The Butterfly Amicus Professional table tennis robot is Butterfly’s top-of-the-range robot and is produced in Hungary. All three Amicus robots look exactly the same, it is only the control panel that changes between versions. This Professional version has more features than both the Amicus Basic and Advance. Here is our full review.
Butterfly is the biggest brand in table tennis but they have teamed up with the Hungarian company LCS Sport to create their latest range of robots, that were released in 2014. There are three options available; Basic, Advance, and Professional. LCS Sport also sells the robots under the brand name “Power Pong”. The Power Pong 3000 is the same as the Butterfly Amicus Professional.
BUTTERFLY AMICUS PROFESSIONAL
Here’s everything you need to know about the Butterfly Amicus Professional table tennis robot…
All Butterfly Amicus robots are easy to carry and set-up – they attach safely to one end of the table. Amicus robots can send up to 120 balls per minute. They also have three heads allowing them to deliver variable amounts of topspin, backspin, sidespin and no spin. You can also adjust the height of the robot head. These are top quality robots that really stand out from the others on sale.
The following description comes directly from Butterfly…
For the Amicus Professional you don´t have to be a real professional – demanding the highest standards is enough. The Professional has all the features of the models Basic and Advance at the highest level and adds: Up to 8 balls per exercise. Memory space for 99 exercises. “Cluster” allows to play up to 10 saved exercises in a sequence. Lightweight and handy wireless remote control. Mega Spin Mode – for extreme spin. 21 pre-saved exercises recommended by Richard Prause. Mini USB slot for future software updates
And here’s the Butterfly video demonstrating the features of their new Amicus robots…
This is a fantastic table tennis robot with all the high-end features you could possibly imagine.This robot is aimed at players that are after the best and prepared to pay more for it.
THE REVIEW
The Butterfly Amicus Professional table tennis robot is a really great robot. I like how lightweight and easy to transport it is. After having a Practice Partner 50 myself (Y&T V-989) I understand the importance of this. My robot was very heavy and difficult to move around.
The Amicus Professional comes with a bag to carry it in and only weighs 6kg. My Practice Partner 50 weighed in at 22kg!
The Amicus Professional can do everything the Amicus Basic and Amicus Advance robots can do. It’s the extra features that you’re paying for. So, are they worth the money?
The first upgrade is an increase in the number of balls per exercise from 6 to 8. This could be useful if you particularly want to practice drill that requires more than six balls. Most of the time I reckon six will be enough, though.
The additional memory space from 22 exercises to 99 will be good if you have loads of exercises you want to program into your robot. Again, I feel like 22 is plenty for most people, though.
The cluster feature is quite cool. This allows you to play up to ten saved exercises in a sequence. Although, I’m not sure if it is really worth spending $300 more.
Finally, I’m pleased to say that the Butterfly Amicus Basic table tennis robot works well with both the old celluloid 40mm balls and the new plastic 40+ ones. For a while, I know a lot of players were worried that the new balls wouldn’t work in their robots due to the small increase in size – but they do. You can read our ball reviews here.
The Butterfly Amicus Professional can do everything you would ever want a table tennis robot to do. If you can afford it, you certainly won’t be disappointed. I reckon the Amicus Advance will probably do everything you need as well, though, and that is a bit cheaper. So maybe the Advance model is better value.
BUY THE ROBOT
You can buy the Butterfly Amicus Professional robot in the USA from Megaspin. If you are in the UK, TeesSport is the Butterfly dealer.
- Megaspin.net: The Amicus Professional retails for $1,999.00.
- TeesSport: The Amicus Professional retails for £1,439.99.
Or why not check out our favorite table tennis robot, the Newgy Robo-Pong 2050. The Robo-Pong 2050 is the top-of-the-range robot from US company Newgy. It is very reasonably priced and can do everything you might want from a table tennis robot.
- Amazon.co.uk: Available for £650. It is imported from the USA.
- Amazon.com: Much better value at $749 (roughly £500).
- Tabletennis11.com: Available for €890.00, with free shipping worldwide.
You might be interested in reading Ben’s popular article The Best Table Tennis Robots, which is available on his Expert Table Tennis blog. And don’t forget to check out all of our other Table Tennis Robot Reviews as well.
Have you used the Butterfly Amicus Professional yourself? What did you think of it? Please share your experiences and leave a review below in the comments.