I just got this cube on Thursday afternoon last week (Aug 27th), it is currently Tuesday morning (Sep 1st), and so I've only had about 4 full days with this cube so far. However, I've already racked up about 1200 solves on it, with about 15 hours of time spent on actively inspecting or solving according to my CSTimer data, I took it to my first competition on Aug 29th, and I have some things to say about it. Some of it bad, mostly good, though.
In an attempt to keep from being overly wordy and writing a book of a review (it's not going to work), I'm going to frontload this with my bullet points, and then elaborate on what I think is important or noteworthy afterward. I'll probably continue to update it over the rest of the day as I use the cube and remember more things about it. If you have any questions about something I didn't cover, I might also go back and edit it into the review after responding to the comment.
Overview
The Cube: FanXin HuDong Light Standard
Features
- Matte finish
- Flat/non-beveled center caps
- 8 setting spring compression dial with fixed visual indicator
- Screw adjustable tension/center travel
- Isolated spring/center piece design design
- Center piece skirting
- Standard 48 magnet piece-to-piece magnetization
- 8 magnet ball-core
- Repelling edge magnets
- Corner-to-core magnets
- Edge foot-to-corner foot magnetization
- 2 magnets per edge foot
- 3 magnets per corner foot
Out of the Box/Factory Feel and Performance
- 4 out of 8 compression
- "Medium" tension/center travel
- Decently fast (faster when looser, of course)
- Bone dry
- Slightly scratchy and thin papery texture with a softness to it
- Quiet, more muted and lower pitched sound
- Light/easy turning resistance
- Chunky/weighty turning feel and momentum
- Passable corner cutting
- Approx. 20-30 degree auto-alignment
- Strong magnetic alignment at start/end of turns
- Weaker magnetic alignment near middle of turns
- Very stable
- Tight and blocky yet flexible
- Very little catching or locking up
What I Like
- Everyone at the comp was like "Is that the HuDong?!"
- Matte finish (after it's broken in some)
- Turning feel and momentum
- Light turning resistance
- Piece-to-piece "tightness"
- Stability
- Flexibility
- Snappy turn finishes
- The isolated spring, little to no spring noise or friction
- Actually hand-adjustable compression dial
- Screw tensioning
What I Dislike
- Matte finish (not broken in)
- Loose center caps
- Minimal response to thinner lubes
- Deceptively blocky (see notes on stability and flexibility)
- Corner catching, twisting and "snapping" at looser settings (see notes on stability and flexibility)
- Friction between tension screw and compression dial
- M Slices are kind of difficult
Details
The Matte Finish
Before the HuDong, I'd never used a cube with a matte finish. Most of my cubes are UV coated, some of them just have a glossy finish. I like the matte finish... after it's been broken in. Before it's been broken in some, it does make it hard to grip the cube. I felt like my fingers were just slipping over the surfaces during solves, which was of course only made worse if I managed to get any amount of lube on the outside of the cube.
After it's been broken in some (which took a few hundred solves at least), I think I prefer the matte finish over the UV or glossy finishes. It no feels slippery, I have no trouble keeping a grip on the cube, and it feels softer than the UV or glossy finishes.
Turning Feel
The HuDong feels like it keeps more of it's weight further away from the core and in the pieces than a lot of other cubes, probably thanks to the foot-to-foot magnets between the corners and edges. I don't think this adds much if any additional turning resistance, but it does make turns feel "chunky" or weighty, in that you can feel the weight of the layer rotating. I think this also helps it keep some momentum. The magnetic alignment isn't super strong, or at least, doesn't have a wide magnetic radius. It's definitely stronger at the start and end of turns, and feels pretty weak in the middle of turns despite the repelling edge magnets. I don't think that disparity in the curve is necessarily bad, though, as the weighty momentum helps carry the turn through until the magnets help pull it into alignment at the end. The actual feel/texture of the pieces moving against each other isn't very smooth, having that scratchy and papery feeling to it, but it also isn't super friction-y, so I don't feel like there's a ton of drag slowing turns down. I haven't had any instances of turns not completing that I can remember, and I've also only had a few instances of overshooting turns on very loose tension with a decent amount of thin and fast lube in the cube.
Stability and Flexibility
At it's factory settings (4 out of 8 compression, "medium" tension), the HuDong feels exceptionally stable, the pieces seem to fit together pretty tightly, it keeps it's shape very well while turning, and yet it remains pretty flexible. The corner cutting was alright out of the box, as in it was able to cut well enough from about 35 degrees in either direction, and that was enough that I never felt like it was holding me back during solves. I'm not fast, averaging something like 22-23 seconds, though, so the corner cutting probably isn't that important for me at the moment, anyway.
I tend to like my cubes faster and looser, so I pretty quickly reduced the compression all the way and back off the tension/center travel about a full turn and a half of the screw. This of course helped the cube speed up and gave it some more flexibility, but it didn't really make it feel much less stable during solves. I mean, it could deform more if you made it, but still does a good job of resisting deformation at speed, thanks I think mostly to the center piece skirts and the foot-to-foot magnets. It's pretty forgiving. Contrast that with something like the GuHong Pro+, which feels like it's any shape other than a cube at it's looser settings and will definitely punish you for getting sloppy. I still love you, GuHong, you're just a little crazy sometimes.
However... because it can feel tight and keep it's shape so well, it may seem less flexible than it really is when you're adjusting the tension. You'll loosen the screws, give it some test turns, do some cutting, move the pieces apart to get a feel for how loose it is, decide it feels fine and is still stable enough... and then edge pieces start falling out as soon as you start a fast solve, and it still doesn't really feel unstable at all while it's falling apart. It could probably benefit from some slightly longer torpedoes. This is what I meant when I said it was deceptively blocky above. It can still definitely be loose and flexible enough without falling apart, but it can also trick you into thinking it can be even looser. Do some hard cuts after you loosen the tension just to be sure.
Now, the corner catching and "snapping"... it does lose some stability at looser settings, as you would expect from any cube. It also does keep it's stability better than most of my other cubes (the TianMa X3+ is probably about on par with the HuDong), but because of how well it likes to keep it's shape, it seems like it pulls the corners back against other pieces harder, or just doesn't allow them to flex enough, while cutting, which can lead to them catching, "snapping" pretty hard over the piece they catch on, which can be jarring or make you think the turn didn't actually happen, and sometimes also results in corner twists as it's forced over the other piece. The "snap" isn't always accompanied by an abnormal amount of resistance from the cutting, so it's easy to just ignore it and keep going, only to realize later into the solve that something is wrong and find out you have a twisted corner. Tightening down the tension a little, maybe 1/2 turn of the screw, essentially eliminates this problem while still keeping the cube loose and flexible enough, though.
Isolated Spring and Screw-Dial Friction
The spring is isolated inside the center in that it sits between the bottom of the center and the bottom half of the compression dial. The compression dial is fixed inside the center and turns with it, and the spring does not make contact with the screw or anything else that is going to move against it, meaning you don't have any friction or drag from the spring itself. There may be just a slight amount of spring noise due to it deforming under compression, but it shouldn't actually contribute to friction.
The dial does make contact with the tension screw, though, and that does contribute to friction and noise. For some reason it took me a few days to recognize this after deciding that there was no need to lube the springs. I put a bit of PiLube purple all over the length of the screws and under the head where it makes the most contact with the compression dial, and this did result in a slight speed up and slightly less noticeable friction. It also resulted in getting lube all over the hand-adjustable dial, meaning I am now getting lube on my fingers should I want to adjust the compression with my hands.
Just something to pay attention to should you buy this cube.
Loose Center Caps
They're loose. They come off sometimes, like during the last solve of your first competition. Maybe 2 of them come off at different points during that solve.
I noticed right away the first time I removed the caps to make adjustments that they don't fit in the centers very tightly. I had a cap fall out once or twice at home before I took the HuDung to my first comp. I had been doing a ton of solves on it trying to get it broken in and dial in my setup, so I didn't think much of it beyond that maybe I just didn't push them in well.
Long story short, I made the dumb decision to mess with my GuHong Pro+'s lube setup right before the first round of 3x3, made it too slippery and uncontrollable, and made the last second decision to use the HuDong. It did perfectly well up until the the last solve of the round, when I last the green cap during the cross and the blue cap during OLL.
I don't think I've ever actually had a cap fall off of another cube before (except for when an unsecured adjustment system exploded out of the GuHong mid-solve). I've dropped all of my cubes right onto hard floors multiple times because I'm clumsy and apparently I haven't learned to stop solving in the kitchen while waiting on the microwave, and still haven't had a cap come off. Yet, it happened to the HuDong pretty fresh out of the box, it happened twice on one solve at the comp, and it's happened a few times at home since.
Now, I have noticed that it tends to happen when I have the tension loosened up more, as if the screw itself just isn't allowing for the cap to be depressed all the way down into the center. This means that unless I want to just accept that the caps may come off during solves, I need to tension it down tighter than I'd like.
On another cube, I might find this completely unacceptable, but for the HuDong, I reluctantly give it a pass and keep it in regular service simply because it's still more than fast and flexible enough for me even when it's a little tighter than I'd like it to be. If it were the RS3M V5 of the MGC Beta, it would be an instant deal-breaker, because I can't stand those tensioned down any more tightly than I already have them.
I've contemplated putting just a tiny bit of super glue or something that will remain a little soft when dry either on the notches in the center pieces or around the protrusions of the caps themselves to see if that helps them stay in place, but I don't want to accidentally ruin the cube by getting some in the wrong places.
Overall Impression
All in all, I really like this cube. It's not the fastest, but it's definitely fast enough, and it's easy to turn. I like the weighty and defined feeling of how it turns, how you can feel the weight and momentum as it moves before being locked into place at the end. It's very flexible, yet tight, stable and very controllable. It feels mechanical, but at the same time there is a dense softness to it.
It has some issues with catching/locking, popping edges and twisting corners when it doesn't even feel like it's loose enough for that to be possible, but it still more than fast and flexible enough when it's tightened down enough to prevent or mitigate those issues. And really, I think that speaks more to it's inherent stability than any propensity for instability, in that it retains it's shape and stability exceptionally well up until the point that it's loose enough to start coming apart.
I like the isolated spring that eliminates spring friction and noise, and accept that that means that I have friction at the screw and compression dial to deal with instead.
I do not like that the center caps are loose and may fall of during solves, but begrudgingly accept it, as it can be mitigated by tightening the tension a little and pressing down on the caps every few solves. Though, I can see this being a deal-breaker for some.
I don't like that it really doesn't respond much to thinner or faster lubes on the pieces, but at the same time, it doesn't necessarily need to speed up, and even though it has a scratchy and papery feel to it, it's not exactly being dragged down by friction. It does respond decently well to any kind of lube you put on the tracks or feet, which still gives you some room to change the feel and performance.
Maybe this might ruffle some feathers, but I think the HuDong Light does "middle of the road" better than the RS3M V5.
Final Verdict
Do I Recommend This Cube?
Generally, Yes.
Other than the center caps things, there's nothing wrong with the cube. It feels good to turn, it turns well, it's faster than many other popular cubes, and it's just stupid stable.
If you want something that's very fast and loose or can give you a wide range of feel and performance, maybe go with the cheaper GuHong Pro+ instead.
If you want something that can be faster while still having some of that snappy, controllable, flexible yet tight and stable feel and performance about it, one of the versions of the TianMa X3+ might be more to your liking.
If you want a pretty comfy cube that's still performant and pretty forgiving, the HuDong is your guy.
Does it Usurp my Main?
No. No, it doesn't.
Even though I broke my TianMa X3+ SAOCube SE 32M in a stupid way and am waiting on a replacement to arrive in the mail, it remains my main simply because I value it's speed and aggressive magnetization over the HuDong's stability and controllable nature.
They're similar in that they have a scratchy feel, don't respond much to faster lubes, retain stability and control even when loose and flexible, and have a mechanical snappiness to them, but the TianMa leans more toward the speed and flexibility in a way that I prefer over how the HuDong leans toward control.
That doesn't mean I won't use it. I'm going to be using it a lot.
