Haven’t found a decent discussion about it yet so I decided to create a dedicated one. Recently bought Tectonic 7 at my local store. Strung with black LN#1 at 26lbs with Li-ning pattern (according to the stringer). Stunning beauty! Specs: +Weight: 4U +Grip size: G5 +Balance point: 295 +- 2 +Flex: Medium Will test it next week, I’m not to the point that I can write reviews but I’ll try my best. Anyone has used this racket?
I tested this racquet briefly - it's definitely an easy to use racquet that will suit a lot of people (especially beginners to intermediate players). The standard box frame is quite nice for a change from LN. Shaft has nice flex. It doesn't really stand out in any department though, but non-extreme specs is like LN's philosophy.
It has got so much praise around here in Vietnam, so I hope it lives up to the hype. I’m currently letting it rest to make the string bed more stable and wait for the tension lost to happen first. Currently using a pretty similar specs racket (Adidas Spieler P09.1) so switching won’t be much of a hassle. Swinging them side by side confirms it to an extent. The frame is interesting up close though. Some kind of integrated box frame. Paint job is definitely marvelous in my opinion.
Hereby confirming what is already said above. It's a solidly built beautiful racquet and an excellent all rounder. Easy to use especially during long sessions. If you are coming from stiff/extra stiff racquets like I did, I would suggest to give it enough time before dumping it (which I almost did) because the power is there, you just need to figure out how to use it given its medium flex.
The weight somewhat skins the 4U weight range just below 85g at a pretty even BP of 302mm when strung. Length is the conventional 675mm. Very speedy and easy racket and if you like something medium flexible this could cut it as a very all round racket. The touted repulsive materials at key points of the frame probably did somehow made it very lively. Imagine medium flex with new rebounding materials, perfect ingredients for the masses anytime of the day bouncing around with little effort. Absolutely nice to play with, albeit casually if you aren’t into top notch control like a pro. That is if you can tame it, it actually feels so nice and breezy. Great for doubles play imho, the only gripe I have is somewhat the price felt like a sucker punch cos this sorta feel isn’t something you would pay top dollar for. Not saying it is not a good racket but I guess I am paying some dues on marketing hype.
You're not paying for hype - I hardly see any LN racquets being hyped (except maybe N9ii and that was only hyped because of BC ). LN is just really expensive. It's like they are trying to use price to lift the image of the brand as a premium brand (coupled with very nice paint jobs).
I'm confused with your logic here. Are you saying this racket doesn't perform as well as others in this price point of all-rounders (arcsaber 11, voltric 77, etc)? Or do you mean only hard to use rackets are worth paying for?
Firstly nothing wrong with this racket. It feels good, does its job. However bundle with the fact that LN rackets are rather overpriced and at the price point there are no game changing or anything revolutionary about this racket albeit the brand and marketing cheese. At similar price point, the Namd and ultra slim shaft as seen in the Astrox series i would say are revolutionary like it or not be it a new material with a feel or specs like no other.
Li-Ning does marketing?! Now that is news to me. Now THAT on the other hand is marketing gibberish at its finest.
Lining are bad with marketing or maybe Yonex had super genius person in their marketing teams. & with their marketing strategy (i think), they had whole bunch of confusing racket at every price range. You had 500k IDR, they had low end Super Series. You had 1M IDR, they had low end TC/3DC. You had 1.5K, they had the mid end. & if you had unlimited pocket, they had the most expensive one.
This. They are doing an awesome job in selling each and every tiniest innovation as if it was the re-invention of carbon fibre. In that case: NAMD... they don't provide any datasheet or any other proper facts to actually show what's the magic behind it. And yet poeple pick up the term and simply accept that it's something "revolutionary". That's the art of marketing. With Li-Ning it's a different story. They still struggle at the basics - to make any sort of logical racket lineup for example. Especially in the mid- and lower price segment it's just a jungle of random rackets. There is a reason why Yonex is still the indisputed #1 in the racket market, even if other brands are at least on par with quality and actual performance.
Marketing or no, atleast where I live, high-end Li-ning rackets cost about 250€, while the top Yonex (100ZZ) costs 180€. Marketing or no, I find it a bit hard to consider Li-ning that much better than Yonex. If Yonex has better marketing, the pricing should be the other way around.
In Germany we have the high-end Li-Ning rackets at 200 EUR, the 100ZZ at 190 EUR, so there's not much difference. Personally, I'd consider both as overpriced. And just for the record - I don't think that Li-Ning rackets are by definition "better" than Yonex. But they are not clearly worse either, despite they are missing a Rotational-Generator-NAMD-Doura-Fluxcompensator-Nanotube-Shaft.
And where I live, it's the other way round. Pricing is not just based on material and production cost. There are other factors that influence pricing like market/brand value, demand/supply, distribution network etc in that country. I believe li ning's presence is increasing. For instance, duora z strike was priced at $240 while the 100zz is $225. I like competition. It's good for consumers like us! Anyhow, coming back to the topic of this thread. For folks in the USA, Tectonic 7 is priced at $135 at yumo.ca. Great value IMHO!
But well.... How many of us who actually buy a racket coz it really fit our play? Most of the time our ego that choose the racket & our psycology that play our mind thinking we play much better with the expensive one.
In Indonesia, top end lining and Yonex are generally priced the same (around 2 million idr). Victor on the other hand is higher priced.
There are markets where Linings are 20% more expensive than Victors which in turn 10% more expensive than Yonexs in general (with the exception of ZZ) be it RRP or sale price. Thus any suggestion of overpricing and paying for branding is largely in perspective of the said market.
It's marketing consistency like this for the Tectonic 7 that gives you the utmost confidence to buy a Li Ning product: "Li-Ning INSTINCT Series badminton racket weighs less than 80 grams, features a flexible shaft and is engineered to facilitate a fast attack style of play. Suitable for players looking for a light weight racket with aggressive speed and agility." BADMINTON RACKET SPECIFICATIONS: STRINGS: Custom Option - See Above CASE: Premium Thermal Included COLOR: Blue/Pink MATERIAL: High Performance T1100G Carbon Fiber WEIGHT: W1 75-80 grams GRIP SIZE: S1, Extra Small 3 1/8"/79.4mm OVERALL LENGTH: 675mm GRIP LENGTH: 200mm BALANCE POINT: 312mm FLEX: Stiff TENSION: Vertical 26-30 lbs, Horizontal 28-32 lbs Huh? Which is it? Do the copy writers even read the engineering specs?
Welcome to a Li-Ning thread. Other shops are listing it as „medium flex“. So I’m pretty confident that it’s on the flexibel side of thing. Especially given that Li-Ning hardly ever makes seriously stiff rackets.
Just look at their racket chart to see the shaft stiffness measurement. Tectonic 7i is rated at 8.7 so it's flexible.