With its solid position in the tennis equipment market, Sports Tutor has a range of products for every player level and budget option. In this Tennis Cube ball machine review, we’ll break down why it’s a great budget option for beginners who want to become serious in playing their game.
Sports Tutor Tennis Cube
- Start time delay
- Comes with a Smart battery charger
- Lightweight build for easy transport
- Horizontal oscillator optional
- Relatively short playtime of 2 hours
The Sports Tutor Tennis Cube offers a 70-ball capacity built-in hopper and can throw balls 10-50 mph with a feed rate of 2-10 seconds. Right out the box, it doesn’t come with an oscillator, but for an extra fee you can get the horizontal oscillator to help you practice catching the balls on both sides of the court.
Great for Beginners to Intermediate Players
The Sports Tutor Tennis Cube is a battery-powered ball machine that’s designed to help beginners advance on to at least match intermediate players. This isn’t to say this tennis ball machine won’t be helpful for more advanced players, but given its feature set, it’s much more tailored to new players looking to up their game. An Amazon reviewer even claims that it’s perfect for kids who want to quickly get better at tennis.
This doesn’t offer any pre-programmed drills though but this is to be expected in most budget tennis ball machines.
No-frills Controls
The Tennis Cube has a knob-control on its side and the great thing about it is you don’t need to rattle your head in trying to understand the controls. It has dedicated knobs for speed and ball feed rate and simple switches to turn the machine and the oscillator on and off.
Common to most Sports Tutor products, it comes with a 10-second start-up delay feature that gives you time to take your position on the opposite side of the court after you turn the machine on.
Adequate Battery Life
The Tennis Cube comes with a smart charger that helps to turn off the charging and prevent the battery from frying, especially when you try to charge this overnight. The Tennis Cube’s battery can last 2 hours on the court on a full charge. Some review sites and reviewers on Amazon have pointed this out to be a con but if you’re playing alone or just doing some simple drills to build muscle memory, we say 2 hours is quite an adequate amount of time.
Compact and Lightweight Design
Where the Tennis Cube stands out is its compact and lightweight design that makes it very easy to lug around and set up. Its 15H x 12L x 13W in size can fit in most car trunks and at 24 lbs (~11kg), it’s one of the most travel-friendly tennis ball machines out there.
Three-Year Warranty
Sports Tutor is one of the few tennis equipment companies out there that offers a long warranty period at three years. You can return or have the machine fixed from Sports Tutor themselves. If by any chance you’re not satisfied with their machine within a week of purchasing, they have a one-week money back guarantee policy so you can return the machine and get what you paid for back.
Other Cheap Tennis Ball Machine Alternatives
Other than being in the early stages of playing tennis, you most likely are budget conscious if you’re looking at the Sports Tutor Tennis Cube. Luckily for you, there are a few options in the market for you.
The Spinshot Lite is our top pick for budget tennis ball machines. With a long battery life and its durable, lightweight design, you get the most bang-for-the-buck alternative from them.
If you’re looking for a versatile tennis ball machine that can double as a bag, set your eyes on the Slinger Launcher that’s part of the Slinger Slam Pack bundle. Find out more in this article why we’re particularly interested in this product offering from an up and coming tennis equipment brand.
The Lobster line of products is also a great place to look at, with the Lobster Elite Liberty and the Elite 1 Portable as great basic options. Silent Partner also has great options with the Edge Lite and the Lite-R.
You can also check out the Tennis Cube’s older sibling, the Sports Tutor ProLite as it’s another solid budget option that comes with a rather advanced feature set. Other Sports Tutor siblings you can check out is the Tennis Twist (check out our full review here) and the Multi-Twist.
Final Thoughts
There are several cheap tennis ball options out there and we say that the Sports Tutor Tennis Cube is a rather strong contender. While it is rather straightforward in its design, and lacks any advanced features, this just might be what you’re looking for to level up in tennis.
The Tennis Cube is also available in OnCourt OffCourt.
Post last updated on January 13, 2023