Yonex Astrox 99 Pro 3rd Gen Badminton Racket Review - Pure Power Comes With A Price
- CKYew
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
With great power comes great responsibility - we now have the 3rd generation Yonex Astrox 99 Pro, almost 4 years to the day since the second generation Yonex Astrox 99 Pro racket came out!
At the time of launch, Yonex will have the full line of Astrox 99 refresh, including the Tour, Game and Play models too.
As usual, they all look almost identical, and for this version of Astrox 99, more so than ever but we’ll focus on the Pro model here. You can check out my comparison of all four Atrox 99 3rd generation rackets here!
Review Of Appearance & Materials Of Yonex Astrox 99 Pro 3rd Gen Badminton Racket
In terms of looks, all Astrox 99 models will carry this black and green colourway. There's only one colourway this time instead of two in the previous generation. There’s a feeling of mottled tiger skin on these Astrox 99s, but there’s also a sunrise-like segment on the racket with the red, yellow, and orange.
Yonex is also launching new colours for strings within its Exbolt range in green for the Exbolt 65 and orange for the Exbolt 68, which actually match the colours on the new Astrox 99s!
I'm not the biggest fan of the ‘white speckles of dust’ look on the racket frame and shaft. It reminds me of someone spilling flour on a black kitchen counter and I keep unconsciously trying to rub them off the racket. They are however, covered by a nice layer of glossy finish, so you’re not going to be able to remove the flour off the racket in this instance!
Besides that, there’s plenty of other changes compared to the previous generation too aside from its looks. For example, the row of bigger grommets are gone, the string density has changed, the racket handle butt cap is shiny now, and the Power Assist Bumper has changed. Also, the shared grommets on the top are back to single-pass grommets now.
And for the first time as far as I can remember, I see 4 different colours of grommets on a single racket. The standard black ones, the green Power Assist Bumper, the orange grommets on the lower half of the racket, and the cool frosted semi-transparent U-grommets on the T joint.
In more ways than one, this Astrox 99 Pro has leveraged a lot of Yonex’s development from their most recent Astrox 88S and D Pro rackets. This generation of Power Assist Bumpers was introduced there. The Flexible Repulsive Composite material was also introduced there with the CFR (Carbon Fibre Rubber) material embedded in the Pro model racket whilst the CSR (Carbon Shell Rubber) is used on the Tour and Game models here on the Astrox 99.
Sticking with the frame and grommet, the four rows of bigger grommets from the previous generation are now gone and replaced with standard-sized ones. This generation of 99 Pro also updated its gaps in between the strings, as one of the strong points of the previous generation 99 Pro was its huge sweet spot with the bigger gaps in between each string.
This generation of 99 Pro shows a more consistent gap between strings, especially around the centre region of the racket, which Yonex calls the Concentrated Sweet Spot, which actually felt great in play - but more on the playing side later on!
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As I mentioned earlier, gone are the shared grommets at the 2 and 10 o'clock regions, and it has been replaced with Yonex’s four rows of single-pass grommets, which is more commonly seen in their high-end rackets.
One more change that’s very visual is the butt cap. The traditionally recognised Yonex logo butt caps with Japan on have been replaced with what Yonex calls the lightweight end cap, specially selected to tip the weight distribution of the racket towards the head.
For anyone who’s ever removed an end cap or butt cap from a handle before, you’ll know there’s not a lot of weight there to begin with, but every little bit counts I guess in this instance!
Specifications & Measurements Of Yonex Astrox 99 Pro 3rd Gen Badminton Racket
Frame Height | 23.5cm |
Frame Width | 18.3cm |
Frame Thickness | 9.8mm |
Recessed Frame | 90% recessed (B5 to B8 grommets not recessed) |
Shaft Diameter | 6.7mm |
Shaft Length | 22cm |
Handle Length | 16.5cm |
* This racket is rated to 28lbs for 4U and 29 lbs for 3U. Figures are based on my usual setup of Yonex Aerobite (UK here) at 27 lbs x 29 lbs with a 4U G5 model.
So, how does it play?
Playing Feel & Performance Of Yonex Astrox 99 Pro 3rd Gen Badminton Racket
Remember I said at the start, with great power comes great responsibility?
Well, you now have a responsibility to take care of your shoulder as this Astrox 99 Pro is incredibly head-heavy! This is a 4U model, and I genuinely cannot imagine how the 3U will feel.
To put it into context, the swing weight numbers are almost identical to the first-generation Victor Thruster Ryuga, in 3U! So this Astrox 99 Pro is an absolute beast, and the head is very heavy. Midcourt, flat fast stuff is very, very slow unless you’re very, very strong or have a lot of time.
Here are the precision scan numbers:
Anything coming from up high is lovely! Clears, smashes - superb. But anything from down to up. You'd better be relaxed and ready.
The racket is fine for fast, small movements, like when your wrist is at chest height and you're using your fingers. The stability is great, so hitting with power feels effortless. However, it’s really the prep and recovery phases that you might find issues with.
So anyone who wants to play with this beast for the long term should better start putting in the extra work on their deltoids and rotator cuffs, or they're going to be struggling!
From a technique perspective, using this head-heavy racket really forced me to keep my racket in front of me, as far forward as possible, around chest height. Focusing on the fingers is really important too.
Compared to the Astrox 100ZZ Viktor Axelsen model, which I’ve also been testing recently, the 99 Pro feels so much heavier in the head. It makes the 100ZZ feel fast, but the stiffness is different. The 100ZZ feels whippy, and the 99 Pro is consistently stiff throughout.
Obviously, this is an incredibly powerful racket but personally, this racket isn't for me as I prefer faster and easier-to-use rackets. But this Astrox 99 Pro does have incredible stability and power. It just feels rock solid and calm. I guess you can even panic swing with so much head weight, but the connection you get when you’re hitting from top to bottom is amazing. The slightly more concentrated sweet spot feels great when you connect too!
BUT! If you’re looking for slightly gentler versions of this 3rd generation of Astrox 99s, definitely check out my Pro, Tour, Game and Play comparison of all 4 models here. There are some surprises there!
And as always, don't forget to use my code 'CKYEW' for extra discounts and let me know if you have any other questions - I’ll see you in the next one!
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