3x3 Gan Icarry S - Impressions & Long Winded Ramblings of this Beginner

[Dan the Beginner]

Hi, All. I am still here, and my PB is still around 40s. I have been waiting for an update of the Moyu Weilong AI Cube for so long that I decided to buy this brand new Gan ICarry S. The chargers for both my Moyu AI cubes are no longer working. The USB connector came off when pulling the USB cable. It is not soldered on to the circuit board, and just loosely clamped onto it. The cubes are really excellent, esp after my mod (putting on it Weilong 2021 pieces to get magnet adjustment), but the charger is flimsy, to put it mildly. Beware! And also the sensing is not perfect. Sometimes a turn is not detected for some reason. The software is atrocious. See my review or impressions elsewhere on this forum.

BTW, I believe that beginner reviews and comments are also important, as not everyone has the same finger speed, accuracy, recognition and other abilities as the top solvers. What works well for them may not work well for us, and vice versa. Not everybody spends half of their time awake turning cubes, or know even 1/10 the number of algorithms they know.

This cube is, after breaking in and adjustments, surprisingly nice. It feels nice to touch, feels solid, not as cheap and flimsy as the pieces on the Gan Mini M Pro, which were just too light and thin. In turning, it also feels nice after breaking in, not unlike the Tornado 3, i.e. crisp, but slightly more catchy, and definitely more noisy though lower in pitch. It is definitely fine if you are looking for a reasonably priced smartcube with adequate performance, IMHO. No, it is not as good in performance as the Tornado V3 Flagship, V2, Moyu Weilong AI, Weilong Maglev 2021, Weilong 2021, RS3M 2020 and a few others, when compared directly, but it is more than adequate or fairly good. It is better than GoCube, with its pillowed pieces very annoying and slippery. The fact that it has a battery that last 300+ hours is fantastic. After a while, any rechargeable smartcube user will find it inconvenient when the cube has to be re-charged, unless they have 2 of the same smartcube. Having 2 is still not as nice as a single cube that lasts forever, when your out and about or esp when travelling.

The Gan Cubestation is hard to set up and to use, but it is better than the Moyu AI software, as it actually gets occasional updates. It is usable in some features like Timing your solves, but very far from perfect. It took a lot of time, guessing and trialing before I got it installed and set up to do simple time keeping. It is really not worth my time writing about all the problem details in fact. I just use Cubeast instead, after trying for a couple of days to use its features. Why can't the cube makers see that software is the key to smartphone performance, and spend more effort and money on it? I would again urge any smartcube user to use Cubeast. One software and one single user interface to learn (for different cubes from different brands) is a big advantage, even if the Chinese cube makers eventually get their software working right. To use Gan smartcubes with Cubeast and other independent software, you will need to know the MAC address of your phone, PC or device. For phones, it is not easy to find. Use this App from Google Play - BLE Scanner, which is very easy to use.

The tension adjustment is not so easy. Warning. When putting the centre caps back on, make very sure they are totally level before pushing down. The tiny plastic hooks underneath can be bent and if pushed by force damaged. This is also very frustrating, as it is quite hard to align and to keep it level and to stay in the right position when pushing down.

In summary, I recommend this as a nice reasonably priced smartcube that works, when connected to Cubeast, or an independent software. I have no idea which other software would work or how the cube would be like long term. I am ready to give credit to Gan for this one. Let's hope Moyu will release an updated Weilong smartcube soon. Do you know that the Weilong AI Cube is actually Moyu's first ball-core cube? It has a ball core (but no core magnets).

 

[Dan the Beginner]

Some photos are attached.

I also considered the Gan 12 ui Freeplay, but at nearly 4 times the price, US$135, I did not want to take the risk. Besides I am confused about this expensive cube and need more reviews. I remember Shawn saying he didn't like the Gan 12 in his previous review video. For some reason, he seems to be all positive about this new Gan 12 ui Freeplay, which he said turns just like the Gan 12.

 

[Dan the Beginner]

Update. Connection is lost occasionally for some unknown reason, while using Cubeast. While scrambling, a Cubeast message appears, saying "Connect your Bluetooth cube". This happened about 5 times in the last 3 days. It's annoying, as you have to solve the puzzles and then reset the cube before any timing or features can be used. The battery is fine, according to
Cubeast (all green).

Other than that, it is working fine. The cube is quite noisy and can't be used in many places, eg doctors waiting rooms, quiet cafes, etc. It has twice got 6 drops of my heaviest lube, Nebula, since I got the cube a week ago. That makes it feel better in turning but did not do much to the the noise. Maybe I'm too sensitive. The Tornado V2 (black internal) is still the best quiet cube, with the Moyu 2021 Maglev a close second IMO.

 

[CatoWeeksbooth]

I had the same issue with my Gan 12 UI. Apparently the bluetooth connection on these new GAN smartcubes is very weak. It seems to work better if the distance between the cube and the computer is very short.

 

[OldSwiss]

Thanks for the review. I have similiar issues with losing the connection to cubeast with my GAN i3.

But it never happens with the GAN Cubestation app.
So maybe it's cubeast or the bluefy browser I use on my iPad bacause safari doesn't suppot bluetooth connections.

I think the Cubestation app has improved a lot since I first tried it. I's a little bit hard to set up but if this is done it works well.

The main advantage of cubeast is that I can track my solves also on my pc. And I like the recocnition time vs. execution time.
CubeStation has that too in the newer versions but you only see it if you go deeper into the reconstruction.

One problem I had with all my GAN Smartcubes: I like them out of the box but after the first lubing, they feel different.
Ive tried a lot of different lube, disassembled, cleaned, used a different lube, but I never get them back to the out of the box feeling they had in the beginning.

 

[Dan the Beginner]

Thanks for the review. I have similiar issues with losing the connection to cubeast with my GAN i3.

But it never happens with the GAN Cubestation app.
So maybe it's cubeast or the bluefy browser I use on my iPad bacause safari doesn't suppot bluetooth connections.

I think the Cubestation app has improved a lot since I first tried it. I's a little bit hard to set up but if this is done it works well.

The main advantage of cubeast is that I can track my solves also on my pc. And I like the recocnition time vs. execution time.
CubeStation has that too in the newer versions but you only see it if you go deeper into the reconstruction.

One problem I had with all my GAN Smartcubes: I like them out of the box but after the first lubing, they feel different.
Ive tried a lot of different lube, disassembled, cleaned, used a different lube, but I never get them back to the out of the box feeling they had in the beginning.

Thanks for your input, OldSwiss. Unfortunately, Cubeast, which I really like, still has issues in connection. I experienced it before numerous times with my Moyu Weilong AI Cube, usually at the end of a solve when the software just stopped (circle going round and round) and would not give me the solve time.

I am guessing but increasingly I feel it is not the hardware, but Cubeast. It might be something related to software code, as the software works usually but seems to have a particular problem in two places, when scrambling and when the solve finishes. I suspect there must be more work and data transfers during those times and the codes cannot keep up. When solving finishes, for me, it is when I turn the fastest (PLL). When Scrambling, because I choose to scramble myself, by turning the cube, that also means fast turning and Cubeast has to sense and record all those turns. I know my phone is not the fastest and it is Android, which usually gets poorer software support, but it was a top phone 3 years ago. I wish something could be done to look into this by Cubeast, maybe bigger buffers, code optimisation, our whatever.

I have a GoCube which never fails to connect (even when it's left nounused for weeks in another room) and its software never crashes. And Gocube is the grand daddy of smartcubes we now use. So, it would seem that something can be done. It may have to do with what the cube makers are willing to share, but it seems to me that reverse engineering should not be so hard for these products. Especially for Moyu, it is very hard to understand what they are thinking, doing or not doing, with smartcube and software. It reminds me of an all conquering iLC camera that Samsung released but then they quickly discontinued the whole line.

 

[Dan the Beginner]

I had the same issue with my Gan 12 UI. Apparently the bluetooth connection on these new GAN smartcubes is very weak. It seems to work better if the distance between the cube and the computer is very short.

I use my smartcubes right next to my phone (running Cubeast, Gan or Moyu software). So distance should not be a factor in my case. Lack of standards in interfaces, or cooperation and proprietary info, may have more to to with the sad state of smartcube functionality and interoperability.