Gotta' admit, I got this primarily for the looks as it's one of the most beautiful 3x3s I have seen. I figured that even if it wasn't all that good, it would at least make for a nice display/collector piece. I was pleasantly surprised with it's performance though!

It arrived rather tight so it couldn't corner cut much, though was still easy on the hands to turn which indicates soft springs and also very smooth with little bump vibrations. But after loosening the tensions to get it cutting, it SAILs through the forward cuts with relative ease. You can get it to cut 45 degrees or more, but I wouldn't do so because it'll corner twist quite a bit due to it's flex. So I'd keep it at around 35-40 just to be safe as consistency is key. Even so, you may occasionally get a corner twist if one rolls across a finger during a solve, so just be mindful of your finger positions. Though that is a given regardless of the cube. But since you are able to get 40 or so, you should be able to get good times out of it because that's still quite a good amount of forgiveness.

Reverse cutting is awkwardly inconsistent however as if you were to cut, say... half a piece, it may or may not decide to do so and I haven't been able to figure out why and I have been playing around with it for quite a while. I've played around with the tensions thinking I made them uneven or something, but to no avail. So I think the reverse cuts are just how it rolls. This is likely a mechanical thing because the corner pieces do not have deep rounded sides to allow for reverse cuts. What you see on the outside is exactly the roundness and angle on the inside. Thus I'd say it's oddly behind in cube tech despite coming out after other QiYi cubes that have said better reverse cutting. It is consistent at about 2/5 a piece however so it's still got a good amount of catch resistance, especially when you consider that this is a slightly larger cube. So 2/5 of a piece would likely be near half on a regular-sized 3x3.

I was expecting the slightly larger size to feel odd at first and while I could tell it's larger than the usual 3x3 while turning it, it didn't seem to make much of a difference in handling. So I adapted to it really quickly. Their whole idea behind a slightly larger cube is stability which seems to work as there's generally less deforming than other 3x3s I've tried. It also never seems to pop which I presume that the larger size also has to do with it because if the pieces of a larger 3x3 separate at the same distance of a smaller 3x3, the ratio is smaller and thus piece contact is larger.

Color recognition is fine in good lighting since the shades look bright and sparkly due to the light reflecting through the puzzle. But gets a bit difficult in lower lighting conditions because everything has some level of transparency (except the screws and core of course). So when the lighting is dim, the colors will be more muted and thus opposite colors will probably look too similar except black/yellow of course. Pink/orange isn't too bad in most cases, but blue/green can look so similar that I have "finished" a solve in a position that looks like this: (do this to a solved cube with blue on the front face) U2 R2 U2 R2 U2 R2.

So overall it's a pretty solid puzzle that looks great! Of course though it's not allowed in actual speed cubing as puzzles you can see through to other colors on other sides isn't allowed so you'll have to use a solid-color Sail if you like this one enough for it to be your main pick. But let's face it: You, like me, probably are looking to get this primarily because it's purdy. So you likely had no intent to use it competitively. I just had to make a mention of that in case you did think you could walk into a competition with this and compete. But it's no doubt it a fine puzzle to play with casually and/or to have as a display piece.

This cube wasnt that good. This cube wasnt to great but it still had decent corner cutting. If youre a beginner you should probably use this cube, but if your an advanced speed cuber you shouldnt buy this cube.

This cube wasn’t that good. This cube wasn’t to great but it still had decent corner cutting. If you’re a beginner you should probably use this cube, but if your an advanced speed cuber you shouldn’t buy this cube.