For loads of ping pong lovers, Butterfly Viscaria might be the best blade in the market nowadays due to its marvelous speed and spin. However, some people might find it too expensive and want to find an alternative. Yinhe V14 Pro, in fact, is an ideal alternative to Viscaria due to its affordability.
Yinhe Venus V14 Pro is a blade that was released in 2016 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Yinhe Company. This version is an updated one on the basis of the previous Yinhe V14. Yinhe V14 Pro has better performance with more elegant workmanship.
Most importantly, the price of this blade is only around 40 USD, which is quite affordable for the majority. So let’s have a look at the performance of this blade.
Who uses Yinhe V14 Pro?
As a Chinese brand blade, Yinhe V14 Pro is mainly used by Chinese national or provincial team players. Among them, the most famous one is Xu Yingbin(Chinese: 徐瑛彬). His highest world ranking is 126. This young player was born in 2001 and now is playing Chinese Super League representing Shandong Luneng.
But in China, Yinhe V14 Pro is endorsed by Zhuyi, which is an influencer currently. It should be noticed that Yinhe V14 Pro is a limited version and only 1030 pieces were made.
Who is Yinhe V14 Pro for?
Yinhe V14 Pro is suitable for offensive table tennis players, especially those two-winged loopers. Players can get great support both near and far away from the table. The blade has great performance in speed and can generate powerful strokes with both forehand and backhand.
Players who have the play style of controlling can also consider this blade. Yinhe V14 Pro has the most balanced performance among all the ALC blades and it has lots of gears. Players can control the ball perfectly no matter looping, blocking, pushing, or even switching between the forehand and backhand.
Review of Yinhe V14 Pro
Appearance and Construction
The blade is contained in a silver-blue box, symbolizing the vast and endless starry sky. The blade is wrapped with Galaxy dust-proof plastic film. But what I like most is its workmanship.
Yinhe V14 Pro is beautifully crafted and on the surface, it can be observed the words “30 anniversary” and “FOR 40”. This blade is specially designed for 40+ balls after the reform of ITTF. If you don’t know the difference between 40+ balls and the previous normal balls, you can read our previous blog How to choose your table tennis balls?
Yinhe V14 Pro is a 7-ply structure, with 5 wood + 2 carbon piles. The materials are Limba(outer)—ALC—Limba—Kiri (core). We can notice that this is an ALC blade.
According to the official statement of Yinhe Company, V14 Pro combines the advantages of high-strength fibers and specially-selected wood. Thus, it has high elasticity and flexibility that can give players great support during the games.
Handle: The handle has a great grip feeling and the blue-gray handle is inlaid with Yinhe’s exquisite Logo.
Dimensions: Yinhe V14 Pro is 159mm * 150mm, which is slightly larger than the Viscaria, and the center of gravity is biased toward the racket head.
Thickness: The measured thickness is 6.1mm. The Kiri core is thicker than the normal blades with greater top power. Such structure and design are suitable for 40+ balls.
Weight: The measured weight of Yinhe V14 PRO is 92.1 grams. This is slightly heavy than all wood blades and can be accepted.
Speed
In the test, we placed DHS Hurricane 3 on the forehand and Butterfly Tenergy 64 on the backhand. This setup is quite common among players in the province team or national team.
The speed really exceeds my expectation! The blade gives me clear feedback and the balls have great initial speed. The sound of hitting the ball is clear and under lower gears, the forehand topspins have great speed and spin, especially when looping close to the table.
With great gears, the ball gains more speed and power but maintains stability at the same time. Players can consistently loop at a far distance from the table.
Backhand loops and drives also have decent speed, although it’s slightly slower than Viscaria. But V14 Pro is much more stable and can grab the 40+ balls perfectly.
The feeling is really similar to Viscaria near the table. I think the forehand even has a better performance than Viscaria, while the backhand might only have 85% to 90% of the quality of Viscaria. The backhand is more similar to Timo Boll ALC.
Spin
Personally speaking, I suggest that players match a tacky rubber on the forehand so that it can grab the ball well and take greater advantage of the racket. With DHS Hurricane 3, I can strongly feel that it’s quite easy to do loops with higher arcs and it’s more difficult for opponents to block back as there is much more spin.
Players can generate huge amounts of spin with the decent speed with ease. Besides, we can also exert some powerful and violent strokes through both forehand and backhand with even greater spin and speed. The ball tends to have a lower arc.
Due to the strong Kiri core, Yinhe V14 Pro has great performance even if we play at a far distance from the table. Unlike some all-wood blades, V14 Pro can give players more support. But one disadvantage is that the blade is slightly heavy, thus, players have to be used to it and improve their strength if they want to use it.
Control
Nowadays, the 5+2 structure is quite common and popular among those carbon blades. Yinhe V14 has a comprehensive and complete performance among all the ALC blades in the market.
I did quite a lot of long pushes and short pushes and the balls can be located relatively precisely. Especially, I find that the forehand drop shots are quite easy with this blade. I am not sure if this blade has a better performance on the forehand but it does give me this feeling.
On the other hand, the blade helps players switch between the forehand and backhand flexibly and has better control of the location, the spin, and the speed as well. It’s also super friendly for beginners even though they don’t have great basic skills.
Defense
As a chopper and long pips user, I am quite satisfied with the performance of the defense. There isn’t much dwell time and vibration, so blocking is quite easy for me. The blade is able to make great use of the incoming power and block it back easily.
I have seen some ping pong lovers who complain about the little vibration of this blade. Actually, this might be struggling for beginners or players who don’t have great ball sense as they expect too much from the blade.
But once your skill has been improved, you will discover that little vibration is absolutely a good thing for the defense. Players won’t be affected by the incoming power and can do both passive block and active block. I have tried some blades with large vibrations and I feel that my hand is shaking when blocking, which affects a lot on the control of the ball.
Yinhe V14 Pro vs Viscaria
Many ping pong lovers may ask what is the difference between Yinhe V14 Pro and Butterfly Viscaria, or if Yinhe V14 Pro can be an ideal alternative to Viscaria. Actually, these two blades have almost the same composition and they have quite similar performance.
Yinhe V14 Pro has a clearer feel on the forehand but the backhand is superior to the Viscaria. The overall speed and spin of Yinhe V14 Pro is 85% to 90% of the Viscaria. And V14 Pro has somehow a softer feel but better control.
Actually, I regarded Yinhe V14 Pro as more like Timo Boll ALC. Yinhe Pro 01 has almost the identical feel and performance as Viscatia. But Viscaria is super expensive for the majority of players while the Chinese blade has a similar performance but a great advantage in the price.
So ping pong lovers can consider Yinhe V14 Pro or Yinhe Pro 01 as ideal alternatives to the Butterfly Viscaria.
Best rubber for Yinhe V14 Pro
As an outer carbon blade, Yinhe V14 Pro is greatly balanced in speed, spin, and control. Offensive players can consider using tacky rubber on the forehand and a slightly hard rubber on the backhand. A proper setup with this blade would make it a killer.
Forehand: Tibhar Hybrid K1 Plus, DHS Hurricane 3 NEO, Donic Bluefire m2
Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 64, Butterfly Sriver FX, Butterfly Rozena
Conclusion
The moment I heard about the Yinhe V14 Pro table tennis blade, I was filled with anticipation and expectation. To my surprise, all the expectations I had were positively fulfilled! This blade is not only incredibly fast and powerful but also offers amazing spin control. Not to mention it looks truly gorgeous as well! Its sizable sweet spot really helps in giving a smooth game even while playing strong shots.
It is the most cost-effective blade among all the blades at such a price. I strongly recommend it to those crazy loopers.
