Butterfly ‘Xstar V’, released in March 2020, is a 5-ply wood blade with extremely good controllability for entry players. It is the successor of ‘Xstar’ which had been the entry blade in Butterfly range, but its blade construction is totally different from that of old ‘Xstar’. Butterfly recommends ‘Xstar V’ for the entry players who want to learn the basic skilles of table tennis technics, such as learning the correct swing method and the sense of making rotation of ball. ‘Xstar V’ can be directly compared with Stiga ‘Allround Classic’ and ‘Allround CR’ those are the representatives of entry blades.

‘Xstar V’ is a very affordable blade for beginners. Differently from relatively fast entry blades such as ‘Falcima’, ‘Xstar V’ is a European classic all-round blade with suppressed elasticity.

The construction of ‘Xstar V’ is a 5-ply wood construction. The top layer is Limba. The middle layer and the center layer are Ayous. Overall thickness is around 5.6mm. This construction is a traditional European all-round construction which is very similar to the construction of Stiga ‘Allround Classic’.

The size of head is around 158mm x 152mm. This is a bit bigger than 157mm x 150mm which is the common head size of Butterfly. The head size of ‘Korbel’ is also 158mm x 152mm. Measured average weight is 80.7g while the average weight indicated on Butterfly home page is around 84 gram.

The shape of FL (flared) handle is different from those of other Butterfly blades. The width is around 25.5mm (at top) ~ 28mm (at bulge) ~ 26.5mm (at narrowest section) ~ 33mm (at the end), and the thickness is around 21.5mm (at thumb) ~ 24mm (at the end). ST (straight) handle is not available for ‘Xstar V’.

At the foreside of head, the product name and simple information are printed. Unexpectedly, the blade type is written as ‘Offensive’ instead of ‘Allround’. But, considering the nature of this blade and the characteristics of its predecessor, ‘Xstar’, this description may be a mistake.

Nothing is printed on the backside of head.

The nameplate at the foreside of handle is a transparent plastic lens of ordinary shape.

Small rounded plastic lens is applied at the backside of handle.

An aluminum plate with Butterfly logo is applied at the end of handle. The shape of these aluminum panels is rounded on the sides rather than the square shape typically seen on Butterfly blades. We can see this aluminum plate from some Butterfly blades for European market.

‘Falcima’ (left) and ‘Xstar V’ (right). Two models are 5-ply wood blades with reasonable price for entry-level players. ‘Falcima’ is an offensive blade with relatively higher elasticity, and ‘Xstar’ is an all-round blade with relatively lower elasticity.

‘Falcima’ (left) and ‘Xstar V’ (right). Both blades are 5-ply wood blades, but their constructions are significantly different from each other. ‘Falcima’ is a 5-ply wood blade with a somewhat unusual construction whose top layer and middle layer are Koto, while the construction of ‘Xstar V’ is a typical thin 5-ply wood all-round construction with Limba top layer.

‘Falcima’ (left) and ‘Xstar V’ (right) are the blades for entry-level players. The players who don’t have sufficient budget will also be able to consider these blades. ‘Falcima’ is recommended for the players who lay emphasis on speed, and ‘Xstar V’ is recommended of the players who lay emphasis on safety and stability.

Following are the performance indices of Butterfly Xstar V (avg.weight = 80.7g) :

– Ep = 1.18

– Ec = 1.12 (Ec/Ep = 0.95)

– Vp = 1.06

– Vl = 1.11 (Vl/Vp = 1.05)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.

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