305SQUASH PROCELL™ XR120 Review – Patrick Rooney’s Squash Racket

Racket	305SQUASH Procell XR120
Endorsed by	Patrick Rooney
Shape	Traditional
Advertised frame weight	120 grams
Actual weight (inc. strings & grip)	150 grams
Stringing pattern	16 x 19
Construction	Procell Carbon
Release date	July 2021
Price at time of review	£98
Purchase	305SQUASH

305SQUASH started out life as a squash-only clothing brand back in 2011. The brand has since grown expansively, and is now recognised as one of the very few squash-specific brands on the market.

Fast forward to July 2021, and the brand announced their first venture into squash rackets. Launching with two rackets, the XR120, an all-white traditional shaped racket, and the XE110, an all-blue ultra-lightweight teardrop shaped racket.

Thanks to a chance encounter with the brand’s founder Joel, I was able to get my hands on their headline Procell XR120 squash racket to bring you our latest racket review.

Purchase link:
305SQUASH

305SQUASH PROCELL™ XR120 – at a glance

This is a racket for the purists out there, plain and simple. A traditional head shape, medium-large 475cm head size, thin frame and dense 16×19 stringing pattern. It has all the ingredients to be a near perfect ‘traditional’ player’s racket.

Developed with England #2 Patrick Rooney

The XR120 is the racket of choice for England’s #2 ranked player, Patrick Rooney.

Rooney played a significant role in the development of this racket, experimenting with a variety of combinations in weight, balance, stringing pattern and racket head sizes to deliver the final specification of the XR120.

Watching Patrick play, you can see exactly how this racket took shape. Rooney’s game centres around tight, accurate lengths with a range of creative shots to the front mixed in. The combination of this racket’s specifications, on paper, tailors perfectly to how Patrick plays.

On the scales

Every racket tested on SquashGearReviews.com is weighed across two electric scales. One under the head of the frame, and one under the grip. This gives an indication of the overall weight and balance of each racket, allowing you to pitch it against other similar rackets with a fair amount of accuracy.

Below, we’ve compared it to similar rackets currently available.

Racket	Weight in head	Weight in grip	Overall	Weight distribution
305SQUASH Procell 120	81	69	150	54.0%
Head Radical SB120	82	70	152	52.9%
Dunlop Sonic Core Ultimate 132	83	71	154	53.9%
Ashaway Powerkill Meta 120 (Review coming soon!)	81	65	146	55.5%

Looking at these figures, you can see the 305 is slightly lighter over than its main competition from the ‘bigger’ brands – Head and Dunlop.

It’s slightly lighter overall, with less weight in the head than its closest competitors. Even though the weight distribution leans slightly more towards head-heavy, it, to me, still feels lighter, owing to having less weight in the head.

Comparing to one of the nearest rackets from Ashaway, the Meta 120 is a touch lighter, with most of the weight reduction towards the grip of the racket.

Taking the 305SQUASH Procell XR120 on court

Power – 7.5/10

I was surprised with how much power I felt able to generate with this racket. As this is a lightweight racket with a dense stringing pattern, I had expected to struggle to put pace on the ball – this was not the case. There are inevitably more powerful rackets out there, but this certainly didn’t feel lacking.

Being critical, off-centre shots do feel noticeable with this racket – owing to its dense stringing pattern and lighter, thinner frame. It goes without saying that a racket like this favours and rewards a good technique.

Side note – strings

Unlike most rackets on the market, the stock strings in the racket I’m testing felt like they were stung at a ‘normal’ tension, which may go some way in explaining how I felt able to generate a good amount of power. Usually, rackets off-the-shelf have very high tensions – this is to account for any potential tension-loss over time while sat on a shelf or in a stock room. As a rule of thumb, the lower the string tension, the easier it becomes to generate power – a trampoline-like effect.

This gets a big thumbs up from me, and is probably one of the very few rackets on the market where I would happily stick with the stock strings until they break.

Manoeuvrability – 8/10

Given the 305SQUASH XR120’s frame weight is just 120g, and has an overall weight of 150g, this puts it to the lighter end of the racket spectrum – just inside the top third of all the rackets tested on SquashGearReviews.com. With its even balance, this makes for a really nicely weighted racket. It’s light, but doesn’t feel too light – at least in my hands.

Of course, as with power, there are more manoeuvrable rackets out there, but I never once felt burdened by the weight of the XR120. Generating a fast racket head speed and taking the ball on the volley became instinctive, and being able to hold my shots and change the direction of the ball was a very easy task to manage.

Touch, control and feel – 9.5/10

The dense 16×19 stringing pattern, light weight and thin frame really come into their own when it comes to touch and control. From the first hit I had high levels of confidence in placing the ball where I wanted on the front wall. You can really feel through the racket exactly how and where you’ve made contact with the ball.

This isn’t to say every shot I hit went perfectly – while it’s a lovely racket, it won’t make you a better squash player. However, in terms of giving me the confidence to play certain shots, this racket was certainly up there.

The stock strings also have a nice texture to them – slightly grippy in the same way as Ashaway Ultra/Supernick are. This means that you’re able to get a nice amount of cut on the ball as it makes contact with the strings.

It’s a bit of an odd callout, but I also really liked the shape of the grip. It’s fairly thin and oval shaped, and felt really comfortable to hold.

Design – 9.5/10

Design, as ever, is subjective. For me though, this is a winner. The smooth soft-matte white paint is really nice and tactile, and the overall design is clean and hard to fault. There’s no garish paintwork or intrusive fonts – just good old Helvetica Neue – a tried-and-tested favourite among graphic designers.

It’s a small detail, but I also really like the three dots graphic on one side of the frame, and five on the other – it makes for a slightly different racket spin. Perhaps there’s some subtle marketing in there, as you’re forced to say ‘three or five?’ Which sounds suspiciously like the name of the brand when said aloud. Clever.

Thanks to the all-white frame, it also goes perfectly with pretty much any colour grip and/or string. Every time I’ve used this racket, almost without fail, someone’s asked which racket it is – testament to its nice design.

Overall – my personal take

While I try to remain 100% objective with all reviews on SquashGearReviews.com, I’ll go ahead and say it – from a purely personal viewpoint, this is my favourite racket I’ve hit with. Rackets are very subjective to each individual player, for me though, everything about the 305Squash Procell XR120 just feels right. By that, I mean there’s very little, if anything I’d change.

If I could selectively pick-and-choose my favourite attributes from every racket I’ve tested, and put them into one racket, it would look a lot like this. The combination of medium-large head size, medium-light weight, even balance, dense stringing pattern and thin frame made the XR120 a joy to use.

Does this mean this is the ‘best’ racket out there? Absolutely not. For some, this will be too light, the stringing pattern will be too dense, the frame will be too thin, the balance won’t be head-light or head-heavy enough, and the traditional shape of the frame won’t suit their preference.

Rackets are a very personal thing – for me though, this ticks all the right boxes and leaves very few stones unturned.

If you’re looking for a well-designed racket, that favours the ‘traditional’ player, and that comes from a smaller brand, look no further.

Purchase link:
305SQUASH

Closest competition:

Head Radical 120 – features a very similar frame shape and weight, though has a less dense stringing pattern as-standard. You can ask your stringer to use Head’s AFP (Adaptive Fan Pattern) in this racket, which makes the stringing pattern considerably more dense. Can be picked up for a low price if you go for a previous season’s model.

Dunlop Ultimate 132 – a similar shaped frame, slightly larger head and heavier overall weight. Like the Head, previous versions of this racket can also be found for a low price if you look hard enough.

Tecnifibre Suprem Curv 125 – the racket of Mostafa Asal. As I’m yet to thoroughly test this racket, it’s hard to compare – though on paper this should be a fairly similar racket to the 305SQUASH XR120.

Ashaway Powerkill Meta 120 – the latest racket from Ashaway. Expect a full review very soon of this racket. The main difference here is the much larger head size of the Ashaway, and a slightly lighter frame.