Best intermediate power racket

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We start our list with the best intermediate padel racket. The Metalbone 3.2 is our pick because it has a great balance of power and ease of use that intermediate power players will enjoy.

In the 2023 version, Adidas made a couple of adjustments that were widely appreciated by our reviewers - they increased the strength of the roughness and softened the core. This resulted in more spin and a greater sweet spot. Adidas's "oversized diamond" shape increases playability.

The hard version of this racket, Metalbone HRD 3.2, has a more rigid core, which reduces the sweet spot size and makes it more powerful. We recommend the HRD to advanced players who prefer a hard touch.

Best advanced power racket

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• Hard? Yes ✅
• Heavy? Yes ✅
• High balance? Yes ✅

Head's Delta Pro is what arrives when you spec out an advanced power racket. It's rigid, weighty, and slightly unwieldy, which gives you a strong leverage effect and helps you blow holes in the ground. Head's spin technology also noteworthy and you will feel it grip the ball as you cut through volleys.

Head usually releases new models every 2 years, so this racket hasn't been updated since 2022, which means that you can score great deals on it under €200. View the deals all at our full review.

Best lightweight power racket

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The Air Veron is Babolat's intermediate maneuverable hybrid-shaped racket. This racket was designed for speed in the aerial game. Its small face decreases the size of the sweet spot, but its low weight helps you arrive at the precise spot to contact the ball early.

The Air Viper is its harder older brother, which we recommend to advanced players only.

"Best buy" power racket

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Kuikma's PR990 line comes with the same technology that rackets double the price come with: carbon fiber frames, carbon fiber surfaces, EVA core, etc. We prefer the playability of the teardrop format PR990 Hybrid Hard to its diamond-shaped brother, PR990 Power Hard.

Other great power rackets

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What does powerful mean

A powerful racket is able to accelerate the ball more than control or comfort rackets, in, for example, strong smashes. However, this doesn't mean that the racket will have more ball output on slow or medium-speed shots. In fact, it is more likely that a powerful racket will make it more difficult to pass the ball over the net on difficult returns.

How do you get a powerful racket?

The following four attributes will make your racket hard:

1. a hard surface,
2. a hard core
3. high balance
4. high weight - heavy

But these characteristics all make a racket less playable, so we recommend thinking hard about the balance between playability and power that makes sense for your game.

1. Hard surface

Carbon fiber and fiberglass are the two main materials out of which padel racket surfaces are made. While conventionally, padel rackets were made out of fiberglass, carbon fiber, a more expensive alternative to fiberglass, is increasingly the surface of choice due to its rigidity and durability.

Fiberglass, in its absorption of the energy from the ball's impact, compresses more than rigid carbon fiber and thus over time loses its ability to return to its original form. Fiberglass is now seldom used in the frame of the racket due to lower durability during impact with another racket or a wall.

Carbon fiber is increasingly present in even entry-level padel racket surfaces. With the increased demand for padel racket technology, many types of carbon fiber are now used in racket construction. They are mainly differentiated by their thread counts.

Thread count, or the number of filaments per tow - is the primary determinant of a carbon fiber's ratio of hardness to flexibility. 12K carbon has, for example, 12,000 filaments of carbon per strip of carbon band, or "tow". The higher the thread count the softer the carbon fiber, so a 24K carbon will, all else being equal, feel similar to a fiberglass surface.

Surface mixing by, for example, covering a layer of fiberglass with a layer of carbon is quite common, as brands often claim that they can deliver the best of both worlds by including both carbon fiber and fiberglass in the racket surface. Most carbon fiber rackets have a layer of carbon fiber over multiple layers of fiberglass.
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2. Hard core

Padel racket cores are made of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam rubber or polyethylene foam rubber; EVA is generally higher density than polyethylene.

Increasingly, we have combination, "Multi-EVA, "cores, with outer layers that are more or less dense than the inner layers. Rackets using this are, for example, the top-of-the-line Bullpadel rackets with MultiEVA cores, such as the Vertex 3 and the Hack 3.

Padel racket rubber densities range from 15kg/m³ to 50 kg/m³. When looking for a powerful racket, you should look for an EVA foam core with a density between 25-50kg³.

Brands often refer to lower-density EVA foams as EVA soft, soft-medium, and higher densities as EVA medium-hard or EVA hard. The most powerful rackets will be described as medium-hard or hard.

Pros

Because high-density foam does not compress during high-force impact, as a result nearly all of that energy is passed into the ball, which results in powerful shots during fast swings.

Another benefit of high-density foam is that in slower, touch shots, the player has increased sensitivity and more ability to place the ball where he or she would like. It is similar to a speedometer in a car where a soft racket can travel between 20 and 80 kph, whereas a hard racket can travel 0-100, provide the player uses effective technique.

Additionally, the higher the density of the racket's foam, the longer its lifespan and the greater the racket's durability, as the core doesn't lose its shape as much as it would with softer foam.

Cons

Hard rackets deliver significantly more vibrations to the arm than soft rackets, which gives many players tennis elbow, epicondylitis, or other arm pain.

Hard surfaces also reduce playability. The reduced ball output of harder rackets means that all of the power to get the ball over the net must come from proper technique.

Moreover, the harder the racket, the smaller the sweet spot. When you miss the sweet spot with a hard racket, the exits the racket with very little energy. These characteristics can be difficult for players in padel's fast, chaotic points.

3. High balance

Balance refers to the distribution of weight between the top and bottom of the padel racket. The balance value refers to the position of the axis crossing the racket where the weight is equally balanced between head and handle. High-balance rackets have balances at or above 27cm, while low-balance rackets have balances below 26cm.

While one centimeter sounds like a small difference, with padel racket balance metric, a small change results in a very different playability.

What affects Balance

Balance is affected most by the racket's shape. More material at the racket's head increases the balance.  As a result, diamond rackets have higher balance than teardrops or hybrids, which have, in turn, higher balance than round rackets.

All else being equal, rackets with higher density foam will have a higher balance than rackets with lower density foam simply due to the amount of rubber used in the higher density foam.

Pros

High balance rackets are more powerful because the leverage effect of the heavy racket tip transfers more force to the ball upon impact, similar to hitting a nail with the head of a hammer versus the handle.

Cons

High balance rackets have decreased maneuverability because their head heaviness makes the leverage work against you when you need to scoop a ball out of the corner of the court, block a quick volley, or reach back to retrieve a high lob.

High balance rackets, especially diamond-shaped rackets, have a smaller sweet spot than other shapes. Additionally, the fact the sweet spot is higher in the racket's head makes precise contact difficult for many.

How to change the balance of your racket

Generally, adding 10 grams to the top or bottom of your racket will alter the balance by 1cm in the corresponding direction.

To increase the balance of your racket, add weight to the top of your racket such as a protector, lead tape, or a proprietary system, such as Bullpadel's Multi-Weight System, which adds small metal weights on the edge of the head of the racket.

To decrease the balance of your racket, add weight to the bottom of your racket, such as an extra grip.

4. High weight (heavy)

While most rackets weigh roughly the same, 365 grams, give or take 10 grams. There are, however, a few heavier, power-focused rackets that weigh more, such as the Head Delta Pro. And this weight will help you generate more power in your shots. This will, of course, also reduce maneuverability as a heavy racket will require more strength and more time to get into the correct position.

Why trust us?

Padel FYI is the Metacritic for padel rackets. To help you find the best padel racket, I have cataloged 360 reviews of 106 of the most popular padel rackets to create the most comprehensive padel racket database.

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