New badminton racket help!

if your looking for a racket which will support your smash, i assume you are looking for a head heavy racket.
Try the armortec series from yonex.
I personally recommend armortec 900T.
and to answer the last bit of your question, yes AT900T will cost over 80GBP, so you should take a look at 2nd hand at900t, if you really want the at900t.

 

the arcsaber 008 is just within your price range.

 

But it's made in Taiwan so isn't really a high end Yonex racket like the other Arcsabers.

For just outside your budget - around £90 if you go to your local Decathlon store and presumably a similar or cheaper price elsewhere, you could get a Yonex Armortec 700 which is widely regarded to be one of the best attacking rackets ever. Be warned though, it's one of the most head heavy rackets in stock form on the market today and you might find a quite a handful to lug around if you're not used to a racket like it. If you wouldn't mind buying a slightly used racket, I'm sure you'd find an AT700 well within budget in the buy & sell section here. If you were willing to do that, other rackets to look out for are both the Armortec 900 Technique and Armortec 900 Power. Don't let the Technique in the AT900T's name fool you, it can be every bit a hardcore attacking racket if you want it to be with some even preferring it to its "power orientated" cousin for raw smashing ability.

As an alternative to the Yonex AT700, I suppose I could recommend the Armortec 70 which is meant to play fairly similarly (albeit with a bit more ease of use in mind) and would come in under budget but I'm not sure that I'd feel happy recommending a Yonex frame made in Taiwan - one of the lower end models.

Buying older models can have advantages and disadvantages. Of course, a discontinued or older model will generally be sold off cheaper than the "latest and greatest" offerings from the different manufacturers, this could potentially get you more racket for your money. Equally though, sometimes manufacturers bring out new versions of rackets for a reason and the later versions can be big improvements over the previous generation models. Generally though, you're not putting yourself at a disadvantage from the racket performance perspective if you buy an older model frame. The only issue I can think of really is that you may find it hard to pick up spares of older rackets if you leave it too long whereas a brand new model will probably be on the market for a while.

I have hit only very briefly with the Carlton Firebalde Elite but much more extensively with its successor, the Vapour Trail Elite. As you will know if you search my reviews of the new Carlton range out in the Carlton Vapour Trail thread, I fell in love almost instantly with the Vapour Trail Elite and considered switching to it. Even today if the only racket I could play with was a Vapour Trail Elite, I'd be very happy. Just not quite as happy as with a few other rackets but it's very close and I wholeheartedly recommend the Vapour Trail Elite to anyone that fits in to its demographic. The Fireblade Elite was a nice racket for the short time that I hit with it but it didn't blow me away with its awesomeness like the VT Elite did. I haven't felt so at one with a racket during my first test of it in a very long time, it's an absolutely lovely frame. The Fireblade Elite is still a very capable frame though, offering good power without sacrificing defence or control. Its just doesn't feel quite as alive or make you feel quite as connected as my favourite rackets. It could have been down to the strings that my friend had in it at the time (it wasn't my racket - I was just borrowing it to try it out) but it definitely wasn't as lively as some rackets I've played. I wonder if it could just use a little bit extra weight (being as it's 5g lighter than the VT) to give that "alive" feeling and a bit more power. The stiff shaft and head heavy balance did make it very conducive to hitting some good smashes though. If I were you and I ended up buying the Fireblade Elite, I would just try some lead tape or another form of weight tape, maybe 5g (2.5g on the head, 2.5g on the handle or something similar) to see if the added weight made a difference and made it more like the VT. Of course, the Fireblade Elite is still a perfectly acceptable racket in stock form.

You can pick up the Fireblade Elite from Tennis Nuts for £59.99 and get a free Carlton racket bag with it. The Fireblade Elite is available in oval or isometric head varieties. Nowadays, iso is more common so I'll assume you currently play and iso and recommend the iso. If you want to try an oval frame, I'm sure the oval-headed FB Elite will be similar to the iso version, maybe even a little better considering that the Vapour Trail rackets' heads are known as "optimetric" meaning that they are effectively an iso but slightly more oval iso headed frames if you know what I mean.

Hope I've helped.

 

Carlton Air Rage Tour , a powerful racket for beginner/intermediate players. nicely balance as well and it look gorgeous (go to the Carlton website for more info). If you are lucky you can get it under 80 pounds ........directesport is selling it at 89pounds with freebies and free delivery ..rrp150

 

I haven't had an extended hit with this particular Air Rage model but I've been mightily impressed with the Air Rage S-lite. I would think that the AR Tour should be fine for an intermediate player looking for an all-round racket. It's a nice weight and the flexibility in the shaft should help the beginner/intermediate level of players to get some more power from their overhead strokes. I'm not sure if it would be enough racket for a big hitting advanced player with developed strokes but other than that, I would say it's a suitable racket for most of the rest of badminton players.

£60 would be a very good price to get that racket for - it looks in decent condition and new, it sells for about £95 if you shop for the best price. The listing has changed to sold so did you get it?

 

Danstevens, you always give detailed and long posts, which are always very informative. Nice help.
Any armortec is a good choice, AT600 and above