Nothing much, I saw BRR raving about this racket so much and this racket came up on sale so I took a chance.
Spec: 4U
Balance: Even
Flex: Stiff
Weight: 83+- (4U)
Strung with VBS 66 nano 27 lbs
Total Weight (Racket + String + Grip) 89 grams
Initial Impression
The color and paint job is good. It’s not that the Lining level but looks good (I like Fortius 30 Control better).
This racket is made in Taiwan compared to Fortius 30 Control which was made in China. Holding the racket felt medium (not heavy or light). After weighing the racket with strings (89 grams), this racket is officially the heaviest racket I currently own. Normally my racket weighs around 86-87 grams. Swinging felt super light, it felt noticeably lighter than my first gen 88S and Hypersonic. The head is lighter than I thought. The shaft felt medium flexible.
Clear (on-balance and Off-centered)
This racket is super easy to clear with. The racket is fast through the air but I don’t really need a lot of adjustment since I’ve been playing with these kinds of fast rackets. The hitting feeling felt more like 100X which is far from solid. But with minimal power, the shuttle goes super far “effortless”. Back-hand is easy as well since I can easily generate racket speed with minimal effort. Overall super easy and beginner friendly. This sweet spot is medium and not too small.
Drive
Drives are not bad. I which the racket will give me more repulsion which the shaft is medium. The lack of repulsion is kinda letting me down. After changing to Aerosonic just to see how much the thin gauge will help. The repulsions are still a lot lower than 88S,HS and 100X. But receiving fast paced drive is easy since the racket head is on the lighter side. Otherwise the racket drive capability is meh.
Defense
Defense is good. As expected of even balanced head. I can be able to block any smash coming my way. But I find it hard to flick the smash to the back line with this racket compared to 90 Tiger, HS or even 100X. But I can drive the smash back easily and change direction easily too.
Smash
I have tried my best to smash with this racket but me and even my friend which is advanced player cannot bring out a good decent smash with this racket. Full smash and jump smash felt weak and slight off timed jump smash flew over opponent head lol, must be because of light head. Over 7-8 days of badminton session (4 hours day) I tried to lower smashing power to see if it gets better. Surpringly, 70% of my full smashing power gave the same result as 100% smashing power with this racket. So, if you’re a big hitter, stay out of this racket. Even so, rear-court smash with this racket is terrible. My smash is not explosive but it’s good enough that I can occasionally get 1 hit kill at rear court with 100X, HS or 90 Tiger. Even without 1 hit kill, the returns are not that strong and me and my partner will be able to do net kill or mid court smash kill. But this Altius 03 Control does have that power to do it. Playing with this racket, felt like Ahsan and Hendra at recent Japan Open where the MY pairs keep lifting wanting me to smash because they know they can flick all day. This racket have the lowest smashing power out of all 4U rackets I’ve played. So my opinion on this racket is completely opposite with BRR.
Control
Directional control is good but power control needs come adjustments. After 2-3 days my control with this racket is good. drops, slice and reverse slice is easy to pull off. The control will not be as tight as 90 Tiger but the 03 control is similar to HS which is good enough to get by.
Overall
If you like smashing, stay away from this racket. This racket is only good for front court player ONLY. If you’re injured or wanting a super easy racket to play with this is the racket for you. But I will still recommend you getting HS racket than this racket because HS wins in nearly every categories. The only thing 03 control is better at is how easy it is to clear with. If you only want to clear, this is racket is super good.