Finally got some extended time to play with Pure Rush 1.23. Few things to note before I continue, where I am winter is coming up fast so weather is constantly 40-48 degrees (Fahrenheit). Balls are really fast and don't bounce much as the air is dry and cold.
Also if it matters, I'm a 4.5 that used to play eastern forehand with OHBH. I now use THBH and extreme eastern (*EE) forehand depending but can also hit 3/4 western (I call it extreme semi *ES) depending on the playstyle I want or the player I'm up against. I'll refer back to this that's why.
Power: I would say slightly above average for a poly. I came from softer strings like Prince Vortex, Cyclone Tour, BHB7, and Black Widow and those are about as powerful as poly's get. PR to me is just a tad below but still offers really good pop. You can really feel the balls penetrate the court when hitting more linear and if you hit under the ball more, you really get some good depth. The strings help a lot on defense and as long as you make fairly clean contact, there's usually enough pace to get you back into the point. When you really accelerate on the ball there's plenty of pop. When hitting with my *EE forehand it really traveled through the court allowing me to dictate points. Even when I was patiently constructing points, the power was there even if I wasn't fully committing to the shot. On my *ES forehand much the same but if you're more of a baseliner man this string is fun to just stand and bang. Good depth to really push your opponent back and when you slap and flatten it out it really zooms. Makes you want to just keep ripping even if it's down the center. Though there are some negatives which I'll touch on later. If I had to rate it, 8.25/10 for a poly.
Spin: Spin was a little interesting for me. It has loads on spin despite not being aggressively shaped, nor does it have "insane snapback". I found that PR has this extra gear for spin but in order to access it you have to really ramp up your racket head speed. When hitting with my THBH, EE and ES spin was great off both wings. EE forehand had much cleaner tight spin while ES had that loopy heavy spin. Also a good string for OHBH'ers looking for a little more spin without the "lift" that comes with more shaped polys. This will sound like common sense but when you really accelerate and brush the ball hard there's pretty crazy levels of spin. Sometimes when I buggy whip or kick serve the ball jumps much more than me or my opponent would anticipate. Despite this, I would not say this is a knock or a negative inconsistent property. More like it has great levels of spin all the time but sometimes it had awesome levels of spin, without over spinning making it short and weak. It's more like I go to hit a normal shot but sometimes the string enhances the spin while still keeping the same penetration and power. I don't know if anyone else experience this but I sure did. Overall spin would be 9/10.
Control: Control was also very solid but not perfect. If you're a big hitter this probably isn't the string for you. Yes it has great control (especially when fresh), but remember that negative I said earlier, well that's for the control. Because it has so much power, yes it's there when you're on the defense but when you're not, it can make you overhit. Not super often but every now and then an aggressive approach shot or an aggressive defense shot will sail just deep or just wide. Basically what I'm saying is that pop is great when you need it, but it's also there when you don't need it. For reference something I would put higher for control is something like S7T but that's much more stiff and less comfortable. But I will add that the first 2-4 hours I hit with this string when it was fresh, I feel like I couldn't miss. I could put the ball anywhere as long as my technique allowed it. I'll give it a 8/10.
Playability: Despite everything I said earlier I actually think playability is one of PR's best qualities. Everyone is different but my experience with it was that it had a very gradual decline in it's performance. I'll try my best to explain it's degradation over time. First day right off the stringer 100% of its characteristics, hit for about 2 hours (Didn't feel there was a break in period). Second day I found the string started at 90% the quality it was the day before. After about 1.5 hours of hitting it felt like the last 15-20 minutes or so it was at about 85% of it's original quality. Sat in my bag for a day as I hit with it the following day so maybe a variable there, but third outing with it I would say it started off at 70%-75% of what it was and by the end of that 2 hour session it felt about 60%. Pretty much remained and never really got worse even now at 10 hours and counting. With every outing there was barely any thing noticeable except a very small drop of spin and control. Weirdly enough, though some shots sailed (mostly deep and some wide), I never felt that as the tension dropped the power increased significantly. It was more that the directional control lessened but the power didn't increase much, can't really explain it other than how it literally sounds like. Maybe it was due to the lack of spin. YMMV depending on how intense your hitting sessions are. I give it a 8.5/10.
Other Notes: Was fantastic from the baseline in all areas. Volleys were also very good. Had good pop to punch volleys deep and put them away. Because it isn't overly shaped, I found I could put it where I wanted. Slices were nasty with PR. You could really knife them low and make them skid and defensive slices really neutralized rallies well. Serves were solid. Flat, Slice, and Kick serves all felt very good. But if you like more grip on your kick serves you will feel PR feels a tad slippery when you go to brush the ball. Returns felt really good. Because of the power you could really deflect the balls nice and deep and if you have good placement, it really rewards you for going for smaller targets. One last thing to note is the feel is right in between crisp and muted for me. Not super crisp like most silver strings, but more feel than something like Hyper G. Though it's fairly "soft" I still wouldn't recommend it if you have elbow issues, but it should be a viable option for many.
It's now my string of choice going forward as not only is it's performance good (for me) but the price isn't crazy. I hope my review was helpful or insightful to those who still haven't tried it.