What are the best pyraminxes in 2023?
The Pyraminx is a three-dimensional twisty puzzle shaped like a tetrahedron. It was invented by Uwe Mèffert in 1970 and was first produced by his company Meffert's Puzzles. The puzzle consists of four triangular faces that can be twisted around its center, allowing the pieces to be rearranged.
Similar to the Rubik's Cube, the goal of the Pyraminx is to scramble the colors and then solve it by aligning all the colors on each face. It gained popularity as a challenging and entertaining puzzle, with various solving methods developed over time. The Pyraminx has different versions and variations, but its fundamental structure and solving principles remain the same.
It is interesting to note that the Pyraminx was actually invented before the 3x3! Pyraminxes have undergone dramatic design improvements over the last 20 years and today we have some excellent options that allow the best speedcubers to solve them in under 2 seconds on average!
Important things to note:
Some pyraminxes have cap popping issues, this is where the cap on one of the pieces comes off during a solve, if this happens frequently then it can easily be fixed with a bit of superglue, just be careful to make sure the superglue does not get anywhere else in the puzzle.
Tips do matter: the tips should be quite easy to turn but not too easy. They are going to turn by mistake, the top pyraminxers have special techniques to solve the tips casually while doing other moves on the puzzle.
Best pyraminx overall:
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Picube MoYu WeiLong Pyraminx (standard): £40 The PiCube core magnetic MoYu WeiLong Pyraminx is a core-magnetic version of the MoYu WeiLong pyraminx, it turns really well and the core magnets help to stabilize it. Picubeshop also lubricate their custom cubes before sending them out. The core magnets slightly increase the weight to 79g but this is hardly noticeable. |
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Best pyraminx (£20 and under):
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MoYu WeiLong Pyraminx (standard): £13
The MoYu WeiLong Pyraminx is a great pyraminx, it features adjustable magnets so you can change the strength, it is also pretty fast but stable enough to be controlled, it was used by Michael Nielsen in his 1.64 former world record average. There is also a maglev version available but most pyraminxers consider it to be too fast and uncontrollable and prefer the standard version. It weighs 76 grams.
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Best Pyraminx (£10 and under):
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MoYu RS Pyraminx Standard: £8
The MoYu RS Pyraminx is essentially a cheaper version of the WeiLong by the same manufacturer, it is not quite as fast as the WeiLong and doesn’t have adjustable magnets but just feels a bit cheaper, other than that it is an excellent pyraminx that also weighs just 61g!.
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Best Pyraminx (£5 and under):
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QiYi QiMing S3: £5
When I first tried the QiMing S3, I thought surely this has magnets! I then checked and there were no magnets there, it feels like it has magnets but it does not! It has various grooves in the piece structure that allow the clicking feel. Ultimately, the QiMing S3 isn’t going to compete with the magnetic pyraminxes above but it does provide an excellent budget option that people could definitely get some very fast times with. It weighs 67g but of course that is without magnets.
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Highly commended:
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Gan Pyraminx: £16-29
The Gan Pyraminx is another great option, it is not quite as fast as the WeiLong but turns very smoothly, it was used by Lingkun Jiang for his Asian record average and is also currently used by former Pyraminx world record holder, Tymon Kolasinski. Unusually, the base model (the standard version which is available for £16) actually only has core-corner magnets, the enhanced version (£24) then has corner-edge magnets as well. The Gan pyraminx is the only pyraminx to currently have a UV coated version available.
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YuXin Little Magic (£8)
The YuXin Little Magic Pyraminx has been used for many world records, it is used by the current world record average holder Ezra Shere and many other top pyraminxers. So why would I not recommend it as the best? Especially as it is only £8? The issue is that it only becomes good after extensive set-up and recently the mould has not been as good which means that extensive set-up to make it turn the best may not even be possible sometimes. Without set-up it still turns well and can be used for fast times but it doesn’t compete with the other options at the same price or more.
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