Babolat X-Feel Essential vs Power

Discussion in 'Racket Recommendation / Comparison' started by MonteCristo, Mar 23, 2020.

?

Which racket would you choose...?

  1. Babolat X-Feel Essential

    1 vote(s)
    33.3%
  2. Babolat X-Feel Power

    2 vote(s)
    66.7%
  1. MonteCristo

    MonteCristo New Member

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    Moin Badminton Community,

    after reading a lot about rackets and advices in this forum and come to a point that I need to ask a question.

    As the topic already mentioned I am looking for someone who can describe the difference in feeling and playability.

    Based on the few information I have found:
    >Babolat X-Feel Essential
    84g / balanced (more to head light) / stiff
    >Babolat X-Feel Power
    86g / balance (a bit head heavy) / stiff

    I played a few times with an old Babolat X-Feel Essential, but I am not sure if the specification is still the same.
    It does not felt head light at all, which confuses me a bit.

    Does someone own maybe one or best case both of the above mentioned rackets and can give me a short summary? :)
     
  2. speCulatius

    speCulatius Regular Member

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    Moin Moin...

    ... and Ostfriesenwitze come to mind.

    First of all, pretty much nobody around here knows Babolat rackets. Well... almost nobody.

    As far as I know, nothing really has changed since the 2016 models (some reviews here), but there have been some (cosmetic) changes regarding the holes and the some other things that don't matter if you don't string them.

    I have tried the 2016 models of both, but not very throughly. I preferred the Blast of all the X-Feels, just to put my opinion into context.

    I could play with the Power immediately, nice stiffness, a little bit of head weight.

    I tried the Essential a lot more, but I just didn't click with it. It felt to me like there was some lag when swinging it, probably due to not flex. It's supposed to be stiff, but I think the difference between 'stiff' she 'ultrastiff' is quite big for Babolat. If you liked it, the Power is different in that regard. I agree that the head weight of both of not too far apart.

    Was there anything you didn't like about the essential?

    The problem all the (2016) X-Feels have is a very unstable T-Joint. The head cash twist a lot. Maybe Babolat has changed that by now, but I'd they did, they should talk about it, but they never did...

    If you have the chance, try both. If your open to other brands, I suggest to try the Adidas P8 (a better Blast in 3U, maybe comparable to the Power in 4U?) and the P7 (could be close to the Essential with a little bit less head weight and some more flex). Any chance you can get test rackets? Most stores in Germany would offer that service. Depending on where you are (the moin indicates further north than me, but who knows), there might be a way.... let me know if you're in NRW.
     
  3. MonteCristo

    MonteCristo New Member

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    You are guess is not that wrong. I was born there, but now I am living close to the NRW border. I recently start stringing my rackets as well, cause we have no decent badminton shop or stringer around here. My first two rackets took me around 2.5h, but mainly because I did some mistakes in the preparation (blocked holes and the "fight" with shared ones). But that is a different topic :)

    The thing I does not like about the essential is compared to what you stated. I miss something in my swing. It was not that much with the X-Feel, but I really miss it when playing with my Satellite / X-Feel Essential. In comparisson to that my Li Ning N99, which has a better smash, but the racket is too heavy and not that fast to manoeuvre.

    Therefore, I hoped that the Power is a bit of both, lighter than the N99 and a little bit more head heavier than the Satellite Essential. But since I had only the chance to play with the X-Feel Essential I was not sure whether the Power is a bit to much head heavy.

    Luckily I am not that much into a brand, but I played with several brands and so far I liked the Babolat rackets the most. In my opinion they are very much underrated.
     
    speCulatius likes this.

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