My favorite paddle has been the Joola Ben Johns CFS 16mm (my full review), and I wasn’t a huge fan of the Joola Perseus 3s. That said, I knew I needed to purchase the Joola Gen 4 and provide a comprehensive review for you even though it’s the 5th most expensive paddle in the world.
In this article, I want to cover:
- This paddle actually had a nice unboxing experience (unlike the earlier Joola Ben Johns model that came in cheap bubble wrap).
- The NFC chip that felt useless
- My first sessions with this paddle was insane.
- Cost considerations and whether I believe this paddle is worth it.
Finally, will I keep this paddle or return via Amazon? I’ll discuss this as well.
Let’s get started.
It Had An Unboxing Experience
Firstly, with my previous Joola Ben Johns paddle experience, I expected the Joola Gen 4 paddle to come in cheap bubble wrap. So, you can understand how excited I was that the paddle came in a unique box with a window as you can see below.
Next, I felt that the paddle’s design was 1000% better than the teal colored Joola Perseus 3s. I really liked the design of the handle, and I though that the paddle has a clean look with a nice design on one side of the paddle.
Secondly, I love that this paddle came with a nice little card, Joola pickleball stickers, and grip tapes. I know this paddle was $300 (after tax), but I appreciate the little things that the best pickleball paddle brands offer to provide a fun experience.
The Joola Gen 4 paddle’s unboxing experience was great, but the NFC chip experience was unfortunate. Let’s discuss next.
The NFC Chip Felt Useless
When I first read about the Joola Gen 4 paddle’s NFC chip, I was excited.
My mind raced to the different technology that I thought the chip would have. Would I be able to download an app that would measure my swing speed?
Would the chip share details about how long I played or other details about how I used the paddle?
I got excited.
Unfortunately, I was dismayed when I found out the NFC chip was there to help me get the extended warranty and register my paddle. Honestly, how could you not be disappointed when that’s the NFC chip’s abilities?
In addition, activating the NFC chip wasn’t the most intuitive. The instructions state that you need to remove the foil and tap here, but for some reason, I though that I needed to tap the grip like.a button, but you have to tap your phone against it. Rookie mistake perhaps, but it wasn’t fun.
That said, the NFC chip let me down, but how did this paddle play?
Playability
Firstly, when I started playing with this paddle, I practiced dinking with a friend who’s in the 4.0 DUPR level. He kept mentioning how my dinking game was the best he had seen.
To be honest, I couldn’t believe just how amazing my dinking game was. It felt that I was able to connect with almost all of my shots with precise consistency.
Control
Let’s talk about control as I am sort of a pickleball paddle control freak. I want to control exactly where the ball goes every time.
The Joola Perseus Gen 4 has been a master class. As you can see by the paddle’s material, the paddle has a beautiful carbon fiber face.
The paddle’s specifications has a TechFlex Power (TFP) technology which apparently is patent pending.
One thing I was surprised is that Joola went with a slimmer edged design instead of an edgeless design that other brands such as the Holbrook Aero pickleball paddle series pursued. Honestly, I like edges and didn’t feel that the edge messed with my control.
Power
The power on this paddle is incredible. I let my friend use the paddle recently and he already has a powerful serve, but with this Joola Gen 4 paddle, he had insane power. Honestly, it was the most power I have ever seen that he had on his serve.
In addition, I have felt the exact same power.
As you can see, the paddle I purchased is a 16mm instead of a 14mm, so I thought that I would lose some power for control. Not so.
I have been testing many of my 60 paddles to write an article covering the best pickleball paddles for power, and I believe that this Joola Pro 4 will rank highly on the list.
Spin
Today, I tested the Joola Pro IV paddle for spin. I wanted to test the paddle’s spin. Firstly, I was impressed with the level of spin on my serves.
When I use spin on my serve, I do a right to left spin serve, and I was able to see the ball move around 6 inches on the serve from the drop position to the right. This was extremely impressive given the speed I also put on my serve, and put this in the same bucket at the Volair Mach 2 Forza.
This paddle is the swiss army knife of pickleball paddles with an amazing combination of control, power and spin, but let’s talk about the cost as this paddle almost broke my budget.
Cost Considerations
As stated above, the Joola Pro 4 Ben Johns paddle is the 5th most expensive paddle in the world.
When deciding on the purchase, I had to decide between purchasing on Joola’s store or on Amazon.
I liked that Joola and Amazon both offered a great warranty, but I disliked Joola’s restrictive return policy. It felt that I couldn’t test the paddle out before deciding whether I wanted to keep it.
Amazon’s 30 day return policy won here, so I decided to purchase on Amazon.
So, let’s talk about whether I will keep the Joola Gen 4 Ben Johns paddle or return in during my 30 day window
Will I Return The Joola Pro 4 Or Keep?
The NFC chip was disappointing, and the unboxing experience was fun, but doesn’t define whether I would keep a paddle.
What made me decide about keeping the Joola Get 4 pickleball paddle is the playability of the paddle.
And, the fact that this paddle played better than any of my other paddles made me realize that I had to keep this paddle. Plus, it was helpful when my good friend mentioned that he may have to upgrade to this paddle after playing with the Perseus 3s.
Finally, this is small, but I liked the little details that made this paddle special such as the bottom of the grip. It’s a nice little logo design, and I thought it was a nice touch and a nice way to finish this article.
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