Xiom Zetro Quad Blade Review

bbkon wrote: Stavros wrote: I played it. Very good looping blade. Little bouncy to short game and the straight handle it's not so good as Stiga's but generally speaking , Zetro is very good and much cheaper than Butterfly's alternatives. how does it feel when you hit flat or drive flat? can you compare to clipper or other fast composite blades you have tried?

bbkon wrote: so you would say it can be good for short pips and it plays like an old clipper?

Hey guys, I was wondering about the XZQ throw angle, what's it like ? Mine is on its way, I'm quite impatient... Almost everybody says this blade shines for topspins, so I was wondering if it has a high throw angle, maybe close from topspin-oriented 5-plys ?

Can't wait to hear

Well well ! It was a long day, but here I am ! So I've played the whole morning against players from a reasonnably close level. I'll often compare this blade to my HRT Clipper, since it's the only other 7 plys blade I own. I'm a two-winged looper quite close from the table (but mostly relying on placement than pure power), even though my backhand is certainly more versatile (blocks, flat-hit from time to time).

My XZQ weights 89g, and was used with a Xiom Vega Pro 1.8mm on the FH, and Yinhe Moon H35 2.1 (not sure : it's supposed to be max, but not that thick) in the BH. It is a well-balanced blade : the set weights almost the same as my other ones, but seems to be lighter (especially compared to my HRT Clipper that feels really head-heavy). I don't notice this most of the time and feel like all my blades are balanced the same, so I find it worth mentioning.

Speed-wise, this XZQ is clearly above the blades I've played with these last months / years (Waldner Senso v2, Waldner Diablo Senso, Stiga OC, HRT Clipper...). OFF blade, no doubt about that. Still, it manages to keep a really good control most of the time. Throw angle seems medium-high, close from my two Waldner Senso, and clearly higher than HRT Clipper's, my only other 7 plys blade (and therefore, much easier than this one for looping). However, it's still really nice for flat-hitting and blocks, cause it is pretty stiff. I've read some reviews highlighting the high spin that you can impart with this blade, it's true in a certain measure : for a 7-plys blade, it allows to impart a good amount of spin indeed, but it is still behind my Waldner Diablo Senso for example (5 plys, including 2 glass fiber ones).

In playing situation : I've felt really at ease for forehand looping. Really, I've had a lot of fun, especially considering that it was my first time with this blade. This is clearly where the XZQ shines, IMHO. I don't think the OFF speed made me do much errors, it's actually really easy to "control-loop" and brush the ball (I don't know if it's the hinoki or zylon layer, but you can really grip the ball on slow topspins), which is the fundation of my game. A bit further from the table, the power and throw angle make the XZQ much easier to handle than the HRT Clipper (really needed to impart a looot of power in the stroke to disturb the opponent). I still need to work on the short-game, made some direct errors cause the blade sometimes really "absorbs" the ball, and I had some balls dying in the net when attempting to make some drop returns. Actually, the only real downside so far is the backhand, I often missed the ball when trying to loop (I think that's due to the blade balance). I spent most of the morning pushing and blocking, which is not necessarily my usual game, but hey, better than nothing ;)

In a nutshell, I really like this first session, and the fun I had for FH looping makes me want to stick with this blade, maybe as soon as this month (I was initially testing it to find a stiffer and more powerful blade for the 40+ balls). I'll just need to improve the backhand loop, and make sure I can handle this amount of speed (so that I don't end up holding my strokes back to avoid errors).


Edited by PierreAd - 01/03/2015 at 4:07pm

Cochese wrote: I have had the Zetro for a few weeks now and I am very pleased with it. I am newer to the game, so I only have a Tibhar SPW to compare it to, but I feel the Zetro is an improvement. I was able to get a 84g ST handle version from TT11. I am using Baracuda max on my FH and Vega Euro 1.8 on the BH. I was afraid the Zetro would be too fast compared to the all wood SPW, but it is quite manageable. In fact, I don't feel like it is any faster at all. The Zetro is 8g lighter than the SPW which may account for it not "feeling" faster though. The lighter blade also makes me feel like I can recover faster and get to shots I might not have been able to before. The other thing I love about this blade is something others have mentioned before. It really does feel like two blades in one. The soft outer ply makes touch shots easy, but the carbon layers really shine when you are looping and hitting harder. This is probably my favorite thing about the blade. My only issue with the blade is the ST handle. It is not a complaint as there is nothing wrong with the handle. This is just my first experience with a ST handle and I think the FL handle on my SPW is so comfortable to me that I will stick with FL in the future. Which brings me to a question. I know I had posted something about the head size of this blade compared to my SPW to see if the rubber would fit and someone chimed in right away. Can anyone compare the FL handle on the XZQ to the FL of the Tibhar SPW? Is it work swapping my ST for a FL? I am getting used to the ST but wish it was as comfortable as my SPW

Glad you like the Zetro Quad.

I haven't held onto the FL handle of Tibhar SPW, but I have for Samsonov Alpha, Samsonov Stratus, and Samsonov Force Pro. I would think all these FL handles are similar.
With that in mind, the ZQ FL handle is a touch flatter than these FL handles.