After watching many many Youtube video's of lower cost Chinese and Korean baitcasters (less than $70) that have hit the market fairly recently, namely KastKing, Piscifun, Haibo, and Tsurlinoya, with all having pretty much very good reviews, I thought I would purchase one to check it out.
I bought the
Piscifun Phantom to try. I paid $54 at the time delivered. I bought this one because it has dual type of braking system, both the centrifugal and the magnetic brake. Having both types does help dial it in a bit better to me.
It's a 7 bearing reel, holds 120 yards of 10lb line, and being total carbon fiber body, it only weights 5.7oz.
Now most of my other reels while not being top end, are not exactly bottom end either (Mostly Shimano Curados, and Daiwa Tatulas SV TW and CT Type-R's, and Lews Tournament Pros). So this is really all I can compare this reel to at the moment. This reel cast very well, and it is pretty smooth I can say. It's not quite as smooth as the others I just mentioned, but for $54 its at least a third of the price as the others. I have not added any oil or lube anything yet, so just a little Boca Lightning Lube may help this reel out a little.
I have it spooled with 14lb Sunline fluro line and was able to get very good distance with a 1/8" shakey head setup. I could throw this reel with the magnetic brakes completely off (which I think may still offer a little resistance), but for the less experienced angler I would recommend at least turn the centrifugal brake to 4, and the magnets to 6 or 7 to start off.
The only thing that was a bit off for me was the handle knobs. All my others have flat grips and this one has a bit of a curve on the handle knob pretty much standard on most of the China OEM reel lines. So that takes a little getting used to for me, but if your used to that type it should be no problem. It's just a personal preference to me that I like the flat grips. I will more than likely change them out pretty soon to that style.
So I would say for a young angler, or a high school angler, or even an experienced angler that just doesn't want to break the bank this would be a decent reel. If you are used to using very high end reels then this probably wouldn't be the reel for you.