I am in love…let me introduce you to Yonex’s new flagship racquet, the Voltric 80.
This racquet was launched at 2011 All England Badminton Championships, where it proved to be a real winner on court through Mens Singles Winner Lee Chong Wei, and Mens Doubles Winner Mathias Boe (his partner used VT70).
In my review of VT70 I raved about the new technology and design and said that Yonex had really got it right with this series of badminton racquets. In my opinion, somehow Yonex have managed to go one better with VT80 as it’s got a lot more to give.
The Voltric arrived in a full length bag, which is now standard for the Voltric range. Yonex have continued to improve on the graphics and this racquet is very striking in red, black, white and gold. It’s looks so much better than VT70.
This particular model is only available in 3U (weight 84-89g) in UK, and grip size G4 which is the smaller of the grip sizes usually on offer in UK.
This is a remarkable racquet in terms of what it’s meant to do. In essence, Yonex have combined the aerodynamic qualities of a Z Slash with the thin frame of a Nanospeed 9900 (not as thin as VT70, although the shaft is the slimmest in Yonex range) and given the racquet the head weight of an Armortec. Ingenious. We already know the technology works from my review of VT70, so how much better can this racquet be?
Balance wise, this is a head heavy racquet, but certainly not as heavy as AT700. I’d say this is very close to the weight on Armortec 900 Power which is therefore why Lee Chong Wei likes the racquet.
This racquet has a thin but stiff shaft which appears to be slightly longer than conventional racquets by around 1cm, which is very similar to Z Slash. This should therefore have a broader appeal to players especially fans of Armortec 900 who are looking for more from their racquet.
The frame is certainly thin although I’d say it’s an even size rather than the super thin with bulges we witnessed on Voltric 70. Yet again, the weight is at the top of the head. This racquet also has the sound filters although to my mind they don’t add anything to your performance.