I had an excellent experience with the Ronbus Quanta (full review), so I have purchased maybe 5-7 other Ronbus pickleball paddles. I wanted to see how other Ronbus paddles compare.
Ronbus paddles are also on sale.
For example, Lisa Ronbus recently let me know that they are clearing out the older series paddles in anticipation of the new foam paddles coming in 2026.
That’s why I had to snag the Ronbus Ripple at under $50 and the R1.16 at under $80 after using code RCBEPICKLEBALLER.
That price is an incredible value as the Ripple paddles used to cost $250 new. That’s incredible as that’s bout 80% off of the original price.
I love a good deal, but when I decided to play with these paddles, I decided not to look at the price point. This way I could really try to understand which paddle played better.
Let’s talk playability.
Firstly, I started with the Ripple. In the dink game, I was actually play better than one of my mains, the J2FC+. In my notes, I said that the Ripple was great for dinks and control. The paddle also had great spin, and I accomplished top spin and back spin.
I won most of my games with this paddle, and I appreciated that the grip felt a bit thinner than the R1.16 that I will discuss below.
Let’s talk about the R1.16.
Right away, I did not like the grip. It felt really bulky. In addition, I wrote that If elt much less control, but similar power to the Ripple.
That said, I have never missed that many drops in a row in my life with this paddle. I just couldn’t get in a groove with this paddle. Realistically, the was not nearly as good as my Ronbus Quanta in terms of power.
Overall, I was shocked at my level of play with the R1.
Which Would I Choose?
It’s probably obvious that I would 100% choose the Ripple every single time.
I could not believe that the R1 was the higher priced paddle considering that I played so poorly with the paddle.
Given the above, I would argue that the Ripple is the best pickleball paddle under $50 right now, and I do not know how much more they have in stock, but my guess is that when they are gone they are gone for good.
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