V-Cube 5 Full Review

This is a little over due now, the video that probably made you want to go here was filmed maybe a week too late, like I said, I filmed over it. All the challenges and stuff I did last week prevented me from making the ones I really wanted to. So then here are my full thoughts on the V-Cube 5 (the black one mind you, not white… black).

The scructure, design, and turning clearly takes from the V-Cube 6, or rather the other way around. The whole internal mechanism is one large spherical structure allowing the pieces to smoothly rotate around them. The outer edges click a great deal for the amount they turn, I’ve seen a mod reversing this effect if necessary, apparently its the corners, but it doesn’t really bother me at this point I can still easily cut corners, without the fear of it exploding unlike the Eastsheen 5×5 and the Rubik’s 5×5. Matter how I turn it I really can’t get it to pop like a normal cube. As the picture below shows.

Needless to say, because it’s not popping it’s rather tight right now, I have only gotten a few sub-3 times with it in the past week. Despite this, the turning definitely makes up for this. Doing the centers and edges has never been so fun as I can cut the corners in a whole new dimension without it popping (again, as the picture shows). The stickers have the same qualities as the 6×6 they chip a little bit (as the picture here and the one below does) but at least they don’t peel like Rubik’s brand ones do.

The biggest con, and the most frustrating one yet that I’ve encountered is some weird oily stuff that was already in the cube, I have no idea what this is or how it got there. What I am certain though is that it’s not just because it’s black. I’ve gotten messages from people on YouTube asking me what to do about their excessively oily cube. So apparently I got it on a minor scale, but despite my cleaning efforts I can’t really get it out right now. I have an idea to run all the pieces but the core through my dishwasher, but not sure what effect that will have on the stickers. So if anyone knows anything about that then comment it below and I will be grateful.

So in conclusion: if you have big hands, you can’t get a good Rubik’s 5×5 to work out for you, and you are frustrated with the limiting turns on an Eastsheen. Then you should consider getting this if you’re going to pursue this puzzle more competitively. After I started to average <6 mins on the 6×6 and <1:30 mins on the 4×4 I really wanted to get my times between 2:30 or 2:00 at this point those times seem very far off but the V-cube seems to be a pick in the right direction, it just needs to be looser for me right now.

To finish I’d like to touch on something a little older. I’ve read a lot of comments on my original V-Cube 5-wrong-color video when I received the wrong product, saying that white is actually better? I cannot deny or confirm this, I don’t have a great amount of cubes or time to experiment this concept. I wanted black because I really like the classic look and I can recognize the contrast between the colors more easily. Sure I have some white cubes (a Minx of the Pyra and Mega variety, and a 6×6) and they work fine, but when it comes to the 2xx-5×5 I really can’t use anything but black effectively. I furthermore don’t see why a white cube would be faster, if you present some scientific evidence behind this I might believe you (like coefficients of friction and chemical reasons why white cubes are faster) and consider switching to white cubes.