Just look at my profile. I'm on ZFII (the best racket in the world without a doubt) Spoiler I had a short period with a cracked handle of the DZS. I sold the other one. Not a a very forgiving racket. Since then I bought 2 purple and 2 white N7II and feel like home. Tried ZFII again for a short time and realized that unforgiving rackets are not anymore something I would aim. As long as I don't have a choice the color has no priority to me. Since I found a racket which I like I will stick to it as long as possible. The chance is high that in 2 years I still play the N7II/TC70. No front, but before I would buy any exotic racket with fancy, nowhere to get grommets at such bold prices, I would buy a Victor again.
It is from a retailer. He is using a blue Victor machine like that of Racquetforce. The racket is randomly chosen I think. 2019 P8 4U (white): weight 86.6g unstrung, BP 300mm, swing weight 88.5kg/cm2. 2020 P8 4U (pink): weight 86.7g unstrung, BP 300mm, swing weight 87.5kg/cm2. Surprisingly both exceed 84±2g from manufacturer and are close to 3U version you have.
Did the handle still have the plastic wrap? That's 1.5 g, so they might have been well within specs... If he still wants to sell the rackets, I assume it was still there. It doesn't make a difference for the swing weight though. Thanks for sharing!
That means it's 85.1 g overall weight for the 2019 and 85.2 g overall weight for the 2020 racket, both within the 84 +/- 2 g specs... and there is only supposed to be a 2 g difference between 3U and 4U for the P8 anyway. That's not a lot. If in doubt, go 3U if you want to get a P8. Just my opinion, but you can always lose some head weight by replacing the grommet strips with regular grommets. That's just if you cannot decide between 3U and 4U....
So 2020 P8 is the closest to the Z Strike you can get? Also If anyone can tell me the main differences between the p8 and z strike I'd appreciate it. I adore my z strike, and chatting with @speCulatius twice now he has recommended me to try out the P8 so now I'm here asking questions
The P8 misses the Duora magic. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing though. But if you look past that, both are very close to each other in terms of head weight and balance.
I have no issues with the Duora concept but I don't think it's enough of a difference to be concerned about when buying a new racket. I don't consider it a gimmick but it doesn't revolutionize racket technology either. But if the P8 plays like a z strike without the Dual Frame and just a touch difference in weight and stiffness it's probably not worth me spending another 150 euro on when I already have two DZS which cost me 110 eur each. However if there is something special about it over the z strike I may be tempted to take the plunge haha. If it played like a z strike but was a tiny bit less stiff that may interest me too because I could have a back up option for when I'm tired and the z strike demands 100% of me! But I guess the p8 is also a pretty unforgiving racket judging from the comments on this thread. What's cool is the fact that the orange grommets could be removed or tweaked in a way to customize the head weight, that's something that makes the p8 special in a sense.
In case you already have two Z-Strikes and you like them, then a P8 doesn’t make sense really. It’s surely as demanding as a Z-Strike. It would only be an option in case you’re suffering from major GAS and want to stay in the same ballpark as the Z-Strike. A P7 should be a more flexible alternative, although I haven’t played that one myself yet.
Yeah I wouldn't mind a slightly more more tolerable Z strike for off days or just to give myself a break sometimes from very stiff rackets. That's what I assumed the Duora 8XP would be but it just doesn't feel the same as the ZS. I guess the stiff but slim shaft add some magic to the rackets responsiveness. In fact I find the 8XP a more difficult racket to master than DZS but maybe that's just me. I find the DZS generates more effortless power and has a better feel on most shots.
I'd say it's a little less stiff then Z-Strike, but I never had the chance to compare directly. Those two are quite close for rackets from different brands though... Maybe you just found your racket and there's no need for anything new? If you have the chance to try the P7 and P8, do it, but other than that, you sound like you're quite happy.
I'm happy and to be honest I'm interested in trying out some new strings as I've never really used anything but bg-80 or bg65/ti. I'd love to try aerobite boost for instance. But the pull of new rackets is always appealing and sometimes it's fun to try out something different.
A different strings can change a lot and open up lots of possibilities. And being the diehard LN1-guy that I am, I’d recommend trying Li-Ning No.1 if you have the chance.
I'd love to try LN1 I've heard a lot of praise for it. Will have to enquire with my local stringer about which strings he stocks hopefully he will have some.
If you like BG80, you can try other strings... but you'll come back to 80 at some point. And it will feel like finally arriving back home after a long journey and being lost for some time... Try other strings, but don't expect anything close to the nice BG80 feel from any other string. It doesn't exist. And don't get your expectations too high... or you'll end up disappointed.
So after a while playing more again, even competitions, and using both, the P4s and P8s, I can still use them interchangeably, but there are some differences. The paint quality is better on the P8, the feedback is better, and... The P4's buttcap rattles... it doesn't bother me while playing. There also is a bit more flex in the shaft of the P4 and much of that just points at a lower grade of carbon, I think. In competitions, I always see me turning to the P8, although I don't know how much of the differences are mostly in my head and I wouldn't worry when I had to use a P4 after all my P8's strings broke. It feels a tiny bit slower and that might be true due to the (very small) difference in flex. Does anybody know if the stencil can help you to have a stinging smash... or to use the force... And especially @s_mair were you never bothered by the slightly bigger spacing between the 6th/7th/8th (if I can count correctly) main string? Doesn't that trigger your OCD? I thought you might be vulnerable to that. And now I need to get a pink P8...
Hmmm... actually, my OCD didn’t care about that. Yet. I think that as long as the strings are parallel, I don’t think the spacing is an issue. Apart from that, I have a feeling that the P4 and my discontinued P6 are also very, very close in terms of spec. If I added the side strips of the P8 on the P6, they should be identical in head weight with the P6 being marginally more flexible.
I guess there were good reasons to why to cut down and only continue the P7 and P8. The news for me is because of you, @s_mair though... going from the recommended two-piece-pattern to his one-piece-pattern, which gives a so much cleaner look. Guess which color I did with each pattern... and at the top, it's the same, obviously... On top of that, the workflow is quite smooth, although it's not quite as smooth as on regular sized rackets. At least to me.
My OCD forced me to like this post. But I see you went for the variant with the 5 bottom crosses on the short side, right? I did mine with only 1 bottom cross on the short side and that makes the workflow as smooth as with regular sizen 3+2 pattern rackets. With the downside that it looks slightly less neat on the outside.
Exactly... 5 crosses with the short side. That's not what I minded though, it's just less space when weaving the last mains and some other tiny details like that. The upside down version of these pattern on the Überschall is so so so very smooth, partly because there's just more space to work with, partly because it avoids all the issues the 20 mains might lead to with other pattern (holes blocked with two strings, doing the crosses not in order, ...). I'll probably stick to this for now. I do like the clean look on the outside.
