I really didn't like the MAX setup in this cube. It was extremely sluggish out of the box and only improved marginally over the time I've had it, though the outer layers became faster relatively quickly. It was slow enough that I was only able to get through a few solves at a time before the strain in my hands was obvious and I had to put it down.
So, I cleaned it out and retensioned it to make it just a quarter turn looser. And it's *much* better dry than it was when it was lubed. It still requires (imo) too much force to move the layers and doesn't feel "fast" at all -- this was (and still is) confusing to me, because pretty much every review of this cube mentions how fast it is and that its almost *too* fast for some people. In my experience though it's slow to get moving and requires a good bit of additional force to KEEP it moving.
Needless to say I have had the total opposite experience to what every review I've read or watched has said. Maybe my expectations for a 7x7 were too high, as this is the first one I've ever had, but it just feels bad. In fact the lubed setup felt SO bad that I contacted support, who essentially told me that what i was experiencing was normal and needed more solves to fully break in. I tried to be patient with it, i gave it what i feel like is more than adequate time to break in, and it still wasn't good. And I'm not willing to sit through endless solves on a setup that makes my hands hurt, for the possibility it might stop sucking eventually. So I cleaned it out. I kept an eye out for any broken pieces or problems during disassembly and I didn't see any, so I don't think the cube got busted during shipping or anything. Therefore it seems to have, how you say, spiritual suckage.
That was a little harsh, so let me talk about what I like/love about this cube for a second to balance out my crabbiness:
- It is small. My hands are small and this thing really doesn't feel bulky or uncomfortable to hold, which is an achievement given how many pieces it has.
- The texture of the plastic is good. I can tell this is one of those cubes that will gain a very comfortable surface over time.
- When I do wrist turns, I can tell that the mechanism itself is damn smooth. And it's a fascinating bit of engineering, which I found out when I disassembled it to clean it out. Unfortunately I don't really feel that smoothness during solves because of the aforementioned sluggishness dominating the feel.
- When tensioned correctly (which the cubicle pretty much nails out of the box, credit where it's due) this thing just does not pop. You still can't try crazy 45 degree cuts or anything and it can lock up if you're being sloppy, but this isn't a cube you have to baby to stop it from exploding. And like I said, it straight up doesn't pop at all. I have only experienced major lockups when I was actively testing the limits of the cube and TRYING to lock it up.
- Despite its hardcore resistance to pops, it isn't hard to disassemble when you want to. The wing edges come out pretty easy and you don't have to do any shenanigans that feel like you're gonna break something at any point in the disassembly.
- The magnet strength is good, if a liiiittle bit strong for my tastes.
Given how much I adore the AoSu and the AoShi, I had pretty high expectations for this cube. I basically expected an AoShi with 7 layers instead of 6. That is not what I got. Instead it feels hard to work with, slow, and pretty unsatisfying to turn.
Maybe my poor, abused, RSI prone hands just aren't cut out for 7x7 and this is really a "you are not 16 anymore" problem than anything else. Or maybe I received a rare dud. Or maybe my expectations were too high.
In any case, I've been very disappointed with this cube and it now sits on the Shelf of Shame with a handful of other puzzles I don't want to pick up, where it will likely remain.
As a quick aside: I have bought many "pro shop" cubes over the years from many different places, from the cubicle and elsewhere. And this cube was the last straw for me. The success rate is like 30% that are just perfection, then 30% of cubes are *fine* but better if i redo them from scratch, and then 30% are failures. Those aren't good enough odds.
Like it doesn't say "Might be good or might suck pro shop" on the sign, does it? These are sold to you as if they are standardized. In my experience, they are not.
Every time you order a cube someone else has set up, you are rolling the dice on whether or not they did a good job. Given the way these services usually work, they aren't even able to know if they did a good job until it gets into your hands, since they all expect you to break in the setup yourself. It's a QC nightmare for the seller, and it certainly feels like one on the customer end.
My advice? Just get the stock cubes and learn to do this kind of thing yourself. At least then if you screw it up you know exactly what went wrong.
MAX