Review by Marco Borrillo
(published with permission):
I spent a lot of time 2 years ago with Chetan and a Newgy
2040. It did a lot good stuff and
both Chetan and I really liked it. It
was light and cheap (US$600, though they went up in price now to $700) and easy
to set up and easy to use. Just
attach the robot to the table (it slides on instantly, nothing to tighten),
Velcro 2 straps to the table's net, and plug it in.
Done.
The Newgy made a good amount of spin even on short balls.
The head height of the Newgy was fairly low to the table, so serves
seemed "real". The head
was able to be adjusted up or down easily, so you can get a "line
drive" or a "looping topspin."
You can rotate the head INSTANTLY to
produce ANY spin you want 360 degrees around the head.
Ball frequency was excellent, with almost 2 full seconds of
delay at the lowest setting, and the fastest setting going much faster than most
humans can handle.
Speed and spin was excellent at highest power setting.
It was very adequate at the lower slower settings.
Put the Newgy at the slowest speed setting and 100% sidespin, hold your
paddle perpendicular to the incoming ball, and you'll see the ball jump
violently to the left or right (depending on the spin) and easily go 3-4 feet
off the table to the side. That's a
lot of spin, even for a slow setting.
The bad thing about the Newgy is that it can't make a dead
ball. So everything is always lots
of spin. And of course it's not
programmable. Can only do 1 type of
a ball at a time.
However, all things considered, dollar for dollar, the Newgy
2040 is the best robot on the market today. For only $700 brand new (and you can
find them used very easily for $400 or less) this is a robot that you can
definitely do a lot with.
So sure there are better robots, and sure there are robots
with more capability. But dollar for dollar, all things considered such as ease
of use, quickness of setup and take down, and # of different types of balls it
makes (nearly everything, except no spin or super spin slow...) this robot is
great.
If I had limited funds this would be a no-brainer. You can't
go wrong with the Newgy.
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