Joola Ben Johns Perseus Review
The highly anticipated Joola Perseus is finally here. Ben Johns and the Joola team have been teasing this paddle for half of 2023. It is the successor to the very popular Joola Hyperion CFS that launched last year.
Can it possibly live up to the hype in a sea of amazing paddles?
Specs:
Price: $250
Discount code PBSTUDIO will save you 10% on your Perseus order.
Thickness: 16mm & 14mm
Weight range: 7.8-8.2oz
Shape: Elongated (16.5x7.5")
Handle length: 5.5"
Grip circumference: 4.25"
Face: Raw carbon fiber
Core: Polymer
Swing weight:
16mm: 116
14mm: 112
Spin RPM:
16mm: 1720
14mm: 1772
Warranty: 6-months
Additional:
Foam edge walls
Thermoforming & unibody
Handle design
Something that everyone hoped would be fixed was the severe handle issue that the Hyperion had. It was very weak at the neck, and the handle frequently broke off the paddle.
Thankfully with the Perseus, the entire paddle is now thermoformed, and the face material runs into the handle, unlike the Hyperion. While it's too early to say for certain that the issue is fixed, I can't imagine a scenario where someone is going to break this as easily as the Hyperion.
My Perseus has a pretty ugly handle area. It looks like the shaping material isn't even. It's not something I notice with an overgrip on it, but I was surprised to see what appears to be low-quality control on the handle. Other thermoformed paddles have had much cleaner handles.
History:
One thing I want to talk about briefly is the history of thermoforming. Around the time of December 2022 into January 2023 thermoforming became a huge buzzword. Several companies on the market were claiming to be the first and that everyone else was copying them.
At first glance, everything seemed to be true. I mean, these paddles played like nothing else on the market and had an internal design that most of us hadn’t seen before.
Well, I did a lot of digging in the last few months and learned that two paddles were thermoformed long before these new companies came around near the end of 2022.
Those two paddles were the Joola Hyperion CFS and the Selkirk Labs 002.
You may be wondering, why was this never mentioned? My best guess is that they didn’t want competitors to be aware of new technology they were using.
I ripped the edge guard off of my 002 to confirm, and it’s indeed thermoformed from top to bottom.
002 thermoformed
Someone I know cut open a Hyperion and sent me pictures of it, and I can also confirm that is thermoformed. However, the one thing the Hyperion did differently is that the carbon fiber wrap did not run all the way through the handle.
Joola has called this "hot pressing”. Several engineers I have spoken to have also preferred the word hot pressing over thermoforming.
I also believe the original Electrum Pro was using hot pressing/thermoforming. (Or so I’ve been told. I haven’t confirmed with my own eyes yet).
While most of this isn’t important for the general consumer, I do think it’s important to give credit where credit is due. Many people of mocked Joola for “copying” the technology of these newer companies, when in fact they were using the same technology before those companies existed.
Spin:
With new paddles on the market hitting 2000+ RPM, I was excited to see what Joola had up their sleeve. Paddles from companies like SixZero have adopted a much finer and smaller peel-ply texture (peel-ply is what everyone thinks is the carbon fiber weave), and in my tests, it seems to work extremely well. Not only that, but the face is very consistent in terms of grit levels. The finer weave is usually far below the legal requirements for the Starrett meter while producing some of the highest spin in the game in my testing.
When I got my Perseus and Scorpeus models, the first thing I noticed is that all of the faces were completely different in terms of grit level.
My paddles all have very rough outer edges, and then toward the center they are smoother. This is extremely disappointing to see. We saw this with the previous Joola paddles, where some batches are extremely gritty while others are smoother.
At least with the models I have, it seems that we'll still be dealing with this.
It's a huge letdown to see Joola raise the price to $250, and the quality control for grit levels still seems to be very poor. It feels like you're gambling whether you'll get a gritty one or not.
On top of all of that, the RPM on all 4 of my Perseus and Scorpeus models were in the 1700s. 1700 is by no means a bad result, but with as much hype as this paddle has had, it's sad to see it not compete with the other thermoformed paddles for the top slot.
So as far as spin goes, it's underwhelming and disappointing to me from a quality control standpoint.
Joola claims that the CFS surface is more durable now, which was a huge complaint about last year's Hyperion. I haven't used the paddle long enough to be able to comment on this, but if it's true, that is a welcome change.
Power:
Once I heard the paddle was thermoformed, I was excited to see its power levels. During my first few play sessions, I was underwhelmed by the power. I think it had adequate power but not the addicting power we've come to feel from the other thermoformed paddles on the market.
For the 16mm, it became much better once I added 0.4oz of lead just above the throat. This gave the paddle much more plow-through and prevented it from twisting in my hand as much. I would highly recommend trying different lead tape setups on the Perseus.
Out of the box, I would place the Perseus somewhere between a gen 1 raw carbon fiber paddle and the gen 2 thermoforms.
The 14mm out-of-the-box has a similar level of power as the 16mm gen 2 thermoformed paddles (Vatic Pro, SixZero, CRBN, etc.). So if you are aiming to get a similar level of power as those, I would suggest going with the 14mm.
If you're a singles player, I recommend going with the 14mm. For most people, the 16mm is going to be the better paddle for doubles.
The 16mm and 14mm Perseus hit harder than the Hyperion CFS. However, an interesting thing that I noticed was that on full swings, the Hyperion didn't feel like it was that far behind. The area that was noticeably softer was blocking, dinks, and hand battles.
Because of the extra weight in the head, it allows the Hyperion to plow through the ball better on full swings.
The Perseus's face feels much more stiff and poppy. So on shots where you aren't swinging fully, you can really feel the difference from the Hyperion.
However, I felt the difference was small on groundstrokes and serves. I would still give the edge to the Perseus, but not by a ton.
Control:
I never found myself having much of an issue controlling either model. I found that the 16mm was a little bit easier to use after adding lead tape, though. It made the paddle feel more solid in my hand.
For the 16mm, third shot drops felt more difficult, but I couldn't pinpoint to a specific reason. The more I used it, the less this was an issue.
For the 14mm, the only area I didn't feel the control was great was on my mid-court resets. I had a difficult time getting the ball down to the right height. It usually resulted in me having to fight my way up to the Kitchen more than I'm used to.
The 16mm feels more like an all-court paddle that leans slightly toward power, while the 14mm shifts toward a power paddle. If you're a control player considering this paddle, I would go with the 16mm.
Hand speed:
A huge complaint with the Hyperion was how head heavy it was. Well, that is solved with the Perseus. These are MUCH faster in hand. For an elongated paddle, these are actually on the lower side of swing weights.
So, if hand speed is important to you, these are a major upgrade from the Hyperion.
Hand battles require less effort because the paddle is easier to swing, and it is poppier, which means you don't have to try as hard to finish the handle battle. The Hyperion felt like it needed full swings at the net to get the power you wanted.
Sweet spot:
The sweet spot wasn't what I hoped it would be. If you've been following the thermoformed paddles this year, you know that one of the stand-out features is how well they perform toward the edges of the paddle. It makes blocking much easier because the paddle still gives a good amount of energy back to the ball.
That wasn't my experience with the Perseus. It felt like what I would expect from a gen 1 raw carbon fiber paddle. In fact, it was noticeably worse than the Hyperion CFS, which to this date, still has one of the best sweet spots on the market if you ask me.
Part of the reason the Hyperion CFS has such a good sweet spot is that it has so much weight in the head, which lets the paddle plow through the ball more. With the Perseus having an 11-point swing weight reduction, that's a lot of weight in the head lost.
On the Perseus, shots outside of the sweet spot felt very noticeable, and on blocks or resets, I felt like I was consistently having issues or having balls die that I wasn't expecting to die.
It felt noticeably worse than thermoformed paddles from CRBN, Vatic Pro, Six Zero, etc.
It's not a bad sweet spot, just not what we've come to expect from some of the newer paddles.
Durability:
When I was at the Joola launch event, they were asked if the paddles solved the core crush/delamination issues. Joola was VERY confident that these would not be issues.
While I have a hard time taking any manufacturer at their word, the Hyperion never had these issues, and I hope that Joola looked at the market and figured out how to avoid these issues.
So at first glance, I'm relatively confident that the Perseus won't suffer from the same issues.
Closing thoughts:
I'm conflicted with the Perseus. On the one hand, this is Joola's best paddle to date. It improved upon several of the flaws that the Hyperion had.
On the other hand, the price got raised to $250; it's still the same 6-month warranty, the grit levels are inconsistent, and the sweet spot performance seems to be worse than other paddles that are nearly $100 cheaper.
Vatic Pro, Six Zero, and Ronbus all seem to have their durability issues dialed in quite well these days, and I would choose any of them over the Perseus.
It's hard to justify spending $250 for a paddle when some of these other paddles have arguably better performance in almost every regard, as well as a better price.
So who is the Perseus for? I think it's for the following:
If you have an aggressive play style where you like to poach, drive, and speed up.
If you don't require the absolute top-tier spin
If you want an elongated paddle with a mid to lower-swing weight
if money is no object
You like stiffer paddle faces
If you want a paddle that's slightly toned down in terms of power from the other thermoforms (the 16mm Perseus fits this bill)
The biggest argument I can make for the Perseus is that if it doesn't have delamination and core crush issues, then that price may be worth it.
I know someone who has core crushed/delaminated 6 CRBN 1Xs. You have to ask yourself, what is your time worth dealing with warranties? If you have to use 2-4 warranties, was the lower price really worth it? I don't think it would be. That's time you have to spend shipping a paddle back and dealing with customer service.
We'll have to wait and see if the Perseus holds up the way Joola wants us to believe.
The Perseus feels like an evolution, not a revolution. When the Hyperion came out, I was telling everyone to try it. Similarly, for other thermoformed paddles, they felt like such a huge upgrade that I had to tell everyone to try them.
With the Perseus, I don't feel that way. I am more inclined to push people toward the other paddles I've mentioned. They are more exciting and friendly on the wallet.
The Perseus is a good paddle, but it's not a great paddle for the price.