Voltric 50 E-Tune Review

Just a heads up, I need to test this racket on court yet.

I paid £84 for a Voltric 50 E-Tune, and have both the 'silver' and 'purple' E-Tune parts.

The racket I received is a UK coded 4UG4. It weighs in at a total of 88 grams. It has a headweight of 42g, a balance point of 323mm, and is slightly less stiff than the Victor TK9000 when bending by hand.

I realise it's BG3, the beefiest of strings, but jesus the charts weren't kidding. It's really head heavy. It doesn't really feel it on dry swings, but I suspect that'll change on court.

One thing that stood out to me is the strange cap, it listed the voltric control cap but I got something completely different instead. See pictures below.

This is a Made in Taiwan racket as against a Made in Japan racket, and lacks the fancy alloys and rare earth metals like tungsten in the frame. That's not a huge concern for me.

My aim is to find a modernised and viable alternative to the Li Ning N90, and right now this is shaping up nicely to sit in that void. The extra flex is welcome, but it still carries enough of a beefy, 4+2 pattern to be modernised. It also has the E-Tune parts, if for whatever reason, I somehow don't find 40-42g head heavy enough.

The paint is as pretty in person as it is in the pictures, it's actually quite striking. I like the combination of grey and green on a racket, but always found the NR900's grey to be a little too silver.

I'll be testing this racket with BG 80 and BG 66UM, as they're the closest thing to my truly preferred string... I'll have to order some more of that from China...

I'll report back when I've tested it on court, for now here are some pictures.

 

Alright, my test setup will be BG 80 yellow at 26lbs, Paizhuan pattern. It looks pretty good.

 

Just some further updates on the racket, still not taken it on court yet.

By hand it feels really quite stiff to bend, but when taking dry swings, there's enough give to feel the racket bend and kick. The racket doesn't flex a lot, but it seems like it's going to be quite easy to activate.

In terms of balance, regripped and restrung it's a 315mm balance, weighing a total of 91g.

 

Right! I finally got it on court today for a mix of doubles and singles.

My setup was BG 80 at 26lbs with my custom 76 holes Paizhuan (not vendor pattern).

Just as a refresher, my favourite racket was the N90, so generally I'm looking for something with a bit of flex to it, a lot of headweight, and a very stable frame.

At the net, the racket was snappy but took me some time to acclimate. It's not that the racket was too slow, rather I wasn't fully prepared for it; generally the issues came from an overswing on kills due to the increased headweight from my previous Sonic Pro 99 (Ashaway). While the kill scenario is a bit more demanding, the frame is wonderfully stable. I had great net shots rolling off the racket with ease - cross court, straight, pushes and lifts were all effective and accurate.

In the mid court the racket isn't the fastest you'll find, you'll need some good preparation with the racket and fast reflexes to make the best use of it. The stability and weight of the racket really help, even if you can't create a strong repulsive hit, just getting contact is enough to produce a satisfactory return. When returning smashes, if I couldn't or didn't feel confident in lifting off the smash, a simple touch was enough. Make no mistake, the headweight in this racket is well utilised.

But here's what we're here for, the rear court. Wow, this racket is rated as fairly stiff on Yonex's racket matrix - it's like a junior sibling to the Z Force series. I don't know how to describe it with justice, but I'll do my best. Despite the shaft being fairly stiff, it is easy to activate. It's very easy to get enough flex in the shaft to produce power, but there's a hell of a lot ready to be unleashed. I found some rackets weren't so easy to activate the shaft like the Panda Power Titan, but when they did kick it was hard.

This racket is quite special, because much like the N90, provided you have a reasonable technical foundation you will get kick from the racket. This makes the racket really accessible for power because you don't feel inhibited by the shaft refusing to flex, but you also don't have to try and account for an incredibly whippy racket striking the shuttle in the middle of its flex. I find that both ends of that spectrum result in a loss of power. With the 50 E-Tune, it feels like it gives what you put into it; I was firing off some pretty strong smashes with this thing, and I'm confident a stronger player could easily make use of the racket in the same way, and get more out of it.

This resulted in clears being very easy, I had plenty of times where I was leaning back, round the head, shuttle popped off the racket and sailed nicely to the back trams. During the warmup session, with shuttles I still think might be on the slow side, I was almost hitting the wall from time to time. The backhand needs some timing acclimation from me, but again, the shots sailed.

Smashes were powerful, accurate, but sometimes I didn't generate the angle I would have liked. It's very difficult for me to say at this time whether it's something I need to get used to, or if this is part of the kick requiring good timing.

Drops were extremely accurate, and like with the N90, I was able to crack out great reverse slice cross court drops from round the head into the forehand corner. It was wonderful to have a frame with stability and feedback like the N90 provided, and allows for a creative and consistent play.

The feeling on the racket is solid, but without vibration, they managed to find a real happy spot with the feeling you get off of your shots without risk of hurting yourself or developing tendinitis. This applies to all areas, but is most notable at the net and in the rear court with drops and smashes.

Now, in its current state, without the extra weights on the head, I don't think it's exactly the same as the N90. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think the 90 had a bit more weight in the head, but with the weighted grommet options this can be addressed. It's not as absolutely direct as the 90, but the feeling is good. However, I would say that the 50 E-Tune isn't as clunky as the N90, you'll get more response from the shaft with smaller movements. The 90 required a good wind up, but with the 50 E-Tune, you can produce some good shots without necessarily needing all of the preparation in the rear court.

I'm not a massive Yonex fan, however, I cannot overstate that for a racket that costs £84, it has fantastic power, feeling, and control. The chart is not exaggerating, this is truly for the head heavy lovers that aren't so keen on the stiffness of the VT ZF and VT ZF2. I am hard pressed to imagine many people needing the weighted grommets, but they are available. Contrary to the graph, with the heaviest grommets installed, this racket would have head weight on par with the ZF2. Unstrung I measured something like 42-43g headweight with the purple pieces.

I may update this thread, this is just my initial impressions of the racket. So far, I can't find any glaring flaws. It's an enjoyable, accessible, head heavy racket. I would recommend this racket for intermediate-advanced players, it does take technical skill to activate and make use of the racket. It is very head heavy, so beginners may injure themselves or struggle. But, thus far, this racket gets a glowing recommendation from me.

 

Hey it's good to see you back Ajay! Been busy taking care of life and the kids? I've only spent 3 hours with the racket so far, and my arm's a bit sore today, guess I need to get used to the extra weight again. It's not the most agile racket, it's a bit quicker than the N90, but it has a similar feeling and playstyle that the N90 allowed for. It's a pretty specific audience.

Would you agree that it's quite easy to make kick, even if it's a bit slow?