PETZL NEOX Belay Device with cam-Assisted Blocking

i love this thing! i climb at the gym regularly and we do a mix of top and lead rope. this thing works great. it will rappel a smaller rope much faster than a thick rope.

Excellent belay device. You can use it like a traditional grigri or you can quickly learn the new way to safely belay with this device on the petzl youtube channel. Love it.

Love it! Came fast and such a smooth device to lead climb belay with!

It's a legit, straight from Petzl Neox and works as designed, it's just that that design isn't for me coming from a Mammut Smart 2.0 which I like a lot more. The feeding action is super smooth unlocking the cam is easy to do quickly. I'm pretty happy with it overall, it just doesn't suit my style.

Sometimes I read reviews and think “someone got paid to say that” or “their marketing person wrote that”. I don’t work for Petzl and I didn’t get money for this review. I LOVE the Neox. As others have said, the biggest reservation about lead belaying single or multi-pitch with a traditional older Grigri was the difficult hand-magic required to pay out slack smoothly, especially if you needed to pay out a lot quickly and then immediately transition to catching. Many were the times it would lock up or I would have to carefully thumb press to keep the camming action disengaged, with my brake hand barely in position. I’ve only tested it indoors so far (lots of snow and rain since I got it), but paying out is SOOO much easier. It can still catch if you pull too quickly, but once you find the sweet spot, at least I haven’t short roped anyone yet. The clicking took a little getting used to, but the climbers I belayed said they found it reassuring (I work with a lot of newer climbers), and I’ve used other rigging devices with similar sounds. The other bonus is the smooth ride down. Everyone has commented on how smooth (not choppy, consistent speed) when you open it up fully it is very easy to use the rounded edge to reduce speed or let it out without feeling like it’s going to be out of control. It worked well with 10.5mm semi-static gym top ropes, and 9.1 and 9.6mm dynamic ropes. I had read a little about the added 6-12” drop catching lead falls, but we didn’t notice that, though most of the indoor falls were relatively short. I feel like the Neox is well worth the added cost.

For those who want an ultra-smooth belay device with the reliability of a Grigri, this is it. It pays out rope effortlessly yet reliably kicks in its belay assist when the leader falls.I really like that belayers can belay as with an ATC - keeping a hand on the brake line.This has become my favorite device for belaying lead climbers.

This is like a grigri except smoother.

I have two Neox belay devices for indoor climbing. Right now they are used for top rope, but I bought this model with plans of eventually learning lead climbing as well. For top rope they are great, I can smoothly take and feed rope as needed and the lowering mechanism is smooth.