My review of OrbPoi Pro LED Contact Poi by UltraPoi

[u/jerrygoyal]

I recently switched from Podpoi v2 (Smithy Rope) to OrbPoi Pro. I've been playing with them for over a month, and here's my review:

Things I noticed:

• They feel significantly heavier (130g vs. 185g), and the size of the poi head is noticeably larger as well (66mm vs. 97mm in diameter).
• The leash is thicker (9.525 mm) and stiffer.
• The knob is also heavier (23g).

Good things:

• Due to the thicker rope, heavier poi heads, and heavier knob, tricks involving isolations and throws are easier to learn. Like many others, I bought Podpoi v2 (Smithy Rope) as my first-ever LED poi, so learning isolations and throws was more challenging for me. I wouldn’t recommend Podpoi to beginners.
• The heavier heads help keep my spinning pace slower, which I really like. With Podpoi, I developed a habit of spinning too fast and occasionally hurting my fingers as a result.
• You can do contact rolls, which weren’t possible with the oval design of Podpoi.
• Rope doesn't tangle much.
• The LED handles make catching the poi in the dark much easier and also add another layer to visual appeal.

Not-so-good things:

• There’s no kinetic sensor to change colors.
• The battery doesn’t last as long.
• The LEDs are not as bright as Podpoi’s.
• The heavier heads can tire out my shoulders after a while. I wish they were a bit lighter (~160g would be ideal).
• The larger poi heads take up more space in my bag, which is a bit inconvenient (and adds a noticeable bump when carrying them around). Podpoi is much more portable.

Let's talk about the Issues:

• Understanding and setting LED color modes is not straightforward and requires too many clicks. For example, it’s not possible to set a specific default color, such as “yellow ribbon,” whenever I turn on LEDs. On top of that, I found that some colors don’t match the modes shown in the instruction booklet (yellow [color mode #2] is showing up green), which makes the process even more frustrating. I suspect the LED chip might be buggy. If you also own OrbPoi Pro, I’d love to hear about your experience with the LED color modes.
• I saw posts about OrbPoi Pro LEDs suddenly stopping, but I thought it wouldn’t happen to me. Well, guess what—it did. One of the knob handles stopped working. UltraPoi offers a warranty, but unfortunately, I live on the other side of the world, so shipping it back wasn’t feasible. I decided to fix it myself. After investigating the knob chip, I discovered that one of the battery wires had disconnected from the chip, so I had to solder it back on. It’s working fine now, but it was an unexpected hassle.

Bottom Line:

Despite the LED-related annoyances, the OrbPoi Pro is still my go-to poi. I absolutely enjoy the thicker rope and heavier heads, and I wish I’d had them from the start. When I was deciding on an upgrade from Podpoi, I also considered Flowmoja Poi (which uses the Podpoi capsule but features a sphere head and thicker rope). However, I ultimately chose OrbPoi because of the LED knob handles. If anyone owns Flowmoja poi, I would love to hear about your experience.

[u/SkaterRehab]

They were my first LED poi. I had to issue the warranty return about 3x in a month because the lights would just stop working, stay on, get extremely hot etc.

No problems with their handles though!

Executing the warranty was extremely easy, but living in Europe made it a bit much with shipping and not being able to use my LED poi.

Switched to Main Flow on Fire which use flowtoys lights and now a year without a single issue…

[u/KonigderWasserpfeife → u/SkaterRehab]

I had very similar issues. I had to use the warranty twice. Once because the chip in the handle quit working and once because the heads would be very obviously different hues, despite being set to the same mode.

Ultimately I just returned them entirely and switched to Pod Poi. If I decide I want another set of LED contact poi, I’ll definitely go with Flow on Fire. I’m super pleased with my daytime contact poi and fire poi from them.

[u/jerrygoyal → u/SkaterRehab]

There are so many options on FoF. which head, rope, and handle did you choose?

[u/SkaterRehab → u/jerrygoyal]

Their ice poi are amazing and they came out with a 2nd version. It’s 95mm around 200g per head or so.

For rope it depends on if you want it stiffer or not. I do a lot of tosses so I like static (stiffer) 10mm rope. I have the JLVPC (?).

Handels are an easy choice (for me) and it’s the sphere. They use ultra poi LED lights in the classic Play Juggling 30g poi shape that most people use for their practice poi. This combo of head and handle is great for tosses due to the weights of both.

[u/jerrygoyal → u/SkaterRehab]

Thanks brother, This was helpful! I'll probably order the same.

[u/XHolyPuffX]

If you have the flowtoys capsules from FoF with the top cut off, they fit into the orbpoi balls perfectly. It's just a really tight fit and you'll need a tool / object to push them back out for charging. Worth it though, they feel great and they're bright AF.

[u/jerrygoyal → u/XHolyPuffX]

Oh nice I didn't know you could do that.

[u/XHolyPuffX → u/jerrygoyal]

I replaced my frosted 97mm FoF balls with them and I'm in love with this set. Might pick up their ice poi 2.0 sometime though. https://imgur.com/a/v2IONrj

[u/TheSavageMinion]

Honestly flowtoys coral poi feel great, I’ve always preferred how the modes look with flowtoys