I got a sheet of this new Adidas rubber direct from Adidas, thanks to my good friend
Yogi_bear (MyTT) who convinced them to send me a sheet for review, after which it's sent on to a few others to get their opinions as well. I don't have any ties with Adidas, nor do I sell them.
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Manufacturer description:The adidas P7 possesses an unparalleled ability by any other adidas rubber to generate spin. The combination of a top sheet specifically designed to create optimal spin and a hard sponge for additional force are key elements, resulting in the superior trajectory of every shot. Furthermore, with the rebound of each ball, control, balance, and power are all increased, making this rubber an excellent choice for those looking for an emphasis on touch.Characteristics: Thickness: 1,8 / 2,0 / max
Country of origin: German
Speed: 90
Spin 110
Precision: 93
Tolerence: 80
Hardness: Hard-
Visual Inspection:Attachment:
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The packaging was very nice, a cool fold-out carton with more information about the rubber and the technology, which some people like to read.
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The topsheet was covered with a standard paper sheet, and the sponge under the sponge was a
plastic protection sheet as a bonus, which is often not included with the more recent ESN rubber, which I think is a shame as these do help make your rubber last longer, so kudos to Adidas for including one.
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This sheet looked top notch, like most ESN sheets. The surface looked smooth with a real shine to it and felt very grippy to the touch. Not all ESN rubber have this shine, but sheet has a bright shine, which reminded me of the recent Donic Baracuda Big Slam, which also had not shine than the earlier version of the Baracuda. For some rubber the shine is the first thing that wears off, along with some of the extra grip, so lets hope that's not the case for this rubber. The logo and lettering were very sharp and shown, which is indicative of a high quality process.
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The sponge has medium size pores, not as big as some of the more recent rubbers like Tenergy, bluefire, Rasant, etc, but bigger than the traditional ESN rubbers. The sponge surface was dry with no evidence of any oily residue, so I don't think this rubber has any sort of factory tuning.
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The sheet did however have a significant dome, as pictured. Some of the ESN Tensors seem to have a dome, and some don't, I'm not sure why but I've not noticed the dome to affect the performance. In some cases the dome makes it harder to glue down, but in this case where the sheet is quite flexible, I had no trouble with this sheet.
The sponge hardness I measured as 49 on my
Sponge Hardness Scale, which is about the same as Donic S1 Turbo, and only slightly softer than Tenergy 05.
The uncut sheet weight was 64g, which works out to 0.227 g/cm2 on
Rubber Mass Table, which is lighter than tenergy 05, more like Tenergy 05 FX.
Test Setup:Since most of the recent rubbers are always compared to Tenergy 05, I decided to put a sheet of this on the other for comparison. Although the sheet is about almost a year old, it's had very little use and has been stored properly, and the characteristics still feel similar that what they were before, so i think it's a useful comparison.
These types of rubber usually work best on composite blades, so when I looked around I found a Cornilliou Hinotec offensive+ Carbon blade, which sounded like a good option.
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This blade is carbon, but the feel is not that hard nor is the blade overly stiff, and I think it may work quite well. So I glued both rubbers onto the blade using Donic vario glue.
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Review:Serves:Bouncing a ball on the bat made the p7 feel quite bouncy and lively, a little more than the T05. on serves i could really feel the topsheet grab the ball and then release, and the resultant spin was very good, no worse than the T05. Although the sheet may lose some of it's grip, it's quite elastic which it will likely retain, so I except the grip to remain good. As the sheet is quite lively, it's a little trickier to keep short, but the high grip makes it easier to brush the ball, which helps.
Pushing / Short Game:The rubber is quite bouncy, so you need a positive stroke to keep the ball low, but the high surface grip really helps there, so it's not too bad.
Blocking/counterhitting:Blocking and counterhitting is fast but with good control. Although the sponge is not exactly soft, I could feel the ball onto the blade really well, better than the T05. The P7 is also less sensitive to spin compared to the T05, and the balls comes off a little faster.
Looping:On slow to medium pace loops the throw is quite high and the ball very spinny, very similar to the T05. When you go into powerloops, the trajectory flattens out (throw goes down), although the spin remains good, not quite as good as T05. it's definitely a step faster than T05 as well. The rubber does shine in this area... looping is a pleasure with little effort and good pace and spin. As you brush more, you get good kick off the table too, so there is good spin there.
Although the trajectory at high pace flatten out, it does not really feel like it's bottoming out like you feel with soft sponged rubbers, so good spin is retained.
Looping backspin is probably it's best feature, as it's quite easy to lift the ball, and the resulting spin is very high.
Counter-loops worked very nicely, as the lower throw at high impact helps keep it down, and the ball comes off fast with good spin.. it seems quite forgiving too. Sidespin loops are like the medium pace loops... very spinny with a good kick off the table.
Glue feel:The glue feel is quite strong, resulting in good catapult and a loud pop, which sounds and feels very nice.
Hitting:Probably not it's best feature as it's a little sensitive to spin, but it's certainly less sensitive than T05 where the ball can really grip. The ball comes off very fast with a loud pop.
Conclusions:This is a fast and lively Tensor style rubber, so it's not for beginners. The high spin and grip does make it more controllable, but I think it would work best on the stiff or composite blade around OFF- to OFF to compensate for the high speed. It is certainly of no worse performance than many of the other brand Tensors out there even though Adidas is fairly new to table tennis, and it's certainly among the spinniest. If the durability of this rubber is good, then I think it can be quite a popular rubber.
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