X-Man Tornado v2

The Tomato v2 is a lot less flashy than other flagship cubes, but it packs a bunch of innovative and very well executed features that make it a fantastic cube to have.

The customization is one of the clearest, most visible, most easy to change that I've seen in a cube. If you've ever used an adjustment system, you know the pain of finding that specific direction where the specular lights hit the cube just so and you can finally read the values on the spring/magnet. You will not have to do that for the Tornado. You do need a wonky tool in the shape of a bident, but even that is, by itself, a work of art: not only does it contain within itself a multitude of interchangeable screwdriver heads, they all have small magnets that clip to the inner container or to the driver itself. I find myself having only that in my bag and know that I have the cubing equivalent of a swiss-army knife at my disposal.

The cube is smaller than usual (in relative terms) at 54.5-ish mm, which works out well for my hands. It turns very smoothly and solidly. Corner-cuts at 70° (not that you ever need that) and does it in that gradual way that is not a violent snap. It doesn't really lock up, although it might hiccup a bit when turning badly, but never in a way that interrupts your alg executions. The overall feeling is of smoothness in turning, in sound, in looks.

And oh the quietness : I travel a lot, and have had many people coming up to me and asking me to "stop that noise". Never with the Tornado v2. It is also something I can cube with when visiting friends or family, as it doesn't interrupt or disturb the conversations or film-watching that might be going on.