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Spartus P1 Hybrid Review | Permagrit is Crazy Good
Pros
- Long lasting texture with proven results
- Foam core that competes with the other great full foam paddles
- More dense and soft than other full foam competitors
Cons
- Heavy for a hybrid paddle
- At the time of writing, not all shapes are available
- Since publishing this review, there have been many reports of loose edge guards. Spartus claims this is being worked on.
Is the Spartus P1 the king of grit?
The Spartus P1 introduces a major innovation that they are calling Permagrit. This is their attempt at a designing a texture that will give players longer lasting spin. Grit longevity has been one of the biggest issues in the Pickleball market, and Spartus thinks they have the solution.
Let's talk about it.
Specs
At the time of writing this review, the Spartus P1 only comes in a hybrid shape, and that is specifically what I am reviewing today. They do have pre-orders up for the other shapes, but unfortunately we don’t have any yet.
Otherwise, the P1 can be purchased for $219.99 and you can use discount code PBSTUDIO to save some money at checkout.
Design & Construction
The construction of the P1 to my knowledge, is identical to a Bread & Butter Loco, though, they really don’t play that similar in my opinion, but we’ll talk about that more later. So, this means it is an EPP foam core, EVA ring around the edges, and then a carbon fiber, fiberglass carbon fiber face lay up.
I think the biggest things to take away from the specs is that the P1 for a hybrid is on the heavier end of swing weight. So, if you play hybrid shapes and you like lighter paddles, just be aware that these are slightly above average swing weight, and may not be in your ideal range.
Standout features
Let's talk about Permagrit, because I have been unbelievably impressed by the Peramgrit so far. Now, this section is going to get really nerdy with a lot of details that most of you reading this really don't need. You can skip to the summary at the bottom of this section if you want.
This is Spartus’ texture that is supposed to be longer lasting than what we have known as raw carbon fiber. It’s no secret that raw carbon fiber has historically worn down very quickly, and has been frustrating consumers for years. What good is that spin if it only lasts you 1-2 months?
Spartus has said that the Permagrit is applied here in the states, and not in China, which is why the paddles are able to say assembled in the US on them. Lastly, they have stated that the grit is made up of ceramic hybrid materials.
Spartus has also talked about online that while they have focused on roughness for the P1, they were also working on maxing out the friction. Friction is something that doesn’t get talked about much in reviews, because companies historically haven’t really focused on it. The only company that has publicly stated it was a focus for them, was Proton. Friction, surface roughness, and deflection are all things that play a role in how much spin you can generate, and companies have usually only focused on a couple of those at a time. To my knowledge, there aren’t any raw carbon fiber surfaces that have significantly more friction to them than others.
Grit testing testing methodology
We’ve been working on a long term test of the various grits, and we are finally starting to get some interesting results. While we aren’t done with this yet, I do want to talk about Permagrit relative to raw carbon fiber, because there is a very, very clear difference and Permagrit at the time of making this video, is the best long lasting texture I have seen, and we have actual data to prove it.
I have been logging every single game, every drill session, what ball I used, and whether it was indoor or outdoor on the paddles that we are testing, and also looking at how much the surface roughness has been dropping on each paddle.
Now the reason I opted to measure by games is because I think hours is an extremely misleading way to measure how long a paddle has been used, especially for reviewers. If you have a 2 hour session, you did not actually play for 2 hours. There’s usually time spent talking to friends, breaks between games, maybe rotating off the court with other people. And if you’re a reviewer, you may have brought a stack of paddles to hit side by side which also means for that whole 2 hours you didn’t only use the one paddle. So, you can’t really say that has 2 hours of play time, if it was rotated amongst other paddles.
So to me, measuring games is a much better measurement because it’s the actual amount of time you spent on the court playing with that specific paddle.
Then we have reran spin tests and surface roughness measurements throughout testing, and we always clean the paddle surface before doing either of those things, that way debris on the face isn’t getting picked up as grit.
Raw carbon fiber durability
Okay, now that we have some of the methodology out of the way, let’s talk about raw carbon fiber. In our testing so far, certain raw carbon fiber surfaces drop roughness very quickly. In one session of 8 games or 1 hour of drilling we have seen between 5 and a 10% drop in surface roughness from brand new. In our limited testing so far, it also appears that raw carbon fiber has a relatively steep initial drop off, and then is slower to wear after that.
Now, surface roughness is only part of the equation, we also ran RPM tests to get a more real world idea of what is happening. The Loco when brand new was 2048 RPM, and after the 100 games on it, it dropped to 1697 RPM which is a 17% drop.
Then I had my mixed partner log her games on her Franklin C45, and the initial RPM was 2078 RPM brand new, and after 100 games, dropped to 1791 RPM which is a 13.8% decrease in spin.
Now, I just want to be clear, the Loco having a 17% drop and my mixed partner having a 13.8% drop really isn’t comparable, since it’s two different types of strokes, power level, and so on. But, the conclusion I think we can draw, is that it’s clear that after 100 games, there is a noticeable drop in RPM.
Permagrit results
At the time of posting this review, our Spartus P1 has the equivalent of 84 games on it between actual games and drill sessions, and still has nearly a 0% drop in surface roughness.
Remember, raw carbon fiber sees 5-10% drop in one session, and after about 100 games on my Loco, it has seen a 20% decrease in roughness. My mixed partners C45 saw a 19.8% drop in surface roughness.
Now for RPM tests, the Spartus P1 started out at 2044 RPM, and then retesting after 84 games, it was 2017 RPM. I also took a brand new, completely unused P1 on the same day that I tested the used one, and the new one got 2068 RPM, so as you can see, the results were very similar.
What I found really fascinating is that you can see my used P1 has these crazy scratch marks all over the face, but even with those, the surface roughness hasn’t gone down, which makes me wonder if these are just cosmetic scratches that are cutting into the ceramic layer. I would have expected these to impact performance a lot, given how bad it looks, but it hasn’t.
Now I want to be clear, I am not saying that the Spartus P1 has grit that is literally indestructible and is never going to wear down, and more long term testing needs to be done to see how it’s going to continue to hold up and make sure that there are no surprises. For example, back in the day with the Proton Nanotac, it was known that in cold or humid conditions, the tackiness would drop substantially, and you would get less spin. Perhaps if the P1 is also focusing on friction, certain elements might make it perform worse as well. Currently we don’t know, that’s purely just a guess based on a prior paddle that used friction for spin.
On court performance
Okay, so now that we know the grit is actually pretty awesome, how is the rest of the playability of the paddle?
Earlier I mentioned that this allegedly has the same build as a Bread & Butter Loco, however, I really don’t think they play the same. Now, the one caveat I am going to give this, is that my extensive play time on the Loco has come from the widebody. That has been my main for roughly 3 months now, so I am very familiar with how this paddle plays and feels.
The P1 on ball contact feels a lot more dense, while the Loco feels stiffer, hollow, and is quite loud on impact, which is something that the P1 doesn’t really have.
So, the only guess I can make here for the play difference is the Permagrit texture on top of the paddle making everything feel a bit different, if they truly are built the same.
The reason I want to mention this is, I think a lot of people would get really excited about the idea of a Loco with better texture, but to me they really just don’t play the same, so if you specifically love the Loco, don’t expect the P1 to be a clone of it. I think the P1 is great in its own way, but I could see someone being disappointed if they expected them to be identical.
In my first early sessions on the P1, many of my resets, and drops were going very short on the court, and to me the pop between the two just didn’t feel comparable. Other shots like drives and flicks at the net also felt like they were much easier to generate power from on smaller swings with the Loco. I actually found this really frustrating initially, and was taking more adjusting than I would have expected.
However, after all the use on my P1, I do think the paddle has loosened up slightly, but it’s what I expect from basically every paddle on the market. The feel changes slightly, but nothing drastic has changed in terms of pop and power. It just feels like all the components aren’t as tight together anymore. It feels like the pop and power comes a little bit easier now, just not on the same levels as what I had been playing.
As it sits right now, I would place the Spartus P1 above something like a J2NF, but below a Loco for both pop and power.
Overall, I’d place it pretty firmly in the mid tier power category.
Types of shots
Now that you know roughly the power level and feel, let’s talk about what shots this paddle excels in, because this is where Permagrit comes into play.
Not even close, the area that is the most standout, is at the kitchen line. I feel like you get so much better spin than most raw carbon fiber paddles, which is likely due to the surface friction being a little bit higher.
It’s not that I was hitting these crazy dink winners that people couldn’t return, but it feels like the ball gets up and down quicker, which allowed me to be more aggressive when dinking, and keep my dinks from being unattackable.
It just feels like the ball doesn’t want to slip off the face the same way that it does on a regular raw carbon fiber paddle. So for dinking, rolls at the kitchen, and hybrid drops from the baseline, the P1 really felt like it stood out compared to other paddles on the market.
If you’re someone who plays with flatter strokes, don’t expect the P1 to suddenly allow you to rip shots you’ve never hit before. Mechanics still play a big role in whether the spin will be noticeable to you or not. But if you are someone who plays with a lot of shape on the ball, then I think you’re going to enjoy what you can do with Permagrit around the kitchen.
Now where I didn’t feel a huge difference was on larger strokes like serves, and drives. Maybe it’s just my specific mechanics, but it felt about the same as other fresh paddles on the market. Which is to say, it’s good, it just didn’t feel like it was out of this world crazy, and the RPM results back this up, considering most paddles in my spin tests are in the 2,000 RPM range, which is exactly where the P1 sits. But, the fact that the P1 is holding onto that top end spin longer, is a big deal.
Sweet spot
The sweet spot of the P1 I would consider good. During my play testing I never found myself looking at the paddle and thinking “dang, if the sweet spot was larger, I would have made that shot”. I wouldn’t put it on the levels of a J2NF or a Selkirk Boomstik, but that’s also not an entirely fair comparison since a Boomstik comes pre-weighted out of the box.
So, I would say you can expect the sweet spot to be solid, but don’t expect that you can just miss anywhere on the face and you’re going to hit this awesome ball. But, if it tells you anything, I tried this paddle both weighted with 5 gram slyce slyders at 3 and 9, as well as stock, and I honestly preferred the paddle stock. This is one of the first paddles in quite some time that I didn’t feel needed any weight for how I like to play. I think with it already being a little heavier, it just didn’t feel like adding more weight was giving me much.
So, this is a nice pro if you don’t like customizing your paddles.
Control
Because of the combination of great spin, not the highest levels of pop and power, and a solid sweet spot, I do think control is really good for a power paddle. Those are three factors that contribute heavily to how well you can control a paddle, and if grit isn’t wearing down quickly, you can keep a good level of control for longer by applying more spin to your shots.
Coming from playing the widebody Loco, I had absolutely no issues dialing in my shots. If anything, I just had to put a little more into each shot to get it to go over the net, since it wasn’t as poppy to me.
If you aren’t used to power paddles, there is going to be an adjustment period, but if you’ve played things like the Luzz Inferno, Loco, the Boomstik, or a Black Opal, then the P1 is not going to be an issue to figure out. I think of power paddles that are on the market, the P1 is definitely one of the easier ones to pick up and use.
Wrap up
So, let’s wrap up this review. The Spartus P1 itself is not the worlds most mind blowing paddle that everyone needs to drop what they have and go pick up.
If you buy the P1, it’s because you want a very well performing all foam paddle, but with the promise of a great long lasting texture. The pop, power, control, and sweet spot are not unlike anything we’ve seen before. In fact, I think in that regard, it performs similarly to many paddles that have come out over the last 6 months, but Permagrit is the feature that stands out exceptionally. If you can be almost as good as your competition, but with much better grit, that’s a big win for the amateur player who doesn’t want to replace their paddle all the time. Value wise, it’s really hard to argue against that.
I’ll be honest, with the way the paddle market has been going, I find it’s hard to get me really excited about a new paddle. So many paddles are performing within 10-15% of each other, with many companies just trying to clone what is already doing well.
We’ve seen multiple companies claim long lasting textures, but this is the first one that I have seen truly hold and take a beating, and that to me, is genuinely exciting. I hope more and more companies can produce long lasting textures that give meaningful results, because so far in our early testing, not all long lasting textures are created equal.
So, who is this for?
Who it is for?
I think the P1 is for players who 1. Want a long lasting texture that actually has some data and promise behind it, 2. People who want a power paddle that is more dense and not hollow and 3. Really like to shape the ball and move it around at the kitchen line. I think the P1 will only make this stronger for you.
Who isn’t it for?
Who I think it isn’t for is 1. People who heavily prefer the feel and playability of a gen 3 paddle. 2. People who want huge levels of pop from their paddle. 3. People who don’t like heavier hybrids. If you prefer lighter paddles, the P1 might feel just a touch heavy for a hybrid.
