Sanwei T88-I Review

Surprisingly, T88-I appeared to suit my BH well, except for its large pips making banana loop too difficult. At mid- and long-range it delivers a good 'punch', you can finish a rally with BH loopkill.

Has anyone tried T88-III or Topspeed on BH? Can it perform like T88-I but with more spinny over-the-table loop?
Is T88-III sponge similar to T88-I?

Edited by GSOM_GSOM11 - 05/30/2013 at 6:43pm

Rings Links is very mildly tacky, certainly not as much a T88-I. After a week or so it plays like a Mark V with a harder sponge.
I have played with T88-II and I would not recommend it.

Try the Sanwei Rings Links.

Do they have "Sanwei stamp" on the sponge?
The one without should be much lighter and softer

Update.

I have had the T88-1 Red 39 degree with Sanwei stamp on the sponge. Needless to say, great stuff, but it's heavy as @#$!%*! 84 grams uncut, about 56 grams cut to Avalox P700.

Then I saw this!!
http://eacheng.net/index.php?act=detail&ID=3448

After emailing them back and forth, they said it's lighter. So I ordered a black and red, 39 degree.

Got them on Monday, they both felt light, I immediately take the black one and put on scale. 66 grams, good!
It feels much softer than the original T88-1. The topsheet has strange smell compared to the original one. Very plasticky and "sweet" smell, doesn't smell like rubber at all, very chemically-sweet smell.

Anyhow, I went and did multiballs with it for flat hits, and loops. I noticed that this time I have to swing more upwards and with more force, or the ball won't clear the net. It's pretty tiring. Seems to me that the topsheet is way less grippy to the original one and not as spinny.

With the original one, I can loop heavy underspins easily from multiball and the ball kicks away from the table, but this one, I have to do much more effort just to clear the net
I don't think it needs to be broken in, the original didn't (since they are more to european rubbers than chinese).

Did anyone try this version too? Please post your findings. I am curious if the red one behaves the same or not...

I got a black sheet and a red sheet. The red sheet was basically a T25 clone and weighed 62g uncut.

The black sheet was 84g uncut, and had a super hard sponge and very tacky topsheet. The red and black sheets were completely different rubbers!

 is it good for smashing with soft rubber? 

Edited by domino - 03/10/2012 at 1:00am

seguso wrote: Probably due to t88-i's dense sponge filled with oil.

So you're saying it's tuned? Can you feel the tuning effect wearing off over time?

dingyibvs wrote: Not quite as fast after the tuning effect wears out, lightly tacky as well.  Still faster than the H3 though.  I actually have the T88-I and an untuned H3P 39 on the one of my blades right now.  I feel like the H3 has a bit more spin while the T88-I is a good bit faster with higher throw.  Actually, if it wasn't for my new year's resolution of no more EJ'ing, I'm pretty damn tempted to switch back to the T88-I.  I mean, originally I was concerned due to the weight, but now that I've found a solution to that there really aren't any concerns anymore.  The thing I REALLY liked about the T88-I is that its thick topsheet/big pips make it so that it takes more effort to engage the sponge, and that really helps in the short game.  Nothing comes close to a boosted H3 though unfortunately, that thing's a real beast! Why don't you like tuning again?  I'm pretty sure you mentioned it before but I don't remember.

I try to stay away from it because
-each time you play the rubber feels a bit different (specially if you don't play a lot) and that creates errors.
-it gives you an unreal advantage, you may think you have the best shots in the world when really a lot of it has to do with you boosting and the opponent not doing so
-I want to stay fair

I think I'll stay away from all those t88 for now, I read some more reviews and they don't seem to offer what I'm looking for.
have you tried target? it seems a bit more promising that those, and is cheap.

Not quite as fast after the tuning effect wears out, lightly tacky as well.  Still faster than the H3 though.  I actually have the T88-I and an untuned H3P 39 on the one of my blades right now.  I feel like the H3 has a bit more spin while the T88-I is a good bit faster with higher throw.  Actually, if it wasn't for my new year's resolution of no more EJ'ing, I'm pretty damn tempted to switch back to the T88-I.  I mean, originally I was concerned due to the weight, but now that I've found a solution to that there really aren't any concerns anymore.  The thing I REALLY liked about the T88-I is that its thick topsheet/big pips make it so that it takes more effort to engage the sponge, and that really helps in the short game.  Nothing comes close to a boosted H3 though unfortunately, that thing's a real beast!

Edited by dingyibvs - 02/28/2012 at 1:27am

Anyone tried this wunderwaffe on Viscaria or Viscaria Light?

Edited by dingyibvs - 11/08/2011 at 6:23pm

I think it'll be OK because the F3 is a very soft as far as carbon blades go.  It's got two wood plies above the carbokev layer, and it's fairly thin at 5.8mm and light so it's quite flexible as well.  I'd put it at All+ or at most Off-.  I'm more used to hard rubbers on the BH anyway, as the BH rubbers I've used the longest are the DHS G888(harder than the H3) on a soft 7-ply wood blade(4.5 months) and the Moon 38 on the T-11(3.5 months).

Hmm I think you're right, and I half took your advice today.  Instead of using the Pro XT, which is on a blade my friend is borrowing right now, I slapped on my BH rubber for most of the past 4 months on the T-11, the Moon 38.  It feels considerably more controllable on my F3 than on the T-11, and the low throw does make blocking a lot easier, and drives work well as well.  Being more controllable but otherwise very similar to my old BH setup, I had little trouble adjusting back to the lower throw(I did only use higher throw BH rubbers for the last 2 weeks, after all).

I have a sheet of pro xt red, unfortunately my T88-I is also red, but i might try it out and see how it works.  I haven't used the pro xt in quite a while, but isn't it a medium throw rubber?  I kinda prefer high throw rubbers.  Getting used to a different throw can be quite a pain in the neck.