GAN 17 is the best GAN 3x3 ever made. If you already own a GAN 12 through 16, you don't necessarily “need” it, but you still may want to get it. I did, even though I own 12-16. And Honestly 16 is more then enough. But if you are deciding between the GAN 17 and any other GAN, GET the 17.
Pros: when set up properly with appropriate lubrications, it is buttery smooth, fast, more controllable than the previous 6 premium GANs, caps pop off easy, easy to adjust, premium feeling, and it snaps into place ("auto-alignment"), which is awesome. Plus, they kept the improvement to the 16 on the 17 with the UFO center shaped skirt.
Cons (or maybe not, depending): for those of us who like really fast cubes, this is probably the slowest GAN of all the "V"s (V12-V16). It doesn't have the adjustability options of the 14, the lightness of the 15, and the overall unboxing and packaging is basically the same.
What I learned from comparing GAN 12-16 to the 17, my conclusion is that by GAN adding all these magnets (more than any previous version), and the ball core, they added a ton of stability and control, BUT at the cost of speed and lightness. This trade-off will likely be well received overall by the community as I feel non-GAN users really don't like the "out of control" feeling of GANs, as well as some regular GAN users. Plus it's fast and light enough. Yes, it's still catchy and clacky, classic GAN, but it is an S or A tier cube.
