Andro NUZN 45 Review: A Controlled Hybrid Tensor for the Backhand

I recently asked the players from the r/tabletennis community what equipment I should review next after going a bit wild on the EJ shopping cart, and it turns out the new Andro NUZN 45 and 48 were on top of the list! Most people were curious about them since there are not too many online reviews yet, and the normal 50 and 55 versions have quite a big fan base out there.

When I saw the poll results, I got quite excited because using a non-tacky tensor rubber for weeks on my normal blade is definitely out of the box for me, but a fun experience for sure! After the testing period, I'm still happy with the NUZNs, I actually quite enjoyed them, so I'm going to tell you all about that in this blog post!

But before we start, I want to say a big thank you to my friends from Tabletennisstore.eu. Originally, I had only bought a red 1.9mm NUZN 45 but the review could not really be complete with that alone, so I reached out to them as they are our club sponsor (and fantastic people) and they were so kind to send me a NUZN 45 in 2.1mm and a NUZN 48 in 2.1mm as well (the review of the 48 is coming next). Not only that, we will collaborate more in the future, and for anybody reading this and wanting to try the new NUZNs, you can get 25% off on their shop via this link. Quite a nice deal if you ask me ;)

Ok, that was the intro and now let's get into the real stuff, let's go!

TableTennisStore.eu25% off

Andro

NUZN 45

View ratings in the Rubber Database

The TL;DR

The technicalities

The rubber comes in a nice white, yellow and green package, weighs about 66 grams uncut and 45 grams cut on my DHS Hurricane King (aka DHS Wang Chuqin), and has a very similar sponge appearance to the Rakza Z but it is softer. The rubber comes with its own sticky plastic protector and it's only a little bit tacky out of the box, but this will fade away quite quickly after the initial play sessions. Andro says it's a rubber designed for the medium player above all, but can also be used by higher intermediate players, and I agree with that statement.

How I tested the NUZN 45

Since I had two different sheets, one in 1.9mm and the other in 2.1mm, I glued them first onto my Loki Kirin K6 and the DHS Wang Chuqin to see how it would behave with two very different blades (cheap and slow wood vs expensive and fast inner carbon).

I exclusively played this on the backhand, as the rubber is too soft for my forehand taste (tried a bit, did not enjoy it there). I suspect that this is the main usage of the rubber as well, given the softness and slightly higher throw angle compared to the NUZN 48.

After not enjoying the feeling on the Loki Kirin K6 (too little tempo), I moved it to the DHS Fang Bo B2X as it is also a different blade with a thicker core than the WCQ and more of a crispy feeling and different handle. I have to say that was a good change for me, I will mention this more later on.

Overall, the testing period was about a month, where I tested both the NUZN 45 and 48 on different and similar blades in normal training but above all, in normal matches. I will do first the review of the individual rubbers and later on the comparison of both. So stay tuned for that, and now let's get started!

The Andro NUZN 45 in depth

Sponge & Topsheet Feeling

The first rallies you play with the rubber are pretty clear on how the rubber is going to play and feel, this is not a complicated rubber like a Dignics 09c or a boosted Hurricane 3 Neo where you keep on discovering things for weeks, in fact, how it felt on the first sessions is also how it felt for the rest of the month I tested it, which in my opinion, is a good thing for a controlled rubber aimed at helping the intermediate player.

When it comes to the sponge feeling, it has a similar feeling as your normal tensor sponge, the sponge is soft and the catapult is there, the ball sinks in nicely and then fires off. So in that regard, it does not feel like a pure hybrid, but more like other ESN rubbers you may be used to. Where the difference can be felt is in the amount of catapult it has and how fast it activates. In this regard, the catapult and bounce release a bit more in stages, so that's where you could call it a hybrid, but some people may say it's just a bit more linear than your usual tensor, and I guess both arguments can have a point.

When it comes to the topsheet, it is not a tacky rubber at all, but more of a very grippy tensor. Out of the package it has this slight tack to it, but after playing for a couple hours, it disappears and just stays as a grippy topsheet. I say very grippy because ball slippage was non-existent which I was very happy about, because my hands tend to get a bit sweaty.

Speed & Control

If we talk about the speed and control of the NUZN 45 overall, I would summarise it as an intermediate friendly and controlled tensor-like hybrid. The sponge has a noticeable amount of catapult built in, but it is more muted than your normal Tenergy rubber for example, and it takes a bit more force to release it fully. So essentially, the rubber has 3 gears:

1. On the very slow gear (i.e. short game), you will only notice the catapult effect a little bit. The ball doesn't pop up that much on pushes and it's easy to serve low, so that's nice and controlled, which is a plus if you come from something like Tenergy 05 for example.

2. When you start driving and looping, the catapult starts appearing and you will notice it much more, but it's not as intense as with other tensor rubbers, it feels more controlled and has this slightly 'linear' feeling.

3. On its fastest gear, the catapult fully releases, but here is where you will notice the speed cap, it will release to a certain extent and that's it. Don't get me wrong here though, it still has a good amount of speed, and if the opponent is not careful, the ball will not be returned back on the table. It's just that against stronger opponents, the ball was almost always blocked with a decent amount of ease, so I could almost never finish the point with a good backhand opening loop, which I can often do with other rubbers.

So as you can see, the NUZN 45 is quite easy to control on the lower gears where you need it to be 'calm and quiet', and it starts releasing power to a certain extent as you start hitting harder. It will still help you by adding extra speed and catapult as this is not a fully linear rubber, but it will do so at a more controlled pace, and after that it will be capped to stay controlled.

Spin & Grip

Spin is one of the things that I enjoyed the most about the NUZN 45. Because of the very grippy topsheet, you can put a relatively high amount of spin when using your fingers (and overall technique) correctly. I want to believe that it has more spin than something like a Rakza 7, but this is just my experience and I have no way to measure it with something like SpinSight. Andro themselves say that it has a ton of spin and that they measured it, so let's believe them there ;)

But in any case, this actually surprised many of my usual training partners during heavy backspin backhand serves, as they put the ball in the net more often than they would like to. I think they were not expecting such a big amount of spin with a small motion and an intermediate friendly rubber, and some of them were also surprised to receive such heavy spin with a non-tacky rubber.

However, when it came to the normal backspin openings and counterloops, the amount of spin was also good but not enough to finish the point directly, as I mentioned before. I can get better results here with the NUZN 48, but that will be for the next review. Regardless, fear not, if you are an average intermediate player, the amount of spin and grip will be plenty!

Throw Angle

I quite enjoyed the throw angle of the NUZN 45, it's higher than something like the DHS Hurricane 8-80, and lower than the Dignics 09c, probably in the medium high-ish category like many other great backhand rubbers, but this will of course vary per technique and blade.

Nuances and comparisons aside, what I can say for sure is that the throw angle was comfortable on both my DHS blades from the get-go and that at no point I felt like it was off or a factor to consider or adjust to. This is definitely the case when you start playing with the Dignics 09c for example, so I'd say that no club players should worry about that, you can just play with it from the very first day with your normal technique.

Drives & Loops

Driving and looping with the NUZN 45 is nice and easy, and you can almost always get very controlled shots that safely clear the net and land on the table. The quality of those shots is pretty good and they have a good amount of spin and a decent amount of speed depending on the blade you use. On the Kirin K6 for example, tempo was a bit lacking, but on the Fang Bo B2X, tempo was better for my taste. I guess this is to be expected as both blades are very different, and especially since this is not a rubber built for speed, it is designed for control and stability, so it makes a lot of sense.

One thing that I want to mention here is that the rubber rewards proper body engagement and clean technique. This is of course always the case with any other piece of gear but I noticed quite the difference when I used my body and thumb correctly or just my arm and less fingers when I was out of position. Other tensor rubbers show this effect a little bit less, but with the NUZN 45 I felt that the impact of incorrect technique was a bit more. I guess that is a good thing and thus I wanted to mention it :)

Lastly and connected to the above, the rubber's dwell time is medium-low, and even though it is a bit higher than your average tensor rubber, it is noticeably lower than your classical hard and tacky rubber, so this, combined with the catapult effect (on the higher gears) is something to consider and that you may need to adjust a little bit to depending on what you came from. After a couple play sessions I stopped noticing it, but in the beginning it was a bit clearer.

Serves

I was surprised by the amount of spin that I could produce on my backhand short and long serves, and how relatively low I could keep the ball. Having experience with other tensor rubbers (Tenergy 05 as an extreme example) and being mostly a hard tacky player, I was expecting that the NUZN 45 would be a bit bouncier on low speeds and that the ball would be gone before I could produce a good amount of spin, but this was definitely not the case. For me this is where you can call it a hybrid rubber, and I was very satisfied with what I could do with a 45 degree tensor-like rubber. Both short and long serves were very spinny and I could get a decent amount of variation and surprises that gave me a couple of free points per set.

Flicks

Backhand flicks were quite stable due to the controlled nature of the rubber and the medium to high throw angle, but they were not very dangerous as it is to be expected from an intermediate rubber. They did have a good amount of spin (speed was average) but the relatively low dwell time made it a bit more difficult to flick than I'm used to coming from very sticky hard rubbers. It was not bad by any means, but I just think that the average flicks were nothing super special and that other rubbers are better at this.

Pushes

Pushes were almost as good as the serves, and I could get a nice amount of spin onto those, making it difficult for the opponent to open aggressive pushes. I do think the pushes were a bit bouncier and I had to be a bit more careful than with my normal tacky rubbers, but nothing big or serious. I guess this makes sense given the relatively lower dwell time of the rubber and that sometimes the catapult effect does kick in a bit.

Blocks

I'm not much of a blocker myself, so take this section with a pinch of salt always, but overall I enjoyed the blocks with the NUZN 45. Most of the time, I could block all fine and the ball would safely land on the table if the opponent gave me a good loop. I didn't find myself overshooting the table, probably due to the capped nature of the rubber, so that was a good thing. However, on those shots where I played them very passively and tried to absorb most of the incoming ball's energy, I sometimes struggled with clearing the net. My gut feeling is that a little bit of active blocking works better on this rubber, but on high speed loops you should not notice this too much.

Flat hits

Even though I'm used to always adding a bit of spin to all my shots (you have to with DHS rubbers), I quite enjoyed flat hits and counters with the NUZN 45. It is not the best I have tried in this department compared to other high speed/rebound tensors (i.e. MX-series) but it is certainly not bad at it. From time to time I could actually get a couple of good punches and counters close to the table that flew past the opponent, so this was much better than my usual tacky rubbers. Makes sense though!

Boosting

There really is no need to boost this rubber, it already comes nicely tuned from the factory so it's ready to go right out of the package. It also does not make too much sense to boost an intermediate rubber made for control and safety, if you want more speed and bounce or a softer sponge (plus the sponge is soft enough!), there are plenty of alternatives in this category.

Price & Durability

Without any discounts, the price of the NUZN 45 is usually around 40€ to 50€, but I have seen a couple of discount campaigns going on in the last weeks, so you may be able to get it for less. It is not an expensive rubber but it is also not the cheapest, so it falls in the normal ESN tensor category where most of the intermediate rubbers are. I'd say that for what you get, it's pretty good value for the money you pay.

As a nice, little reminder here, my friends from Tabletennisstore.eu will give you a 25% discount using this link, so you may be able to get a good deal on that!

Lastly, and since most of you will also wonder about the durability, I'd say it plays exactly the same as one month ago, I have not noticed any drop in speed and spin or grip, so that's promising! Only time will tell whether this is a more durable alternative to other tensor hybrids in the market (i.e. K3), but so far, I'm happy with the results!

So who is this rubber for?

The NUZN 45 is what I would consider a controlled intermediate tensor with a nice hybrid touch, so essentially it can be a nice rubber if you are in any of these scenarios/situations:

1. First, if you are an intermediate player who has used tensor rubbers now for a while and enjoy the catapult effect but want it a little bit more toned down and controlled. Specially if you are coming from a fast and furious rubber that you're having trouble controlling (i.e. Tenergy 05, Tibhar MX-P, etc) this can be a step in the right direction.

2. Second, if you come from the other extreme of hard and tacky backhand rubbers but for any reason you need a bouncier rubber that helps you generate tempo, then this can be a good choice. A word of caution here, this is not a tacky rubber at all, so it will take some time to get used to it, but it can be a good intermediate step if you tried things like Glayzer 09c but you still want more catapult and are not willing to go all the way to the normal tensors (i.e. Rakza 7, even though you may like it too!)

And who may not enjoy the rubber?

If you dislike 'catapulty' non-tacky rubbers (or in other words, tensors overall) or are an advanced player, I would steer away from the NUZN 45 as you will probably not like it.

I'm saying this because if you like your tack, then there are better options out there that still help you generate tempo in an easy way but have a bit more dampening and less bouncy. In this category you may find things like Donic BlueGrip (reviewing it soon!), Tibhar MK, Glazier 09c (or even DHS 8-80), and many others.

And if you are an advanced player and like tensor-like hybrids, you should probably go for a harder and more powerful rubber, as I'm pretty sure you will very early notice the speed cap and you'll probably not enjoy it.

Final thoughts: Is it a true hybrid?

As you have probably noticed, I quite enjoyed my time testing the NUZN 45 and NUZN 48. I'm not sure if the NUZN 45 will stay on any of my permanent match setups but it has surprised me in a couple areas and I'm happy I got to test it for a while.

It's a pretty good rubber, it has a good amount of control even though the catapult is there, and the amount of spin it produces is more than enough for the average intermediate player, especially on the backhand. So I suspect that this will be a pretty successful rubber for those people who like intermediate tensors with a little bit more power and spin that other alternatives out there, but time will tell!

And if you ask me, hey Victor, is this a true hybrid or not? I'd say that at its core, the NUZN 45 doesn't behave like a true hybrid and it plays more like a controlled tensor with a slightly more linear nature and a better grippy feel.

This is because it's not tacky, it does not dampen the ball too much on contact, and it doesn't have an abundance of gears, but it does have more linearity than a normal tensor, the spin and grip is fantastic for what you pay and the durability seems better than other 'hybrids', so I guess that's more positives than negatives.

That was my review of the Andro NUZN 45, until my next review, and see you at the table!