Honestly, you will have to try the racket out for yourself, I personally didn't like it as much as my Z-Force. However this is my preference, you may like it.
i think zsp is a good racket in limited ways . zsp does not suit every play style. zsp is reasonably fast, powerful and accurate. this combination makes it a good single racket. however, zsp lakes of feelings, and a little slow for doubles. so, in doubles zsp is mor e suitable if your style is more conservative. it does not mean that zsp is worse. i win games with zsp as well as fb. just that fb is more enjoyable and makes top plays much easier while zsp mostly win games with powerful clears and other combined attacks which is a dull stradegy.
ZSpeed is really a nice racket to play with. Very good maneuverability in double and powerful in the smashing. Shots are accurate on the net and baseline corner. The head is not really too heavy for me. Feel is solid on my hand. The only thing which ZSpeed challenges me is the smaller head frame. There were some mishits in my 3 hours game time using it since the sweet spot is small. But it is getting better. A new discovery to me in Yonex since I have been liking the Victor rackets so far. It is a joy using ZSpeed!!
A warning to those who wanna buy ZSP I dunno if this applies to every country. But, in Taiwan, ZSP's balance point seems to have a large variance. Generally Yonex rackets have good QC and have similar weight and weight distribution. Therefore, I didn't check the balance point of my 3u ZSP while picking. The end result is that I feel my zsp is slow while some ppl say it's fast. Then I checked my ZSP's balance point. Wtf, it's 323mm from buttom of handle. My ZF2 is 320mm from handle. Given that ZSP is 5 grams heavier than ZF2, no wonder I feel ZSP slow. After that I asked ppl for their ZSP's balance point. The result is mixed. The lightest is 293mm and mine being the heaviest. The quantity distribution seems not like a normal distribution. Therefore, before buying a zsp, do check it's balance point and weight. (at least in Taiwan) Sigh to my super head-heavy ZSP.(well, at least it smashs really fast.)
Just wondering, how did you measure them? Did you remove the original grip? Were they strung or unstrung when you took the measurement?
My ZSP's BP is 313mm unstrung with original grip and 323mm after string BG80p and changed grip. Comparing with 293mm unstrung with original grip, that's still a 20mm difference. Some stores measure their stock also show huge variance. ie: http://www.ikkyu-new.com/bd/catalog/racket/b-racket-yy-nr.html
I see swing weight variance which is normal. Where's the balance point variations? (I don't read Japanese)
i think that sw number is perfectly substitutional to balance point given the model is fixed. anyway,take a look at the 3ug5 part. this kind of distribution is not supposed to show up in their flagship model. the other weights are much more normal. while we get only g5 in taiwan, that kind of wide distribution is common.
Swing weight is not only representing the BP itself, you must put the overall weight into account, CMIIW... In this case, the weight of 3u rackets vary between 85-89g which leaves 5g in between. Having said that, if your NRZS balanced at 313mm then it is considered "out of the range" as I believe it should be 300±3mm from what I heard and read so far. Mine is a JP coded and balanced at 301mm. However, we need more data to conclude that TW coded is really having problem with the QC tolerance or perhaps you are just the lucky/unlucky one
being too careful is no harming. you can already spot the variance in sw of 3ug5. what you should do is make sure you measure the bp and weight before buying. btw, i think the tolerance is clearly not 3mm for yonex, it is 3 grams. you can easily find more than 3mm differance in any model of yonex since i do pick head heavier ones in my first 10 years of badminton. 313 would still be an outlier based on my experience, though.
My problem is, is that I don't know what my preferred swingweight is, because there's only one shop I know of that has a swingweight machine and it's only accurate to 1g and is designed for tennis rackets. At least with BP and headweight I can compare it to what I have and know. I agree however that in that one shop, the variation on some models is minimal and in others quite wide. However, we don't know what sort of quantities we're talking about. Are 99% of rackets within say 3g and only 1% are anomalies? Are we talking about 10 rackets measured or 1,000? Of all the manufacturers Yonex is by far the slackest when it comes to specification. For most of us, we want accuracy and repeatability. Yonex doesn't even advertise a balance point let alone a swing/headweight! When it comes to Yonex, if you're particular and not just a fanboi, it's clear that you really do need to buy from a shop where you can specify the exact specs that you want, otherwise you could literally be buying anything.
So I played a couple more games with the Z-Speed tonight, 3UG5. Grip was a bit fat at for me, but string was perfect at 23x25lbs. its still pretty much as per the last time I played with it. Hit the shuttle in the sweetspot and it really does have effortless power, but get it wrong and the shuttle just dies. My short game was pretty rubbish with it but it could possibly improve with time. THE GOOD. One thing you can't say about the Z-Speed is that it's difficult to wield. It's such an easy racket to just pick up and use and the power is quite addictive. This is probably the biggest irony of this racket - I actually think it's a good intermediates racket rather than a wrist-y experts racket which it's supposed to be holding the top spot in the Nanoray lineup. Sure, it has it's quirks, but it has the potential to be quite a rewarding racket. It is surprisingly fast considering there's nothing aero about the head short of it's smaller surface area. Speaking of which the smaller head works. Don't be too surprised if we see a Z-Slash II with this head design sometime soon. THE BAD. To use kind words, it has a 'unique feel'. With a regular racket, the flex is in the shaft, but with the Z-Speed, the head feels like it flexes ever so slightly more than the shaft. It's a bizarre sensation - especially if you've come from something like a Victor Meteor which has such a rigid head. To Yonex' credit though, they've kept head torsion fairly under control. Probably the biggest criticism I have with the racket is that it's a bit schizophrenic. It's a little bit of a one-trick-pony where compromises have been made for that smash that have resulted in a design that isn't super cohesive. Having said that though, I think given time most players could get used to it, especially if they're in love with the power you can generate with the thing. THE VERDICT To be honest I have to admire Yonex here. They've produced what is in some ways an experimental racket - there's more ideas and technology in this racket than pretty much all other rackets combined. Does it work? It's kinda hard to say. As a cohesive design, I'd have to say no, but having said that, it's far from terrible and it would be pretty easy for many people I suspect to get addicted the the power and speed (when you get it right) and just learn to live with the quirks.
it takes a while to get used to the way to unleash the power, i.e. achieve efficiency in force transfer due to the strange flex points you will know that you have achieved efficiency when every single shot, forehand or backhand has that loud snappy "piak" sound on contact. just so happened that i decided to spend time getting it right, had many games that made my partners in doubles rather pissed because of the lack of adaptation then.
Has anyone compared this to the kinesis range from carlton. The way that people describe how the head bends sounds exactly like my experience with the kinesis x70 and the pros and cons of it are eerily similar to what maklike tier is describing in his review.