(Transcript from video) It’s 2016 which means it’s time to go over what the best cubes on the market are and what might be best for you. Before I get starting I need to thank a couple stores that have sent me cubes throughout the past year making this comparison possible. SpeedCube.com.au, SpeedCubeShop.com, and TheCubicle.us. I have put links to their stores in the description of the YouTube video as well as any discount codes. Now I am not going to go over every single cube possible. The reason is not that they are bad cubes but that compared to the new ones that have come out they cannot compare in terms of it’s ability to not lock up, pop, etc. For example pretty much every cube from YJ such as the SuLong, Shengshou 3x3s, budget cubes like the GuanLong, Cyclone Boys, older cubes like the WeiLong, and yes even the Zhanchi. Now don’t get me wrong, these are all great cubes able to be used by pretty much any sub-10 second solver and the Zhanchi was used to break the world record multiple times with Feliks Zemdegs’ 5.66 and Mats Valk’s 5.55 record. If you have any of these cubes or other ones that would be considered a "speedcube" it should not be considered as holding you back unless you can solve in under 10 seconds. Making a video with possibly 30 cubes or more would not be helpful to anyone and I’m sure most people watching this just want to know what the best cube is. Now I’m going to first go over each cube quickly and then compared them at the end. I’m going to trim this down to the 10 most popular speedcubes on the market today So first let’s start with the biggest player in the speed cube community, MoYu. I am going to include 4 cubes in this mix. The AoLong v2, HuaLong, TangLong, and AoLong GT. I initially was not going to include the AoLong v2 because although being one of the most popular cubes ever it is plagued with some of the worst corner twists over any other cube one this list. It does flow very well and is one of the best as far as cornercutting goes. It comes in both 57 and 54.6mm sizes. I’m including this mainly because it was just used by Lucas Etters in the new world record of 4.9 seconds. The HuaLong was the next to come out and felt completely different. It was very light, and fast. The corners have holes in them giving the cube a very airy feel to it. This cube can flex a lot. It’s cornercutting is great and is voted currently as the fastest cube MoYu produces on the SpeedCubeReview website. It measures around 56.5mm The TangLong was the first to incorporate the squared corner idea. It has a surprisingly simple internal structure. It is a very stable feeling cube and can feel quite slow out of the box. Cornercutting is great but because of it’s simpler design can sometimes feel a bit more catching than other cubes but that also gives it it’s more controllable feeling. It measures around 56mm and uses caps over the pieces making stickerless options not possible at the moment. This was used by Keaton Ellis’ 5.09 second solve. The AoLong GT was just released. After breaking in it does have a bit of an AoLong feel. The pieces again have Caps making corner twisting now impossible. Even though the internal structure is almost exactly the same it feels a bit more loose to me and the pieces do not seems at tight or as stable as the v2 or especially the TangLong. ![]() Next let’s look at Gans. They have two main cubes on the market, the 357 and 356. Now many people will claim the 356 is an upgraded 357 but I will say that they are two completely different cubes and both can be a good main. The Gans cubes have what they call an octopus core. This is where instead of screws going into a plastic core piece the core is made up of larger rods that bolts go over. The 357 has either ra plastic or metal core depending on if you get the “ultimate” edition and the 356 just has a metal core. The 357 is and 2-piece edges and 3-pieces corners making a stickerless cube possible. It is very light and loose feeling. In reviews on the website the 357 is on average thought to be might faster of a cube with incredible cornercutting in bother directions. It can feel a bit loud and clack-y though when turning. The 356 is much the opposite. It is very solid and extremely quiet feeling. The Outside looks very much the same, but the internal structure is a bit different. The initial release of this cube had some horrible catching issues but now with he 356s which replaces the caps on the cube this has pretty much been eliminated. This is the current main cube of Felik’s Zemdegs. Next we have the Yuxin 3x3. This was used in Colin Burns’ 5.25 world record solve. It is very light and can reverse correct very well. It has an internal structure reminiscent of an AoLong but it doesn’t feel much like that at all. I like to say it is an airier feeling HuaLong. You can see the similarities in the corners of the Yuxin and the HuaLong. It can flex a lot and is quite light. It measure a bit over 57mm which makes it larger than the other cubes on this list. It is a slight difference but can be felt in the hands. Many people talk about swapping springs but I will state that it is not necessary and you can check out my video that I made on that for more info on it. Now let’s look at the Cong’s Design Cubes. Cong’s Design is a branch of MoYu giving credit to one of their main designers. I will only be focusing on the MeiYing since it has eclipsed the YueYing. Initially they were both suppose to be their own cube but I feel that most people who have tried both tend to lean more towards the MeiYing. The YueYing also has some issues where the caps do not stay on the pieces well and it is a very loud cube. Again, if you currently have this, of course it is a fantastic cube and was my main for some time. The MeiYing Is very fast and flexible cube. Currently it is the highest rated cube out of any other cube on the SpeedCubeReview website. It is specifically leading overall currently for least amount of locking and best cornercutting which is due to the large cutouts in the corner pieces. It measures a little under 56mm making it one of the smaller cubes that is not considered a mini version. Fangshi’s latest cube is the JieYun. It follows the construction of its predecessors the ShuagRen and the GuangYing. Fangshi cubes are known to have a bit of a scratchy feel and a very fast speed. This is a bit more controllable that the other cubes in its lineup but is still quite fast. Cornercutting is great and it comes in botha full 57mm size and mini version 54 and a half mm. The full size has indents in the pieces for the stickers to go in which prolong the life of the stickers as well as give a nice edges to grip on. Lastly we have the QiYi Thunderclap. I think this took the most people by surprise. QiYi was known for having decent cubes at a cheap precut the Thunderclap has blown many people away. I cornercuts extremely well in both directions and is quite difficult to lock up. I almost didn’t put the AoLong v2 in this review because I consider this an AoLong v3. To me, the feeling of this cube reminds me of an AoLong more than the GT. It is bubbly and has a surprisingly stable feeling. This was the the first cube in a long time that had me second guessing what my main should be. It measures around 56mm As far as the weight of the cubes, it can differ slightly by the amount of lube and stickers on the cube
All the cubes are very similar in weight except for the AoLong GT which is on the heavy side being over 10 grams more than any other cube and the MeiYing and Thunderclap being on the light side. I personally don’t notice too much when solving but in regards to which ones I like it seems that from looking at the results I like lighter feeling cubes. Some of these cubes are made with caps and some have 2-pieces edges and 3-piece corners. The cubes with caps do tend to have a more solid feel to them. I have at times used superglue on cubes that have the multiple piece build to make them have a more stable feeling. It is again a very small amount but it is noticeable. The biggest difference is if there are caps on the pieces than a stickerless version is not possible, and with stickerless cubes now being legal that is a big factor for some people. I have the cubes that have a stickerless option on the left with is the AoLong V2, HuaLong, Gans 357, Yuxin, MeiYing, and the Thunderclap. The TangLong, AoLong GT, Gans 356, and JieYun currently use caps on the pieces. The biggest difference is the shape of them. Gans really popularized the squared off corners and other companies followed suit. The Thunderclap, JieYin, and AoLong v2 are the only ones that have that more traditional look. The HuaLong and Yuxin are sort of a hybrid and the rest are the newer shape. Some people feel that the squared off corners create catches and at times I would think that but I feel it is just something to blame for any inaccurate turning on my part. They are all built so the corners still can flow over the center pieces smoothly. So lets finish things up. What is the best cube… that I cannot say. There is no best and I brought up who got a record solve with what cube to show that they are all personal preference. If you already have a cube and like it but are looking for something new than I would go for something that is different so you can see how other cubes can feel. Many of these are very similar and to someone starting out the feeling is almost negligible. So if you are a new cuber you can kind of just take your pick at any of these. As far as price the Thunderclap and Yuxin are the lowest and both are great. I am going to finish by going do the list of cubes and stating what I feel the best quality of it since they are all stellar speedcubes AoLong v2 - Very controllable and all-around good cube HuaLong - Very fast and flexible TangLong - Very Controllable and solid feel AoLong GT - AoLong feel with 0 corner twists 356 - Very quiet and solid feeling cube 357 - Extremely fast and flexible Yuxin - Airy, flexible, and great reverse cornercutting MeiYing - incredible cornercutting in both directions and fast JieYun 87g - sturdy feel and comes in a mini version Thunderclap 78g - Great all-around cube for a cheap price
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The AOLONG GT is here!! One of the best cubes in the history of cubing has an upgrade…. or so they say. Lets look at it. I want to thank www.speedcube.com.au for helping make this review possible. I will have a link to their store where you can get this cube as well as many others in the description. So this has to be one of the most anticipated cube releases in quite awhile. The AoLong, which is arguably one of the best cubes ever made gets a new update that looks like it takes a bit from the Gans 356 which was also one of the most popular modern cubes to date. So first lets look at the colors. Yes MoYu seems to have changed them for at least this batch. I do not know if this will be permanent. Honestly, yes I like the brighter shades better but these work just fine and are reminiscent of cubes like Shengshou. Out of the box it felt nothing like an AoLong. After a few hundred solves as well as some tensioning and lubing it broke in nicely. I honestly does have more of an AoLong feel now. It is a bit clack and wobbly feeling like you would see from an AoLong. The cornercutting is great and the biggest thing this fixes is the corner twisting. Looking at the pieces the edges look almost identical but with caps instead of two separate parts, and the corners also have that same cap design as well as now missing the triangular indents that the AoLong is famous for. MoYu boasts that it has a seamless appearance but I feel that is just a fancy way of saying the cube has caps which although might give it a more sturdy feel and allow for the squared edges like they have designed it also prevents a stickerless version from being possible. Now many people are saying it is an AoLong mixed with a TangLong which does make sense. I do not feel that it is the best comparison though. I feel like the TangLong was MoYu’s response to the Gans 356 and the AoLong GT is MoYu’s response to the Gans 357. They are both 57mm, the are a bit more flexible than it’s counterpart being the 356 and TangLong and have an almost hollow scratchy feel. The 357 I have here is the Ultimate edition with the metal core. The AoLong GT should not be seen as a step up from the TangLong just in the same way the 356 should not be seen as an upgrade from the 357. They are two completely different cubes with a completely different feel. Both are great on their own but if you like a more stable feeling cube the TangLong would be the better choice. The GT isn’t exactly going to be a fit for everyone who loves the AoLong v2. MoYu posted on their Facebook page that "The boss,Mr.Chan,is a super fan of vehicle...and the boss decided to use 'GT' to mean 'better'.For example,Aolong GT means it's a better product in Aolong series.” It is definitely better as far as preventing corner twists. Is it a game changer in the cube world, no. Is it another great cube in the line of MoYu, yes. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Hit like and subscribe for more content like this in the future and stop by speedcubereview.com for more news and review. Before we get started I want to thank TheCubicle.us for sending this over. Stop by their shop and use discount code SpeedCubeReview for 5% off of you order.
So this is the newest cube to come out from MoYu and it is looking a lot like many of the other newer cubes. You have the square corners and the curved edges and centers. Many people are comparing this to a Gans 356 for good reason but I feel it is more appropriate to compare it to the Congs Design MeiYing. Yes this has caps like the Gans but the MeiYing is around the same price and produced in the same factory. To get the basics out of the way, yes this can cut well in both directions like the MeiYing it is near impossible to corner twist and hard to pop, although not as much as other cubes on the market. Out of the box it was dry and scratchy. After setting up and lubing the pieces it became very smooth. The edges are very similar to the MeiYing. There is the torpedo to prevent popping and the track to lessen the amount of friction on the pieces. The corners are very basic but hold one major difference between it and the MeiYing. While the MeiYing is open and hollow the caps on the TangLong keep it feeling more like one solid piece. It is still a very hollow feeling cube compared to that of the 356 or older cubes like the WeiLong. The smaller 56mm size feels nice and the pieces are a bit more rounded. Is it a perfect cube, no. I tend to get small catches but nothing that cause solve ruining lock-ups. Many people who liked the MeiYing just wished for corners that were not hollow. Here is your answer. If you have a MeiYing already than you probably won't find this to be any better or worse, but just slightly different feeling. If I really had to break it down in comparison between cube I would say it has the controllability of the YueYing with the speed of the MeiYing. This sits in between making it a decent choice for someone that wants a fast cube but one that is a bit easier to control. For someone that has never tried a MeiYing of a Gans 356 before this will feel like a game changing cube, but if you have tried those before and like them this might not seem like any big step forward. (Transcript from video) Now I didn’t get this cube right away. I had tried the bullfight and although it was a decent cube I didn’t find anything special about it. It seems that the Thunderclap has gotten a pretty large and vocal fanbase so I decided it was time to test it out. I want to thank SpeedCubeShop for helping me make this review possible. Stop by their store and use discount code CubeReview for 20% off of you order! Now I have here the stickerless version. The build of it feels cheap. It is very light and the plastic does not feel very strong. Not quite to the amount of a GuanLong, but almost like a MoYu HuaLong. Sometimes the pieces seem to want to just come apart. This was a big problem at first but after a few hundred solves it has seemed to not happen as much. Out of the box this thing is fast and very loose. I had to tighten the tensions and add lube to slow it down. I tried my regular combo of Lubix on the core and weight 25 on the pieces but it just didn’t seem to work. I tried putting AoLong springs in it but that didn’t feel right either. I went out and bought weight 50 silicone lube and that was exactly what the pieces needed. This thing cuts both ways as well as any other new cube on the market. The corners are not square like on the Gans, or MeiYing so it does have a tendency to corner twist once every hundred solves depending on your tension.
Now I have used the MeiYing since it came out in May of this year. I could not find anything that I liked better. The Thunderclap might have knocked the MeiYing out as my main. It is no where near a perfect cube. The corner twisting occurs much more often comparitivly, and I definitely prefer the slightly smaller size of the MeiYing as opposed to the 57mm Thumderclap. It does have the more rounded pieces which reminds me of the original AoLong and allows the pieces to flow over my fingers more easily compared to the very blocky pieces of the MeiYing. What the Thunderclap does best though is it just flows. When I am performing certain algorithms I always had times where the cube would just lock up on me. This cube just seemed to be able to move without any resistance. It makes solving a but more enjoyable since there are fewer times that I feel like a solve was ruined with the cube either catching on my own fingers or on the other pieces. Here is the most interesting thing though. Look at these colors. The yellow, red, orange, and blue seem to be almost the exact same as my stickerless bright MeiYing, the only difference is the green, but that seems to be almost identical to the green on the bright pink stickerless HuaLong. It is almost as if they are the same shades that are used in the MoYu/YJ/Cong’s Design factory. I do not know if QiYi is trying to copy the colors, if they are the same factory, or if this is just one big coincidence. This cube is amazing for the price and I enjoy it more than most of the other cubes in my collection. I did spend more time trying to find the right tensions and lubrication than any other cube before it. I can see why there is so much hype about this cube. It is not a premium feeling cube but it does its job and it does it well. I hear people talk a lot about cube colors and what is best. Now there are crazy colored cubes you can get, but most people are just referring to black, white, and primary (which is undyed plastic). Some people claim the plastic feels different while others claim that some are better for recognition during solves. I decided to test this. Before I go forward I want to thank SpeedCubeShop.com for helping make this video possible. Stop by their store and use discount code “CubeReview” for 15% off of your order. I have here a Black, White and Primary Cong’s Design MeiYing. When I took them out of the packaging the white felt a bit scratchier than the black cube, and the primary cube felt very scratchy. I could easily tell them apart without looking, but I also felt that they had different amounts of lube on them. I decided to set them up the same, and I also wanted to include my stickerless MeiYing. I wiped them clean, tensioned them the same, lubed the core with Lubix, and the pieces with weight 25 silicone lube. Now they feel exactly the same. I tried to tell one from the other and there was no difference between them. The stickerless was obviously different because you could feel that there were no stickers on it. As far as how they feel I will say that there is no difference, and if one feels different than the other it is because they are set up differently. I wanted to test what is best to solve with. Now this is not a super scientific method and in no way is the final word. I used what method worked best for me. My current best single average of 5 and average of 12 are about 10, 13, and 15 seconds. I would consider myself an intermediate solver with those times and take that how you want with how it relates to you. First I did 600 solves and mixed up which cube I used every 5 to 25 solves. After 600 solves I felt pretty equal in how my recognition was on each. Following that I did an average of 50 on each. Here are my results.
At the start of the 600 solves the white cube represented with the blue line was the slowest and I feel the issue was that I often mistook seeing white stickers because of the white plastic. The Primary plastic and Black plastic represented by the yellow and black line were very similar in times. The red line is the stickerless cube and was my main before this project started and was most comfortable with that. The final fifty of each cube were very close. The black and primary cubes were the slowest with an average of around 17.9 seconds, the White had an average of 17.7 seconds and the stickerless at 17.6 seconds. Now again, this is not the most scientific method and I’m sure an average of a thousand of each would give an even more accurate result, but again that will put more variables between each cube and each solve. In my mind there is really no difference in cube color. The issue I had before with confusing white stickers with the white plastic went away but replacing the white sticker with another color like grey or black might resolve that. I will be sticking with the stickerless cube because I do feel like my look-ahead is a bit easier with that cube. The three of the fastest times out of the final 800 solves were with the stickerless around 12 and a half seconds. Even with that the difference between the four cubes in the final test was within half a second and I do not feel that the color of a cube should be a reason to blame for either a cube feeling a certain way or causing solve times that you are unhappy with. ![]() 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. 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.
![]() Transcript from video Gans 357 Ultimate Edition I want to give a big thanks to SpeedCube.com.au. Besides all of the regular cube stuff you can expect they are pretty much thee place to go for anything Gans. When they said they had the Ultimate 357, I misheard the 357 and just assumed it was another 356 like the Masters edition just maybe without the springs or stickers. When I received the package I was very confused when I saw a 357 box. I opened up the cube and noticed the pieces were for a 357, but had one major difference. The core was metal! The core is very similar to the 356 but they are slightly different so I do not think they are interchangeable. The size of the metal rods are a bit thicker on the 357 compared to those in the 356. On the sale page for the Ultimate edition it says that the cube has “been polished & made seamless by hand - a painstaking manual process which takes a long time to do and therefore the much higher price mainly reflects the additional costs for manpower." I definitely feel like the pieces are a bit smoother and the pieces that make up the edges and corners are glued together. My original 357 pieces tend to come apart a bit when pushing on it, but the Ultimate edition feels like one very solid piece. The New 357 Ultimate edition feels like it has been professional set up and lubed. Besides the core the stickers are the same half-bright shades that are in the 356 Masters edition. Now probably the biggest issue people have with the Gans 357 is it’s ability to flex. The so called octopus core was replaced with a more ridged one like the one here. That did help, but it still flexed a bit more than many people liked. I did a review earlier this year going over the different springs options available and using the higher tension springs helped greatly. Now with this metal core this cube feels very solid in the hands, or at least as solid as a cube with such rounded pieces can feel. This seems like a whole new cube to me and I feel that many people might consider this their main if they passed along the cube with the plastic core. Now I have heard that they still do call this an octopus core even though it is metal. Cornercutting is still up there as possibly the best on the market with it cutting from almost any amount and the core plus the set up makes this cube super fast, smooth and great for people who like looser feeling cubes. Gans 356 Master Edition
So the packaging looks like the regular 356 plastic box but you get this nifty Master sticker with it. The stickers are a high quality half-bright set as opposed to the regular set that would come with the 356. In the box you also get a metal wrench, spare washers, as well as 3 different sets of springs The different sets say s6, s7 and s9. As far as turning of the puzzle, this thing is smooth. I have a regular 356 which had some crazy catching issues. I sanded the cube down as well as pulled the corner stalks out a bit which stopped it. This one was great out of the box. I have been told that Gans will be releasing new Center caps within the next couple months that are said to fix the catching issue completely. I’m not going to go too much in to a review of the puzzle itself because there are already a ton of those and people already know it is one of the best cubes as far as corner cutting goes, lack of corner twisting, and popping. The cube itself is pretty much the same as the regular 356. The extra price is more related to the stickers, wrench, and springs. Now I thought having a metal wrench is just a silly upgrade, but for anyone who has used a Gans puzzle using this just makes tensioning the cube that much easier and feels like less of a chore to adjust the springs. Let’s move to the springs. The regular springs would be called s8. I assume the number is from the amount of coils in the spring itself. Now I assumed at first that the springs with the lesser amount of coils, the 6 and 7 would be lighter in tension, but it is the opposite. With the S6 springs the cube feels very solid and quite sluggish. I would relate it to a cube that you might have seen on the market a few years ago. It is very controllable, but too much for my liking. The S7 springs are a nice in between feeling a bit more controllable but not much slower than the regular springs. The S9 springs make the cube feel very loose and wobbly. I would compare it to the feeling of the 357 cube. I personally like the S7 springs and will have those in the cube from now on. For anyone that feel it is too wobbly than either getting the masters edition or just buying the springs themselves for a couple bucks might be your solution. I had used the 356 for some time and put it aside, but this might be my reason for picking it up again. This truly is the Cadillac of cubes today. Keyhole method deals with the F2L part of CFOP/Fridrich Method. You can think of it as an in-between method between Layer-By-Layer and Full F2L.
If you were to solve F2L with full Keyhole method, here is how it works. You insert three out of the four corners leaving one unsolved. The unsolved corner is considered the “keyhole.” What you will do from there is move the bottom layer around so the keyhole/unsolved corner lines up with the edge you will be inserting. I will align the keyhole and put the corner that I will be inserting above the center that matches the color of the edge piece that is facing up. Here I have the red center and the red side of the edge piece facing up. Once it is there I will either insert it with R U’ R’ if it needs to be inserted on the right side, or L’ U L for the left side. Once the edge is inserted you can move the bottom layer back and see that that pair is now set. Then you just do this for the other two corners, moving the keyhole into place, inserting the edge and then moving it back. Once you get to your final corner you can either solve it by normal Layer-By-Layer (LBL method) with intuitive F2L or with an algorithm. For example if you insert the edge and put the corner above it where the edge and corner is checkered you can do one of my favorite algorithms (U R U’ R’)3x. Now If your goal is to be as fast as possible than using this as the main and final method might not be the fastest approach. Knowing this can be very helpful in regular solves. For example, if I am solving F2L and have this situation where the corner is already set, I have the edge here, and this corner to the left is not solved yet I can just move that corner over and use it as a keyhole for the edge piece. I hope this helps some of you cubers out there who might be newer to cubing. For those who already have experience please leave a comment below on other things you feel might be good to go over.. I remember when I heard of Keyhole method it was a bit confused as to how people were using it to inserting edges without messing up the corners that are already in place. (Transcript from video)
Today we are going to talk about what to do to transition from being a beginner to intermediate cuber. Now those terms are a bit vague and everyone will have a different idea as to what a “beginner” is and what an “intermediate” cuber is. I am going to consider a beginner as someone who can solve a cube uses layer-by-layer method and is around 25-seconds or slower in times. This will be focusing on transitioning from Layer-By-Layer method to CFOP/Fridrich method. Of course you can use Roux or another method as well but we’ll leave that for another day. Lets start at the cross. Now there are two things that you should be working on once you start solving the cross. The first one is to figure out what you need to do to solve it and do that without looking at the pieces. It may take awhile to figure out what you are going to do, and you might need to work on solving two cross pieces without looking followed by the other two cross pieces until you get better at memorizing the pieces. The second thing is to start solving the cross on the bottom layer. You will need to flip the cube over if you solve the cross on top which doesn’t take too much time but it prevents you from finding other pieces for the F2L stage until it is flipped. If you solve the cross on bottom and get to the point where you are solving it without needing to look at the pieces you can start tracking the pieces for F2L. For F2L, most likely if you are using a beginner method you are going Layer-By-Layer (LBL) where you insert the corner and then do an algorithm to insert the edges. One thing you can do is keyhole method that I went over in the last video and you can find a link in the description on how that works. What you should be working on next is inserting the corner and edges at the same time with F2L. What I did was learn a few algorithms, but it didn’t feel like they were algorithms, but instead just was what you do to insert the pair. For example, I first worked on learning how to manipulate the way pieces were facing. As long as you still have at least one corner unsolved you can bring it up, spin the top layer and bring it back down without messing up any solve F2L pairs or the cross. This was a very slow process at first, but really helped me understand how the cube worked and how to manipulate the pieces. What I would do is get the corner piece in top layer with the bottom color facing the side and put the matching edge in the top layer as well. If the two top colors were matching I would pair them up intuitively and insert it with either R U’ R’ or L’ U L depending on which side it was on. If the top colors were opposite I would put the corner on the front side with the edge on the back, line the corner up with where it needs to be inserted and again either do R U’ R’ or L’ U L depending on which side it was on. Now there are some algorithms that I learned from other videos, and of course there will be much shorter and better ways of inserting the F2L pair than what you will do when first figuring out how to do it intuitively, but it will come with time and personally I feel much more rewarding than just trying to learn one algorithm after another. Speaking of learning one algorithm after another, let’s talk about the last layer. What you might be doing at this point is making a cross on the top layer and then flipping each corner with the algorithm R’ D’ R D. Now when I first did that it took me awhile to realize is that you need to move the top layer and not the entire cube as you do that algorithm. Also you will do the algorithms either 6 or 12 times total. There are a lot of possibilities for the cube to be in, but there are also patterns like that you will see. The next step with this is to learn 2-look OLL and 2-Look PLL. There are not a ton algorithms and some are quite similar. After that it would be learning 1-Look PLL, and end with 1-Look OLL. I put them in that order just because 1-Look OLL has the most algorithms. Learning 2-Look is not delaying 1-Look since the algorithms in 2-Look are used in 1-Look when you have that specific OLL or PLL pattern. Now, there are multiple algorithms for each case and honestly, reading the notation made it hard for me to really visualize what was going on. CrazyBadCuber has a great video where he is going over the algorithms in slow motion which helped me the most. Now instead of just going over every single algorithm, try to figure some out intuitively. For example I found that doing a certain move known as the “sexy move” in-between F and F’ allowed me to solve some OLLs and brought me back to the start after 6 moves. Here is an OLL case that is F (R U R’ U’) F’, F (R U R’ U’)2x F’, F (R U R’ U’)3x F’, the only issue you might find like I did is that I then taught myself to solve this F (R U R’ U’)4x F’, instead of doing the easier reverse of it F (U R U’ R’)2x F’ and this F (R U R’ U’)5x F’, instead of the reverse F (U R U’ R’) F’. Now like I said, don’t get bogged down with trying to memorize the notation in your head, or worried about having to memorize them all. What will happen is that it will get into your “muscle memory” and although you might not know the notation though letters your fingers will be able to do the algorithm. Think of it as being able to type a word either on a keyboard or a phone without actually thinking about what letters are in it, the fingers just move to them because you have done it so often. It took me months to get the main algorithms for OLL an PLL down, and that was with constant daily work going through a few algorithms repeatedly. Don’t rush it, people learn things at different rates, and some learn better with written algorithms while other like me seem to learn better with visual assistance like videos. Now the biggest factor. No matter what anyone says will make you faster, it is not a specific cube, or a specific step, it is practice. Don’t forget to have fun. Your goal should not be to break a record. If you do, awesome, but striving to be the “best” might only lead to frustration towards something that should be enjoyable. Practice will increase your muscle memory, your finger speed, as well as your control over the cube. I still have fun finding and looking up new algorithms. Some OLL cases I have multiple algorithms for in order to skip some or all of the the PLL step, so there is always more to learn and enjoy. Don’t worry about how fast or slow your times progress, don’t worry about what other people think is fast or not. This is how I progressed from just picking up a cube and taking about 5 minutes to solve it to now solving just over 10 seconds and still getting faster. I don’t get frustrated when I cannot beat my record times because they are just that, they are records. I cube for the joy of solving a puzzle that keeps bringing more surprises. This video turned into a but of a motivational speech, but I see many people daily on the forums and Facebook groups asking how to get better stating that they are stuck when most of the time it is besides these steps which helped me, patience and practice is what is truly necessary. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. For those that are starting out feel free to ask questions, and for those that are a bit more advanced what helped you the most? First I would like to thank TheCubicle.us for allowing me to do this review. You can stop buy their store and use discount code SpeedCubeReview to get 5% off of your order. Now the biggest difference between the two cubes right off the bat is the price. The YJ YuSu is $9 while the AoSu is $27. At triple the price it is a big difference. They are both 62mm, and the packaging looks almost identical. The YuSu was not wrapped in plastic in the box while the AoSu was, although I did not find that the YuSu was dusty at all. Before turning the YuSu seems a bit lighter and more squared off. The AoSu has a more bubbly feel to it. Within first turns you could definitely feel the difference. Th AoSu also just feels more structurally sound. Pieces seem to stay more aligned in the AoSu, and they fit together better. You can see on almost every corner of the YuSu there is a small gap between a few of the pieces. The tensions are almost identical and the YuSu just feels a bit tight and scratchier than the AoSu. It is not super slow, but there feels to be a bit more friction on the YJ cube. After some breaking in it definitely loosened up, but so did the AoSu. Corner cutting has improved especially on looser tensions, but there is a risk of an internal piece popping out of place. I took them apart to see what the difference internally was. The YJ YuSu seems very similar to the MoYu WeiSu, but I do not have pieces of that puzzle to compare to. The main things I take away from breaking the cube down is that 1. the springs are just slightly softer in the AoSu, 2. The puzzle is more solid with caps over the pieces instead of 1 solid mold used to create each piece causing them to be a bit more hollow on the outside of the piece. And 3. the pieces of the AoSu are fit a bit more snug inside the cube with very little open space. The structure of them and design are very similar and to a non-cuber seem almost identical. So, the big question is which one should you get. If you are new to 4x4 and want a fairly decent cube, the YJ YuSu will without a doubt be fine to get. If you are already quite fast or just want the best of the best no worry of the cost than the AoSu would be be the one to get. It is a hair faster, a bit less lock-y, a bit better corner cutting, and overall feels like a much more solid cube. |
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2016 3x3 Comparison MEGA 3x3 comparison MEGA 2x2 comparison Mega 6x6 Comparison What Cube to Get? Beginner to Intermediate Reviews QiYi WuShuang 5x5 YuSu-R WeiLong GTS GuoGuan YueXiao Gans 356s V2 MoYu AoLong GT MoYu TangLong QiYi Thunderclap YJ YuSu 4x4 Cong's Design MeiYing MoYu Crazy Hotwheel MoYu HuaLong Common Questions What is Keyhole Method What is a Supercube? Why Square Corners? Mods Gans 356 With Weights Gans 357 Spring mod |