Wilson nCode nPower Review
When a bright red fire engine comes barreling down the street, people not only take note, they also get out of the way. The new nPower racquet from Wilson elicits a similar response. With the same attention getting fire engine red color combined with state of the art nCoded engineering, traditional racquets had better move to the curb and let this one through.
The fact that the nPower makes a bold statement is no accident. When Wilson designed the racquet, they had two separate initiatives; to build a racquet that performed at the highest level, and to build a racquet that turned heads. From an engineering perspective, Wilson addressed its first goal by paying attention to the little things. How little? Well, for the new nCoded line of racquets, Wilson took influence from nano technology. In a traditional graphite carbon frame there are voids between the carbon fibers. nCoded racquets contain extremely small oxide crystals that fill these voids and ultimately strengthen and stabilize the racquet. According to Wilson, the nCode Technology, combined with Power String Technology (long strings that go through the handle) and Power Holes Technology (open grommets) produce an extremely powerful, stable, and longer lasting racquetball racquet. From the first look, there is no doubt that Wilson achieved its second goal, as wielding the bright red nPower will quickly get you noticed.
To see if the nPowerÕs offering was more than skin deep, our team put it through a grueling two-week test. All performance aspects of the racquet were judged with attention paid to stability, power, control, comfort, and maneuverability.
Each playtester used our standard Tecnifibre 505 HPR 17 Biphase playtest string strung at 33lbs. After initial hitting, our team elected to go with a Python rubber grip over the stock Wilson grip.
Serves
From the first strike of the ball, each of our playtesters noticed an immediate improvement over the Wilson Triad 170 from last year. Playtester Brett noted, "The nPower has great power, and control is on par with competing sticks from other manufacturers. Although, this racquet did take more time to get used to than others I have tested, once I adjusted to it I was able to hit drive serves and lob serves with confidence. Cross court and down the line drives seemed to be the most effective." Brett concluded that the stringbed felt soft, and might recommend stringing this one a bit higher than 33lbs. In agreement, was Brian. "The only problem with the nPower was finding the right tension for each individual player. I personally found that I needed to string this racquet at about 40lbs to get it to feel like 32lbs on a racquet with a more traditional string pattern."
Jonathan also commented on the significant increase in power and stability from the older Triad 170. He said, "The power of the frame proved very useful for my drive serves. The racquet provided both down the line and cross court serves with great pace. I found slow, lob serves to be shaky. The racquet didnÕt seem to deliver too much feel with a slower swing speed. On faster swings such as chest high serves, the feel improved significantly."
Dustin agreed with Jonathan on the abundance of power in the frame, but was a bit concerned with control. Dustin said, "I was initially worried about the control in a power frame such as this, but I found it easy to take some pace off the ball on my touch serves and control my lob serve as well." Dustin also suggests stringing this racquet up a bit to lose some of the trampoline effect. Control has never been an issue for Sarah, and she didnÕt mind sacrificing it for added power, and comfort. "This racquet really complimented my serve. I got more power on my drives than normal, and the racquet didnÕt irritate my wrist. I donÕt think I would raise the tension like some of the other playtesters suggested. I really liked the soft, flexible stringbed."
Return of Serve
As with the serve our playtesters found this racquet to have plenty of stability on the return. Dustin said, "I found the frame to have functional stability on power returns. It would twist some on off center shots. I was not a fan of the grip provided with the frame, which may have contributed to some of my miss-hits. I felt the frame to be surprisingly maneuverable for defensive strikes and lob returns on serve. This frame is a real confidence booster on aggressive service returns and often takes little more than a solid wrist flick."
Brett really enjoyed returning with this racquet, especially after out the stock grip was swapped out. Changing the grip was a unanimous decision by all the playtesters. "I like to short hop lob serves and this racquet seemed to move around a bit when I miss-hit this shot," said Brett, adding, "I figured it was the grip. After I swapped the stock grip for a Python the twisting was virtually eliminated. Drive serves were comfortable to play and I was confident in hitting hard offensive returns and defensive ceiling balls alike. This racquet really shines on hard down the line returns and cross court pass shots."
Brian noticed that the added bulk in the frame of the nPower really increased the sturdiness on the return when compared to the Triad 170. He said, "with more bulk in the throat and the elbows of the frame, it has noticeably more torsional stability, especially noticeable on the return." Jonathan was also impressed with stability and sturdiness. "The frame felt very stable without much vibration or twisting on returns of fast drive serves."
Sarah was impressed with the lack of vibration of the racquet. "When we swapped out the grip for the Python, I really noticed how sturdy this racquet was. It had very little twisting when returning hard drive serves, and felt forgiving on my arm. I think this was a combination of the racquet, tension, and the extremely soft Tecnifibre string. This is a great combination for players with wrist or elbow problems."
Forehand/Backhand Strokes
Our playtesters found the nPower to be very consistent with its name. They found ample amounts of power on every shot, and the forehand and backhand strokes were no exception. Sarah, loved the extra power, and was able to blow passing shots by the guys all week long. "I love the power I get from this racquet, and it looks good, too. I would compare it to a red Corvette. ItÕs like my dream car!" Brett, who would have preferred a Ferrari to a Vet, also enjoyed the power, but found the nPower lacking in control. "As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the power of this racquet, but as with many racquets that have an abundance of power, I felt it lacked control. More specifically the front of the court touch shots seemed to be below average. Backhand pinch shots and forehand pinch, passing shots, and splats felt great."
Dustin found a lack in control on his touch shots as well. "The frame provides great power when you decide to open it up. Like mentioned previously, creating solid pace was as easy as a wrist flick, almost effortless. Each shot felt controllable and often ended up right where I had planned it. However, I do hit a lot of front court touch shots and didnÕt find the feel I was looking for. I had trouble controlling and taking pace off of aggressive shots made by my opponent."
Brian offered, "with the new long string pattern and nCode technology, this racquet is one of the strongest, and hardest hitting racquets on the market. I am able to generate more power with this racquet than I could with the Triad 170. I could see and feel the difference." Jonathan, a finesse player, was able to catch his opponents off guard with the extra power he was able to generate with the nPower. He also found all his flick and desperation jobs making it to the front wall, frustrating more than one of his opponents. Jonathan said, "I had loads of power on offensive shots, and caught my opponents off guard the first game or two. Drive, kill, and passing shots came smoking off the front wall. Higher finesse touch shots were a little lacking and the racquet wasnÕt quite as responsive."
Overall
The nPower deserves high marks for overall performance due to its huge improvements over its predecessors. A few minor complaints our playtesters had were the string movement in the handle of the racquet, the need to string it at a much higher tension than normal to get a similar feel to their regular racquets, and lastly the stock grip was very poor. At the end of the playtest, each of our playtesters took the nPower out for about an hour of hitting to feel the racquet when strung at a higher tension. The consensus was that the difference was amazing. When strung at 38lbs compared to the 33lbs for the playtest, touch shots were no longer a problem. Even when strung at a high tension, our team was able to generate ample power with the nPower.
Review date: December 2004. If you found this review interesting or have further questions or comments please contact us.
