Review : H3 Neo National Blue Sponge

It's 39 deg hardness, 2.10 mm sponge Thickness.
I glue to my Hking 655 ST with 4 layers of Haifu Water based glue on the rubber and 1 layer on the blade.















Before I play with it, I stick transparent plastic sheet for OHP on it and on my Hexer. When I try to bounce the ball on H3N Blue Sponge and Hexer (with plastic OHP sticking on both rubber) I found that the height of the bounce between H3N Blue sponge and Hexer sponge has the same bounciness.

Means that the sponge are nearly as fast as hexer sponge.
But when I open the plastic cover, H3N blue sponge becomes slower because of the tackiness of the top sheet is more tacky than Hexer top sheeet.

When I hit the ball on the wall I can feel that the sponge is similar to hard japanese rubber, doesn't feel like chinese rubber at all, very bouncy and doesn't have cracking sound when I hit hard.

I tried to hit one session on Friday, It doesn't take long time to break in.
But previously I already clean the top sheet with water to reduce the stickiness of the top sheet.

Blocking:
Not like H3 Provincial/ Neo Provincial which can't do passive block, H3N blue sponge can!!! No need to do active follow through block and the blocking speed is almost as fast as using japan/euro rubber. But I found Blocking with Tenergy has faster return block than H3N Blue Sponge.
Defending against powerfull smash is easier, other wise if I'm using Provincial, most of my block goes to net.

Looping:
I never tried National rubber before, only Provincial rubber. I can understand why Chinese National Player can do such a powerfull loop with less effort than me. First I thought they have better skill and do weight lifting to be able to do such a powerful loop. But the reality is their rubber is much better than the provincial!!!
With the same amount of power, my loop is much more deadly than I'm using Provincial rubber.
Looping underspin ball is very easy to do. Loop not so heavy underspin ball with this rubber is just awsome, after landing on opponents table, it kicks really hard that opponent can't block at all, flies everywhere because of the huge amount of spin.

Counterlooping:
Never had this experience before, No need lot of strength to counterloop from mid table with H3N Blue sponge, Nice to control, has a really good bite of the ball when counterlooping.
Feel as fast as japan rubber but with sticky topsheet.
I win most of my points with counterlooping from away from the table.

Shortgame and Serve:
Since the sponge is more bouncy than provincial, It takes a while to adjust the amount of power when doing pushing and shortgame.
Serve with H3N National Blue sponge needs adjustment since the sponge is bouncy,  It takes several try to do a spiny under spin ball.

Smashing:
Much much better than any H3 I've tried. But still can't match Japan/Euro rubber for speed because of the tacky top sheet but it's the best among H3.

Overall This rubber is the best H3 so far I've tried, infact the best rubber I've tried and also the most expensive rubber I've ever tried.
It outclass H3 Neo Provincial in every aspect of it. Spin, Speed. It takes time get used to the speed and spin of H3N Blue Sponge, so only the control which is lack from H3 Neo Provincial. But this is not a big problem, once You're get used to it, You can unleashed the true power of H3 National.

timtabletennis wrote: IF you can tell us how much is the price and where you get it from. It would be greatly appreciate. I'm sure everyone wants to know as much as me.

I got it from george hong for 95usd+ shipping. i also got the hk655 st and the hurricane 3 national from him along with t-shirts and stuff.

My total setup is 186 gr.
Blade is 92 gr. Rubber 94 gr. It has almost the same weight as hexer. around 46-47 gr cut with Hking 655 Head size with 4 layer of Haifu waterbased glue.
I think the orange sponge is heavier than the blue, since the blue sponge has bigger pores than the orange.
Haven't tried TG3 before....

2010osm wrote: Have you weigh the blue NEO uncut?

No, I haven't. The white package H3 National old version 40 deg 2.15 mm weight 63 and 65 gr uncut. Probably the blue is lighter since the sponge is thinner and the pores is bigger which effect the mass and weight of the rubber.

wfwfitz wrote: Are you saying that the H3 Neo National was $95 + shipping?

H3 Neo National Blue sponge is 95 usd + Shipping

Anton, you finally buy it? You said it's too pricey this rubber
Or I'm the one who guilty influencing you
let me know how it plays...

SLee wrote: would there be a difference in sponge of the regular NEO national H3 as opposed to the NEO National blue sponge H3?

Haven't tried the orange sponge National Neo H3. But compared to orange sponge National Old H3, the blue sponge is Softer, Bouncier.
It's easier to loop with the blue sponge compared to Orange.

Chinese player who use Orange sponge: Ma Lin, Ma Long
Chinese player who use Blue sponge: Wang Liqin, Zhang Jike

Anton Chigurh wrote: Yeah... I broke down and purchased a piece. I'm under the understanding that the blue sponge is meant to be tuned. I've only been playing table tennis for ~2.5 years, so I have never speed-glued or tuned anything. However, I purchased some Haifu speed glue to try it out some day. Do you recommend "tuning" the blue sponge with the Haifu speed glue? If not, what product do you recommend I use to tune this rubber?

Well The Neo rubbers is not recomended to tuned with speed glue. It's waterbase era now
For me using Haifu WBG is already more than enough speed n speed.
Don't ruin your rubber!!!!!

If you want to tune or speed glue, buy the old version of H3 National like mine (white package). Or Old version of H3 Blue sponge which is supposed to used speed glue.

Which blade do you want to pair it to?

My mistake, my mistake...

I thought I had purchased the National Neo H3 blue sponge, but my rubbers came today and it turns out I purchased the National Neo H3 orange sponge. Oops! Well, although I'm equally excited about having access to any national rubber, I plan on contacting my source and seeing about getting a piece of the blue sponge too.

It's just too far quality diference compared Comercial to National. Even the provincial is far behind in all aspect.
Wang Li Qin can still use provincial or commercial version of course, but in terms of equipment advantage, he already lost to his compatriot who use national version.

mcd0nald wrote: oh please.....dont tempt me for nat H3 NEO...peter this prov H3 NEO is already so good compared to commercial!!

Yes, National is much better than Provincial, just like Provincial compared to Commercial

would this blade go well with tenergy 64 rubber?

how much do you think national H3N would last?

Nope, as long as you take care of it it'll stay tacky for a pretty long time.