Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Product
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2021
Update: 6 months in my Rubik's connected gets more time with my wife than me. She, used it to learn to solve the cube, adores the cube. Which now has stickers from the cubicle to replace the manufacturer original. I do still enjoy solving on the cube and it's one of my travel cube. It works really well with Cubeast (which works with almost all smart cubes) and helps get better breakdowns on solves. With this cube, I can see where I need to work on my solves with either the native app or Cubeast. I still highly recommend this cube. I've only had to clean and reapply lube a couple times.
As a basis for this review I want to start with my cubing experience. I've been working on cubing and speedcubing for the past 2 years (for the cubers out there I am PB is 14.31 using stackmat timer).
I didn't buy this for any other reason than bluetooth cubes are fun to have. I have a Gocube, Giiker, and Gan, smartcube and will be reviewing this product from a comparative approach.
The Rubik's connected cube is a fun cube to have in your collection. It turns well and the cube has decent corner cutting and strong magnets.
Pros:
- Magnetized (a bit strong for my liking but its within reason)
- Corner cutting at about 45 degrees and 35 degrees reverse corner cutting
- Sticker base colors are the standard Rubiks color scheme (some kind of half-bright mixture)
- Quality plastic
Cons:
- Terrible stickers (go get some at the cubicle for some quality stickers)
- Cube is loose with not adjustment system and pops and corner twists can happen (but rarely)
- Weight (its not horrible but its one of the heavier smart cubes I own)
Moving on to the App, I will only be doing this from a comparative stance:
- Best native app for cubing with few connectivity or app bugs
- Games are interesting, not the best for learning in a fun way in my opinion (Giiker games are better for learning, but not as much fun)
- Academy great for beginners but lacking in speedcuber method teaching advance techniques (Gan is better at that if you are willing to put in what you need)
- Closest app to getting slice rotations correctly (all of the apps have this issue to some degree but I find that the barebones method to not try to figure it out that this app as well as the gocube app approach this situation is best. Move counts will be wrong but it doesn't try to guess what you did.
- Wide moves are not picked up but it won't ruin your move count because it reads it as the opposite move (r is read as L) and then the rest of your moves record a bit weird.
All in all, the app is definitely the best app on the market for beginners. Heck, my wife stole the cube because she loves the app and cube combo.
Comparing the cube to other smartcubes.
- More normal shape than the gocube's pillowed mess
- Less lockups then the Gan cubes (seriously, I can't get those working well for me)
- Quiter and less lock ups than the giiker cube
I would recommend this cube to anyone from beginner to pro, it is absolutely fun to have and a quick easy way to compete.
Finally, the coup de grace to the other cubes on the market.
Particula, the manufacturer, is getting a special shout out here. My cube came in with a manufacturer defect. I know these things happen and I'm not in anyway dinging them for that. I am instead making a special shout out to customer service team and their outright dedication to their customers.
So here is the situation, my cube came in and one center was turning slowly, and sometimes would let the edges and corners turn around it as it didn't move. So I reached out to Particula. Their response was almost immediate and with genuine concern. They were upset that a cube made it out that was less than perfect. They had me wear in the cube a bit to see if it went away, when I forgot to email them back, they reached out to me to check in. The issue was better but still occurring. I was sent a label and before I even dropped my cube off, they had already shipped out a new cube to me.
Their customer service was the service of legends reaching above and beyond my expectations. Which is actually par for the course for them. When my gocube had an issue, they took it in and fixed it no questions asked.
The best reason to by this cube over its competitors is the customer service alone. If you have any issues they will go out of their way to help you. Seriously, they are a spectacular company and I couldn't speak more highly of them.