Yonex EZONE 2020 AO

I'm demoing the ezone 98, and the pro97 310g... am using the DR98 now. I'd like the flex in the throat of that frame to be dialed back about 20%...we'll see.
 
Been playing with the Ezone 98 (2018) for a week now. Put a leather grip and lead on the handle plus 4 grams at 12 and it made a HUGE difference from the anemic frame it is stock. Recently secured a 2020 Ezone 98 prototype (all black with blue accents) and will post my findings when it gets here and I get some court time.
 
n80aoag said:
Been playing with the Ezone 98 (2018) for a week now. Put a leather grip and lead on the handle plus 4 grams at 12 and it made a HUGE difference from the anemic frame it is stock. Recently secured a 2020 Ezone 98 prototype (all black with blue accents) and will post my findings when it gets here and I get some court time.
Click to expand...
How was it anemic?...At 305g unstrung, you knew you were getting a relatively light frame, is the weighting too head light?
 
I had been playing with a Blade V7 16x19 and a Pure Strike 16x19 2019, and the ezone lacked plow and depth if I was lazy with my prep or footwork. The lead gave me some added plow, but still whippy enough for my liking. It wasn't so much how head light it is but just less mass to produce heavy shots like I'm used to with the blade or PS.
 
lima said:
All those stiff frames that have some sort of a dampening system just seem more comfortable but the numbers don't lie. If it's a RA 69 it's a stiff frame no matter what dampening system it has
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so, you can get the benefits of a stiffer frame, with seemingly less of the negative effects??
 
n80aoag said:
I had been playing with a Blade V7 16x19 and a Pure Strike 16x19 2019, and the ezone lacked plow and depth if I was lazy with my prep or footwork. The lead gave me some added plow, but still whippy enough for my liking. It wasn't so much how head light it is but just less mass to produce heavy shots like I'm used to with the blade or PS.
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so, why did you switch?
 
I got the new Ezone 98 and strung it up with HyperG 18g at 50lb. Was previously using a Vcore Pro 97 330g with the same string setup.

Have hit with the new Ezone for two sessions now and am really enjoying it. I wanted a racquet that's easier to use and the lighter weight definitely helps keep me in rallies longer. The VCP feels more solid and has a more classic feel, but I found that I have more control with the Ezone. Could be that the VCP was a bit too heavy for me. I feel like I can control the depth and direction of my groundstrokes better with the Ezone.

Happy to answer any other questions you guys have...
 
mosesm said:
I got the new Ezone 98 and strung it up with HyperG 18g at 50lb. Was previously using a Vcore Pro 97 330g with the same string setup.

Have hit with the new Ezone for two sessions now and am really enjoying it. I wanted a racquet that's easier to use and the lighter weight definitely helps keep me in rallies longer. The VCP feels more solid and has a more classic feel, but I found that I have more control with the Ezone. Could be that the VCP was a bit too heavy for me. I feel like I can control the depth and direction of my groundstrokes better with the Ezone.

Happy to answer any other questions you guys have...
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so, HyperG is a Polyester string...have you always used that? The heavier frame will feel more solid, have you considered adding weight to your new frame?? How would you say they compare in terms of sweet spot size?
 
galahad said:
so, HyperG is a Polyester string...have you always used that? The heavier frame will feel more solid, have you considered adding weight to your new frame?? How would you say they compare in terms of sweet spot size?
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Yes I've always used HyperG and poly strings. I haven't felt the need to add more weight to the new Ezone, but time will tell once I play more matches with it. Sweet spot size feels about the same as the VCP, or at least I can't tell a difference.
 
mosesm said:
Yes I've always used HyperG and poly strings. I haven't felt the need to add more weight to the new Ezone, but time will tell once I play more matches with it. Sweet spot size feels about the same as the VCP, or at least I can't tell a difference.
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Thx for your sharing, have u found any jarring feeling near the tip of the racquet?
 
i'm a long time user of the DR98 and I tried the Ezone 98 yesterday and like it alot. For reference, i strung it up with Yonex PTP 125 @48lbs. First thing i noticed is that the sweetspot of the racket is huge! it's not super plush like the DR but still very very plush. Mishits are not jarring especially at the tip which was the main reason why i dislike the previous ezone 98

My only gripe with the racket is that the power level is on the higher level and i definitely prefer the DR98 in terms of control. However, i feel that a lower powered string like Lux 4G or Max Power Rough could very well be the solution. This could very well be the honeymoon period so i probably need a feel more hours with it. However i reckon this racket will stay in my bag. Whether it replaces my DR98 will be the million dollar question but only time will tell to answer that
 
@stringtheory
Nice to read about your brief experience with the new Ezone 98. I am also keen on this racquet. I usually use Volkl Cyclone at 54-55 pounds. I don´t know the string you used but at the least the Cyclone at 48 pounds for me would lead to way too much power and less control. I have played a few times with PTP but I always strung it at close to 54 pounds.

Some people seem to have commented that the racquet lacks "plow through" due to the low swing weight.......What your thoughts of this? For me the swing weight just under 320 is fine as one can always put some leadtape to increase it. I always prefer less wingweight and then just customize it until it works. It is harder to make it work if swingweight is too high to start with. My skill level is not high enough to handle swingweights close to 330.
 
The swingweight and plow through is definitely lower than DR98. For me it's not necessarily a bad thing as it depends on your strokes. The ezone 98 swingweight is lower, making it rather whippy, and this provides more spin compared to the DR98. You also get less plow through from the Ezone but more power from the racket. Hence, balls coming from my DR98 were slightly heavier but some balls drop short cause DR is less powerful. With the Ezone, i get balls which are not as heavy, but more spin and easier depth.

I myself also prefer a racket with swingweight 320-325 so i was very skeptical about the ezone 98. However, somehow everything just seems to gel, but like i said this could be the honeymoon period
 
stringtheory said:
The swingweight and plow through is definitely lower than DR98. For me it's not necessarily a bad thing as it depends on your strokes. The ezone 98 swingweight is lower, making it rather whippy, and this provides more spin compared to the DR98. You also get less plow through from the Ezone but more power from the racket. Hence, balls coming from my DR98 were slightly heavier but some balls drop short cause DR is less powerful. With the Ezone, i get balls which are not as heavy, but more spin and easier depth.

I myself also prefer a racket with swingweight 320-325 so i was very skeptical about the ezone 98. However, somehow everything just seems to gel, but like i said this could be the honeymoon period
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Good stuff here.

I have both of my DR's leaded up and am thinking about purchasing 2 of the new EZONE's. I believe mine are roughly 335g, 8 pts HL, and 325 SW. I would need to tinker with the new ones but am eager to test these out. Keep up the feedback if you would please.
 
I’m still waiting for mine from TW. They said yesterday they are still back ordered and not arriving/shipping until the 28th. I don’t see anything on the website saying that they are still preorder...
 
I just got done with my first demo session of the ezone 98, the vcore 97, and just for fun the Head Gravity. I currently use the DR98, the old yellow/green model.

The new ezone felt like a fly swatter. So light, and powerful that I had real trouble controlling the ball. I could probably accomodate with weight, but in stock form, i found it virtually unplayable. It wasn't stiff, or unstable, ti was just remarkably light feeling.

The Gravity was the opposite. Took forever to get going.
I went in wanting to love the ezone, but ended up liking the vcore 97 310 the most, felt the most solid, and stable to me
 
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Can anyone make a comparison between the new ezone (or the old if you have not tried it yet) and the Babolat pure strike 3rd gen ? Especially in terms of power and control ? They seem to be pretty similar but do they play close ?

Thank you

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@Lozannois Have hit the 3rd Gen 18 X 20 and the new Ezone 98 is a little more refined cleaner feeling, Strike is a more substantial, more stable frame. I was surprised by how spin friendly the strike is. Overall the Ezone is a nicer feeling frame but I feel like the strike is the more versatile match frame. If you gave me the two stock standard I would rather play a match with the Strike. I feel the Ezone needs some weight at 12 to reach its full potential. But I do like a heaver swingweight, 325-335 is the range I like. I had no issues with arm comfort with 18 X 20 strike. It's actually surprised me at how well it performed.
 
Lozannois said:
Can anyone make a comparison between the new ezone (or the old if you have not tried it yet) and the Babolat pure strike 3rd gen ? Especially in terms of power and control ? They seem to be pretty similar but do they play close ?

Thank you

Envoyé de mon ONEPLUS A5000 en utilisant Tapatalk
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I have a PS 16 x 19 3rd Gen and a 2018 Ezone 98. PS has RPM Blast 17g at 48 lbs, Ezone has Poly Tour Pro at 50/48. The PS is more plush feeling, more powerful. It is easy to generate power and spin, sometimes too much power and my shots sailed long quite often if I didn't have enough spin. The Ezone felt much lighter and stiffer, but easy to play with and more satisfying when I wanted to generate whippier strokes with more spin. Both were used during doubles play and I preferred the Ezone because it had more control and I could hit angles better. The PS required me to hit with more spin to keep my shots in, and the launch angle was higher than the ezone. I'm curious how I'd play with the 18 x20 PS, but overall more satisfying shots were hit with the ezone especially when I added a leather grip, lead tape under the grip (about 4 grams wrapped near the butt) and 2 grams lead tape at 12 oclock. It was less maneuverable but the sweetspot was more buttery when hit consistently and the shots I hit had more depth and weight to it.
 
n80aoag said:
I have a PS 16 x 19 3rd Gen and a 2018 Ezone 98. PS has RPM Blast 17g at 48 lbs, Ezone has Poly Tour Pro at 50/48. The PS is more plush feeling, more powerful. It is easy to generate power and spin, sometimes too much power and my shots sailed long quite often if I didn't have enough spin. The Ezone felt much lighter and stiffer, but easy to play with and more satisfying when I wanted to generate whippier strokes with more spin. Both were used during doubles play and I preferred the Ezone because it had more control and I could hit angles better. The PS required me to hit with more spin to keep my shots in, and the launch angle was higher than the ezone. I'm curious how I'd play with the 18 x20 PS, but overall more satisfying shots were hit with the ezone especially when I added a leather grip, lead tape under the grip (about 4 grams wrapped near the butt) and 2 grams lead tape at 12 oclock. It was less maneuverable but the sweetspot was more buttery when hit consistently and the shots I hit had more depth and weight to it.
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Thank you for your feedback ! I tried the new ezone 100! The feel is very good and for me the control you get for this level of power is amazing ! But very curious about the 98 version.

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Maverick13 said:
Got mine today. Strung weight was 11.12oz. I’ve never seen any of my Yonex racquets that off before.

It’s supposed to be 11.3 and it’s strung with poly tour pro 120
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What was it unstrung? Spec say 305g unstrung, which is 10.78oz. They (TW) normally average 16 grams for string, but I believe that is using 16g (1.3mm) string...which is why I wish they'd publish the 'average' unstrung weight as well. With strung we're left questioning what the weight of the string was.
 
I hit with the new EZONE 98 for 3 sets yesterday:

Gut mains at 50
Rpm Blast cross at 48
Older racquets Vcore Pro 330 old model (hit for 2 years) then moved to Pure Drive tour weighted to add power.
4.5 dubs player serve and volley

In short loved the feel on the Vcore Pro and plow through. After two years, was really wanting something with some free power. Moved to the Pure Drive tour. Loved the power and spin but it lacks the touch and my arm.....It kills my arm.

Huge drop in swing weight from what I am used to but man this thing has some pop. Really surprised at how much power and spin I was able to get from this racquet. Not at PureDrive level but not that far off. To be fair I strung the Pure Drive 4 pounds tighter but still this thing is lively.

The touchy freely stuff also felt very close to the Vcore-Pro for me. I felt when I softened the hands for a short volley, the ball sat on the strings long enough to move where needed.

At contact I thought it had a really muted feeling that was nice but you could still feel it pop off the strings when attacked. Very nice on the arm. No arm pain or stinging at all after three hours of hitting.

I also thought it was plenty stable at net with some big hitters going right at me.

I am going to add just a bit of weight to increase swing weights back into where I like it but I feel like I could easily play with it at stock. Very very surprised at this racquet and how much power/spin it had but keeping a great feel to the frame. Yonex knocked this one out of the park.

Cheers
 
Lozannois said:
Thank you for your feedback ! I tried the new ezone 100! The feel is very good and for me the control you get for this level of power is amazing ! But very curious about the 98 version.

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Who else tried new EZone 100? How was power, control, spin, feel?
 
OlivierJulienB said:
Who else tried new EZone 100? How was power, control, spin, feel?
Click to expand...
I've hit with it 3 times and I'm likely to switch to it. Power is good... Easy power... Not quite Pure Drive level but probably Pure Aero level at least. Control was great for a tweener as well. I never found myself to be over hitting and i could locate my shots pretty well with it. Spin was awesome. Probably why it was easy to keep the ball in play. Feel was ok for it's weight. Felt stable but not as plush as my Vcore 98 or my old Pro Staff 97 (non CV). Still it felt great for a tweener type racquet. I was pretty impressed with it. I'm going back to my Vcore for now but will likely switch to it in the next few weeks.
 
A lot of comparisons to the beloved DR, but what about compared with the previous Ezone 98? Is power/control similar, just a plusher feel than the previous one?

I missed out on the DR series as I just started considering Yonex frames in the past year. I played for the VCP 310 for awhile, but found it too unstable and missed some of the free power I had with the PS One7 16x19 I was playing with previously. So I picked up one of the previous iteration Ezone 98’s last month. Having played with it a few times now during winter doubles league play, been really enjoying it (still honeymooning obviously). I haven’t noticed the stiffness and jarring in the upper hoop everyone complains about.
 
I tried the EZone 98 and I was a bit disappointed. I think they should have either upped the swing weight to at least 325 strung, or the static weight to 310g. In stock form, this racquet feels way to wimpy. The impact feel, and string bed consistency is definitely improved over the previous EZone 98, and the outgoing VCore 98, so it is an improvement. I think the Pure Strike is better in almost every way, except cosmetics. More power, similar control, better spin, more comfort (despite stiffness), and most importantly, more inherently stable. I wanted to like this racquet, because lately I've found my VCore 95 too demanding when defending (my fitness is not great and I'm not willing to improve it), but this just isn't the stick to replace my 95.
 
I have the 2nd gen pure strike. Was my backup racket to the DR98. The PS is very similar to the Ezone in terms of power and control. PS probably has a slight edge in terms of stability but the Ezone is definitely softer and less jarring on mishits

i always have a good time hitting with the PS but I do notice that my elbows get a little sore after a 1-2 hr session which I never had with the DR. Didn’t feel it with the new ezone as well
 
Hi anyone,

I usually always ask/pay for the quality control of the specs from TW when I buy a racket. But with yonex does it worth it ? I heard their QC is among the best. Is that correct ? Do you think It's still a good idea to ask for the check of the specs or It's a waste of money to ask that with yonex rackets ?

In other terms, if I want to find an Ezone 98 which is more head heavy with a higher swingweight, any chance they can find me one ? Or this is worthless considering yonex qc is very accurate ?

Thanks for your help

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dr. godmode said:
I tried the EZone 98 and I was a bit disappointed. I think they should have either upped the swing weight to at least 325 strung, or the static weight to 310g. In stock form, this racquet feels way to wimpy. The impact feel, and string bed consistency is definitely improved over the previous EZone 98, and the outgoing VCore 98, so it is an improvement. I think the Pure Strike is better in almost every way, except cosmetics. More power, similar control, better spin, more comfort (despite stiffness), and most importantly, more inherently stable. I wanted to like this racquet, because lately I've found my VCore 95 too demanding when defending (my fitness is not great and I'm not willing to improve it), but this just isn't the stick to replace my 95.
Click to expand...
I think VCore 98 is ment to be competition for Pure Strike more. EZone is a totally different racuqet to PS.
 
dr. godmode said:
What racquets do you think the EZone 98 is meant to compete with?
Click to expand...
PS is 21-23-21 profile racquet on the stiffer side while Ezone is 19-24-23 beam racquet and very muted. Ezone is more like a blend of Clash and Blade, it is similar to past Yonex RQS, RQiS lines. Probably closest racquet to EZone was previous version of Prince TXT Tour 100P.
 
tYAYAPs.jpg


Does Anyone know about this yonex racket?
 
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