The Palio 40+ 3-Star table tennis ball was one of the first seamless balls to be released back in early 2014. Fortunately, the balls have improved a lot since then and are now a lot rounder and much more durable.
If you aren’t particularly clued up when it comes to table tennis equipment you might not realise that the Palio 40+ 3-Star seamless ball is not manufactured directly by Palio. Instead, it is manufactured by Shanghai Minkow – the company that produce all of the seamless table tennis balls, in China.
Other plastic table tennis balls manufactured (and rebranded) by Minkow include;
- 729 40+ 3-Star
- Asian Pacific 40+ 3-Star
- GKI Premium 40+ 3-Star
- Hanno 40+ 3-Star
- iPong Sphere 40+ 3-Star
- Joola Flash 40+ 3-Star
- Kingnik 40+ 3-Star – Minkow’s in-house branded ball.
- Nexy 40+ 3-Star
- Palio 40+ 3-Star
- Sanwei 40+ 3-Star
- Schildkröt Super 40+ 3-Star
- Stag Peter Karlsson 40+ 3-Star
- Tibhar SL 40+ 3-Star
- Xiom 40+ 3-Star
- Xushaofa 40+ 3-Star
- Yinhe 40+ 3-Star
PALIO 40+
This means that all seamless table tennis balls are identical, just with different brand logos printed on them. This Palio 40+ ball is exactly the same as the popular Xushaofa 40+ seamless ball, and the Kingnik 40+ 3-Star (which is the in-house brand of Shanghai Minkow).
THE REVIEW
We haven’t managed to do a full video review of the Palio 40+ 3-Star table tennis ball yet – and I’m not sure we ever will. Instead, it is our intention to film a video comparing all five of the new plastic balls and giving our opinions on which is the best table tennis ball.
If you are looking for a review of the Palio 40+ ball, and as all of the seamless balls are exactly the same, we would advise you to have a look at our review of either the Xushaofa ball or the Kingnik ball. Everything we say about those balls will apply directly to the Palio 40+ ball.
BUY THE BALL
If you are looking for seamless balls, we recommend buying Minkow’s own-branded Kingnik 40+ balls. Unless other balls are on special offer, the Kingnik balls should always be the cheapest – as they come direct from the factory. You can buy Kingnik 40+ 3-star balls from;
- Tabletennis11.com: A pack of 6 balls costs €9.00 (€1.50 per ball)
- Megaspin.net (US): A pack of 6 balls costs $10.80 ($1.80 per ball)
- eBay.com: A pack of 6 balls costs $12.99 ($2.17 per ball)
- eBay.co.uk: A pack of 6 balls costs £4.95 (£0.83 per ball)
Or why not check out our favourite 40+ plastic ball, the Nittaku Premium!
- Tabletennis11.com: A pack of 3 balls costs €7.50 (€2.50 per ball)
- Megaspin.net (US): A pack of 6 balls costs $17.50 ($2.92 per ball)
- Amazon.com: A pack of 6 balls costs $19.99 ($3.33 per ball)
- Amazon.co.uk: A pack of 3 balls costs £6.98 (£2.33 per ball)
- eBay.com: A pack of 3 balls costs $7.49 ($2.50 per ball)
- eBay.co.uk: A pack of 3 balls costs £6.50 (£2.17 per ball)
You might be interested in reading Ben’s article The Best Table Tennis Balls, which is available on his Expert Table Tennis blog. And don’t forget to check out all of our other Table Tennis Ball Reviews as well.
Have you used the Palio 40+ ball yourself? What did you think of it? Please share your experiences and leave a review below in the comments.