although they are less smooth than the outer layers.  The pieces are also much more rounded allowing for more corner cutting in both directions.  This mini is a great feeling cube and could be broken in to be a strong competitor in the speedcubing community.  The crunchy feeling did go away quite a bit after only a few solves.

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Next we have the MoYu cubes.  These are often considered the best of the best and are used by a majority of the top speedcubers in the world.  They are very smooth in both the inner and outer layers and can be quite fast.  Corner cutting is great going both forward as well as reverse.  The only issue I have had is the caps flying off of the center pieces.  It is only certain ones, especially one of the ones on the orange side.  I have yet to glue the cap does, but probably will have to int he future.

Now many people have said that the mini tends to pop more.  I first thought this too since I had a few more internal pieces pop on the mini than compared to the full size one, but I have a theory on that.  Many people tend to check the tensions by how far the middle pieces come apart.  Since the pieces are smaller they do not look like they pull apart as far.  When I first tensioned this I tried setting it up for the ends of the middle pieces to be as far apart as the full size when really I should be looking at how far the bottom of the pieces are apart.  Now this is just my theory on it and I’m sure there are people who still feel like the mini pops a bit more but after some adjustments on the tensions I have yet to have any more pops.

Now we have the Shengshou 4x4.  This was the go-to 4x4 for some time.  It is not perfect but it was a good all around cube.  It was smooth, fairly fast, and could corner cut fairly well, or at least for its time and for a 4x4.  Many people would modify the cube and round off the inner corners to allow for better reverse corner cutting.  The other mod people would do is round off some of the internal pieces to prevent catching which can happen if you are trying to turn just an internal layer.

YJ came out with a 4x4 recently called the YuSu.  I did a review of it this Summer.  It is very similar to the MoYu WeiSu which was the predecessor to the AoSu.  It is a fairly good cube.  I would describe it as on par with the AoSu just with slightly less corner cutting, slightly more popping, and slightly slower turning speed.

Lastly we have the Yuxin 4x4.  Not many people expected this to be as good as it is.  When it came out many people were blown away that a 4x4 could be this fast of a cube.  It turns at speeds that you would expect from a 3x3.  The rounded pieces allow for exceptional corner cutting as well.  It can feel a bit unstable and almost uncontrollable for some.  I do not get many lockups but I do seem to get some small catching on this cube if it is not completely aligned.  



At the time of this video the MoYu AoSu has a higher overall rating which is where the reviewer posts their overall satisfaction on the cube, but the Yuxin actually have a higher rating if you average the speed, corner-cutting, etc. all together.

They all have pretty much the exact same design with slightly different variations in the pieces.  They all have the smaller internal pieces totaling over 90 total moving parts on the cube.

So what should you get.  I’m going to divide these into two sections.  Cubes below $15 and cubes above $15.

Basically everything that is not MoYu is below $15.  They are all so close that it is really down to two cubes that stand out.  The newer Cyclone Boys and the Yuxin.  The Cyclone Boys is a bit too new at the moment but I feel like it is a decent purchase.  It is just not available everywhere yet.  The Yuxin has been out for awhile and is a solid purchase.  I try to not ever say that a cube is bad or good.   The problem is that you can often find that the price does justify the quality of the product.  At lest for the cheaper 4x4s these two stand out far above the rest.

The two AoSu cubes are above $15 and even closer to $30 with the larger version.  Is the price justified.... maybe.  There is a reason this is still the most popular 4x4 on the market.  Personally I still like using the AoSu best because I feel like I can be the most consistent with it.  If you are slower at solving 4x4s really any cube will be a good choice.  If you want one that will last until you are a world record holder than the ones I said stand out will be a good choice.  Saying one is the best is impossible, especially showing that there is a difference in what people feel they like better, and what has a higher overall rating on the site.

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts or questions in the comment section below.  Please like and subscribe for more videos in the future, thank you again to SpeedCubeShop.com.  Stop by there to buy most of the cubes shown.

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