Palio Macro Era 47.5 degrees max review

Hey guys,

Figured I might do a review of this rubber since I have been using it for a little over a month now. I play penhold and I put this on my forehand. This review is done using a YinHe W1 blade. My rating is around 1800 USATT.

Loop-Not as easy to do as tacky chinese rubbers. PME is not as hard as H3Neo or even BW2. It is not mushy though. You can do high arc loops with it, but its a lot harder to do than H3 NEO.

Drive-This rubber is awesome for driving. I hated H3 Neo because it didn't have enough penetrating power and my game is all based off of driving. This rubber is very powerful for drives, penetrating and spinny. This rubber is as good as BW2 for driving if not better.

Smashing-Feels very satisfying, makes a loud pop noise when smashing. Much much easier to do than any tacky rubber I have tried.

Short game-Bouncy but not uncontrollable. Pushes are spinny, drop shots are short.

Serving-Service is spinny, but a slightly different technique is needed compared to chinese rubbers. You have to let the ball dig into a sponge a bit. Takes a little time to adjust to it, but serves are very spinny.

Penhold backhand punch-This rubber is perfect for this stroke. It makes backhand punch aggressive and powerful.

Blocking- my favorite part about this rubber. Not only is it much easier to block with than Hurricane 2 or 3 Neo, the ball rebounds with much more speed as well. Blocking is easy, and you can feel the ball go into the sponge and catapult out. Very easy to control, and very fast ball speeds.

I also tried it on backhand for a bit, but I think this version is a little too hard for me to use on backhand. But overall, I think this is the best investment I made on a table tennis rubber in a long time. Blue whale 2 is awesome for 2-3 weeks, and then it dies, but this rubber has been performing well for more than a month now.

very nice review rand111, a very fresh unbiased perspective.

no jim...i didn't mean that. i meant if we sometimes bias ourselves with acquired knowledge and think likewise.

Thanks for the review - interesting stuff!

Also,

rand111 wrote: But overall, I think this is the best investment I made on a table tennis rubber in a long time. Blue whale 2 is awesome for 2-3 weeks, and then it dies, but this rubber has been performing well for more than a month now.

Only in the weird bizarro world post-ITTF glue ban would a German Tensor outlast a Chinese Rubber.

Although, a $30 rubber that outlasts a $20 rubber might actually be a *good thing* for the market.

blitz has a more durable topsheet, higher throw angle, and the sponge feels a couple degrees softer (even though the hardness is listed as 47.5).  top end it is capable of more spin, but the throw angle is the BIG difference.  macro era is a 4g tensor, and blitz is 5g (easily recognizable with the porosity of the sponge).

JyeChen wrote: For those interested, I believe Palio Macro Pro is the gen right before Era, and when I switched between the two, I only noticed a few things. This was a while ago, but I remember three points: 1. Era is spinnier than Pro, but not significantly, 2. Era is heavier than Pro, enough that it caused my wrist to tire quickly for the first few sessions after the switch, 3. Era lasts slightly longer than Pro. Pro dies after about a month of hard use, two months of regular use for me. Era lasted longer. The sponge loses it's spring slower than Pro (more gradually?), and the top sheet seemed to last longer as well.   Despite all of this, I have fonder memories of Pro and will be tacking on a sheet to my backhand again soon. Just waiting for the mail. :D It may be my imagination, but I feel like Pro just had a better pop too it. :P

I'll go you one better... (I think?)!

I still use and love plain ole Macro. It has surprisingly good longevity & just enough pop. I think I can relate. I also love the earlier generation Andro Impuls. Way too soft for most but works for my lowly game. What's more is that I
l o v e hitting with it!


Edited by Heimdallalso - 11/12/2010 at 1:59am

JyeChen wrote: For those interested, I believe Palio Macro Pro is the gen right before Era, and when I switched between the two, I only noticed a few things. This was a while ago, but I remember three points: 1. Era is spinnier than Pro, but not significantly, 2. Era is heavier than Pro, enough that it caused my wrist to tire quickly for the first few sessions after the switch, 3. Era lasts slightly longer than Pro. Pro dies after about a month of hard use, two months of regular use for me. Era lasted longer. The sponge loses it's spring slower than Pro (more gradually?), and the top sheet seemed to last longer as well.   Despite all of this, I have fonder memories of Pro and will be tacking on a sheet to my backhand again soon. Just waiting for the mail. :D It may be my imagination, but I feel like Pro just had a better pop too it. :P

My understanding is that they changed almost nothing in the sponge but made the topsheet a bit softer and stretchier. Therefore Era is a bit more durable, doesn't crack as fast, and it loads spin somewhat better than Pro - however if your game is pure flat hit/smash/block then Pro just might be a tad better for you than Era. I do both things on my FH so I prefer Era over Pro.

Blitz is the step in the same direction - however they changed the sponge rather significantly this time and not only it feels softer, it actually is softer despite whatever Palio is saying (durometer readings do not lie!). So it will suit more players from the midrange (better spin, better durability, probably better looping) but not me because I need lots of flat game from it too. Era also reacts less to the incoming spin and I like that when playing against LP, Anti , heavy spin etc.