Sub1Hour
Veteran
I've never really done a true in-depth puzzle review before and I figured I would give it a shot to see if its a fun or interesting process, as well as an excuse to make a in-depth serious post on the forms for the first time in years and see what's up with speedsolving these days.
Before getting into my review portion, here are a few tidbits of information about me that will contextualize the review. I don't really practice much these days but when I do its 5-7. I average a bit over 3 minutes on 7x7 these days so I am by no means fast but I'd call myself a "capable" big cube solver. I also have very large hands. The Ideal 7x7 size to me is somewhere in between the Aofu WRm and the Meilong 7x7 M. The Aofu WRm is my current main although I can get decent times on my Meilong, just a few seconds slower on average than on my Aofu. Both puzzles are dorito modded and I will likely dorito the Aofu v5 depending on how it performs. (All of this was written while the cube is still in its box on my desk)
Unboxing experience is fine. It comes with pretty minimal additional garbage compared to most other cubes these days, which I am quite a big fan of since I truly despise how much waste is created when all this fancy stuff inevitably goes in the trash because I don't care enough to keep a silky magnetic cube box sitting around for decoration. Just the cube, screwdriver, pamphlets, and one of them collector cards that no one really wants.
anyway onto the puzzle itself, it is shockingly small to me. The amount it shrunk compared to the Meilong is about the same as the Aofu WRM compared to the Meilong. Its size is in between the Aoshi WRm and the Aochuang v6, making this cube smaller than the consensus best 6x6 on the market. The outer layers are the same size as the Meilongs which makes for teeny tiny center pieces that just look plain wrong to me without getting used to them. Slice flicks were already out of the question for me with the Meilong so this will be more wrist turn slice moves I suppose. I do use Yau so that's a bit annoying but not completely devastating.
The turning itself out of the box is quite dry, feeling very similar to the Meilong OOTB but it doesn't have that swooshy feel present, at least not yet. I also got the single track version since that is the version of the Aochuang that I use and I figured if I really wanted to I can get a dual track later on. Magnets are pretty weak but not in a way that causes problems. Each layer turns very smoothly but you can still feel the magnets when you turn slowly along a single layer. There is a light layer of lubrication within the puzzle but not enough for there to be any substance within the pieces, making it feel a bit jarring to turn at times with harsher corner cuts. After just doing some turns and drilling algs on it the size doesn't feel to be as much of a problem, hopefully that remains the case when I do a solve on it.
Just did my first solve and somehow the size feels better to me than the Meilong, but not as good as the WRM. I have no Idea why this is but it feels better in my hands than I would've expected. It is quite locky at times but that is to be expected of an unlubricated untensioned big cube. Other than that though I didn't notice any major issues with the puzzle. I got a 3:30 which isnt surprising since that was my first solve of anything (other than a few on a shengshou clock v2 I also got) of the day, and thats around what the first solve of the day is for me. I think the magnet strength is a little bit too weak on the single track for my personal standards, so I'd pick up the double track. I'm going to be picking up a dual track version this weekend (hopefully) and if I can remember to update this post with the dual track version then great, but I will likely forget. anyway, onto setup and tensioning.
I set the cube up with weight 5 on the core and weight 1 and FZ calm on the pieces, a pretty common setup of mine for most cubes these days. I am very pleased that the cube needed to be slowed down with FZ calm as opposed to sped up with XMT. The cube is still quite fast and I am getting used to it but overall I am quite happy with the performance of the puzzle in its current state and I'm sure its a matter of time before I am back to my normal times for this puzzle.
anyway, here are my closing remarks for this puzzle. Get it if you really really want something smaller (or alternatively look into Qiyi's and Diansheng's new offerings, although I have not tried either), but if you just want a reliable 7x7 I'd still go with the Meilong. If you are really wanting an upgrade though, I think overall its a well rounded cube and as long as you don't mind the smaller size (which unless you are in the 95th percentile of hand size you should be totally okay with it, coming from an individual with large hands and rather fat sausage fingers).
Maybe once I get my hands on the new Diansheng and Qiyi 7x7s I'll change my recommendation to one of them but overall I am very pleased with the Aofu v5 and I would highly recommend it. If you don't mind spending the extra few bucks for the double track I'd spring for that as of now, but the single track version is perfectly serviceable and is still a great use of your money.
Before getting into my review portion, here are a few tidbits of information about me that will contextualize the review. I don't really practice much these days but when I do its 5-7. I average a bit over 3 minutes on 7x7 these days so I am by no means fast but I'd call myself a "capable" big cube solver. I also have very large hands. The Ideal 7x7 size to me is somewhere in between the Aofu WRm and the Meilong 7x7 M. The Aofu WRm is my current main although I can get decent times on my Meilong, just a few seconds slower on average than on my Aofu. Both puzzles are dorito modded and I will likely dorito the Aofu v5 depending on how it performs. (All of this was written while the cube is still in its box on my desk)
Unboxing experience is fine. It comes with pretty minimal additional garbage compared to most other cubes these days, which I am quite a big fan of since I truly despise how much waste is created when all this fancy stuff inevitably goes in the trash because I don't care enough to keep a silky magnetic cube box sitting around for decoration. Just the cube, screwdriver, pamphlets, and one of them collector cards that no one really wants.
anyway onto the puzzle itself, it is shockingly small to me. The amount it shrunk compared to the Meilong is about the same as the Aofu WRM compared to the Meilong. Its size is in between the Aoshi WRm and the Aochuang v6, making this cube smaller than the consensus best 6x6 on the market. The outer layers are the same size as the Meilongs which makes for teeny tiny center pieces that just look plain wrong to me without getting used to them. Slice flicks were already out of the question for me with the Meilong so this will be more wrist turn slice moves I suppose. I do use Yau so that's a bit annoying but not completely devastating.
The turning itself out of the box is quite dry, feeling very similar to the Meilong OOTB but it doesn't have that swooshy feel present, at least not yet. I also got the single track version since that is the version of the Aochuang that I use and I figured if I really wanted to I can get a dual track later on. Magnets are pretty weak but not in a way that causes problems. Each layer turns very smoothly but you can still feel the magnets when you turn slowly along a single layer. There is a light layer of lubrication within the puzzle but not enough for there to be any substance within the pieces, making it feel a bit jarring to turn at times with harsher corner cuts. After just doing some turns and drilling algs on it the size doesn't feel to be as much of a problem, hopefully that remains the case when I do a solve on it.
Just did my first solve and somehow the size feels better to me than the Meilong, but not as good as the WRM. I have no Idea why this is but it feels better in my hands than I would've expected. It is quite locky at times but that is to be expected of an unlubricated untensioned big cube. Other than that though I didn't notice any major issues with the puzzle. I got a 3:30 which isnt surprising since that was my first solve of anything (other than a few on a shengshou clock v2 I also got) of the day, and thats around what the first solve of the day is for me. I think the magnet strength is a little bit too weak on the single track for my personal standards, so I'd pick up the double track. I'm going to be picking up a dual track version this weekend (hopefully) and if I can remember to update this post with the dual track version then great, but I will likely forget. anyway, onto setup and tensioning.
I set the cube up with weight 5 on the core and weight 1 and FZ calm on the pieces, a pretty common setup of mine for most cubes these days. I am very pleased that the cube needed to be slowed down with FZ calm as opposed to sped up with XMT. The cube is still quite fast and I am getting used to it but overall I am quite happy with the performance of the puzzle in its current state and I'm sure its a matter of time before I am back to my normal times for this puzzle.
anyway, here are my closing remarks for this puzzle. Get it if you really really want something smaller (or alternatively look into Qiyi's and Diansheng's new offerings, although I have not tried either), but if you just want a reliable 7x7 I'd still go with the Meilong. If you are really wanting an upgrade though, I think overall its a well rounded cube and as long as you don't mind the smaller size (which unless you are in the 95th percentile of hand size you should be totally okay with it, coming from an individual with large hands and rather fat sausage fingers).
Maybe once I get my hands on the new Diansheng and Qiyi 7x7s I'll change my recommendation to one of them but overall I am very pleased with the Aofu v5 and I would highly recommend it. If you don't mind spending the extra few bucks for the double track I'd spring for that as of now, but the single track version is perfectly serviceable and is still a great use of your money.
