Panda Power: A Racket That Can Take 40lbs. String Tension!

Panda sent me a pair of PPv2 to test out. Apologies as life has been rather busy lately so I just managed to hit with it the past weekend.

It was strung up with ZM62 @ 25lbs. Janet was the stringer who took the utmost care (and her own sweet time, like more than an hour) stringing it. The pattern is a pretty standard 78 holes pattern. I just told her ZM62 and she happened to pick up the red reel that I had around. The red string combined with the red PPv2 makes the resulting product very ... RED indeed. it is stunning. I was tempted to put red grips on it but I ended up picking up a pack of white RKEP instead to balance out the intensity.

I have a 86g version and dry swing shows that it was rather head heavy. Adding a layer of RKEP grip on it relieves some pressure on the hand. Despite so it is still quite swingable.

Panda promised me that this is his best work to date. He tells me that every time, so i am usually like, "uhuh." To be fair though, despite setting the expectation high every time, he usually meets it or get pretty close.

Upon the first few hits on court, it was clear that he has met the expectation. The feeling of the racket is first of all very solid. There is little to no deflection upon impact, the shuttle plants well onto the stringbed and there is little torsional deflection but yet, the rebound is solid and lively. The combination with ZM62 the feedback is so good I can feel the trampoline effect from the string on my finger tips. Great for drive and defense, as well as feel shots like drop from rear court and netshots. On higher impact shots like clear and smash, there is a slight sign of over vibration going on, but only slightly. I did a 10 mins non-stop clear drill with a friend and I came out of it sore in the shoulders (obviously) but only slightly fatigue from the vibration.

The most addictive part is how solid and lively the PPv2 is. More so than the Revelation, and less demanding than the Ultra Kevar ( ).

In the old days when we were picking up ski boots or shoes, there is a saying that you want to find a brand where the CEO has the same foot shape as you. For a small operation like Panda, who can only produce a couple of new model every year, and much of the R&D requires extensive testing by Panda himself, that is still quite true, you better be someone who shares his taste and preference for badminton rackets. And so far that I have seen in the past couple of years, Panda’s preference has been solid, lively, and crisp, and he brings those qualities to the extreme.

But at the same time, these are not rackets for beginners. they will tax you and your technique. They are stiff and unforgiving. Panda is a big dude with lots of power and he demands as such from his racket. And if those are the quality that you have and the criteria that you want from a racket, I think the Precision Pro v2 has met expectation and move the bar a little higher once again.