Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top Review

Racket	Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top
Shape	Teardrop
Advertised frame weights (g)	125, 130, 135
Weight distribution	Even
String	Tecnifibre Dynamx VP 1.20
Grip	Tecnifibre Squash Dry
Stringing pattern	14×18
Colour	White, Blue, Red & Carbon
Release date	2022
Purchase links	Amazon PDH Sports

The Tecnifibre Carboflex. From its inception back in 2009, has long-been one of the most prolific squash racket ranges on the market. Used by professionals and club-players alike, the Carboflex is now in its seventh design iteration. We’ve got our hands on the brand-new versions of the Tecnifibre Carboflex line-up to bring you our in-depth review. Say hello to the Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top.

Purchase links:
Amazon
PDH Sports

‘X-Top’ – what’s this all about?

For as long as squash has existed, squash rackets have almost always had a bumper strip at the top of their frames. This helps protect the top of the frame from contact with the unforgiving squash court walls.

However, the main drawback to bumper strips is increased weight at the top of the frame. A little bit of weight at the top of a racket can make a significant difference to how it feels through the air, as you’re moving the centre-of-mass away from the handle and therefore altering the balance point.

Tecnifibre has opted to remove the bumper strip on their latest Carboflex X-Top, instead designing a brand-new ‘Active Fibre’ material (a combination of Kevlar and Teflon). This is designed to achieve three things:

1. A faster racket-head speed – removing weight from the top of the frame should theoretically make it more head-light, therefore enabling the racket to move faster through the air.

• Less air-resistance – the ultra-smooth Teflon coating should produce less ‘drag’ as you swing the racket.

• Less vibrations – Tecnifibre state that a plastic bumper guard can add vibrations to a racket, therefore removing this should limit vibrations on impact.

Tecnifibre aren’t the first brand to remove a bumper strip. In fact, they themselves allowed players to manually remove the bumper strip on the older Carboflex 125S, though this wasn’t advised as the top of the frame wasn’t reinforced.

Eye Rackets was the first modern brand to completely do-away with the bumper guard on all their rackets, though unlike Tecnifibre, their rackets have no reinforcement at the top of the frame.

An evolution in design

Those familiar with the previous generation of Carboflex, the Airshaft, will feel completely at home with the brand-new X-Top. The new racket features the same fundamental design as the previous version, including the ‘Airshaft’ frame, extended grommet holes for playability and tolerance, X-Arm design on the shaft of the racket for increased stiffness, and the same Dynamix VP 1.25 string as standard.

I think Tecnifibre has nailed the design on these rackets. The White, red and blue paint pays tribute to their French heritage, and the overall look is super-clean. The 3D texture on the Tecnifibre logo running down the side of the racket is also a nice touch and helps give the rackets a more premium feel.

Mohamed ElShorbagy’s squash racket

In Tecnifibre’s promotional video, they focused heavily on the contributions of Mohamed ElShorbagy in designing this racket – even attributing the idea of removing the bumper strip to their headline player. It’s a well known fact that with previous copies of the racket, he used to cut the sides off the bumper guard to make it more head light.

The Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top line-up

There’s four rackets in the new X-Top range (five, if you count the Junior racket). These are:

• Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 135 – No professionals inside the top 30 currently use this racket, however this should be well suited towards intermediate-level players. The slightly increased weight really helps put more power behind players’ shots, without a huge sacrifice in manoeuvrability.

• Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 130 – The signature racket of Marwan ElShorbagy, also used by current World #1 Nouran Gohar. The ‘middle of the range’ racket that should offer the best balance of power and manoeuvrability.

• Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125 – The 125 is Endorsed by Mohamed ElShorbagy, and used by (brace yourself) Fares Dessouky, Gregoire Marche, Joshna Chinappa, Mahesh Mangoankar, Mohammed El Sherbini, Ramit Tandon and Farida Mohamed, to name a few.

• Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125NS – The ‘NS’ stands for Nour Sherbini, and was introduced with the older X-Speed lineup. This is the same weight and balance as the 125, but features a thinner grip. Along with Sherbini, this racket’s used by Hania El Hammamy, Rowan Elaraby and Youssef Soliman, among others.

Full review of the Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top

Weight and balance

Racket	Weight in head	Weight in grip	Overall	Weight distribution
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125	83	74	157	52.9%
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125ns	81	71	152	53.3%
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 130	82	72	154	53.2%
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 135	86	75	161	53.4%
Karakal Raw 120 Joel Makin	78	76	153	51.0%
Dunlop Sonic Core Revelation 125	79	73	152	52.0%
Head Speed SB120	78	66	144	54.2%
Tecnifibre Carboflex Aitshaft 125	85	70	155	54.8%

Here you can see the total weight and balance of the new Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top squash rackets, along with a comparison to similarly specced rackets from other brands and last season’s Airshaft model.

The first thing you might notice is the 130 I tested actually weighed less than the 125. This is completely normal and is well within what’s known as ‘manufacturing tolerances’, where racket manufacturers allow their rackets to be above or below their intended weight by a specified amount – in Tecnifibre’s case this is +/-5 grams (or about the weight of a teaspoon of salt).

In theory, the average 125 racket should weigh less than the average 130 racket, it just so happens that the two I received crossed over a little. This leads me on to…

My main criticisms of the Carboflex X-Top

As with previous ranges, with only 10 grams separating the four rackets, I think the range of rackets is weighted too closely. 10 grams might sound like a decent amount in squash racket terms, but it’s actually fairly subtle.

There’s a compelling argument for giving players ‘complete precision’ over their racket choice, however unless manufacturing tolerances can be tightened up from +/-5g, this means theoretically you could find a 125 weighing the exact same as a 135.

Alongside this, previous iterations of the Carboflex (namely the Heritage and X-Speed) weighed noticeably less than the newer ranges – at least compared to my own copies of the older frames*. When the new ‘Airshaft’ shape was introduced, the rackets seemed to gain weight and now feel a little slower through the air.

Competitors’ ‘headline rackets’ now feel lighter than the latest Carboflexes. The Tecnifibre range feels like it’s missing a truly ‘lightweight’ racket to compete with the likes of the Head SB120 and Karakal Raw 120.

I honestly think having a Carboflex 120, along with just a 130 or 135 would be the perfect sweet spot.

*The copies of the Heritage and X-Speed I have are both strung with Ashaway Supernick strings, which may attribute to some of the reduced weight.

Power

Plenty of power can be generated from each of these rackets. Their large 500cm head size and fair-amount of weight in the head makes hitting clean, crisp, powerful shots a breeze. Their dense stringing pattern does take away from their potential power a little bit (something like the Head Speed 135 has a much more open pattern, which helps you obliterate the ball, if that’s your thing).

The 125 and 130 both made light work of hitting the ball hard and fast – though it was tough to distinguish between the two. The additional weight in the 135 gave it the slight edge when it came to power.

Carboflex X-Top 125/130: 7.5/10
Carboflex X-top 135: 8/10

Manoeuvrability

Of the new Carboflex X-Top rackets, the 125 and 130 again felt indistinguishable, whereas the 135 felt slower through the air.

Now, with the X-Top innovation, the latest Carboflex rackets do feel faster through the air than the Airshaft – but if I’m being critical, I found the difference to be subtle. Think ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’. This is a good thing, as the rackets already had an excellent, much-loved balance – so don’t expect the newer rackets to feel worlds apart.

With rackets on the market such as the Karakal Raw 120, Head’s Speed 120SB and Dunlop’s Revelation 125 all having around 4 grams less weight in the head, the Carboflex does feel a little less manoeuvrable in comparison to the competition.

Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125/130: 7.5/10
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 135: 7/10

Excellent touch, control and feel

The dense 14×18 stringing pattern generates plenty of feel on impact, giving you absolute confidence when playing your shots.Thanks to the feedback through the frame, you know exactly how you’ve hit the ball, and where on the stringbed you’ve hit it.

I rate the 125NS especially high in this area, as I found the thinner grip really aided with control – previously I’ve described this as ‘pen-like’, which I still believe to be the case. 

Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125NS: 9/10
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 125/130: 8.5/10
Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Top 135: 8/10

A great looking range of rackets

I love the all-white colour scheme of the new Carboflex X-Top, and the subtle red and blue accents really help to highlight the brand’s French heritage. Like previous Carboflex rackets, Tecnifibre has included its signature grip cover on the shaft of the rackets to hide any unsightly grip-tape and keep the rackets looking clean.

I also really appreciate how similar each racket in the line-up looks. For a lot of amateur players, the 135 would likely be the perfect racket, but because previous models didn’t look like the rackets ‘used by the pros’, people veered away. Given they now look so similar, I hope this’ll encourage more club-level players to adopt a slightly heavier racket.

Personally, I’m not overly fond of the actual design of the X-Top section. The Carbon-Fibre-esque look and the bright yellow X-Top paint logo make this look a little like two rackets glued together, and the actual weave itself is a kind of off-yellow/green colour. I fully understand why Tecnifibre has done this, as it helps to highlight the new technology, and also makes the rackets more recognisable on a TV broadcast. I’m being really nitpicky here – so take what I say with a pinch of salt!

Full range: 8.5/10

Great signs for durability so-far

Tecnifibre has built a solid reputation for the durability of their rackets. They seem almost unbreakable – I have a six-year old Heritage edition that’s taken some serious abuse and still plays like-new.

In the interest of putting Tecnifibre’s durability claims to-the-test with the new X-Top, I went pretty rough on the 125NS (please forgive me, Tecnifibre!). It looks to have held up really well, there’s no chipping visible on the new X-Top material – so, so far, so good.

Summarising the Carboflex X-Top and comparing to the Airshaft

Simply, if you liked the Airshaft, then you’ll like the X-Top. They feel similar in practice, albeit a smidge faster through the air. The difference is subtle – with the Carboflex line proving so popular with professionals and club players across the globe, think of this as a ‘refinement’, rather than a fundamental change. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

I like to think of the new Carboflex X-Top rackets as a great ‘one size fits all’ range. They’re powerful, but not the biggest hitters. They’re manoeuvrable, but there’s certainly lighter rackets out there. And they provide lots of touch, but again, there’s rackets out there that do this even better. If you’re looking for a racket that does a little bit of everything, and does it well, then look no further.

On a related note, if the price of the Airshaft range goes down, I think there will be some great bargains to be had in the near future!

Purchase links:
Amazon
PDH Sports