Li Ning Racket Reviews

I bought the Li Ning Woods N90 this morning.
Just received it now... freshly strung with BG-80.

Can't wait to have a few full games with it.
I hope it plays true to all those big claims

 

SPBs... hahahaha

You are welcome to play with it.
It's truly a very well made racquet

 

Li Ning Woods N90

Last Sunday, I had a go with the Li Ning Woods N90 for a few minutes.
It felt good... it felt similar if not better than the Yonex Armortec 700.

From a pre-release consignment, I bought the racquet earlier today.
And this evening, I clocked a few hours with it against some good players.

And, by Lin Dan, the Woods N90 is truly impressive!

First things first:

It cost me SGD 440 (the sticker on the grip says SGD 489).

It came with a single compartment Li Ning racquet bag.
The bag is red on one side and black & silver on the other.
It can hold up to 5 racquets and also has a narrow zipped pouch on the silver side. (Apologies for not posting any pictures but this happens to be an extremely busy week for me )

Although this bag is exclusive to the N90, it isn't a great bag at all.
Simply put, it won't hold much apart from your racquets and wallet.

The discounted price also includes string and stringing.
I had it strung with Yonex BG-80 at 31 pounds. (It was strung by the chap who manned the Li Ning booth at the 2009 Singapore Open.)
I had asked for the Li Ning logo to be stencilled on the (white) string.
Well, someone goofed up... they forgot the logo and also used yellow string!

As I mentioned elsewhere, it is markedly similar to the AT-700 when you pick it up and hit a few test shots or warming-up shots. It feels pleasantly heavy and also tells you that you have something strong and solid in your hand. But the similarity with the AT-700 ends when a fast game begins.

In the beginning, almost every shot will go out until your arm gets used to the new toy in your hands. But once you realise that you can do well enough with a much shorter swing, the accuracy comes into play. The shuttle still threatens to go out but it's a pleasure to see the opponent's dismay when it lands within the back box

The 'sweetspot' appears to be larger than in the Yonex isometric models.
The lower part of the stringbed feels quite dead when you forward-slice the shuttle but further up the head, the stringbed is as alive as can be.

I don't know how well this racquet is suited to delicate touch play because the games tonight were all fast and furious. But if Lin Dan's recent prowess at the net is any indication, this racquet should do very well in that area.

The Woods N90 is an absolute cracker when you clear or smash.
Li Ning has got something fantastically right somewhere in the design.
Unfortunately, I don't know what they have done to make it this good.
Perhaps it is in the construction of the shaft, perhaps it is in the head.
What's exhilarating is the huge punch it gives to your clears and smashes!

The large fly in the soup is the racquet's price.
Given that it costs twice as much as the top-end Yonex models, it requires a great deal of enthusiastic belief in the N90's capabilities to justify its retail price. I'd say that, at my level of the game, it certainly is too much to pay for the extra it provides.

However, if Li Ning had priced it close to the top Yonex models, I would have said an immediate goodbye to Yonex. The N90 is clearly a vastly superior racquet, at least in performance if not in looks as well.

In my view, it's only the novelty value that offers any justification at this moment for purchasing the Woods N90 at the price it's being offered at.