YJ Appari 3x3 Magnetic (Speed-Micro Actuator)

This cube would be a great beginner/intermediate cube. Good price

Once loosened and adjusted and lubed, it actually turns well, but feels very much like the Solar from a few years back …. Easy adjustment, the gimmicky ball bearing idea just seems like overkill, and made me not want to take it apart to see how it works …… nice cube …. But just feels like older YJ cubes

I was really looking forward to this cube's release, however I was very disappointed with the actual cube.

Out of the box, it's very sluggish / hard to turn. The magnet strength is a bit too strong, but that's only really an issue because the cube is so slow.

All the core pieces have very little friction, and when disassembled, the centers spin freely very fast, but when it's assembled, it feels like the compression is really strong making it slow to turn, and requires a lot more finger strength than I have to do less-common moves like U-pushes.

That's out of the box.

I cleaned it thoroughly, and applied a bit of weight-1 on the core, with lunar + supernova dripped into the cube and between pieces, and this was even worse. I think weight-1 was a mistake for this cube.

I cleaned it again, and this time used only supernova. I also loosened the screws till they looked like the cube would fall apart, and then set compression setting to 6 (maximum) so the cube wouldn't fall apart.

It is usable in this configuration, but still isn't what I would call fast like I've seen some people say. Also the supernova needs to be reapplied like every other day, especially without any other lube in the cube, it just doesn't last; that's normal, but it does become annoying. When the supernova dries the cube is also fairly loud, which is to be expected.

The $6 Moyu Meilong M is a much better cube imho, it doesn't corner cut that well, but it's so much faster, and much more fun to use. While you could say the Appari is more 'controllable,' that's like saying a Rubik's brand cube is more controllable. It's honestly on a similar level of turn ability as my Rubik's Phantom (It's better than a standard Rubik's brand cube).

On the upside, the YJ Appari corner cuts very well, it can corner cut beyond 45° (half-turn), and can reverse corner cut an entire piece width.

I really like the blocky-ness, it's blocky like the Dayan Guhong pro, however the Guhong got it right. Put the micro-actuators on a guhong, and that sounds like a good time.

It could be that the ball bearings (or something) in my cube are(/is) garbage and you might have better luck. I might try another one in the future as it really feels like there's a lot of potential here, but it just didn't come together properly for me.

PS. I like the Logo sticker.

Update: I took it apart again, and the ball bearings seem fine (see video). All the pieces seem to be very fast individually, but put it all together and it's maybe the slowest cube on the market in the price range of $6+.

I also noticed that the **** heads are so loose that it looks like they must be making contact with the center caps, however even with all caps removed, it doesn't noticeably improve performance. I've run out of ideas to 'fix' this cube.

Update 2: I decided to give it another try, and this time i applied Supernova at every piece contact point, from the core to in between pieces. It was dripping a bit the first several turns, but it actually seems quite nice now.

With effort, I can do a U4 flick, and I was able to tighten the screws a little bit so it didn't feel quite as floppy. It's actually fun to play with now, but the downside is that's like 8-10 drops of supernova every other day, so I still wouldn't recommend this cube, but at least I'm able to have fun with it. :)

Not a speed solver but I did notice it felt pretty different. A little sandy out of the box but once I had it set up it was really satisfying albeit a little blocky. I'd love a male version