I recently got the chance to play with the Kalkül A3 a bit more, so there's no news on the P8, but I'll write a little bit on the A3 soon. @s_mair Let us know when it arrives and what you think about it.
After quite some time, I'm back on court and back here... with my arranged marriage that turned into a quite special relationship that will last for a lot longer. I've strung some with BG80 (yellow) and BG80 Power orange) and while I like both, I really really enjoy harder feeling strings on this racket. Both were strung at 12.5 kp and I still don't get why it's called BG80 POWER. If there is a difference, I think there's less power than I get from BG80. I still have some strings to try, but for now... I have the evil twin to compare to the P8. The racket, that never existed. The racket that shares so much with the P8 for half the price - if it ever was sold.... Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you... ... the ADIDAS Wucht P4! Thanks to @Dave1011 I got my hands on two of them. He did weight them at 41 g and 42 g of wet head weight. Wet, because they're factory strung - the first point where you see it's a cheaper version. Interestingly, there's no Power Balance 69 branding on the string, like the other mid range rackets have, but it looks much like the factory string of the Spieler A09.1. Just softer. Considering that they're probably a few years older, that's no surprise. While the basic frame shape and profile is the same and even the specs (overall weight, headweight, stiffness,...) are pretty close, it's obvious that it's a different price range. The P8 has the better paint quality, more details, the (still pretty big, but) smaller T-Joint, and even a frame profile that's around 1 mm thinner in all directions. Interestingly, the special grommets look the same, but they're in a different color. Red instead of orange. Same for the buttcap. They're the same, but the orange ring is not the same kind of orange (less vibrant).
Just because you want to keep using red LN1 instead of the perfectly matching string: Wucht P68 in (what Adidas says is) red. Jokes aside, I'm really interested in your opinion about the P68 string when you get to test it. And since those grommets can be exchanged easily... I'll let your imagination play it out. The P4s seem to carry a little more head weight compared to the P8s, but that is wet numbers with a thicker string at a low tension. Since nobody can really buy the rackets, exact numbers might not be that interesting anyway. I would like to see purple strings on these P4s, but I'm not sure which ones I could you from... or the salmon colored G-Tone 5, but I don't have any... so I'll probably start with BG80 on one of them and I'll actually take the torture and try the factory string. That's a few years old. I probably shouldn't do that... So while writing this, I cut the strings on the heavier ones of the two P4s and the head weight difference to the one unstrung P8 I have at the moment is within the error of the scale, so that's gonna be interesting! And then... since I had the chance... I took some pictures to tease @s_mair and I have to admit that I can see what he likes about that red on the P8.
The P68 red looked really good in the black P3 when I tested it. I ended up with bg65ti red in my F2, that looks good too.
And I went with P68 instead of BG80 at 12.5 kp to start with, but even though this frame only recommends the string tension up to "28lbs/12kg [sic!]", I'm sure it could take some more. And isn't 28lbs more around 12.6 kp? Anyway, there really is a lot of similarities to the P8. It's like they come out of two different factories, though. The same one like the one where the Spieler A09.1 was born. The paint, the shape of the T, and the (missing) stickers on the wood of the handle point to that. I'm just guessing and I don't know anything! This post encouraged me to stay with this theme for now...
I got to play with it on Friday for around 1 1/2 hours, before I mishit at the top of the frame... and no string would have survived that. Maybe BG65, but I don't think so... The first impression is that this is really just a P8 from a different OEM. The difference is just like the different (in feel) between the P2 and the A09.1. The P4 is less refined, but with a little more uncontrolled vibration when you really mishit badly. Still a rather good feeling, just not quite as direct as the P8. I was forced to switch to the P8, and there was no issue at all. It's the same weight, balance, headweight, swing weight, as expected and the difference in stiffness is... tiny. I really had to look for it. The P4 is more flexible on court, I'd say... but that's negligible. Just to make sure that it was not the string causing a less direct feel, I really did choose BG80 this time. I string it at 13 kp and the frame seemed to just shrug it off. Still sticking to the Star Wars Theme.. Who knows what this is?
... and it did the trick. Not only the feedback got better, but for some reasons, the vibrations disappeared as well. I expected them to be worse than before, but it was just all gone. Blind testing, I'm not sure if I could distinguish between the P4 and P8 now. The P8 offers more. It's certainly a higher quality paintjob, the sightly slimmer frame and a higher warrantied tension, but I'm surprised how close those two rackets are. There is a slight difference in stiffness and even with the exact same grip and string setup, the feedback will be slightly different, but I expected it to be more obvious. I expected a difference like the difference between a Voltric Z-Force II and a Voltric Force. It's great for me, because this way, I do not only have two very very rare collectors rackets, but two rackets, that I can actually use.
After what felt like a little eternity, I could finally start testing the P8 on court a couple of weeks ago. I've played it now for 5 sessions almost exclusively and in singles only, which I think is the perfect way to really get to know a racket and to get a feel for its character. I have used it with the HECS ball and for some footwork practise in the garden during the lockdown phase, which turned out to be a good thing. I kind of felt at home from the start. In the past two years and after being with a stiff and demanding racket like the JS10 for several years, I bought and enjoyed a number of "user friendly" rackets like Li-Ning N9II, N7II, TK7000SN, Mizuno JPX LTD and in parts the N80II which were all working well. The bigger sweet spot came in handy to compensate some flaws in the hitting precision, the shaft flex helped when being late and/or out of position and to save some energy during long tournament days. However, I was feeling a growing urge to leave those "safe waters" and to jump back into the more extreme parts of the racket market. Ever since using the JS10, I had in mind my personal holy-grail-spec which would be a racket that is as direct, fast and snappy as a JS10, but which offers a more solid feel on impact and a bit more ooomph on big smashes. And a frame without sinking grommet holes would come in handy too. The N7II was already a good shot, but somehow it was missing that aggressive bite and snappiness. Following this thread and talking to @speCulatius got me thinking if maybe the P8 could be a candidate that might get close to that holy grail - and that was the reason I got it in the end. And -spoiler incoming- I haven't been disappointed. The Wucht P8 is one hell of a racket. First of all, let's forget that 5/5 head heaviness rating that Adidas wrote on it - this is far from being true if you look at the measured specs in my previous post above. In fact, it has less head weight than a N9II which is correctly considered to be "slightly head heavy". So what are we dealing with here? The Wucht P8 is a slightly head heavy racket with a stiff shaft (think of a Z-Strike or JS10), a compact head and a relatively massive boxy/octagonal frame. So it's more like Adidas' answer to a Z-Strike (without the Duora nonsense) than a ZFII which the specs would indicate. The feel on impact is great - meaty and direct with clear feedback if you hit the shuttle correctly, but with a never excessive amount of vibrations. That's clearly where the fairly big mass in the frame shines. And looking at the massive frame and at endless marketing gibberish about frame-aerodynamics, I was blown away by its head speed and ease of handling. Believe it or not, that thing is one of the fastest frames I have used yet. Which once again let's me think that the head size in comparison with shaft stiffness has far more influence on the perceived racket speed than the frame profile. I'd say that the JS10 is still a notch faster, but given that this is a 3U vs. 4U comparison, that's to be expected. But both are close. Damn close. So if you mess up a defense shot, rest assured that it won't be the racket's fault. Power is there. Plenty of it. It all comes down if you hit the sweet spot or not. If your technique is right and you hit the shuttle correctly, this will offer all the power you will need. Or let's put it this way - if you feel like your smash is lacking power with the P8, you should simply work on your technique instead of blaming the racket. What impressed me most was the torsion stability in the T-joint. You'll get a feeling that the super massive t-joint construction does an awesome job since it feels like there is no torsion whatsoever which in combination with the stiff frame enables superb control. Looking at the JS10 as a comparison again, the P8 also fully delivers at half- and stick-smashes. Maybe not as brutal as the JS10, but again, very, very close. Quick pronation, tighten the grip and it can fire bullets that hit the floor before your opponent even realized what was coming. But as with the JS10, this comes at a certain price: User friendliness. Hands down, the P8 is a demanding racket. The head is small, the shaft is stiff - there is no technology available yet that could turn this combination into a big-sweetspot ultra-supportive racket. It will punish the flaws in your technique and if you're late and horribly out of position for you shot, you will have to live with the consequences. Bottom line: Have I found my holy grail racket with the P8? I'd say it's closer to it than any other racket I've played with yet - and I couldn't even tell what is still missing if you asked me. What I can tell is that the P8 has directly conquered the go-to position in my bag and I really enjoy being back on court and playing with it. And I guess that all holy grails have one thing in common: It's very likely that they do not and will never exist in reality.
I just saw this and I don't know if I like it yet, but at least the 3U version of the P8 gets a new colorway. It looks like it's gonna be an addition, not a replacement! And I think it's gonna be matching some new Adidas badminton shoes that will be released this year, but that's just a guess. It's pink! And it's pink and black all the way. It's the only picture I found so far, so I only know what you can see there and that only the 3U version is listed with this colorway so far.
As long as it's and addition and not a replacement of the existing black/white color, I'm perfectly fine with that.
now my imagination getting messy Im imagine 4 Black Pink girl jumping, dancing, & all while holding the racket & then @ucantseeme poping out in the mid & dancing with new P8 in his hand
This corlour is already available in VN in 4U, but surprisingly together with the 'Listerine' P7. It seems to be repainted. The swing weight is 87.5.
Didn't you really like the colorful N7 II? Weren't you on the Z-Strike right now? Isn't this a step in the right direction from the Z-Strike's colors? Join the force.... or WUCHT! That's interesting. Who tested the swing weight? Was it only one sample? Racquetforce measured the 3U version at a swingweight of 90 It's interesting to have a number for the 4U version as well! Then it's interesting, because specialistsports.com (that is Adidas) only lists it as a 3U version (doesn't mean there's no 4U available elsewhere) - and I can only order a 3U version while I can order 3U and 4U of the other P8 and the P7. I didn't include the order part, because it includes an availability date and while I don't think it would be a problem to share that, I don't know that for sure. It seems to be no mistake in the name though, that it says 3U. All Adidas rackets are G5, so don't be confused by that.