Dayan Zhanchi v5

Oh Dayan… The brand of the hit and miss. The brand that is capable of producing a cult cube that remains relevant half a decade later, then follow it with one of the worst cubes ever made by a real brand, then go back to good cubes, then make one that breaks all the time. The past couple of releases were following the trend, with the Guhong Pro as an excellent demonstration of what good cubes feel like, the Tengyun v3 as a counter-example of how not to make cubes, and before that the Zhanchi Pro, which was again a really good cube with stellar customisation.

The nominal successor to the Zhanchi Pro, properly named Zhanchi v5 (I don’t even…) is a keeper. For those of us with the attention span of a Monday morning doomscroller, this cube looks great, is the quietest cube to come out since the Tornado v2, retains the adjustability excellence of the ZP and has pink internals. Yes, pink internals. You know a cube is going to be great if it has pink internals. (Well, it’s more of a purple-pink, but my point stands).

The outer design is the very squarish look of the Zhanchi and Guhong, the logo is red and for once it’s not an ugly sticker. Which… might be a bit of an issue : the embossing on the logo is very thick, and you feel it very strongly when you touch the cube. If you’re interested in blind solving, this is not a cube that will be comp legal by any stretch. And its a tiny bit off-putting as it feels as if some of the things that sometimes grow on the horizontal jungle that I call “my desk” had stuck to the cube when you pick it up (yuck!).

The outstanding feature of the cube is how quiet it is. We haven’t had a quiet cube in a very long while. To date, the most silent cubes were still the XMan Tornado v2 and Dayan Tengyun v2 (with the Tengyun v1 being relatively quiet but not to that level). I might need to audio-test this one but it feels pretty darn close to the Tengyun v2 in how quiet it is, which is a fantastic boon for people cubing in public or during zoom meeting where they should be paying attention instead. Very low pitched and papery, the sound is not only not loud, but it’s also not unpleasant to hear. 

When it comes to customisation, Dayan pulled a fast one again. Younger cubers might not remember the very convoluted “switch axis” tensioning system of some older Dayan cubes (Tengyun v2, I’m looking at you). This is to say that Dayan’s team has a venerable tradition of adding unnecessary complexity for absolutely no reason or effect. This time around, their brilliance is showcased by the idea of having 4 different strengths for so-called “Axis Magnet Components”, which are swappable nuts that sit on top of the center pieces pointing towards the center cap. This adds a slight pull so that when the face is oriented towards the 90° angle, the magnets will pull a bit. Now, it’s been a while since my electromagnetism classes during engineering graduate school, but the only purpose I can understand from these magnetic nuts is to strengthen the already existing pull of the corner-core magnets. It’s not a great solution but at least it is “a” solution… to a problem that could have been solved by just having stronger magnets on the core, or a higher range of movement of the core adjustment (more below). To be fair, producing 96 additional magnets for every cube sold instead of coming up with a good center cap design, means that the engineering team can show production costs that justify keeping them employed. And the marketing team can feel good about putting the cube at its somewhat high price point.

With that said, the level of actual customisation that can be had is pretty nice : being able to adjust the corner-core magnets is nice (although having to disassemble the cube to do so is a bit annoying, especially when many other manufacturers let you do it from the sides of the corner pieces themselves); so is the rather broad range of strengths on the edge magnets. In a market where so many cubes are reducing the adjustment options so they can sell several versions of their product, it’s very refreshing to have something that harkens back to the golden age of customisability. Add in a well made 2-direction tensioning wheel and you have a cube that begs to be tried at very different settings.

And… it works : the range of stability and feel that is achievable is really broad, going from very fast and flexible to tight and controllable, and I truly invite you to spend some time fiddling with the settings. They do make a noticeable difference and they will let you get something that truly works for you. The cube’s predecessor was already a true example of how adjustment should be made, and this one continues on that nature.

The result is a cube that will work very well for you if you make a minimal effort to tune it to your liking, it looks excellent (have I mentioned it’s pink?), it is one of the top 3 quietest cubes of this decade and is going to make a lot of people happy. Give us blank center caps and I’ll be a very happy cuber.

So… should I buy it?
Short answer? Yes. Longer answer? If you’re tight on budget or don’t want to spend some time fiddling with the adjustment settings to find something that works for you then avoid it : if the default settings don’t work for you, you’ll have a hard time liking the cube and be disappointed. But if you’re a serious cuber that likes to find something that fits their style well, this is definitely a cube that you should have and play a bit of time with.

An important note: this cube was generously provided by SpeedCubeShop.com, which is kind enough to send me cubes for testing as long as some of you use the code SCDB when purchasing from them. So if you’re buying a cube and you want to get it decently quickly, consider making your purchase using [This link], that will send some love my way and let me keep doing this!