Xiom
Novus Allround S.

In a market ruled by carbon, high-speed blades and the constant promise of “more power”, a five-ply all-wood allround base can look like a product swimming against the tide. The Xiom Novus Allround S belongs to exactly that category many catalogues push to the back pages, and which nevertheless remains the most sensible starting point for a huge share of players: the control blade, European in conception, meant for learning, for feeling the ball and for building the point rather than blowing it apart.

This review looks at what the Novus Allround S actually offers on the table, which player profile it makes sense for, how it stands against the classic references of the same segment — beginning with the inevitable Stiga Allround Classic — and where its limits are. The aim is not to repeat Xiom’s sales pitch, but to help decide whether this base fits a given game or whether the player’s level is already asking for something else.

What the Novus series is

The Novus series is one of Xiom’s longest-running families. It was born with the brand as a range designed to cover the whole spectrum of styles — from defence and allround through to pure attack — with classically conceived constructions. Within that logic, each model’s surname states its character: Allround, Offensive, Extreme, and so on, while the trailing letter (S, among others) qualifies the feel or the hardness of the build.

The Novus Allround S occupies the control rung of the family. It is a blade of five all-wood plies, with no synthetic fibre at all (no carbon, no aramid, no glass), true to the European school of allround blades: soft, flexible, with a contained trajectory and a long contact time that favours spin and precision over speed. It is, in essence, Xiom’s reading of an archetype that Stiga, Butterfly, Donic and Yasaka have been building for decades.

Construction and design philosophy

The Novus Allround S is a simple, honest construction: five all-wood veneers, no reinforcement, a thickness of around 5.4 mm and a balanced weight in the region of 82–85 grams. Xiom does not publish the exact ply layout in detail, but the behaviour is that of a traditional European allround base: a relatively soft outer ply with good grip, a light core and an elastic response that works through the flex of the whole blade rather than through the rebound of a stiff fibre.

That absence of fibre is the key to its entire character. In a carbon blade, energy comes back fast and direct, with an artificially widened sweet spot and a drier ball launch. Here the opposite happens: the ball sinks slightly into the blade, stays an instant longer on the surface (the dwell time, the span during which the ball remains “hooked” before it is thrown off) and leaves on a medium, very controllable trajectory. The intended consequence is a blade that forgives in the touch game, that reports clearly what happens at impact, and that does not fire the ball off while the player is still refining their technique.

The manufacturer itself frames the blade in a register of control and versatility (“classic European allround”), with a slightly large and somewhat thin head surface, meant to pair well with soft sponges or medium-to-thick rubbers. It is a coherent statement of intent: this is not a base for wringing out hard, fast rubbers, but one to accompany a game built on placement and spin.

On-table behaviour

It is worth being honest about the starting point: what follows rests on the manufacturer’s specifications, on the published laboratory tests of the Novus series and on the converging assessments of players and reviewers, not on weeks of personal use with this particular blade. That said, the portrait the sources draw is very consistent and matches squarely what a five-ply all-wood allround blade is expected to do.

Speed. The Novus Allround S is, deliberately, a slow blade by current standards. It sits clearly in ALL / ALL+ territory, a step — sometimes two — below any modern offensive carbon base. This is not a flaw but its reason for being: contained speed is precisely what allows such a wide margin of control. In close and mid-distance rallies it responds soundly, but once the player backs away from the table or tries to close points with raw power, the blade falls short. It needs the player to supply the acceleration; it does not hand it over.

Feel and contact time. This is its strongest argument. All-wood plies plus a flexible build give a soft, woody, highly informative feel: ball contact registers with clarity, and that feedback is exactly what a developing player needs to calibrate the stroke. The long contact time makes it easy to load spin on the topspin and gives a great deal of security in the touch game. Anyone coming from a stiff, springy blade will notice straight away that here the ball “stays” an instant longer on the bat.

Trajectory and spin. The arc is medium, neither especially high nor flat, which makes it comfortable and predictable. Flexing across the whole blade and offering good grip, it follows the topspin gesture well and makes spin easy to apply, above all in openings against backspin and in mid-distance rotation play. It is not a base that generates spin by itself — that comes from the rubber and the technique — but it does not get in the way: it lets the stroke work.

Sweet spot and stability. Here comes the caveat most often repeated by those who have played it. With no fibre, the sweet spot is not widened, and several users describe it as fairly small: off-centre hits lose feel and speed more noticeably than on a carbon blade. It is a trait inherent to all-wood blades of this type, not a defect peculiar to the Novus, but it is worth keeping in mind. It demands a reasonably centred strike to give its best, which in turn makes it a good learning tool: it forces the player to sharpen the contact point.

Short game and control. This is its natural ground. Pushes, touches, blocks and control flicks come out simple and safe thanks to the contained speed and the good feel. The blade inspires a lot of confidence in close play and in active defence, which is exactly what an allround base is asked for. For the player who builds the point and looks for placement before power, that reliability is its great value.