F-II or the GuHong?

[RopedBBQ]

Why choose?

I dont have much money. No one in my family does (Dad lost his job, Mom doesnt have one, moving due to poverty), and I have no way of making money, other than chores for neighborhood people, which come around rarely. Thats why I have to choose.

 

[WastedMeerkat]

Why choose?

I dont have much money. No one in my family does (Dad lost his job, Mom doesnt have one, moving due to poverty), and I have no way of making money, other than chores for neighborhood people, which come around rarely. Thats why I have to choose.

Yikes. Man, that really sucks.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

I recommend an FII as it's only $7.38 shipped, presassembled, prelubed, and great out of the box (minus the stickers and caps issue but cubesmith stickers are $2.50 and I would be surprised if you didn't have a small thing of glue, super glue, rubber cement, etc).

The GuHong is a few bucks more expensive, you will have to buy lube, and assemble it.

 

[Akuma]

There has been a lot of negativity here on the forums directed at the YJ 3x3, but I think that's mainly due to it being a knock off, but I have no idea if it's a "good" cube to use by any means.

Can you really count the Cube4You cube since you have to pay shipping from C4Y? They aren't $7 or less on Lightake.

The Guo Jia 3x3's can't cut corners very well, definitely not as good as the FII.

Where did you find the Haiyan for $7? Free shipping too?

The QJ 6.7cm 4x4x4 is not $7 or less on Lightake either, and chances are the site you are buying it from you'll have to pay shipping.

The YJ 3x3x3 can actually cut corners better than the F-II. Yes, you read that right, better than the F-II.
However, the F-II makes up for that by being a much smoother cube than the YJ 3x3. Cheap knock off or not, the YJ is overall a very lightweight cube, smooth and very competent cube. I have used it as my main speedcube longer than any other cube and it is by far not a bad cube.

I bought my C4U cube for 8 dollars here shipping included. I don't need to say much about the C4U since most people already know how it preforms.

The Guo Jia 52mm minicube that I bought differs from the normal 3x3x3. Since its smaller, it requires less force to turn thus enhancing the turnspeed of the cube which makes up a lot for the lack of curner cutting. It is excellent for OH cubing and the stickers that came with it are amongst the highest quality I've ever seen.

The Hayian I got for sub $10. I cannot remember from where but if I find the link I will post it.

The QJ 6.7cm 4x4x4 cost me $8 shipping included here

To me the F-II is overpriced because it costs as much as a decent 4x4x4 and because the stickers that came on it are the worst kind of stickers I ever had on a cube. The red/orange are more like brown/light brown and the quality of the stickers are absolutely abysmal. They might as well have sold the cube for a dollar less without stickers on it!
About the slippery-ness, that is entirely subjective; I know, but to me one out of ten solves I slip and completely mess up my solve when solving with it. That doesn't mean its a bad cube: it just takes time to adapt to. Overall the F-II in my opinion are for people who turn the cube very fast and need that very high speed turning i.e ZZ-solvers.
I have made a YouTube review on the F-II but I haven't been able to upload it yet to YouTube. Will post it later on.

Are we done with this stupid argument?

 

[FatBoyXPC]

I didn't realize there is much of an argument since $8 is clearly not $7 or less. I realize it's only an extra dollar but the question that was asked did not ask $8 or less, or "around" $7, it said $7 or less.

I have a mini A that is quite similar to the 52mm Guo Jia cube except it's 46mm. Yes it is quite easy to turn (almost like my way too fast eastsheen 2x2 but not quite as fast), but I disagree with the fact it makes up for corner cutting (because it will lock if you try to cut corners. So basically if you cube with a style that usually cuts corners you are kind of hosed). I will gie you though that the stickers on it are very nice.

I would very much like the link for the Haiyan since I can only find it for around $12 (and I Just put in a $47.89 order on Lightake).

 

[RopedBBQ]

Why choose?

I dont have much money. No one in my family does (Dad lost his job, Mom doesnt have one, moving due to poverty), and I have no way of making money, other than chores for neighborhood people, which come around rarely. Thats why I have to choose.

Yikes. Man, that really sucks.

So I've heard.... And it goes beyond that..

And if theres a haiyan for only 7$ that might compete with what I buy.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Lightake has a HaiYan DIY kit for $11 and the preassembled for $12.

 

[Bounb]

Sounds like you decided on the f-ii but fwiw, I recently purchased both the guhong and f-ii and they're both excellent (although the guhong
must be lubed,f-ii is prelubed). I personally prefer the guhong, it feels smoother and slightly less lockup prone. Whichever you choose you won't be disappointed (but get lube with the guhong!)

 

[dillonbladez]

I would go for the F-II myself, since it IS my main speedcube.

I can't argue with akuma though. It is pretty slippery, so you best be careful and make sure all sides are aligned when solving.

the sticker part...
I've had both the new and old F-IIs. The stickers were worse on the older version, but it didn't fade that badly. I used it for 3 months... I think. The newer version had great stickers, and did NOT fade when I solved. I had the stickers on for about a month. The only reason why I replaced the stickers was because it peeled. I loved the colours of the stickers, though.

The YJ 3x3 is not a bad cube at all, by any means. Regardless of knock-off or not, all cubes should be judged on their performance, and not whether they were based on a different cube. The only reason why I dislike the YJ 3x3 is because of the lockups.

I wouldn't go for the Alpha/Type A cubes if you like very smooth cubes. In my experience, the Type A cubes have a very "rough" feeling, very different from smooth.
The C4Y locks up if you don't tension it properly, but since I don't, I don't like it.

So, ... the cube I think that would best suit you is the F-II overall. Due to it being prepackaged and prelubed, and being less than 10 dollars (Can't find good cubes for less than 10 dollars now, I'm afraid D: ) I hope you do have some other lubricants, once the super-magical F-II lube wears out. I recommend Jig-A-Loo (worked well for me, but not others), Maru Lube (you don't get much for 3 dollars, but it is like liquid gold xD), or Shock-Oil for your F-II.
If you do have the money, though, I recommend getting a C4Y core. Some people have used this extremely strong core, and reported that it does not feel any different. Why I recommend it is because the core itself is very strong, and lots of people have broken their F-II cores.

So, uh, hopefully this post was of some use to you, and good luck

 

[ChrisBird]

So gluing caps is a lot of fixing?
Stickers are a problem when you have cubesmith?
It's bad because you can't handle the smoothness?
~$7 is a "tad overpriced"?

I want to know what cubes are less than $7, take no work, have amazing stickers, and are perfectly set to your preference right out of the box.

Tell me now.

~Chris

YJ 3x3
C4U 3x3 (D.I.Y but still)
Guo Jia 3x3 52mm
Hayian 3x3
QJ 6.7cm 4x4x4
Should I go on?

Please re-read the bold part and rethink your response.

 

[Akuma]

Is it just me or amI the only one to realize that an F-II isn't going to give you mutch of an advantage if you're at ~40-second solve averages?

I didn't even bother with serious speedcubes until I started reaching sub-30 second averages. It seems to me that you still have long ways to go before you can fully get the advantage the F-II delivers.
Just buy a cheap D-I.Y cube for 4-5 bucks instead and continue working on your lookahead by slow turning. An F-II nor a GouHong is not going to help you a great deal at this point.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

It probably won't give you much of an advantage, but shaving 5 seconds off due to terrible lockups and/or pops could certainly make somebody feel better (and a confidence boost is usually all that's needed to start making progress again after getting brick walled).

Buying an FII at the moment might actually be a bad idea. If you don't drop from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in good time but put a lot of use into the cube, you'll never see the full benefits of the cube (really I don't even see the best benefits just due to the fact I've only had less than 20 sub18 solves and my turning and look ahead is nowhere near fast enough to get sub10 anytime soon).

Akuma has a great point. Spend less money getting a cheap DIY that will perform much better than you expect (or a $4 or $5 ghost hand which performs similar to an FII), and work more on your look ahead, and when you approach low 30 or sub 30, get those PLLs nailed down (this is where fast turning matters). Just please beware that it is quite easy to hit 25 second averages with slow turning.

 

[oval30]

i dropped from 40 to 30 with f II, but guhong is way better believe me. (too lazy to update my signature, sorry, dont believe my signature it is not my latest

 

[Zarlor]

So gluing caps is a lot of fixing?
Stickers are a problem when you have cubesmith?
It's bad because you can't handle the smoothness?
~$7 is a "tad overpriced"?

I want to know what cubes are less than $7, take no work, have amazing stickers, and are perfectly set to your preference right out of the box.

Tell me now.

~Chris

The C-II.

The C-II has the same basic cubie shape as the F-II, none of the caps have come out on me, the stickers are of the same quality and color as the Maru 4x4 and it was smooth and tensioned well out of the box. It was $7.66, so it doesn't fit your "less that $7" requirement though.

I'm just giving you a hard time because the OP does have a point about how crappy some of the things on the F-II are out of the box. Those stickers are all white and they like print the color on with a color printer or something. They were turning all white on me within a week of usage. I was crossing the street and I put it in my pocket when I heard something fall on the ground and I saw it was a corner cap. I quickly snatched it up before I or it got run over by a car. I have since put on the F cubesmith stickers and I have superglued all of the caps (with the exception of the center caps of course).

 

[Daniel Wu]

So gluing caps is a lot of fixing?
Stickers are a problem when you have cubesmith?
It's bad because you can't handle the smoothness?
~$7 is a "tad overpriced"?

I want to know what cubes are less than $7, take no work, have amazing stickers, and are perfectly set to your preference right out of the box.

Tell me now.

~Chris

The C-II.

The C-II has the same basic cubie shape as the F-II, none of the caps have come out on me, the stickers are of the same quality and color as the Maru 4x4 and it was smooth and tensioned well out of the box. It was $7.66, so it doesn't fit your "less that $7" requirement though.

I'm just giving you a hard time because the OP does have a point about how crappy some of the things on the F-II are out of the box. Those stickers are all white and they like print the color on with a color printer or something. They were turning all white on me within a week of usage. I was crossing the street and I put it in my pocket when I heard something fall on the ground and I saw it was a corner cap. I quickly snatched it up before I or it got run over by a car. I have since put on the F cubesmith stickers and I have superglued all of the caps (with the exception of the center caps of course).

I've had almost the exact same experience with the FII. The stickers turned white. Then random caps started coming out. So I restickered it and glued all of the caps except the centers down.

 

[RopedBBQ]

Is it just me or amI the only one to realize that an F-II isn't going to give you mutch of an advantage if you're at ~40-second solve averages?

I didn't even bother with serious speedcubes until I started reaching sub-30 second averages. It seems to me that you still have long ways to go before you can fully get the advantage the F-II delivers.
Just buy a cheap D-I.Y cube for 4-5 bucks instead and continue working on your lookahead by slow turning. An F-II nor a GouHong is not going to help you a great deal at this point.

It probably won't give you much of an advantage, but shaving 5 seconds off due to terrible lockups and/or pops could certainly make somebody feel better (and a confidence boost is usually all that's needed to start making progress again after getting brick walled).

Buying an FII at the moment might actually be a bad idea. If you don't drop from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in good time but put a lot of use into the cube, you'll never see the full benefits of the cube (really I don't even see the best benefits just due to the fact I've only had less than 20 sub18 solves and my turning and look ahead is nowhere near fast enough to get sub10 anytime soon).

Akuma has a great point. Spend less money getting a cheap DIY that will perform much better than you expect (or a $4 or $5 ghost hand which performs similar to an FII), and work more on your look ahead, and when you approach low 30 or sub 30, get those PLLs nailed down (this is where fast turning matters). Just please beware that it is quite easy to hit 25 second averages with slow turning.

The 40 second averages are without fridrich f2l. My plls are all executed in under 6 seconds. I know 14 out of the 21 plls, I just learn them slowly.

Im in the process of learning fridrich f2l... The reason I REALLY need a new cube is because I have a minimum of 1 lockup every two solves... maybe even one per solve, and 1 out of every five solves is a pop.



As for a Ghosthand ? If F-II was a 10 on a scale (just assuming) what would a ghosthand be?

 

[Radcuber]

I'm assuming from what I've heard that the Ghosthand is an 8? I could be majorly wrong though.

 

[Yes We Can!]

F2 is extremely good without lube. GuHong is very bad without.

I would say, get both because they are completely different (the feeling). They are both amazing cubes!