Hello guys, its me CriticalCubing and today I am going to compare the valk3, endorsed and personally used by Mats Valk. The Lighter, Faster and Stronger Gan Air vs Weilong GTS which is widely acclaimed as the best Moyu cube and is the main of many cubers
As always, as this is a no nonsense comparison, I won't be actually comparing the cubes like 5/7, 19/20 etc as these rating are highly biased and not representative of the actual performance at all. Lastly the things I will be talking here will be kind of like a summary, so do take a look at reviews before making a decision on buying them. Let the battle begin
The valk3 is the latest cube on the market which is loved by many cubers and a lot of world class cubers. Gan air the previous latest cube on the market which features the revolutionary new GES spring system. Weilong GTS is the main of many cubers and is the self proclaimed best cube very. But, which is the best of of all of these?
First, lets talk about the price tag. The Gan Air comes first which roughly costs 24$. Next comes the Valk3 which costs 20$. Lastly comes the GTS which costs 17$. As far as price goes, people on a budget will want to get the GTS over the others. We have a clear winner here, the weilong GTS
As far as the size goes, the Air and GTS are the same size which is 56mm. The Valk3 didn't want to follow one direction and chose a different direction and became 55.55mm in memory of Mats Valk's previous WR solve.
This round is won by the air and the GTS as size does matter. No one wants a small pizza after all. Jokes apart, lets move onto the feel of the cube.
The feel of the air is quiet smooth and fast. The tracks have been flattened out which makes it more smoother than previous Gan cubes. The feel of the GTS is scratchy fast and loud which feels similar to the previous fangshi cubes like the shuangren.
The valk feels similar to the meiying and the yuexiao. It has the classic hollow feel to it however it doesn't feel as hollow as the yuexiao or meiying. Some people have said that it feels smooth too, but it isn't as smooth as the Air
The speed of the valk is also fast and comparable to meiying/yuexiao. As far as the feel goes, I like the Gan Air feel the best as its smooth and quiet and makes me solve calmly and not uncontrollably fast. However the valk comes quite close and places as second. GTS comes lastly at third.
The turning. The turning of the air is smooth and fast. The turning of the valk is hollow and fast. The turning of the gts is scratchy, crisp and fast. Out of these 3, my GTS is still the fastest with a tie between the Air and Valk for the second place.
As far as turning goes, I would like to give valk the first place as the turning kind of fits my turning style although there are some problems with it. The Air comes at second and its practically negligible as my turning style fits both the air and valk. In the last place comes the GTS as its can sometimes be uncontrollable for me
Next is the corner cutting. Just like most of the modern day cubes, corner cutting is pretty much standard and there is nothing out of the ordinary that can be seen. All 3 of these cubes can cut over 45 degrees for normal corner cutting and can cut line to line for reverse corner cutting
This segment is a tie as practically all 3 of these cubes equal in corner cutting and you won't feel a difference when you are solving.
Stability. Here is where things start to get interesting. Generally when I am choosing a main, I mainly look into the stability and the turning. I can get used to the feel so the feel doesn't bother me that much. As far as stability goes, the Air is definitely the best out of these three
The GTS can get unstable when I am turning fast, and the valk has slight catching and locking problem but I don't get these problems with the Air, so for this round, the Air places first, the valk comes in second place and last is GTS. Gan air was made to be fast and stable, and it lives up to its name. Now I will go over some of the minor factors
M slices of the GTS and Valk are better than the Air. The M slices of the Air can get sluggish at times. When I am using Roux, I will use the Valk or the Air over the GTS. The Air has the revolutionary new GES spring system which allows you to set up the air however you want, and gives you the flexiblity to do that
GTS and Valk on the other hand don't allow you this freedom. GTS comes with the normla spring, washer combo and the same goes for the valk. One interesting thing that the valk has changes is that it uses the same springs from the Gan 357, the triangular spring. It was previously seen in yuexiao and first seen on the Gan 357 2 years ago
Locking and popping. Locking and popping is similar on the Air and the Valk, but the lockups on the GTS is bad for me. Depending on how you have setup the Air, it can lock up on you. I am using my Air with orange springs which doesn't give me problems with lockups. If you use lighter springs, then locking may occur
On the valk, I don't have the traditional lockups, rather just small catches. The Air wins this round and places first. Valk is placed in second as it only has small catches from time to time. GTS is placed in third as it can get unstable for me and then lockup on me. Popping is non existent on all of these cubes. Corner Twisting. This round is won hands down by the Air
I have been using the Air for over a month now and never had a corner twists. Gan company promises that the Air won't corner twist for you, and it lives up to that. The Valk has corner twisted for me once in the first 500 solves. GTS has corner twisted for me more than once and as a reason the Air places at 1 due to never giving me corner twist
Valk is placed at second and in the third place is the GTS. Something which is unique to the valk is the packaging. The valk comes in this premium black box, with some goodies like Mats Valk signature for example. Gan Air comes in the transparent box which I quite like
and the GTS comes in normal box, nothing special about it apart from the fact that Feliks is not on the box anymore *so sad*
One minor flaw of the Air is that the GES spring can get jammed inside the screw and is quite a pain to get it out. Valk and the GTS does not have that problem. Lube consumption. This round is definitely won by the GTS hands down. I have been using GTS for near 3 months and have only lubed it twice. I have been using the Air for over a month and lubed it thrice
TS works quite good even when kept relatively dry. As far as lube consumption goes, GTS places first for being really eficient with lube. Valk comes in the controversial second place and lastly comes the Air for requiring the most lube
As far as the out of the box performance goes, the valk wins this hands down. The only thing I did to my valk was adjusting the tensions and dropping in a bit of lube. Thats it. With the Air I had to spend time choosing the spring, adjusting the tensions, lubing, change springs again etc. GTS was similar to valk but it was not as good as the valk out of the box
Valk places first in this category followed by the GTS and lastly the Air. Another minor flaw of the air is that once you get a lockup, which is rare, and you try to force it then the pieces can get dislocated and you gets this hollow kind of cube. Don't worry, just turn the other layers and it will fix itself
This is not seen on the valk or the GTS. Overall performance. Overall performance of the Valk and the Air is quite similar. I can pick whichever I want and get fast times with it. When comparing the overall performance of the Valk and GTS, the GTS is lagging behind
The valk is quite better than the GTS. Even when comparing Air vs GTS, the GTS falls behind there as well. For the overall performance I would place both the Air and the Valk in first place as my times are practically similar with them. GTS falls behind both of these cubes
Now which one do I like better? Personally for me, I am using the Air and the valk as main, simultaneously. I use the Air for CFOP as the Air fits my turning style quite well, however the air lags behind the valk when it comes to M slices
For Roux, which is M slice heavy, I use the valk over the air as the M slices are stable and nicer on the valk than the Air. I have ditched my GTS for my valk and if someone asks me which is better between the valk and GTS, I will definitely say the Valk
However, if someone asks me which is better between the Air and Valk, then I would say "whatever fits your style". I know people who didn't like the valk as it didn't fit their turning style, and they also didn't like the Air. The best cube is not latest and greatest cube that comes out on the market
After all, a good cuber is someone who makes cubes work great, not the other way around. The best cube is the one which suits your turning style and the one which you like better. For me, both the valk and Air are best cubes as I use one for CFOP and the other one for Roux
Before making a decision on buying them, you can try these cubes out in a competition and see if you like it or not. Also, watch review on these cubes from other people too, I have will review links in the description
In conclusion, in todays cube comparison, we have dual winner, the Air and the valk sharing first position. GTS falls behind both of these cubes and comes in second position. Valk has definitely set a benchmark for the upcoming cubes.
The difference in price between the air and the valk isnot that huge too. Thats it for this comparison guys. Do take a look at my other comparison like the Gan Air vs GTS etc. Thank you for watching this video and I will see you next time. Take care guys and bye.