HUGO HAL Hyper Axylium -дървото на Calderano /Xiom/

HUGO HAL е новият модел южно-корейско състезателно дърво от най-висок калас с Hyper Axylium. Разработено е със съдействието на Хюго Калдерано.
Това е топ моделът композитно дърво на XIOM за сезон 2020/2021
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Ревю от интернет /tabletennisdaily.com/:


Модел: Hugo HAL
Тегло: 84 гр. +-2
Дебелина: 5.8 мм
Пластове: 7 (външен пласт Koto, Axylium composite и сърцевина от Kiri)
Speed: Off

The Hugo HAL blade is the first non-carbon composite blade made by Xiom if memory serves me right.
Composite blades with only arylate layers are few in the market. The last time I remember a blade like this was when the Moonbeam was still produced or when the Friendship Zebra transformer blade was still considered new many years ago. In my opinion, Xiom designed this blade that maximizes feel but with consideration also for speed. The construction is different from what you have seen before that was posted online. The previous version had a blue axylium composite layer while the newer one has the orange-colored axylium. The ones you have seen online posted before and tested by several forumers are the old version blades. This is the reason why I deferred the chance to review the blade when it first came out and also just waited for the final version to be sent to me. When I was checking the blade, the axylium layer was very obscure and very hard to see. It is almost invisible to the eye but upon closer inspection you will see the composite layer on the 2nd layer of the blade.

Speed

When I was bouncing the ball onto the bare blade, I was surprised to see that the bounce is lower than the 36.5 and has a much lower pitch when basing on the ball bounce sound. I used the Xiom Tau II, Omega 7 Asia and Omega 7 China Ying for this test just to check exactly how fast it is. I would say the speed is not a true OFF+ nor it is exactly an OFF blade. If there is a level of speed existing between the 2 speed levels, that is where I will place the speed of the Hugo HAL. When I tried drilling with the Hugo HAL, I noticed that it is not slow. It maybe be slower than other carbon-composite blades but it is nowhere in the level of OFF- blades. I would say the speed is faster than the usual 7 ply limba all wood blades but slower than Xiom Stradivarius. If compared to other brands, this is slower than TB ALC or Viscaria for comparison purposes.

Looping and blade feel

The Hugo HAL blade was designed to have the best feel maximized for players who want a good ball feedback to the hand. First and foremost, due to the very thin layer of axylium in the plies, the blade almost feels like an all wood blade. It has this very fine woody feel. It feels medium soft with some flex on the blade. The flex is almost similar to a 7 ply all wood blade. When I used the Xiom Tau II and a Chinese rubber on it, it felt so great looping underspin balls. Close to the table, hands down, this is the best looping blade Xiom has right now that is not an all wood blade. It loops really well like the Offensive S which is a slower 5 ply all wood blade. I think both the looping and feel characteristics are 2 of the best
Hugo HAL blade properties that you would really love. I would place this as a close to the table looping blade. If you want to go back farther from the table, the Omega 7 China Ying/Guang and the Omega 7 Asia are both enough for the Hugo HAL not to lose speed farther from the table.

Control and Usability

The blade has a high level of control comparable to a 7ply all wood blade. I would even go further by saying that people who wants to transition from an all wood blade but are hesitant to use a fast carbon blade can greatly benefit from just choosing the Hugo HAL. The blade is very forgiving and high controllable that intermediate players who have developed a somewhat fair attacking strokes would be able to use this with no difficulty whatsoever. For advanced players, this is a great looping machine that will enable you to do precise, strong spinny loops near the table. If partnered with a super fast rubber like the Xiom Omega 7 Hyper, you can even counter loop away from the table. I think this was made to complement the hard and fast attacking rubbers of Xiom. The medium soft feel of the Hugo SAL is perfect to combine with rubbers having hardness of 50 degrees and above. Even the Omega 7 China Guang which is 60 degrees does not feel as hard as when placed on to other blades.