DE-1 (Galaxy)

Part of a small run of defensive blades by Galaxy. Traditional size head. Great for starting out with the modern defensive style of using chops to open up the opportunity for top-spin attacks.

Manufacturer Specs
Speed 60
Control 90
Rating DEF
Thickness 6.0 mm
Weight 80 g
Construction 5 ply

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Average user rating from: 1 user

Overall rating		4.7
Speed (1 rating)		4.5
Control (1 rating)		4.0
Hardness (1 rating)		4.5
Weight (1 rating)		3.0
Build quality (1 rating)		5.0
Value for money (1 rating)		5.0

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Thursday, 27 March 2008

Written by hymm - Top 50 reviewer - View all my reviews

Overall rating		4.7
Speed		4.5
Control		4.0
Hardness		4.5
Weight		3.0
Build quality		5.0
Value for money		5.0

Galaxy De-1 Review

I've used this blade for the past few months, after looking for a better flipping blade. Using this blade with 2.2 mm Black Geospin Regular and 2.0 mm Donic F3 Big Slam. I had a bit of an adjustment period just due to the fact that this blade is 1 mm thinner than my previous blade. This is supposed to be a defenders blade, but I am not a defender and I'm not sure what make this a defenders blade. Cole speculates the version I have could still be a prototype as there's no printing on the blade face, the handle still smells like pine and the handle isn't quite symmetrical.

Handle Type: Flared
Weight: 85 g
Thickness: 5.3 mm

Construction: This blade has an unusual construction with three layers of carbon arylate and four layers of koto. Handle shape is like Butterfly's though I don't like the feel quite as much. Head size about the same size as the Galaxy T-4 or W-6.

General Impression: What a strange blade. Hard outer plies, but fairly flexible due the thinness and in spite of the arylate. Pretty stiff on slow shots, but when swinging hard the blade flexes and gives extra dwell to control hitting and looping. When hitting the sweet spot there is almost no vibration, but when off center the blade vibrates slightly. My hardest shots give a loud crack, which is sort of fun. The sound makes me feel powerful. Speed class of the blade is strait offensive. The blade is pretty durable as I've hit the edge of the table pretty hard a couple of times and just have a couple dents on the edge to show for it.

Looping: Feels really good for looping on my backhand. On the forehand, I'm still adjusting to the step up in speed, but there's plenty of dwell due to the flexibility. I would consider this to be a high throw blade, might be higher than the Kong Linghui Special. I suspect I would do better on the forehand if I was more of a mechanical looper. I need to close the blade more than I'm comfortable with against the spinner topspin.

Hitting: When hitting the blade in the sweet spot, this blade feels great. It feels like I'm in complete control of where I want to place the ball. The speed and hardness of the blade give plenty of speed to put away the point even on my 90% effort shots. When hitting out of the sweet spot, especially towards the end of the blade, the ball seems to pick up some more speed and end up hitting the ball long.

Pushing: Better than my Kong Linghui special, but not by much. Still not bad for an offensive blade.

Flipping: Feels pretty good. Still developing my technique, so hard to be sure.

Blocking: Great control when hitting in the sweet spot, but feels a bit weird when out of it.

Chopping: I'm not really a chopper and my chopping technique is horrible. That said, I can chop ok with it in the mid distance with the rubbers I'm using, but close to the table the rubbers I'm using are way too fast to land a chop against loop on the table. Maybe with a long pips this would be possible, but I have a hard time imagining controlling close to the table chops with an offensive rubber.

Conclusions: I'm still not sure what to think of this blade. Really like it for my backhand side, but occasionally I'm having control problems on the forehand side due to the extra speed. Great in the mid distance, but up close to the table I occasionally am surprised to see the ball go long. I'm going to try this blade for a few more months to see if I adjust. When I went back and tried my KLHS that blade felt slow and weird. Almost like hitting the ball with a Styrofoam block. I think due to the thinness, hardness, arylate, and flexibility, it makes other blades feel weird. At the 33USD that ColesTT is offering this blade, it's a great value.

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