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Bas's cube reviews

Tierlist

My tier-list is based on my personal experience with the cube, after setting it up and playing with it for multiple days. I separate CFOP and Roux because the features that might work on one method might not be the best for the other, and there are cubes that excel in one while not being great in the other. Please note that while reasonably fast for my four decades of age I'm average compared to most in CFOP  and bad in Roux, so take all this with a grain of salt!
And with that out of the way, on with the reviews!

A hopelessly subjective assessment of cubes from an average cuber

Gan 14
Gan 14 

MoYu WRM V9
MoYu WRM V9 

MoYu RS3M Super V2
MoYu RS3M Super V2 

GAN 12 Ui
GAN 12 Ui





MoYu Huameng YS3M
MoYu Huameng YS3M

Diansheng MSCube MS3X
Diansheng MSCube MS3X

Dayan Tengyun V3
Dayan Tengyun V3

MoYu RS3M Super
MoYu RS3M Super





Gan13
GAN 13 Maglev


X-Man Tornado V3


MoreTry Tianma X3


MGC Evo






PeakCube


WRM21 Maglev


Gan 12 UV


X-Man Tornado v2





WRM19 maglev


Zhanchi Pro


RS3M 2021


Little Magic M





Solar S


(This is a quick summary for your convenience, click to teleport)


Gan 14 – It’s… like the 13 but better?
Say one thing about Gan, they don’t screw around. They make a great cube, then change it very slightly, then make some more small changes. Most of the time the cube keeps improving. Rarely they come out with something that some people like a bit less (Xs, Gan 13) but most find are if not a definite improvement, at least a “quality of life” upgrade. By and large you can trust in what Gan keeps doing: boring, effective, slow, incremental changes to a working formula.

Contrast this with the kings of derping Dayan, where only God and her mistress know whether the next cube to come about will be a terrible one, a disastrous one, or a cult cube that will be relevant 5 years after its release. Or with Moyu, who create multiple lines of their cubes, then mix them up at every second release. Gan seems to know what they are doing, and the main mantra is “don’t rock the boat”.

And this boat is not rocking. The Gan 14 is a slightly improved version of the Gan13 that brings back some of the lightness and crunchiness of the Gan12 but with the non-squishy plastic of the Gan13 and with an auto-align more similar to the 12th than the 13th iteration of the cube (not that they ever actually only did 14 versions of this cube, oh no they clearly didn’t).

The magnet adjustment is also taken from the Gan13 with 6 different magnet strength rather than the 3 steps from the 12, plus a switch for the repelling edge magnets (who help out the auto-align), these allow it to go from a very light magnetic pull that keeps the cube together to a strong and very clicky Gan-style magnet feel. The range is great as it can truly match the preference of different people. Good on you, Gan, for making a cube that can have different feels and settings all in one model, rather than coming out with 3 different versions of a single cube (or 9 in the case of Moyu).

The tensioning adjustments are also very broad in range, with a travel distance that goes from uncomfortably tight to very loose, to the point that lockups become almost inevitable. Same for spring compression that go from “stiff face hovering in the air” to mushy. That’s a good sign, as it means that the range of possible configurations will let you find a balance that is right for you.

The plastic is the newer, thicker plastic that GAN has introduced in the Gan13 and used on the Gan12ui/fp. I like it, but some might prefer the ultra-light and gossamer-like plastic of the 12. It’s also stiffer: if you squeeze it, it makes no noise (in contrast to the 12). The UV treatment is wonderful as it means you can actually use the cube out of the box, although I suspect that it makes the caps so bloody hard to take off the first couple of times.

The performance is… great. I’ve been hitting my best times quickly with this once I found a setup that worked for me, which did take a bit of fiddling and testing and failing and trying again. (For what it’s worth, I keep my Travel distance at a looseish 4 and springs at a stiff 5, corner magnets at a 6 and edges on the lowest notch). However, this is not a forgiving cube by any stretch of the imagination. If the Tornado V3 lets you get away with almost anything, this cube will teach you how to turn properly by trial and a lot of error. The fact that it can corner-cut at 60% doesn’t mean that it will not punish you brutally if you screw up in-solve. If you or your kid are just starting out you might want to stay away from this cube. But then again if you’re just starting out you shouldn’t spend 80$ on a cube.

But Bas, should I buy?
If you’re new to cubing… no, don’t go for Gan cubes : they’re far less forgiving and more fragile than other brands. Go get a Tornado3 or Moyu YS3M / WRM9.
If you already have the Gan12 or 13, then this might be a gradual improvement but no radical change
If you have a Gan11, this will be a very nice improvement and is likely worth the investment
If you’ve never had a Gan, then starting with this is a great idea

TLDR: An incremental upgrade to one of the best cubes available, keeps it at the front of cube performance. But if you're looking for something different from Gan, this isn't it.

MOYU Weilong WRM V9 – The WRM19 is back, not quite as good as its older brother, but louder and more boisterous
It had to happen: The world record has been broken and was not set on a Moyu cube anymore. Plus, talking about ridges (or the lack thereof) doesn’t make sense anymore, so at some point the WR M moniker was not going to cut it anymore. Solution? Let’s add a “9-cylinder” label or something like it after that, people won’t notice. (Sadly they still won’t be able to put "3.47” on all their cube boxes anymore…)

The WRM 2023 (as we should rightly call it) is the newest iteration of a long series of cubes that went from the GTS all the way to the Purplev and this newest cube. These have historically been Moyu’s flagship cubes and have been the major contenders for “best cube around” almost constantly since the first GTS. In the midst of that, they released what many consider the best cube ever made, the Weilong Without Ridges, as if they were asking forgiveness for putting ridges on the GTS3 (a grippy gimmick which I and many others actually liked quite a bit). More commonly known as the WRM 2019 by modern audiences, it was a cube that brought all the things one expects in a modern cube (stellar corner cutting, incredibly smooth turning) in 55mm of solid bulk that was not as fast as the Tengy1 (another timeless piece of art) but was far more controllable and forgiving to bad turning.

But while you might be forgiven for thinking that I am sacrificing too many baby electrons to the altar of history, the reason for this temporal excursion is that the WRM v9 really takes up where the WRM 19 left off and tries to add some new things. Gone is the mushy softness of the WRM20/21, gone is the almost uncontrollable speed of the WRM21purplev, this is a newer version of the WRM19 with the strongest and clickiest magnets Moyu has ever put on a cube (including the “strong magnets” version of the GTS3M), and all the modern trappings of cube internals.

The result is a cube that feels as solid as the WRM19 in the hand, sounds a bit softer and deeper, is less elastic and mushy than the WRM20/21, and performs surprisingly well.

The cube comes in the 3 versions that Moyu has been providing us for the past several iterations of its cubes: “normal”, “a bit stripped down” and “all stripped down”. The normal version has a very strong magnetic click that is too much for what I expect from a Moyu cube, but I can imagine this being an added value for people who have eschewed Moyu until now because of it’s wimpy magnets. I find myself liking the Standard version (“all stripped down”) the most, and were it not for the frosted surface I would advise everyone to simply ignore all the other versions. But you can also purchase the 3x more expensive ball core version and simply remove the ball-core and you’ll have a less-clicky and more traditionally Moyu cube that is going to serve you very well. If you keep the ball-core with all its frills you’ll have something that goes in the direction of the MoreTry Tianma X3, which has some of the clickiest magnets since manufacturers started putting them in for us.

Corner cutting is not as snappy and fluid as the WRM19, but you don’t need it on the BallCore version: the auto-align will make sure you don’t lock up, ever. On the Standard this becomes a bit more relevant, but with a reasonable accuracy you should never encounter any issues. And the standard provides a very light magnetic pull that is exceedingly nice on Roux, while the ball-core version is annoyingly stiff on slices. The fact that you can get the WRM2023 Standard for the same price as the original RS3M on several stores is also somewhat magical.

With that said, be careful : the v9 Standard is not a forgiving cube, the absence of core magnets means that the cube overall doesn’t always hold shape if you’re turning too aggressively and you’ll end up screwing up your solves because of bad executions that move things that shouldn’t move. You don’t get any of that with the BallCore version, so it might be a much better suited cube for novices and brutal beasts… sorry, “younger cubers”.

Tensioning uses the standard Moyu dual adjustment system, which works just as well as always, but be careful with the tensioning out of the box, it tends to vary a lot from version to version, but might be too loose to the point that you get lockups on the Standard (less so on the ball core version), I ended up doing a full turn to tighten the screws to my satisfaction.

The looks are good, but not as great as the Purplev or the new RS3M Super v2 : the internals are coloured but only on the center pieces and inner stems, the inner part of edges and corners retain their normal colors, and on the Standard version they are a standard primary white that looks meh at best.

So what should you choose if you want to go Moyu, given the smorgasbord of versions and models that are currently available?
If you prefer weaker magnets : v9 Standard, but you’re probably better off with a maglev version of the original WRM19.
If you prefer stronger magnets : WRM v9 Ball-Core
If you want something in the middle : YS3M or Super2, both in Ball-Core versions

TLDR: A true “new version” of the WRM2019, with much stronger magnets, unless you get the stripped down version.


MOYU RS3M Super V2 –
I am the flagship now!
Moyu has come out with a new generation of cubes, with 9 versions across 3 series coming in a relatively short span of time. The result is a blurring of the lines of what used to be a relatively straightforward split between budget, mid-range and flagship level cubes. The meme about cube manufacturers being disastrous at naming cubes has just gotten a strong refresh, but with a twist: after coming out in 2020 with a cube that cost less than 10$ and worked as well as most 30-40$ cubes around, they gradually made it more expensive, while adding new elements to its name (“maglev”, “super”, “super but v2!”). The result today is a cube that costs 30-40$ and works as well as the 10$ versions of other cubes (Tornado V3, WRM v9 in their stripped versions).

Gone is the blockiness and clackyness of the RS3M that so many of us have used and abused (the RS3M2020 remains, to date, the single-most purchased cube according to the r/Cubers megasurvey), this is a cube that would better be described as a more stable version of the WRM2021purplev. The magnets are somewhat strong compared to older Moyu cubes, and the click are clearly felt, with the auto-align kicking in at the 60° mark. The magnet strength makes it so that you will not risk overturning even for the more aggressive cubers. With that said, the magnet strength remains closer to the Huameng YS3M than the much clickier Weilong V9.

The cube remains solid, and whilst its price tag won’t make it as much of a favorite of parents and uncles as a gift for their kids as the previous versions, this is a cube that will survive some encounters with pre-pubescent animals… sorry : “younger cubers”.

Cornercutting is perfect at most reasonable tensions, weight and strength required to turn is rather light on the looser settings, making this cube fast if you want, but the range of compression and the presence of an actual screw allows you to turn it into something stable and controllable if you prefer to.

Then there’s the looks. Here the completely coloured internals (purple or teal) look awesome, and better than the V9 (which has coloured internals for the centers and inner stems but not for the edges and corners). The result is one of the best looking moyu cubes that’s been released since the WRM2021 purplev. The center caps are round and bevelled just like in the V9 (they are interchangeable, but the V9 are a fraction of a millimetre thinner), and far better looking than the octagonal weirdness of the first version of the Super.

So this brings us to the current situation of Moyu releases : RS3M Super V2, Huameng YS3M, Weilong WRM V9 each with 3 versions : Standard, MagLev, BallCore. That’s a bit messy compared to having adjustable magnets, but maybe it makes commercial sense for Moyu, who knows. The Super v2 is now the most expensive Moyu cube, with a range that goes from 3x the price of its first iteration to more than 5x for the ball-core version. That makes it something that you might want to try out before you decide to buy.

Bas' humble advice
So which should you get? Here is my subjective estimation of the current models
If you prefer weaker magnets : YS3M > Super2 > WRM V9
If you want a cube that looks great : Super2 > WRM V9 > YS3M
If you want the best performance : YS3M = Super2 > WRM V9
As for which version of the cube?
Get the Ball-Core for the Super2 or YS3M, get the Standard for the WRM v9.

TLDR: A more solid and stable but still fast version of the WRM2021purplev that has little to do with the previous RS3Ms but remains a fantastic cube.


GAN 12 Ui – Dear Smartcubes engineers, I'm very sorry, but now we know what we can expect from you
The Gan 12Ui is one of the best speed cubes ever made. Read that again and remember that this is supposed to be a smart cube.

I've tried my fair share of smart cubes in the past 2-3 years, and while some of them have been good smart cubes (e.g. Gan iCarry) and others have been great ones (Moyu AI, Gan i3), they have never been comparable to proper speed cubes. Even the best ones had some catchiness, some extra weight or some iffy stiffness that made them chunky and a bit unwieldy. They performed well enough to make sense for training and analytics (and for some people, competing online), but when you wanted to get your real times, you'd pat the smart cube on the corner and tell it to go back to its charging box while you chatted with the grown up cubes.

This is no longer an inevitability. I have been using the Gan 12Ui for the past month and it's become my main cube for normal solving (I've broken my PBs on both CFOP and Roux within hours of starting to solve with it).

It feels like a slightly heavier version of the Gan12. And given how light (and to some extent flimsy) the 12 was, this is actually a plus. This is just perception though, as the Gan12Ui actually only weighs 1 gram more than the Gan12 (68g vs 67g), leaving it far lighter than most other smart cubes, let alone body-positivity cubes like the Rubiks Connected. The weight distribution makes it feel as if the outer pieces have just a bit more heft than in the Gan12, even though the piece design is identical with the only difference being the core-corner magnets – which protruded massively on the Gan12 and tended to catch more than one might like – that have been shortened a lot to fit around the electronic core. (Fun fact, this is actually the first Gan to sport a Ball Core). The results is less catches, smoother turning than on the Gan12, at the price of the auto-align feature that is vastly reduced on the smartcube compared to its dumdum version.

I find myself liking this one a lot for Roux. Turning is effortless, corner cutting is truly forgiving and the weaker auto-align makes slice turns less snappy and softer. If I had a gripe, it is that at 56mm it feels a bit bulky for OH on my chubby fingers. (I still managed to lower my global average on OH with this thing).

Add in the UV coating (the only surface available, thank you very much), bright shiny colors and center caps with those techy indents for the Gan robot, and a more solid plastic that is closer to the Gan13 than the see-through plastic of the Gan12, and you have a cube that looks as badass as it performs.

An added benefit of this smartcube being so good as a cube in general? I don't care about battery life anymore : once it's out of juice, it remains one of the best cubes I have, instead of becoming a coloured brick that needs to wait for electrons to pour in. Not that I find myself with low battery often, mind you. On a full charge I can't really deplete the batteries in their entirety (my life doesn't let me cube for more than 4h straight anymore), so if you remember to store it in its box in between sessions you'll be perfectly fine. The only situations in which I ended up having low batteries were when I forgot to charge the battery box itself (it is a glorified 1000mAh powerbank that you can't use to charge anything else than a cube).

A discussion about software is not really germaine to this review. But it needs to be said that the cube can be connected to most modern cubing app that use bluetooth (Cubeast or Briefcubing to cite two). You need to obtain the MAC address of the cube itself from the GAN Cube Station app, but you can then leave that ghastly piece of software alone after that. Unless you like baroque user interfaces and you want to use it (in which case you'll be able to get gyroscope information about rotation, which you don't really get with, say, Cubeast).

The only true drawback is not a small one: If you live in the West you can't really buy it. The product is currently not marketed outside of China, which is why you can't find it on GAN's own stores, and have to resort to independent distributors on Chinese platforms to get one. Not a difficult thing to do but delivery times are long, AND customer support is mostly inexistent: The first copy I received had one of the 6 faces that was not registering/sending moves, which makes the smart part of the cube inoperable. Give credit where it's due, GAN support staff was super friendly and quick to respond, but said that the only way for them to be able to help was to send the product back to the seller in China. The realities of customs fees and shipping are such that it would have cost the same amount as buying the cube all over again just to have it repaired/replaced and shipped back. I ended up purchasing a second copy, that fortunately had no issues whatsoever, and am happily using the non-working version as a dumb cube for travels (plus I get an extra charging box for the office). Hopefully I was particularly unlucky and the 50% hit ratio for factory errors I experienced is not representative of the reality of quality control and technical failure of this cube.

The last point is one that needs to be considered in a GAN context : factor in shipping costs and customs fees and this cube costs between 140$ and 150$. That starts to be expensive even for people who have jobs. It is 2x the price of a flagship GAN cube, but it's nearing FIVE times the price of many other smart cubes. That is ridiculously expensive, but it is also a smart cube that stands on a tier of its own. I'll re-iterate : no other smart cube, from any brand (GAN included) comes anywhere close to the performance of this cube as a speed cube. It is going to be too expensive for many (most?) people. But if you can afford this, it is the current state-of-the-art in cube technology.

Would I recommend it to anyone?
If the risk of technical issues is indeed high, I would say no. I am lucky enough to have a steady source of disposable income that lets me sustain the hit of one very expensive cube for the sake of writing a review, but having to dunk almost 300$ on a non-collector cube because you were unlucky does not sound like a great deal. The very reasonable alternative is to wait for it to be released in the West. But given that the I3 and iCarry S have only recently been launched here, it might take a while before that happens (2024?).
With that said, if you were going to invest that money into NFT, then you might as well get the best smart cube in the world right now, and one of the best speed cubes available today.

TLDR: One of the best cubes available today, that happens to have electronics inside that let you connect it to digital devices.

MoYu Huameng YS3M – Yusheng, you steely eyed engineer!
The new flagship cube from Moyu, obscurely named Huameng YS3M – in keeping with the tradition of not caring a single bit about consistency in cube naming – is a banger. It reminds of the first RS3M with its compact solidity and reliability, but without the clackiness. Gone is the mostly-too-fast flimsiness of the newer WRM versions, and back is the solid plastic and smooth turning of the first WRMs and GTSs, but with the sharper look of the more modern Moyu cubes (and a more traditional colorscheme).

This is not a fast cube: it’s a stable, reliable, forgiving, solid cube that let me get my normal averages within 10 minutes of unboxing it, with some really fast solves coming out of the blue. The base tensioning is rather tight, which is going to be very good for beginners, as it helps them acquire the dexterity that will carry them to good performance once their brains catch up with their fingers. Due to that, however, it requires more force to turn than other cubes I’ve been using recently (chief among them the latest GANs), meaning that dishing out several AO100s without making a pause might lead to some pain.

Corner cutting is as good as we know Moyu can make it, but it is on the snappier side (i.e. you start pushing and nothing happens until it cuts all the way in one snap, in contrast with other cubes that gradually cut from the moment you start pushing). People who are still measuring how many degrees a cube can corner-cut will be able to pat themselves on the shoulder and pretend that 45° is a reasonable angle on which to start your turns (pro tip : it isn’t. If you’re that far back with your turn as you try to cut, the cube ability to let you do it is not going to be the biggest hindrance in your solving).

Roux solvers tend to like Moyu cubes and this one will be no different: slices are great to execute and its smaller size makes it very nice for one-handed solving. And for the CFOP solvers who still believe MU versions of U perms are better, you’ll find here a cube that lets you get away with some inaccuracies that wouldn’t work on many other cubes.

There are no adjustable magnets. And that’s ok. Sometimes engineers have enough testicular fortitude to decide what settings will be good with their cube. And if Yusheng Du has indeed participated to the design and fine tuning of this cube to the extent that it has been advertised, kudos to him for finding magnet settings that work great with this cube. And if it wasn’t him, kudos to the unnamed engineer that made it happen instead! (Note: this is the case for the YS3M BallCore; for the others… I don’t care about the neutered versions of this cube, and neither should you.). The magnets are relatively clicky for a Moyu cube, more in line with the GST3M (not LM) than the older WRMS.

The cube is not very quiet. It shares the loudness of the RS3M but without its signature clackiness. Nothing major, but expect people on the train or at the next table over to look askance at you more than if you were using most Moyu flagships from the past 3 years.

The plastic is solid and reminiscent of the WRM21, without the blockiness of the RS3M. The frosted finish is just one way to make the cube suck for most people until you’ve done half a thousand solves and it finally wears off. If Moyu can realise that 80% of cubers prefer non-frosty surfaces, maybe they’ll stop making their cubes temporarily worse for no reason. The UV version is awesome though : grippy and shiny from the start, it’s a pleasure to use out of the box. Definitely worth the two or three extra coffees in cost.

And on the topic of its multiple version, I have to tip my hat to GAN for making it clear which of their cubes are the real ones, and which are the el-cheapo variants for people who can’t afford to sell their kidneys every time they want to purchase a new cube. Moyu and XMD have not gotten the memo yet, and come out with different versions all at once, sometimes not making it truly clear which version is best (Dear XMD, please don’t call “Standard” the version that has none of the nice stuff from the cube you originally designed). Combine this with the fact that they decided NOT to have customisable magnets, and I can imagine the discussion at Moyu Headquarters:
Engineers & holder of the WR single : "We think we'll have a better cube if we make some of the important choices ourselves and don't give to the user options to mess up the balance of the cube"
Moyu Marketing team :  "Sounds great! Now make 4 variants of the cube where you gradually strip them of all the things that make it good"
Engineers : "Can we at least NOT make the plastic frosted?"
Moyu Marketing team : "Nope, we need frosted : parents who buy cubes for their kids think they look great"
P.S. Dear Moyu Marketing team, next time I ask you to send me a preview of one of your product, please disregard the preceding paragraph.

If you need to choose, allow me to help you here : get the UV BallCore version and ignore all the others. If you can’t afford it, buy a Super RS3M, or better yet, go help your dad tidy up the garage next Sunday or your mom shopping for groceries on Saturday and ask them to chip in for the 10$ difference.

For the people who are reading this in the first part of 2023 and are asking themselves what cube to buy, this is definitely one to put on the list. Should you get this instead of a Tornado v3 or a Gan 13? It’s a clear contender for best cube available as of right now, but preferences will vary.

Bas’s quick guide to cubes in April 2023
Other than that, you’ll be able to get your fastest times with any of those cubes and none of them are objectively better than the others. All of them, however, are arguably better than any other cubes available right now.

TLDR: A stable, forgiving and smooth update to the old GTS and WRMs, with new technology, no unnecessary customization and fantastic performance. One of the best cubes available today.

Diansheng MSCube MS3X –  Dear MSCube Engineers : grow some algs and make some choices yourselves. Also, great cube!

The MS3X is the new iteration of the relatively new brand that gave us the run-of-the-mill MS3-V1 that besides feeling buttery and having an overly-complex spring adjustment system, was supremely unmemorable and felt average. The new iteration is an excellent cube that looks good (get the black internals and it looks identical to the older Gans), performs pretty well and feels pretty solid overall.

Turning is not the fastest but doesn’t require too much strength. Magnets are rather clicky (a bit strong for me) and cannot be adjusted on the fly. If you have 30 minutes to spare you can swap them out for weaker or for stronger ones, I find the best for me is removing them entirely and stick to the traditional corner-edge magnets only. The choice of center-to-corner rather than core-corner magnets is an iffy one: the Valk Elite and MS3-V1 both tried some versions of that before and failed. This one doesn’t seem to be a game changer either, and switching from attracting to repelling (the only change you can make easily) has no noticeable effect. Corner cutting is excellent across multiple tension settings, and the cube, although light, feels sturdy in the hand. Plastic is blissfully not frosted, and colors are a bit muted (which suits me, but might not pop out enough for others). Overall a good cube on which I can get good times after a couple of hundreds of solves.

Compared to its predecessor, the spring system is much simpler and much better to use: easy to turn by hand with a range of compression settings that is well calibrated, and a simple screw to adjust travel distance. The MS3-V1 had an obscurely weird double springiness system where you could flip the internal parts to… do something. It ended up not being good at much. This one does what it needs to and lets you understand how easily.

However, all the engineering prowess that they DIDN’t put into screwing up the spring system was instead dedicated to bloating the rest of the cube with needless stuff. Which brings me to the interchangeable pieces and the ludicrous level of customization. There is such a thing as too much freedom of choice. Want an additional torpedo on the edges? Pull it out (and hope you’ll feel a difference)! Want an entirely new set of magnets? Here are TWO of them for you to play with! You think your core could be improved? Here is a replacement one with different colors. Don’t know what the effect will be? Neither do we!

A word of advice to the MSCube (and now Diansheng) engineers. It’s YOUR job to make design choices that make the cube perform better. Leaving it up to the user to this extent is just feckless and cowardly. If you don’t think there’s a real advantage to having torpedoes, don’t put them in. And if you can’t say whether it makes a difference, how do you imagine a layperson might be able to? In either case, drop it and reduce complexity and costs. And the fact that all other manufacturers have found a way to let you change magnet strength without spending 30 minutes unscrewing all the center pieces and pulling things out by hand means you are doing it wrong. (A side note: for all that you get a replacement piece for almost every single part of the cube internals, they could have added a screwdriver to actually change the travel distance)

But despite the shortcomings of the R&D department decision taking (lazy design is neither new nor laudable), this is a cube that performs very well, clearly part of the new generation of cubes that provide a snappy feel, high control and great forgiveness.

Is it at the level of the current beasts at the top of the ladder (Gan13, Tornado3, WRM21purplev)? No. But it’s definitely on the higher tier, and if you’re looking for something that feels a bit different, this is a good cube to have.

TLDR: A good cube with solid performance, with too many interchangeable settings that you will never use.

Dayan Tengyun – If at first you succeed...
Say what you want about Dayan, they like to experiment. But as evolution shows, it can take millions of years to go from apes that cannot design cubes to apes that can. And it’s unclear which ones are filling the design chairs in the  Dayan workshop nowadays.

The third iteration of the Tengyun series retains the quietness that was characteristic of its two predecessors, but unfortunately shares the lack of stability, random lockups, loss of cube-shape and pops that marred the performance of the Tengyun V2, rather than the ultra-fast and solid reliability of Tengyun Senior.

Nevertheless, this gives me a long coveted opportunity to vent some of the frustration I have had with the Tengyun V2 since it came out, as Tengy the Third is far closer to it than to the progenitor of the series. The first Tengyun was and remains to date one of the most beloved cubes around, it is a very common sight at any comps, much lauded by many, e.g. in the BLD community. It combined a very solid feel with incredible speed, without sacrificing stability. Magnets were well calibrated to its other features (though to some they were too weak), and springs had a very distinctive stiffness that made it feel as if the entire layer was hovering on air just waiting for you to turn it. It was a cube that had the performance of something like the GAN flagships of 2021-22 but time-traveling back to the beginning of 2019.

Then something happened. Historians are unclear on whether the meth-addicted cousin of the original Tengy designer was hired to replace him, or if someone lost a bet, or if the spawn of a wealthy donor wanted to try their hand at designing a cube. But the resulting “version 2” was an over-engineered clump of plastic that felt very buttery, was even more silent than its forebear, and couldn’t keep its cube shape if you left it on its own on a table. The spring system was cumbersome, with a ton of settings that let it range from bad to still bad, and was too unreliable on any settings to be viable as a main for all except the most dedicated masochists. But enough about history. We’re in 2022/23 now, and Dayan has decided to time travel again and give us today a cube that could have been made five years ago, which feels rather buttery, is somewhat silent and can’t keep its cube shape if you leave it on its own on a table.

The customisation is a big aspect in which this cube reeks of 2016: while all new cubes coming out now are sporting one or another version of core magnets and maglev “springs”, the Tengyun3 provides 3 sets of nuts to achieve different travel distances that you have to painstakingly remove and replace one by one. The springs are set in their own plastic casing reminding heavily of the GES system, which is just not old enough to be retro yet, also, they will yeet to the moon if you make the error of twisting them in the wrong direction. The result is something a tad less complex than the horror that was the Tengyun V2 spring compression system, but which doesn’t solve its issues either, resulting in a cube that even when too tight for comfort manages to lose shape faster than me during the holidays.

Also, Dayan still hasn’t understood the nuances of modern language : “a cube that drips” doesn’t mean that it should literally sweat factory lube when you take it out of the box. Mind you, I’m as insensitive and inured as the next person about the perils of climate change, but even I am feeling sorry for all the baby silicons that are being slaughtered here. (Oh well, at least that’s one thing it still has in common with the first Tengy.)

All in all, the performance of the cube is in general bad. But this is mostly due to how unreliable it is. When you don’t get any lockups or downright pops you can solve very fast and smoothly on it. But unfortunately you do get those, and too many for comfort. Even after several AO100s I’ve been unable to get anywhere close to my usual times, but I did get some pretty fast singles.

And at the same price as the Tornado v3 Flagship, I can unfortunately recommend this cube to no-one except very dedicated collectors.

TLDR: The first was legendary. The second was terrible. The third is just as bad.

MoYu RS3M Super – It's a Boy!
The lovechild of the two Moyu budget lines, the RS3M Super takes everything that works well in its predecessor and combines it with the stiffer qualities of the Meilong M. It retains the blockiness we’ve all come to know of the RS3Ms, but not its clackiness, as the combination of maglev and corner-core magnets make it more stable but also faster than its previous iterations.

While the feeling of this cube is very similar to the RS3M20/21 (I consider them the same cube with different tension ranges), the addition of the core magnets allows it to be used at a lower tension but still retain good control. This means you don’t have to feed it enough lube to satisfy a grown panda bear, as you’ll be able to get something controllable without forcing it to be slow.

Finding good settings is going to require some finicking: on very loose settings it overshoots and is too fast and difficult to control. Tighten it to something more reasonable, and it will lock up often, and corner cutting is going to be lower than my IQ before my 9am coffee. I’ve found that setting spring tension to DAS-1/2 and loosening the screws a bit works well for me, and make it very pleasant to use.

This cube will demand some patience, as it comes with the frosted plastic that looks oh so nice, and feels oh so sh*tty, meaning you’ll have to do a couple of hundreds of solves before you can actually get good times with it as the frosting finally wears out and you don’t yeet the cube across the room every 4th solve anymore. For reference, my first AO100 was ~30% slower than my usual average, my 3rd one was within 2% of it, so it doesn’t take THAT long, but if you’re just testing out the cube to see if you like it, make sure you are testing a broken in version.

I am still on the fence on whether putting a surface protecting the core magnets is a necessary design choice. (For those not in the know, the so-called “ball core” is a thin layer of flexible plastic that encloses all the core magnets... and reminds people of that particular biology class in middle school.) When you rotate the pieces around you can see that it allows the corner-magnets to slip past the core magnet without the bump and locking that both the Gan12 and (in a lesser measure) Tornado3 sometimes showcase. But it means that you won’t be able to swap cores around, re-glue things that might pop-off, or apply other modifications, without first removing the entire contraption. (UPDATE: XMD found the Moyu idea to be good enough that they switched their core magnets to a Ball system as well. I suspect this is going to found on almost all new cubes coming out now. Good on you Moyu!)

The weight of the ball core version is around 88 grams (about 4 grams less for its female counterpart, and about 9 grams less for their neutered smaller sibling). It is perfectly reasonable and far from being the beast of a cube some people were fearing. The plastic feels solid and it manages to be less loud than the previous versions, mostly thanks to the lack of big clacks coming from pieces landing down from a big corner-cut. The combination of solid plastic, fast turning and good control reminds me of the WRM19, so that can't be a. bad thing.

A quick point on the center cap design: I’ll be damned but they actually look and work great. I like the sharper design, reminiscent of the Meilong M but from this decade, while retaining those tiny holes that make it great to pop off, even for people who think fingernails are perfectly reasonable snacks. Also, the fact that the inner part of the center plastic is coloured lets you put back all the caps without having to think.

The magnets are well balanced : the overall strength is on par with the medium settings on the latest Gan and Tornado3, but the heavier heft of the pieces moving around mean the feeling is less clicky. The core-corner magnets allow the magnetic bump to not be disturbing and the cube retains its shape while turning most of the time.

But then there's its lockiness, which reminds more of the Meilong M than the RS3M 202x, and will sometimes screw up your solve for no good reason when you get to last layer. In one sense that’s not bad, it will force you to turn accurately (the locks come mostly from unforgiving corner cutting), but for people who like to be a bit aggressive with their cubes, this might not be great.

To close up, the price of the RS3M Super is getting uncomfortably close to flagship level cubes (if you can pay 20$ you can probably pitch in 5$ more for the much better Tornado v3). The more economic versions are more similar to the RS3M20 and 21 respectively. Wonderful quality for the price, but nothing new since Moyu had the crazy idea of making great cubes at unconscionably low prices.

TLDR: A more controllable but faster version of the RS3M we’ve come to know, the Ball Core version is nice, but the other versions are great, more economic options

GAN 13 Maglev – The price tag is ridiculous. So is its performance.
Honey, I’m home! Gan has decided that air-thin, translucent cubes that risk breaking if you squeeze them too hard (or at least make them creak very loudly) is a thing of the past. The Gan 13 is a cube that harkens back to the times of the X/XS but with the turning quality and features of the recent generations of its flagships. The result is a cube that feels a lot more solid in the hand but has the stellar performance that we’ve come to be used to from Gan.

It looks great. The UV coating (get the UV version, don’t be a moron) makes this shiny, but in contrast to its predecessor, the plastic is solid and not the see-through gossamer that the 12 was made of. And since we want our pretty things to look pretty, they actually made THE BOX out of frosted plastic, which indeed looks gorgeous. And since you don’t have to turn THAT (although the box itself does have more magnets than most cubes from 2015), it means you can have the fancy looks and the good cube. (Also the combination of shiny cube inside frosty box will make cubeographers swoon for a while, expect avalanches of “cube in box in grass with bokeh” on our social media platforms in the months following this cube coming out to the public.)

The turning is the same effortless breeze that both the 11 and 12 have made us know it’s possible to have. You need only apply a minimal amount of force to turn things smoothly. Moreover, the amount of force necessary to initiate a turn is very similar to the one you need to keep turning (until aimbot takes over, more on this below). Compare this to most other cubes where the initial "un-click" requires more force, this means you can enter a solving flow that is more difficult to reach with other cubes.

The range of settings on this thing is majestic. First, the tension and travel distances are actually able to turn this cube into a thing as loose as my grampa’s tongue after a few glasses of grappa or as tight as my wife’s wallet when I mention that a new cube has come out. That means that after a bit of systematic testing you can find the sweet spot that fits your turning the best. Combine this with a range of magnet strengths that Gan has never been able to produce and you have a cube that is as versatile as something that costs this much should be. The only gripe I have is that the tensioning system is a tad iffy, and sometimes locks up trying to cycle through the settings, forcing you to turn all the way around 2-3 times to get the exact value you wanted. (Credit where it’s due: placing the adjustment tool inside the box is a brilliant idea.)

As for the magnets… This is the first time I think a Gan cube is viable for Roux, as you can actually get magnets weak enough to avoid the familiar Gan clickiness, and makes the inner slices very smooth and pleasant to turn. Combine with its fantastic corner cutting and you have a lot of fun doing LSE. Having 6 different settings instead of three on the previous versions also means that you can fine-tune the amount of magnet hold you find appropriate for the tension settings you are using. This means more time tinkering with the settings, but you invested the cost of 30 cheap cubes in this thing, you probably want to turn it into the most efficient cubing machine possible. And this cube lets you do it.

The Gan 13 sports the same auto-align feature as its predecessor, which on lower tensions & fast settings means you seriously risk overturning to the point where the aimbot takes over. This means you need to be more careful and apply the minimal force possible to avoid that. Given that this is generally a very good approach to have in cubing, in a sense the cube is forcing you to git good. It also means that for novices this might not be the best solution (then again novices shouldn’t be investing the price of the past 3 years of Moyu flagships into a single cube either).

And then we get to the price tag question though. Taken in a context where we’d have no idea of what a cube costs, it would not be too surprising : That a cube this good would cost 3 times the price of a Rubik’s branded one would not raise many eyebrows. The fact that for the same price you can buy all 3 versions of the Threemato – which came out basically the same week – makes it a very relevant question whether this cube is worth the price. And my answer is yes if you can afford it. This is one of the best cubes that exist right now and if you want to have it, you won’t feel like you’ll have wasted your money on it.

But Bas : should I get this one or the Tornado V3? Easy: If you're on a budget or are starting out as a cuber, get the Tornado. If you can afford the Gan13, get both.

TLDR: This is one hell of a cube. Its price sets it apart from all other cubes, but its performance is matched only by a very few cubes.

X-Man Tornado v3 – How to recycle a name for an entirely new cube
Tometo Threemato. The new version of a cube that has little in common with its predecessor, the X-Man Tornado V3 is a great cube that is both very fast and forgiving, feels solid and sharp and clickedly magnetic, all without feeling like the flimsy feathery constructs that brands like Gan have been pushing out lately.

The pieces feel solid and sharp in a way that reminds Dayan’s Zanchi Pro (although not as knife-edges sharp as the Guhong v4), but without the wonky springs and lockups (I tested the non-maglev Flagship version). It is very fast and requires minimal force to turn, but you do feel the friction of the pieces as you move things around (contrast this with the first Tengyun, where pieces feel similarly solid, but give the impression of hovering atop the core axis, rather than on the central slice).

The adjustment system inherits from its previous version with a twist : you don’t need the plastic bident tool anymore to adjust it, which is very practical (RIP fantastic multitool though!). Unfortunately getting the caps off the centres is so bad that you’re better off using a tool to pop them off (especially on higher tensions) which somewhat beats the purpose of not requiring a tool in the first place. With that said, the adjustment is even easier and more intuitive than before, as you can now feel the tightening and release as you rotate through the range of settings.

Magnet are quite clicky. Part of it is the noise (you can clearly hear a grigrigri sound as you turn even on the lowest strength), and part are the core magnets, that add an overall level of magnetisation that you can’t adjust away. That said, the fantastic stability they provide makes the clicks a very reasonable price to pay (if you don’t actually like them).
Quick Tip: The core magnets are clip-on, meaning you can simply remove them and  get a Standard or Standard-Maglev version with non-clicky magnets, as they remove a part of the total magnetic force, roughly equivalent to putting magnet strength to a theoretical -1. If you don't like strong magnets this might be a great thing to do! (You can put the core magnets back at any time, clipping them in is very easy, but be careful as they might unclip during solves and completely lock up your cube.)

Corner cutting while solving is excellent. I rarely find myself locking up mid-solve, even if it is possible to lock it up if you try to explicitly. The combination of stability, magnetic feel, corner cutting and springs make this a ridiculously forgiving cube, on which I’ve been hitting faster times than usual both in CFOP and Roux. I suspect people with very high TPS will find this cube very very nice.

On this latter, the slices require a bit of effort due to the core magnets making your life more difficult and yielding the only (rare) lockups I get on this cube. But overall the leniency of the cube overall makes me get good times for my mediocre skill level. If Roux is your main method, however, I would probably suggest to get another cube.

As for those who’d like to know how it compares with the Tomato v2, they are two pretty much distinct cubes with few similarities: It sports the same center caps and an even better adjustment systems. However the differences are more important: It is larger, louder and with a higher-pitched overall sound, it feels heavier and with clicker magnets. It is also more forgiving and less prone to lock up, and provides a more sturdy alternative to other TPS favorites like the newest GANs, which tend to be flimsier and more prone to damage. All this at 1/3 the price.

Update: What are the differences between versions?
I've been able to test all three versions of the cube, and I'd say that they are minor variations on the same theme. The main difference between Standard and Flagship is being able to reduce the magnet power even further. Difference between Pioneer and Flagship is less noise and a range of spring compression setting that is more shifted toward the "loose" (I've been doing a lot of OH on the Pioneer and I'm quite a fan). Oh, and you can pop off the center caps without getting your fingers to bleed. Imagine that.

If I had to summarize what to choose, I'd say:

TLDR: A completely new direction compared to the Tomato2, it’s a great cube especially if you turn fast.

MoreTry Tianma X3 – It's a great cube that feels like ©#*†
First thing you'll notice is the shiny cheap plastic, the second one is that it is blocky and noisy, third that despite the very cheap feel, it is a pretty good cube. After playing with it for a couple of days, I can see what they tried to do: Reproduce the compact, sharp,  sturdy-but-hollow feel of the Gan12, as well as its very magnetic feel. That a new brand might want to emulate one of the big players in the field is understandable, that they did it in such a half-assed way, maybe too.

The cube is very fast, it sports the same effortless stiff turning that you find on the first Tengyun and the Gan12. Of this latter, it also has the same auto-align feature, which some love and others feel awkward at least until they get used to it. The magnetic click is very pronounced, among the strongest from recent cubes. Because of the heft of its pieces (this thing is nowhere near as light and gossamer-like as the Gan11/12) the inertia of pieces overshooting creates a vibration that makes the whole cube wobble a bit.

It's difficult to talk about corner-cutting for this cube, as the auto-align feature makes it never have to happen. If you really try, there's a narrow spot around the ~70 degrees where the cube will lock up, but good luck making that happen mid-solve. Slices are not great, the strong magnets don't let things flow without effort, and while for M slices that can be compensated with a bit more effort, S and E slices feel like scraping a bunch of Lego bricks together from the wrong side. Roux solvers might want to stay away from this one.

And yet, despite all that, the cube is not bad : it takes very little effort to turn, it is extremely forgiving of errors and overshoots.

The noise is loud and not in a good way, between the hollow pieces and magnet clicks it is a constant brrrrrrr, and not of the good kind . Its redeeming quality is that the pitch is rather low and the cube doesn't clack, but this thing is in no way silent. In terms of build and feel, they tried, and failed, at giving it a shiny look just like the current GAN flagship, but in the end it looks and feels like a clacky Yuxin Little Magic.

And finally, customization, or rather its lack of any. Yes, you can opt to buy a version with fewer magnets (I tested the Triple Magnetic version), and maybe that's going to be better for you. But since you won't know beforehand what might suit your style best, that's not as great an idea as the marketing team at MoreTry must have thought. Also, I ordered the maglev version but received a springed one instead, which indicates that the difference is not easy for vendors or resellers either. Not that I'm complaining, this thing already has enough magnets to feed a small family of metal golems.

TLDR: This is a good cube that feels very cheap but actually performs pretty well.

YJ MGC Evo – It's a Gan12, but made out of paper
The first word that comes to mind is papery : from the sound to the feeling of the friction when turning the pieces. Whilst it is not necessarily the lightest of cubes, the turning is effortless. Cubers who have tried the latest Gan cubes (11/12) will find the familiar feeling of light, hollow, solid pieces that move without needing much force.

Magnets are average, and keep the cube together most of the time (I sometimes screw up my J perms because of badly executed F moves that become wide Fs). The range of settings for the magnets is non-existent, to the point that you're never sure whether 6 is the strongest or weakest setting. The spring compression system is very easy to use and read, and the 10x settings are very well calibrated, allowing to go from very loose to very tight. There are no screws to adjust the travel distance, but the default works pretty well and adjusting the compression is enough to give a range of feelings. Also, can you please stop with the bloody frosted surface already?

You'll have some trouble getting this cube to lock up, it is extremely forgiving and corner-cuts smoothly in any real-life situation. Slices work very well making Roux solving very pleasant. Overall it is a fast cube that's effortless to turn, has a great new feel and sound with papery undertones and allowed me to get my usual times within 30min of playing with it.

TLDR: This is a great cube that feels different from most cubes I've tried.

Peak Cube S3R – It’s a Tornado v2, but blocky, noisy, and with IKEA’s approach to customisation
My first reaction was that this was a Tornado knock-off. The problem is that it is not and does not aim to be inexpensive. The pieces are hard and blocky and feel like a cheap cube. However, it turns great, and is both faster and more stable than a cheap cube tends to be (Cyclone Boys, Solar S, I'm looking at you). But at twice the price of most flagship cubes it doesn't bring the quality and feel of a Gan cube.

Nor does it have the performance of a flagship cube. The corner cutting is in line with that of most cubes coming out since 2019, but it does tend to hard-lock when it doesn't cut, which happens during normal solves (at least if you're as bad as me at turning).
The transparent inner surfaces look awesome but make weird squeaks for some reason. Swapping them does change the feel of the cube a bit, but frankly not more than adding denser vs more liquid lube. It doesn't solve the issue with lockups, nor the overall blockiness of the pieces. Magnets cannot be adjusted and tend to be on the strong side. That doesn't always work to its advantage, and makes slices less smooth than is comfortable for my Roux solving.

A note on customization : the DIY approach is an interesting idea, but it means spending 1+ hours taking off pieces trying to not destroy the plastic inserts to make them usable once again. The springs get entangled and require 20 minutes to separate out and insert, and having to replace the "screw" stopper entirely to change spring compression takes a ridiculous amount of time. It reminds me of the core-swapping, spring changing and Frankubestein hybrids that cubers used to put together 6-7 years ago. Today you can just buy another cube if you want a different feeling. And given the price of the S3R, you can buy 2-3 world-class cubes for that price and need a lot less time to set them up. Fun fact: the center caps are very well designed, and come off very easily compared to cubes where taking off the caps quickly would be more useful (as you can change their settings quickly). Interesting that of all the places where they could invest good design, this is where they decided to do it.

TLDR: If this was a 10$ cube I'd say "It's awesome for a cheap cube". At 4x that price it is not something I would advise anyone to buy.


Moyu WRM 2021 Maglev – It's purple
The WRM 2021 Maglev is a slight variation on the Moyu WRM 2021 that brings one fantastic addition and a terrible one. On the positive side, it has purple internals. They look great. Looks do play a role, and this one looks gorgeous. However, the maglev part doesn't feel like a great success. The cube spring settings can be adjusted between fast and fasterer, with the tighter adjustment that be come exceedingly tight and not very usable. This makes the cube very difficult to control for inaccurate turners like me.

The magnet settings range around the "weakish" center familiar to WRM cubes, but allow to go down to almost non-magnetic. Given the loose nature of the maglev springs, that makes the cube lose shape during sloppy executions of algs.

But when things go well, this cube is incredible: fast, super smooth, and very, very forgiving. Personally as the cube currently stands, it is too much of a high-risk high-reward cube, but for more accurate cubers it could be a very satisfying cube.

It also look gorgeous: the combination of Moyu's WRM colored outer-shell and internal-color sides make this one look super modern and slick. Hands down the most beautiful stock cube I've ever seen.

A quick update: I eventually got a Core-Corner magnets modding kit and... It changes things A LOT. They add that bit of stabilty that was missing for me, and turn this into the best cube I have right now, maining this thing for CFOP, Roux and OH: "Mom! I don't want to go home!". If you're getting this cube, invest in the core magnets kit.

TLDR: The maglev makes its adjustments range bad, but it's a very fast and very good cube

Gan 12 M Pro UV – If you can afford it, it's worth having it
The Gan12 Maglev is light, fast, has weird feeling magnets and an aimbot. It is also an awesome cube. Despite its lightness, the pieces feel more solid than on its predecessor, and it is less crunchy as well (squeezing it doesn't produce that distinctive crunch crunch of the Gan11). The speed is very fast so if you're used to "normal" cubes you need to lower the strength of your turning significantly. And some lube to slow it down a bit cannot hurt either. I found myself +2ing a lot of solves because my AUFs were a bit too enthusiastic and easily overshot by one or two quarter turns.

The magnets are... weird. Changing the corner setting (only magnet setting that can be adjusted) doesn't change the auto-homing mechanism, and it hardly changes the clickiness feel. It does, however, change how well the cube keeps its shape when abusing it a bit. Given the very light pieces that was an issue for me as I would generate lockups due to the lower layers borking out as I did my algs badly. The "springs" feel very very similar to the first Tengyun (with the good spring swapped): a bit stiff but with no friction. Here the customisation options are much more effective: the cube changes feel g a lot depending on what settings you use (with the travel distance playing more of a role than spring stiffness).

The comparison to the Tengy is relevant given that they are the 2 fastest cubes I've ever been able to use, but in contrast to it, the Gan12 has fantastic cornercutting, and besides the cases in which I mess up my cubeshape during algs, it rarely locks up, which tends to happen to me a lot more on the Tengy. The overall feeling of the cube is very different from other Gan cubes. If the Gan11 was a steroid version of the X/XS that removed most of their flaws while keeping that Gan feeling (at least it felt so to me), this one is a very different cube.

Then there's the UV coating. I had forgotten how it feels to be able to use a cube out of the box without it being a slippery piece of crap until the frosting wears off. This feels great (although the difference compared to a worn out well broken in cube is not huge), it is an added "quality of life" bonus that is just nice to have from the get go.

Which brings me to its price. This cube costs a lot. You can buy 2-3 stellar cubes for the same price. So if money is a concern, just get another cube. If you want something as fast, get a Tengy1. If you want the same forgiveness with inaccurate turning, get a WRM. But if you can afford it and want a cube that is great, this is something you can dunk a month worth of coffee into and be happy with.

TLDR: It is a new Tengy1, with better corner cutting, click magnets and auto-aim

XMan Tornado v2 – Very quiet, very modest, very good
The Tomato v2 is a lot less flashy than other flagship cubes, but it packs a bunch of innovative and very well executed features that make it a fantastic cube to have.

The customization is one of the clearest, most visible, most easy to change that I've seen in a cube. If you've ever used an adjustment system, you know the pain of finding that specific direction where the specular lights hit the cube just so and you can finally read the values on the spring/magnet. You will not have to do that for the Tornado. You do need a wonky tool in the shape of a bident, but even that is, by itself, a work of art: not only does it contain within itself a multitude of interchangeable screwdriver heads, they all have small magnets that clip to the inner container or to the driver itself. I find myself having only that in my bag and know that I have the cubing equivalent of a swiss-army knife at my disposal.

The cube is smaller than usual (in relative terms) at 54.5-ish mm, which works out well for my hands. It turns very smoothly and solidly. Corner-cuts at 70° (not that you ever need that) and does it in that gradual way that is not a violent snap. It doesn't really lock up, although it might hiccup a bit when turning badly, but never in a way that interrupts your alg executions. The overall feeling is of smoothness in turning, in sound, in looks.

And oh the quietness : I travel a lot, and have had many people coming up to me and asking me to "stop that noise". Never with the Tornado v2. It is also something I can cube with when visiting friends or family, as it doesn't interrupt or disturb the conversations or film-watching that might be going on.

TLDR: A very smooth cube I find myself using all the time when traveling as I know I won't be bothering anyone, and still have a top-performance cube

Moyu WRM (2019) Maglev – Because Why Not!
The Moyu Weilong Without Ridges M from 2019 is a fantastic cube that, despite having had a whopping 3 new cubes within the same flaghsip line in (more or less) as many years, is still being used by world-record breakers in 2022.
I've come to be in the Fans-of-the-WRM bandwagon lately as I only got ahold of one the past few months, and it has rapidly become one of my favorite cubes (although my favorite WRM remains the WRM 2020).

It is shiny, it comes from an era where slippery frosted surfaces were not the semi-ubiquitous mind-virus that infected all cube manufacturers the past 2 years. It feels a bit blocky and with the solid plastic that used to be used in 2019. It is not a light puzzle, but it doesnt ask for much effort to turn its faces. Corner cutting is what you'd expect from a modern Moyu cube, You can get it to lock up if you really try, but it's difficult, and wont ever happen mid-solve.

While ranting about the terrible, terrible thing that the newest WRM (2021 maglev) is (see review above), a brilliant mind (thank you Sevilz!) suggested to swap the maglev for normal springs. And in the same digital breath said "and put the maglev in the Wrm19". So I did. Oh boy.

Maybe it's the fact that the cube is just a tiny bit larger, heavier, "bulkier", which makes turning the faces accurately easier, but I find myself without any of the issues I so despise on the WRM21maglev.  The fact that the RS3M 2021 (maglev) also didnt give me problems and is ALSO a blocky/bulky cube, makes me think that maglev could be better on heavish cubes rather than light ones.

The WRM19maglev is now just faster without losing any of its controllability and smoothness. The "spring" compression in its default value is stiffer than with stock springs and makes me think of the Tengyun (v1) with the replacement (golden) springs (as if the whole face is solidly floating in the air, it turns very fast but can't distort too much). In all honesty, maybe just cleaning it out properly, relubing the thing and putting it on the looser settings would likely achieve something very similar, but I like to think that the wind of modernity is bringing a new life to this old cube.

Funnily enough I haven't heard it squeak once yet, so maybe it's not the maglev per se, but the combination of maglev and other pieces that make them squeak. This one is silent as... well it's still the WRM19, it's by no means a quiet cube. The lack of nuance in the tighter settings from the maglev, that irked me so on the WRM21)  is not an issue, as this cube seems to work well when not too tight.

I think I'm gonna keep it like this!

p.s. I now have TWO cubes that are better than before: I like the WRM21wasmaglev way better as it is now, on a medium tightness that was very hard to achieve with magnets.

TLDR: A great cube that compares well or better to any of its younger iterations, and the maglev works very well with it.

Dayan Zhanchi Pro M – That's how cube adjustments should be!
Out of the box it feels horrible: too tight but at the same time it manages to have the same shapemorphing qualities of the Tengy v2 (as in it loses shape for no good reason). However, the range of settings for springs and magnets are, surprisingly for Dayan, very good. Set the travel distance to the loosest setting (4/4) with stiff-ish springs and the cube becomes very fast, and reminds a lot the Tengy v1. Set distance at 2-3 and it's very reasonable, with 1 being a tad tight, but not unusably so. Tightening the screws 3/4 of a turn made it stop losing shape too much. It still feels like you could tear it apart just by pulling on two corners but it is, by and large, a very usable cube for solves, both CFOP and Roux. Magnet strength numbering is idiotic, with 1 being the strongest. However, the weakest setting (3) is actually reasonably weak without the unavoidable clickyness of the Guhong v4.

The plastic and shape feels a lot like the Guhong, with very sharp edges and hard plastic: a contrast to the Tengyun 1/2 with rounded edges and softer plastic (and sound). It is reasonably quiet, but can clack very loudly if the turning is not too accurate.

All in all, for once, settings let you truly go through a range of different feelings, rather than having a ton of options to essentially get the same cube in very slightly different flavours, all of which suck (thank you Tengy v2). It's also not a clicky mess with magnets that although technically weak, are impossible to not feel strongly (thank you Guhong v4).

TLDR: It's a very good cube, with a range of achievable settings that are actually useful and diverse.

Moyu RS3M 2021 – it's identical to the RS3M2020, so it's great
The Rs3m2021 was the cube that brought Maglev to the cubing scene. It is, for all intents and purposes, an Rs3m2020 with very slightly different spring compression settings.

The pieces are identical, same plastic, same mold, same shape or weight. You can interchange them flawlessly with the Rs3m2020. The friction is identical (the total friction of the springs is so minimal compared to the friction of all the pieces themselves that if you can "feel a difference" you're lying to yourself). The "springs" are... a bit looser: the Maglev lets you range on a slightly looser curve than the springs would, but mostly it's indistinguishable. If I didn't hear the Maglev squeak from time to time, I wouldn't be able to tell if it's the 2020 or 21 version.

As for its performance, it's a RS3M, it is fast, blocky, corner-cuts like magic, never (or almost) locks up and feels like a solid flagship cube. If the feeling was that the rs3m was too good to be as inexpensive as it was, the attempt to raise its price with this new iteration (a 40% increase) still leave it ridiculously cheap for the sheer quality of solving that it brings. If you're going to spend less than 20$ on a cube, this is the only cube you should really consider buying.

* Yes, maglev squeaks for some weird reason: did Moyu want to keep the signature spring squeaks from its predecessor?

TLDR: This cube should probably not exist, but it does, so we're happy. Buy one.

Yuxin Little Magic M – the little cube that could
The Little Magic is a surprisingly good cube, it performs on par with most new cubes, including flagships from the major brands. It corner-cuts well and it doesn't lock up randomly.
While it doesn't have adjustable settings, besides the screw for travel distance (which should be tightened from stock setting), it allows to find a good balance between stability and speed Mind you: if you're considering this cube, its "speed" is not going to be what makes you slow. It's plenty fast enough.

In terms of performance it's a great cube, it just... feels cheap. To the touch the plastic is not great, it looks and feels like a budget toy. But if you can get past that it will surprise you by how well it works.
It is also fantastically quiet, with a buttery sound and feel that reminds me of the Tengyun v2. For people cubing in social settings or public transportation that can be a very positive plus.

TLDR: It feels budget but performs like a much more expensive cube. If you need something quieter than the RS3M202x, this is a good alternative

DianSheng Solar S – A budget cube that is more expensive than a lot of better cubes
It looks like an old Gan, but feels like one of the new Dayans: same sharp and solid plastic, and similar issues with its springiness. There the comparison ends, it is a budget cube and if it cost a lot less it would be a perfectly fine first cube for many. However it wouldn't make the cut among budget cubes that are less expensive. So it doesn't really have a niche to fill.

The plastic feels cheap, with uneven cuts of the piece covers, some jagged edges that cut a bit into the fingers (those will probably wear off with time). It sounds like cheap plastic scraping against cheap plastic, but it is not too loud. It has no customization besides tightening the screws to reduce travel distance. This is not a surprise for a budget cube, but you could be paying half as much for a Meilong M and have a far superior cube without customization, or slightly less for an RS3M or YLM that perform much better than the Solar S.

In the end it's a modern cube with relatively forgiving corner cutting, but who loses shape easily and locks up.

TLDR: If you want a Dayan Guhong v4 that doesn't break for roughly the same price, go for it! Otherwise get a YLM, Meilong or RS3M instead.

Basilio Noris is a PhD in machine learning with a passion for cubing, data visualization and astrophotography. He did his academic research on the early diagnosis of Autism, bridging psychology, neurology and data science. He now runs a company doing analysis of human behavior in retail and manufacturing environments. For some reason, he  seems to find time to do things under the mistaken impression that he knows anything about cubing.