The big news from Yonex in 2013 is the launch of the much-awaited Yonex Nanoray Z Speed. Official video from Yonex quotes a new world record smash speed of 493km/h, exceeding the previous “record” set by Arcsaber Z Slash. This will surely tempt many players with the promise of delivering a powerhouse smash but is this reality or the marketing talking? Let’s find out…
First off, this is supposed to be a Nanoray racquet. Since the birth of this range we have been conditioned to expect Nanoray to deliver light-headed racquets. So why on earth are Yonex calling this racquet a Nanoray because it is certainly not light headed? For a brand that has always carefully separated its racquets to clearly define what each range represents, why are they suddenly throwing confusion into the market?
The Yonex Nanoray Z Speed is a head heavy, stiff shafted racquet with a new shape isometric head, a touch smaller than standard size. Credit to Yonex here that they have re-designed the head shape and for me this was an improvement, especially compared to the numerous framing issues me and many other players had with Z Slash. I’m not so sure I would class this as a stiff shafted racquet as I have seen stiffer medium shafted racquets before.
The racquet is a 3U (85-89g), G5 which is the smaller grip usually on offer in UK. However Yonex UK are also advertising a G6 version although I cannot confirm availability on this. Z Speed is presented in the usual Nanoray cover. Colour is very striking although not to everyone’s taste. It’s a bold brash statement in bright orange for most of the head and ferrule with black and other decals on the throat and shaft.
The racquet was manufacture strung and yet again it was annoying the stencil ink wore off after only a few points. Generally racquets of this stature are custom strung for the player as only a few will leave a retailer without a restring. That said the racquet should be stencilled properly.
It’s hitting time…
With all the hype, and making allowance for a considerably lesser tension than I like I walked onto court expecting great things from Z Speed. Personally I would have called it a Voltric and saved the confusion, but at least I knew what to expect…
Z Speed disappointed from the first shot. Frankly I was expecting effortless clears even with manufacturer stringing. And bear in mind most of my tests are undertaken this way, except for top-end Victor racquets which are always delivered unstrung.
Instead of me witnessing shuttles flying towards my opponent’s rear court with very little effort, I really had to concentrate hard and put in more effort to hit a length. The good news is that they were clean hits without the framing issues previously mentioned with Z Slash.
Drop shots performed so much better, nice and tight. It’s nice to feel the weight in the head pulling down to provide that solid connection although the feeling falls short of that produced by Z Force. The frame felt reasonably fast too.
Onto smashes where I expected Z Speed to come alive and really show me what it could do and was primarily built for according to the marketing. Sorry to say I hit harder with Mark’s racket than I did with Z Speed. Mark also had a go and he has a very powerful smash. Same result, he could not get a better result compared to his own racquet. This goes totally against the grain and to be honest I’ve not experienced this before where a racquet does not deliver. Could it be the stringing? If so, why should it make such a difference? Every other racquet I hit with on that evening delivered perfectly good smashes, regardless of string tension.
Fast flat exchanges clearly demonstrated that although Z Speed can recover well and overall I was satisfied with the result. Shots were clean and there wasn’t the fatigue in my arm which I experienced with Z Force.
Here’s the strangest thing…
Moving on to defence, it’s usually expected a racquet like this will be a touch slower and require a lot of work to ensure the racquet face meets the shuttle early. However, for some reason Yonex Nanoray Z Speed reacted extremely well and proved to be a great asset defensively. Despite Marks best efforts I returned most of his smashes with a combination of lifts, drives and blocks. Drives weren’t as crisp as I would like but the lifts were so easy.
Moving on around the net, there’s a noticeable need to force this racquet to move. It does reward however but without that little extra it’s not going to be in the right place at the right time. I didn’t have this issue with Voltric 80 and really wasn’t expecting it with Z Speed because so far it had proved it was a relatively fast frame.
Summary
This is my first review of a Yonex racquet since leaving Yonex and I couldn’t have picked a worse review to write. No doubt there will be readers who accuse me of bias, despite the fact I reviewed other manufacturer racquets whilst I was with Yonex. However, I know that there will be many who agree with my comments and they have publicly had their say about Z Speed.
Overall I have to confess that this is perhaps the most disappointing racquet I have ever tested and reviewed. I was expecting great things and with my love of head heavy, stiff specifications I really should have loved Z Speed. But, it did not perform for me.
Regardless of the world record figures and how these were measured, for me this falls short of being Yonex’s most powerful racquet. Naming issues aside, there are a number of international players using this racquet including Tan Boon Heong from Malaysia who hit that record-breaking smash. It’s interesting to note that despite the marketing, he doesn’t appear to be hitting harder in tournaments and his name was not on the top 5 biggest smashes at the recent World Championships. Needless to say, there are measurements…and there are measurements!
With an RRP of £190 and retailers selling for only a few pounds under this, I think this is a racquet for hardcore players who will buy on the grounds of the marketing. For some it may deliver but I expect ebay or forums will have many second hand for sale very quickly.
In all my years and after all the reviews I’ve written, this is the one review tinged with sadness. I sincerely hope the next Yonex racquet I test will prove much better. With a heavy heart I have to say this racquet is not good value for money, has performed poorly and I am awarding the Yonex Nanoray Z Speed only 2.5 stars. Credit to Yonex for the new head shape and size but that’s where I draw the line.
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Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Paul,
If i’m looking for a really powerful smash, as well as a fast block when people are smashing at me, should i consider the nanoray z-speed or the victor jetspeed s10?
Thanks,
Being fair i didn’t rate the nanoray Z Speed and very few players ever did. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad racket it’s just that so many of us were very disappointed in it. My testing partner Mark bought two and sold them within a week – he was very unhappy.
JS 10 is remarkable but I cannot say whether it will be perfect for you. One of my students has 6 of these rackets. He is very powerful but also has a great defence. It worked so well for him.
Hey Paul
Just wondering if you’re going to review the voltric Z force 2?
Thanks
Hi Herbert
Yes I am. I reviewed the racket some time ago but haven’t posted it yet as I’ve been so busy with other projects. It will be coming very soon.
Testing this racket for several games of doubles, I failed to handle this racket. Mine was strung at 29 lbs. It gets significantly once you grow onto it.
Clears were initially hell. You have to have a perfect timing to hit the clears. Once you get the timing, my feeling is that the clears are between OK and good.
Drop shots were quite good, but again the timing issues stayed at first.
Defensively, it isn’t great, but compared to other head heavies this one is already considered ‘good’.
And to smashes….
I failed for a long time just purely smashing. I have only produced two shots that were ‘good’. My gut feel is if you hit off the sweetspot or miss the timing very slightly your smash becomes a complete joke. That said, the two smashes that were good – I feel like those are the two best I’ve produced in my life.
So I asked a pro. His recommendation is not to touch this racket unless you can hold your on in competitive play. Even then, there might be other better options….
paul,
As always thanks for the great review on z-speed. Just curious I know you said the smashing with this racket was dissapointing. Was it worse then the zslash? I am also wondering why this racket is not delivering more powerfull(faster) smashes if you have weided both zspeed and zslash before. I am assume the pros are smashing the same way they did with zslash and zspeed and were able to demonstrate an increase in smashing speed.
Am I missing something there? Does it take more effort or a different technique to achieve the increase smashing speed/power marketed by zspeed over zslash?
–jimmy
Jimmy
Z Slash packed more power although it had the dreaded frame issues. Z Speed relatively dead. It may be this racket needs to be strung very tight to get the real benefit however i tested VT80, VT Z Force using manufacturer stringing so this should be no different.
We have to be careful judging smash speed on advertising. Tan Boon Heong may have the world record under certain conditions but he has failed to hit any where near this speed in matches. In fact, there are many other players hitting considerably harder.
You don’t need a different technique to hit harder, you just need the right technique and the right genetics.
Paul
Hi paul!
I’m in need of a new racket which delivers both power and control in shots
So in these areas which racket would u recommend – z slash or z force ?
I think you need to consider a wider range of rackets. I suggest you read my article on choosing a racket first and then re-consider your options.
Good luck
Paul
I have to say I don’t think even Yonex know what they’ve designed this racket to be. Other than sell it off the back of a lab produced world record at a highly inflated price that is…..
I’ll stick to my TK6000’s thank you. I’ll bet my bottom dollar they smash at least as well (if not better) than a Z-speed in real play scenarios.
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your great review.
So do you think Z-speed is as head heavy as VT80? but less stiff because of the longer shaft?
So it likes a TK-8000 with smaller head?
This is a good question. I think you have summed up what Z Speed is very well, although I wouldn’t say it’s as flexible as TK8000, but close.
Paul
Sold both mine after one week.
The mis-naming really got my goat, but if it’d been a decent racket I could have looked past it. It’s not – it’s the least forgiving, least consistent Yonex I’ve ever tried: half your smashes are comets; the other half? You might as well throw the shuttle. The feel is TERRIBLE (but at least it’s consistently terrible). I tried it at 31 lb, so it’s definitely not the stringing.
It does defend well given the ludicrous balance, but the final nail in the coffin is that utterly insane price.
Yonex has tried to do too many things at once, here.