Recently I have been testing the Pongbot Nova S Pro. This is an entry level table tennis robot, which sits on top of the table. It can hold up to 150 balls. You may well have seen many internet reviews about this robot already. But what is it really like to play with? And how does it compare to a top of the range robot? I’m going to give my honest views about its quality, functionality, limitations and whether it is worth buying.
My issue with entry level robots
From my experience entry level robots (anything costing £300 or less) are really quite basic. Yes, the price is good, but the playing experience is usually lacking. They can send topspin balls. They can send backspin balls. There is some speed, spin and placement variation. But really that’s all you get.
Even with these basic features these robots have, they don’t usually perform very well. The spin quality isn’t always that realistic or even consistent. They tend to break down more easily. Often the playing experience is so poor that it’s really not worth spending the little money it cost to buy the robot in the first place.
The Nova S Pro is trying to solve the problem of the poor quality entry level robot. The price is still low, but Pongbot has tried to massively upgrade both the hardware and software. On paper, the Pongbot Nova S Pro is some distance ahead of any other entry level robot. But in reality, is this really true?
Nova S Pro features
The short answer is … yes. The Nova S Pro has loads of features which make it a really useful training aid. I’m amazed that a robot, which is so cheaply priced, can do so many things and be so much better than any other similarly priced robot.
The set-up is really quick and easy. In the short video below you can see the process for removing the robot from the carry bag and putting it into position on the table…
Drills
The Nova S Pro can be controlled either by a remote control or by an app on your phone or tablet. I did try out the remote control, but found it a bit fiddly. But the app on my phone is super easy to use.
There are 40+ drills – some basic and some more advanced. These cover most of what you need to work on in your table tennis game. What I really like is that each drill comes with three difficulty levels – easy, medium, hard. For example if you are working on your forehand topspin against backspin, the easy level will send the ball with less backspin and give you more time between shots. The medium level will increase the backspin and ball frequency. And the hard level will increase the backspin and ball frequency even more. You can switch between difficulty levels with a tap of the app, rather than having to re-programme a drill.
You can also set up your own custom drills. This is where you can set the speed, spin and placement for multiple balls. You are limited to a maximum of 5 balls in any one drill, but honestly this will cover 90% of drills you will ever want to do.
And if that isn’t enough, you can also access drills which other users have created, add them to your own library and even leave comments. This adds a really good community dimension to using the Nova S Pro. It feels like you are part of something bigger and not simply training alone.
Most of the drills will work absolutely fine, as you expect them to. But sometimes you will need to calibrate the drills to get the ball bouncing where you want. For example, if the ball is overshooting the table, you have to adjust the speed / spin / placement settings. But this is quite straightforward to do.
In this short video, you can see me using the robot doing a basic drill, trying out the three different difficulty levels.
Topspin / backspin
Now the big one. With the Nova S Pro you can do drills where the spin is changing from backspin to topspin. So I can do a drill where I push the first ball (backspin), loop the second ball (backspin) and then counter-loop the third ball (topspin). This accurately mirrors what happens in a real table tennis rally. I don’t know any other entry level robots which have this functionality. You usually have to pay a lot of money for an advanced robot to get this change of spin for consecutive balls. This has blown my mind. To have this change of spin, at such a low cost, is a huge selling point.
There is a limitation I should highlight. The robot cannot change between topspin, backspin and sidespin. If you want to have some sidespin to practise against, you need to manually move the robot head. Then the robot can vary between sidespin-backspin and sidespin-topspin. If you want straight backspin / topspin you have to manually move the robot head back to its original position. In reality, this isn’t that much of an issue. Most of the time I want to train against straight backspin / topspin anyway, so I just keep the robot head in this position.
Another nice feature is the robot uses lights to indicate whether the ball is backspin or topspin. This becomes really useful when doing drills in random mode. It helps train your eyes to look at the robot, so you can read what the next spin will be. In a real life match, we would use our eyes to watch an opponent. So it’s not quite the same, but still a useful habit to develop … hit and observe.
In this video, you can see me doing a drill in random mode …
Service
Another unexpected feature of the Nova S Pro, is that it can simulate a serve. You do have to play around with the settings to get the ball bouncing one side, clearing the net and then bouncing the other side. But I got the robot serving a really decent backspin serve, with realistic spin and ball trajectory. In fact it did this serve quite a bit better than the £2000 robot I own. Because it’s a robot which sits on the table, you can move it to different positions, so that the serve comes from different angles.
Again, there is a limitation when using the robot for returning a serve. To make this work, the robot head needs to be pointing down. It will then remain in this position for any subsequent balls. So you can’t get the robot to serve backspin (1st ball) and then give a topspin ball (2nd ball). But if all you want to do is practise returning a particular spin serve, then you can do this with the Pongbot Nova S Pro.
The big limitation
Since the Nova S Pro is a table top robot, there is no recycling system. The robot container can hold 150 balls, but once these balls have been used, you will need to manually reload the container.
Obviously, this isn’t as good as the advanced level robots. With advanced robots, each ball you hit is collected by a net and the ball is recycled into the robot.
But 150 balls is still quite a lot. This equates to two or three 1 minute drills. If you are working at high intensity, you don’t really mind having a break to re-load the robot.
I highly recommend getting a collection net with the robot. This sits at the end of the table and catches the balls. It doesn’t automatically recycle the balls into the robot, but it does save a lot of time. Without a ball collection net, your balls will fly everywhere and then it’s a bit of a pain sweeping them all up and reloading the container. With a ball collection net, most balls end up in one position, which makes it much quicker to re-load the robot.
How does it compare?
Compared to every other entry level robot I have tried, the Nova S Pro is by far the best robot available. It’s not even close. If you have a limited budget, I would 100% recommend this robot compared to any other. It’s possible other companies will come into this market and rival Pongbot, but at the moment it is clearly the best entry level robot.
What’s interesting is how the Nova S Pro compares to the advanced robots, which can cost over £2000. With the impressive list of features, I would estimate the Nova S Pro can achieve 60%-70% of what an advanced robot can do. It’s easy to set-up. It has pre-programmed drills. You can set up custom drills. It can alternate between topspin and backspin. You easily change the spin, speed and frequency. It can replicate serves. The app is very user-friendly. And there is a community of users.
If you have limited space, then the Nova S Pro is actually superior to an advanced robot. It comes with a neat carry case and you can store it and transport it much easier than a bigger robot.
But let’s be clear. With an advanced robot, you can set up more complex drills, you can do more spin variation and you really tailor any exercises to your exact needs. The advanced robots are capable of more realistic spin and a wider range of spin, e.g. heavier backspin and heavier topspin. Plus the advanced robots come with an in-built recycling system, which is such a useful feature. The advanced robots are definitely better, but you have to pay quite a lot more to get these extra specialist features.
Summary
I am super impressed with this neat little robot. The Pongbot Nova S Pro Pro has a lot more features than I was expecting and is a huge upgrade on other entry level robots I have tried. Some of its features even rival the advanced robots which cost a lot more.
It’s very portable and easy to set-up. The orange and black branding looks really sleek and cool. From what I have seen there is good support if you have any issues. And there are a lot of players using this robot, who you can potentially collaborate with.
Overall, this is the best entry level robot I have used. If you are new to table table robots and don’t want to splash out on a really expensive one, then the Nova S Pro is the best option available. It’s an exceptional robot for a really good price.
You can see more information and purchasing options on the Pongbot website.