It's time for my review. I won't give any grades, because it cannot be completely objective, so I won't even try. I also steamed some of the shuttles (which I normally don't do), but they lost some of that nice solid hitting feel without really adding to durability. It wasn't bad, but I'm not a fan of steamed shuttles anyway. So what does the supplier say?
nydhi.com aka prahlada said:
Golden Eagle GE92 Shuttlecock Specifications:
- QUANTITY: 12 Badminton Shuttles per Tube
- SPEED: 76, 77, 78, 79
- FLIGHT: 10/10
- DURABILITY: 10/10
- HITTING FEEL: 9/10
- FEATHER: Top Grade Goose
- BASE: Composite Cork
I'll get back to this...
They certainly do have a different flight curve and I read before...
They are a bit heavier compare to your usual as30 but that just make smashing feels so much better.
So I wondered if that was related, but when weighting them, the average was even slightly below my AS30, overall, the differences between different shuttles from the same brand were bigger than the differences between AS30 and GE92, so it's not the weight.q
Let's start with the cork. It's a composite cork, but that doesn't mean a whole lot as long as the quality is good. I never had issues with the cork of AS30 or AS50, but I do remember the cork getting too soft too quickly for Babolat 1. Even when feeling the cork of (too) heavily used GE92, it still feels solid. I cut open some shuttles...
Golden Eagle 92, Friendship Premium
AS20, AS30, AS50
Babolat Feather 1, 2, 3, 4
Oliver (golden label), Victor Service, Carlton GT1, YangYang 202
The AS50 looks worse than it was, it fell apart after being used in extreme ways, for playing and for training. The AS50, GT1 and the Friendship Premium made the best (full natural cork) impression, but the natural cork part of the GE92 looks like it's of great quality. Remember, this shuttle has been used a lot and it still feels solid. Babolat 1 and 2 still look fine, but the bottom (real) cork part already feels soft, but Babolat 3 and 4 is what you really don't want to see. The Carlton GT1 stands out in a positive way, but the feathers seem to break too easily. All Yonex shuttles have all natural cork of pretty much the same quality for all (the picture is misleading, sorry), that explains why I never felt issues with those.
While GE92 don't offer full natural cork, the quality of the natural cork part is good, the hitting feel is good and stays that way throughout its lifespan.
The Feather quality is great! We only managed to break feathers of one shuttle when my opponent mistimed his stroke after a high serve hitting the cork with the top strings and hitting the feathers with the frame. When that happened the first time, the shuttle only went out of shape slightly, but was still usable. Two shuttles went out of shape after strong clean hits, one of them was steamed (doesn't count to me), and the other one was the very first one tried. Bad luck? Overall, it looks like it, but even that was still usable for quite a while. Overall, I think the durability is better than AS30. They do slow down slightly, but not as much as other shuttles I had to play with. I cannot compare directly to AS50 or other shuttles, but the durability is way up there among the best.
I prefer the flight curve of AS30 or AS50, but then, that's what I'm used to. It was easy enough to quickly adapt to the new flight curve. The Hitting feel of the GE92 was great ans solid, at least before steaming, so that takes me back to the first quote.... I cannot give a grade for the flying curve. It's consistent, but it differs from other shuttles more than other shuttles differ from one another, leaving out the Babolats, they're slightly different, too. I prefer the ones that I'm used to, but I cannot honestly say which one might be better, so there's two points where I might argue against
@prahlada. Also the durability "10/10" brings back the memory of the very first GE92 I tried that was out of shape after the first hard smash, so there might be some room to improve. Stating it's 10/10 sounds like giving up to me.
I normally buy AS30, so would I prefer GE92 or AS30. Ignoring one batch, AS30 have proven to be very consistent regarding quality, GE92 still have to prove that. For the same or slightly lower price, I would certainly give them a chance, especially if they keep having the speed printed on the sticker inside. I love that! In Germany, the problem is that for competitions, we have to use approved shuttles. This takes an effort by the manufacturer/supplier, then it's always hard to work against the established brands. One bad batch, and people will never give you a chance again. Then there's out VAT and extremely productive customs that increases prices by a good margin.... With a price point below AS30 (thats below 23€), I see chances, but the quality must stay consistent. Babolat 1 was 21€ last time I bought them, so competition is tough.
Overall, I think the quality is above the quality of AS30, it's only the first shuttle tried that makes me wonder if that quality really is consistent.
