Review on Upgrade Your Game With IPong'S Original Table Tennis Trainer Robot by Joel Gumbiner

Bought this three years ago in May 2015. I was headed back to grad school and desperately needed a fun activity to do at home when I wasn't stressing out over studying. I mean, enough already with noodling around on the Internet! And this little buddy, Mr. iPong, has been well worth it the modest price. I haven't given it five stars because it's not a perfect machine. But at its price, it's a real value and amortized over time worth a good deal more than I paid for it. You can't and shouldn't expect perfection at this price. Another reviewer nailed it when he described the various predictable imperfections -- the 6 or 7 balls invariably left in the machine when it stops spewing out, for instance. It has a topspin and backspin setting, as well as speed, and I find the ball only makes it over the net if I put it on topspin. But I can live with that because it's such a pleasure to take a half hour break from work and bat the ball back at my little friend, sharpening up my game for those times when I'm with real human beings. I set this up on my dining table along with a table net set and some good paddles -- no pingpong table needed. This is table tennis, indeed!I considered getting the oscillating trainer, which costs only a bit more than this one. But I figured more could go wrong with that one, and I now believe there is benefit in having to repeatedly work on one kind of shot for a sustained period of time and not mix it up. I suggest investing in a good number of the orange ping-pong balls that are made for the machine. They're thicker than the regular pingpong ball and the machine doesn't devour them as it does regular ping pong balls. It's nice to have a lot of balls on hand so that you don't have to stop every five minutes to pick up the balls from the floor. I did buy a contraption for picking up balls from the floor, but I don't mind doing a quick sweep with my hands. I even place the Rubbermaid bowls I store the balls in on the floor in the hopes that a few balls will wind up in them. Usually it's just a handful but hey! It feels good anyway. This whole thing feels good and keeps me moving in a fun, easygoing way.