GAN i4 MagLev UV 3×3

The GAN i4 MagLev is the serious end of GAN’s smart cube range. Where the i Carry 4 runs on replaceable button cells and 48 magnets, the i4 is rechargeable, carries 76, and swaps the springs for magnetic levitation.

Seventy-six magnets and double magnetic levitation drive the turning. The GAN i4 MagLev ball core gives 35 degree auto-alignment, so a layer taken most of the way round is finished for you. Seventy-two numerical tuning settings cover tension and elasticity. It measures 56mm and weighs 74g under a glossy UV coating.

The smart side is what you are paying for. Sensors read each turn as you make it without touching anything, so nothing wears out and no move is missed, and the cube knows its own orientation in your hands. All of it feeds the CubeStation app.

That gives you timed solves recorded automatically, and a replay of any solve move by move so you can see where the time went. There are random scrambles, guided practice on whichever stage you are working on, an algorithm library, and live races against other cubers.

Battery life is where the GAN i4 MagLev pulls away from what came before. Thirty hours with everything running, or 200 in endurance mode, and ten minutes on charge buys ten hours. Earlier smart cubes needed charging far too often to be a daily driver.

The six-colour ball core is a small thing that saves a lot of irritation. Strip a smart cube down and reassembly has to be exact or the app loses track of orientation. Colour coding makes that difficult to get wrong.

It also works with the GAN Robot Arthur, which scrambles it to a random state and solves it on its own.