As a long time fan of twisty puzzles (I would solve the original rubiks in 1981 in 2-3min in the playground for chocolate milks), but as someone who's never gotten her hands on a speed cube, I decided to check out some of the modern puzzles within my budget from the last 20 years...

The movement on this puzzle is amazingly smooth. I spent about an hour just fiddling with it to get familiar with how close the alignments needed to be and to track movement of a couple pieces thru some repeated quick movements (which I never needed for a solution, but may be useful for making pretty patterns, lol). I will say tho, I'm used to puzzles that take a fraction of the time to mess up versus solve, so if a puzzle ever gets to the point of being about the same time to mess up as solve, I'm very unhappy... This one did not do that!
I spent 3-5min thoroughly messing it up while watching a show, and my first solve took under 15min of casual time while still half watching the show. Being someone who doesn't use anyone else's algorithms (except parity issues on large cubes now it seems lol), I puzzle for the fun of the tactile experience and the exploration of how to interact with it as you caress it into solution (or pattern)...

I highly recommend the challenge of this cube since it will inspire you to eliminate your preconceptions and muscle memory methods, and spark the delight of exploration and making your own sequences like we did when the cube first came out! 🙋‍♀️

The puzzle is great and turns well! The solve isn't too difficult, but be careful with the stickerless version, it has edge pieces that are difficult to see that are not on the stickered versions. I would recommend the stickerless version if you would like a more difficult puzzle. I wish puzzles that had differences in solves between versions were disclosed somewhere, but I understand that this wont happen. The presentation in the plastic dome is fantastic, and it can hold most 3x3's I own! Overall would recommend, but be careful with the differences between the cubes.

Stickerless:
Difficulty: 4/10
Playability: 0/10

Stickered:
Difficulty: 3.5/10
Playability: 7/10

This puzzle is made by putting pentacle layers on top of an inner 3x3. On the black version, this wouldn't be an issue, but on the stickerless version, the inner 3x3 is visible and has an orientation. 3x3 turns are only possible by lining up the pentacle layers; this means that you have to solve an entire 3x3, realigning the pentacle layers for every single turn of every single algorithm. If you're the type of cuber who does algorithms based on muscle memory, this will almost certainly mess you up.

To put it into perspective, it took me almost and hour to solve the cube completely, because I had to stop, write down algorithms, and realign the pentacle pieces. I also had to redo algorithms because I lost my place when aligning the pentacle layers. By comparison, it only took about two minutes to solve the pentacle layers by themselves, and another two to solve just the corners of the cube while ignoring the internal 3x3. On the black version, this would mean a solve could be done in under five minutes.

The cube is well-made, and I'm sure if I spent more time with it, it'd because a lot easier to do. But the first (and likely my only) solve was so tedious that I didn't enjoy it, and don't have any drive or desire to play with it again. The turning is also great. However, I wish I had ordered the black version.

I really like the concept of this cube. The solve isn’t too hard to figure out intuitively if you can solve a 2x2 and 5x5, but it is a slow solve since you have to line everything up just right to make one turn. (Pieces will pop if you’re too hasty.)

I love this cube cuz it’s so
Fun to mess with and to
Solve

Corners solve like a 2x2 and stars are solved like a 5x5 . . . .but you have to align the stars to be able to move a single turn. Its an amazing puzzle and turn very smoothly. I love it in the fact that it makes you have to think about your OLL and PLL algs. Because we all use muscle memory for oll/pll algorithms. Since you have to align the stars per turn it forces you to think about the full algorithm when doing an oll or pll. I love the display case it comea with too!

This is a very cool looking puzzle, and it turns as good as it looks. Very good construction, smooth turning and nice bright stickers make this cube a pleasure to solve. It even "corner cuts" on the stars a little bit. The way the puzzle works does not allow for speedy solving, but it's still fun. The display bubble is a nice touch too. I decided to use it since I bought the cube more for display than solving.

QiYi Pentacle Cube

I got this cube in stickerless, and instead of having just the corners it also has the edges (if you get this cube in black you won't have that problem). This takes the puzzle much longer to solve than the black version because you have to solve it like a 3x3 instead of a 2x2 and then solve it like a gigaminx. It is still very fun to solve but you have to have a lot of patience.

I have no complaints about this puzzle, even though it is a tedious one to solve. It's sold at an excellent price, and it's well worth every penny. It turns well, and the shades are very vibrant and easy to recognize. Thanks to TheCubicle for selling me this puzzle, and thanks to QiYi for mass producing it.