Donic Bluefire M1 Review

 

The Blue Miracle

DONIC’s new Bluefire is a completely new rubber development offering top speed.
A new high-tech generation of rubbers in the proven Formula FD3-technology has been developed as a result of the perfect combination of the large pored blue sponge with an extremely spinny top surface rubber. The top rubber with its small, long pimpled-in structure lends the rubber the best possible flexibility and sensational feeling. Above all, the Bluefire is unbelievably fast with a characteristic high arc when top-spinning that enables maximum spin and increased speed.

 

DONIC Bluefire M1

• Characteristics: highly dynamic, extremly spinny top sheet
• Recommended for: top players or players who practice a lot and prefer to use harder rubbers.

The former World Champion in double competition, long-time National Team player and DONIC’s  product expert Steffen Fetzner describes the features of the Bluefire as follows:

One of the most characteristic features of the new Bluefire obviously is the blue sponge colour. But not only the sponge colour is very special, but also the large-pored structure of the blue sponge.

When playing (in combination with the Bloodwood 5 blade), after a few rallies you’ll immediately notice the high dynamic of this rubber sheet and the pleasant and unique feeling that it creates when hitting the ball.

However, the most distinguishing feature of the Bluefire you can clearly recognize and feel at topspin shots. Above all the Bluefire is unbelievably fast with a characteristic high arc when top-spinning that enables maximum spin and increased speed. From my point of view this top sheet in combination with the new blue sponge creates a perfect symbiosis for a very dynamic and spinny rubber sheet with an increased catapult effect and at the same time with a very high arc.

This means perfectly suitable for top spin players who play either close to the table or from half-distance.

Ratings:

• Speed: 10++
• Spin: 10++
• Control: 6
• Sponge hardness: Medium+
• Surface: Spin Elastic

 

Donic Bluefire M1 Review (by haggisv):

I finally got a hit with the bluefire M1 today, with a big THANKS to seawitch who got hold of a sheet before I did, and gave me the offcuts so that I could take some pictures and measure the sponge. 

Visual inspection:
First thing I noticed was the colour of the sheet looked a little more pinkish than the usual bright red. I’d seen this before, but can’t remember on which sheet. The topsheet felt grippy but not overly grippy. It looked quite different to the usual high sensitive sheets from ESM, this sheet looked slightly thicker with different texture. I would expect this topsheet to be more durable than many other Donic topsheet, as it feels thicker and does not have that shiny look… and the shiny look seems to usually wear off first, along with a certain level of grip. Pictures below a closeup shot of about 20mm of the topsheet corner (click to zoom in):

The most standout feature was of course the bright blue sponge with the huge pores. The pores are certainly among the biggest I’ve seen! This seems to be a trend of the latest tensors by ESN.

A side view of the two sheets of Bluefire M1 Max (click to zoom in):

 

Looking at the sponge from the top (there’s glue glue on the surface):

 

Weight and hardness:

I’m sure it’s a coincidence, but the weight and sponge hardness is pretty much the same as that of Tenergy 05. A lot of the most recent sheets seem to have similar weight, so it appears that the highest performance demands a more dense sheet. The hardness measures 53 in the Sponge hardness table, and the weight as 0.235 g /Sq cm in the rubber mass database.

Looping:

As expected the throw is fairly high, not quite as high as my regular 999 Turbo but still quite high,  similar to T05. At high speed the throw seems to drop a little, and the arc is sharp and the ball dips very fast.
The feeling is unusual… the ball seems to really dig into the sponge making the dwell time feel unusually high. Then it catapults out at high speed…. this rubber is quite fast, considerably faster than T05 and probably closer to Donic S1 Turbo or Hexer HD. The extra dwell time gives me the feeling of more control, which seems to help me land the loops where I want them to land.

Spin:
I don’t quite have the right technique to get the most spin out of non-tacky rubbers for serves or pushes, but this rubber did not feel unusually spinny in the aspect, but I’ll let other comment on this further, as I can’t even get nearly as much spin out of T05 as I can out of my 999 Turbo.

For loops the spin was high… the harder you loop the more spin and dip you get… very nice and exactly what one would want for a power looper. Even medium pace hooks had very good spin and produce great kick on the table.

Blocking:
Very easy to control, and it did not seem particularly sensitive to spin at all. I loved it for blocking… so much easier than my usual rubber! In comparison to Tenergy 05, this rubber is much less sensitive to spin. Soft blocks landed short, fast blocks kept low and bounced off fast… no trouble at all in this aspect, and a great property.

Unfortunately I have not yet had the opportunity to test hitting and counter-looping as yet, but this will follow shortly.

If you’ve tried this rubber, please add your comments below and share your thoughts!