THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS:



First of all I want to mention the new number ring, I think its a new feature that will have divided opinions. I think the digital number ring on the first board was something that you either loved or loathed although I could never quite get why some people would vent so much dislike over what is essentially just a secondary part of the board, if you have played darts long enough you could probably do without a number ring, it would be silly to do so but possible.But I guess most people have never thought much about it because of what it is, just something to indicate which segment is which. But Unicorn obviously went for the idea of improving the whole look of the board to make it more visually appealing for tv as well as trying to make it better for your eyes to look at. I can see some logic in what they have done with this new ring though, having the numbers as clip on individual plastic parts gives them a kind of 3D look and with the ring wire painted back it does help your eye focus more on the actual board, kind of seems strange that such a little thing would be so effective but for people like me with poor eyesight and not so great focusing abilities (hey I'm getting old!) it does help.So I do like this new number ring and its good that you will be able to buy replacement numbers if you happen to break them so as long as the price is reasonable then that's fine.Of course you may say the number ring is not important as much as the performance of the board is and effectively that's very true but I think this is where the new HD2 is a lot better than the HD1.The new spider is really very nice and so flush to the board that I am very pleased about itI liked the Blade 4 spider a lot for those reasons and was not keen on how the HD1 spider was kind of raised up from the surface and also it was painted white which looks great when new but terrible after it is hit a few times. The new spider is very thin and is similar to the Eclipse Pro but just seems better overall and as you can see in the pics it has no protruding legs and I don't see any iffy joints. So possibly the best spider so far? May beThe colours are what you would expect, a nice deep black and reds and greens.The first time I looked at the 25 area I thought it looked huge and it probably is the biggest out of the boards I have reviewed but the bullseye although 12mm is still smaller than on my B4DC which is 12.5mm.The surface of the board with the seamless sisal is very flat and uniform apart form a slight mark in the 25 segment it is very good overall and the spider is equally flat and uniform across the surface. Some boards I have seen the spider start flush then kind of raise up towards the bull.When throwing darts at the board it had a lovely soft muted thud and it seems to be quite dense overall so probably a good sign of its durability but my first few darts when hitting the coloured sections did not seem to dig in too far, so it could be just that the surface needs to break in a little as the ink may be binding it too much?I do have some things to nitpick though and as you can see in the pics below there is a few areas where I would have liked to see a little touching up of the ink, it would just make it look a little neater. I am not 100% sure how each manufacture make their boards but I figure its going to be much the same process where the colours are printed on first and then the spider is pressed into the sisal. I figure its probably an near impossible task to align the spider perfectly to the colours and therefore your going to get a little overbleed etc but I am sure its possible to apply a little touching up afterwards, it would have just made the board look even better I think.The other issue is along the edges of the spider, it looks like when its been pressed into the board its cut through the fibres and made it look a little raggy. It's not noticeable on the black sections but it is on the others.But these are quite minor niggles and don't detract from the performance or the look really as you only notice it when quite close to the board and I think its more a case of me pointing them out simply because I cant find much else wrong at present: