NewIsland Phoenix Review

This is my first stickerless cube, I normally I would not have gotten it because of its stickerless. I have a policy of only reviewing WCA legal cubes, while stickerless cubes are not currently allowed in WCA competitions, there is a chance that they will be legal in the 2015 regulations. Given this, when NewIsland offered me to try their new cube, the Phoenix, I decided to give it a shot, making the gamble that I’ll be able to use it in 2015. The stickerless nature of the cube didn’t provided anything new but the internals and turning mechanism did, I quickly discovered this is a very different cube from what is already out there.

About NewIsland or: how a new cube company emerges

(You can skip this part but I think it’s a rare insight into a cube company) I’ve been wondering a bit about how a company starts making cubes, I’ve been in contact with NewIsland and out of curiosity I asked them a little more about themselves. To paraphrase, NewIsland is a new cube brand based in ShenZhen, China, previously their factory made other toys like yo-yo’s and snap bracelets. Recently, they reached out to some cubers in China to design some new cubes and we’re starting to see those now. They added that while there are a lot of cube companies in ShenZhen, their manufacturers are in other cities. This adds a level of quality assurance since they’re manufacture and sell the cubes themselves. Anyway…

What Comes in the Box

• Cube, prelubicated I’ve been told with D39. The lubricant was a minor irritant for me, it could be the D39 or it could be that I’m more used to less toxic stuff.
• Instructions, in relatively good English.
• Felt bag, just barely big enough to hold the cube.

Colors and Stickerlessness

When standstill, the colors look nicely balanced, I particularly like the brightness of the blue. But when you start turning faster the warmer colors (yellow, orange, red) blend together just enough to cause some confusion from time to time, often in the form of improperly placed F2L pairs. It’s not a show stopping issue though.

The stickerlessness of the cube adds some attributes I did not expect. First the shape of the cube is more, well, cubic. There is very little bevel on the cube leaving your hands to occasionally catch an oddly sharp edge. Compared to many other cubes around these days, this is abnormal, I might posit that cubes are becoming more and more bevelled.

The other attribute stickerlessness adds is a lack of friction, without stickers to grip, there is just the cube. This has led to fumbling the cube a few times, I believe it could also be from lubricant getting on the surface of the cube, but enough wiping down of the surfaces has somewhat negated this belief. Like the colors, these are not show stopping issues.

Turning

The turning is smooth and relatively quiet. It turns definitively better than any other cube I’ve tried. This can lead to very very fast times, but also a loss of control during a solve. Combine this with the fumbling attributes mentioned above and a good solve can quickly turn south due to ambitious fingers.

The faces cut in both directions at a fairly high angle, I don’t think I’m able to do Y perms on many other cubes faster than I can on this cube.

Internal Structure

The structure is what you should come to expect from modern cubes, with a few variations. Here are a few pictures:

Manufacturer’s note: plastic is made of ABS material a non-poisonous material which the color would never fade from.

Wrap Up

Ultimately stickerless cubes are not legal under the WCA. So keep that in mind when buying this. I’ve been in contact with the makers and they’ve confirmed that a stickered version is coming. If you’re already fast, and you like stickerless cubes the NewIsland Phoenix is for you. Otherwise, you might want to wait at least until a stickered version comes out, I don’t think this is a good cube for beginners. You can get the NewIsland Phoenix from Amazon for 11.99.

(Edit Jan 2, 2015): There is now a stickered version of the cube available through Amazon here.