I purchased this racket recently and this is my second racket with my first one being Wilson NCode N3. Specs Head: Even Weight: 85 +/- 2gm Flex: Medium Cost: 90-120$ I searched around for a good review on KBlaze but did not find one. Despite this I went ahead and bought this online because I liked Wilson and Yonex was really expensive. I custom strung the racket with Yonex BG 65-Ti at 24 lbs. The range of tension for this racket is from 21 to 29 lbs. Once the racket arrived, I added an overgrip on top of it since I like thick grip. After adding the grip, the head became light for me to swing fast. After a bunch of shots, I became accustomed to the racket. Defense: KBlaze excels in this department and I was able to easily take smashes thrown all over me. At times I was able to return hard or drop to confuse my opponent. Smash: Since I strung it at 24 lbs, I was able to generate decent power but I felt I needed to give some power to the racket to hit smashes. It has a bigger sweet spot compared to NCode N3 and I was able to deliver powerful smashes. If you compare it with head heavy rackets then it pales in comparison to the power it can generate. But since it being a good control racket, it was decent for smashes. Drops: I was able to drop from anywhere on the court easily but it was the clearance that I found to be a bit confusing. Previously with my NCode N3, if my opponent gives me a drop, I was able to just place my racket at the shuttle's path for it to rebound and jump over but with KBlaze, it sort of dies half way when clearing the net. After playing couple of times, I found that I needed to give a flick to make it jump over. Herein lies the problem since it sometimes sticks close to the net or it jumps high enough for the opponent to come close and hit. So I guess you need to use better judgement to work this out as I found mine after couple of games. Overall Defense: 4.5/5 Smash: 4/5 Drops: 4.5/5 Drop Clearance: 3.5/5 I got it for 80$ which was really cheap compared to the other options. This is a superb racket for a mid range budget. I would really recommend it. PS: In case you really want to smash and feel that you have decent arm strength then KFactor KTour is a pretty good option as it is slightly head heavy and has a superb opinion in Badminton Central forum.
