JOOLA Perseus IV Just Dropped – What You NEED TO KNOW Before Buying

The JOOLA Perseus IV has officially dropped. After a tumultuous year in pickleball in 2024, this 2025 launch of Joola’s newest paddle is sure to be one of the biggest of the year.

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Perseus IV 16mm: https://joola-usa.myshopify.com/2IjrdZ
Perseus IV 14mm: https://joola-usa.myshopify.com/ZyxJPs
Agassi Pro 16mm: https://joola-usa.myshopify.com/iFbXkZ
Graf Pro 16mm: https://joola-usa.myshopify.com/V9rvb3

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction & Disclaimers
0:55 Paddle Specs & Technology
5:27 Performance Metrics
8:02 On-Court Performance
11:30 Final Thoughts

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Hello friends this is the Yola pereus 4 it’s the newest release from Yola after a drama filled and controversial 2024 when their hugely anticipated gen 3 paddles got banned right after launch and their equally popular mod ta15 was recently retired because it was too powerful their new Pro four line has some new tech and the core that adds dwell time and reduces vibration and while it is a power paddle it falls below the Firepower of the mod ta15 keeping it in Spec with the new paddle regulations first a disclosure Yola gave me these paddles to test for a potential review with no obligations no money changed hands and Yola did not have any input on this video’s production or get to preview it before it was published but if you use my affiliate code to purchase one of these paddles or the link in the description it doesn’t cost you anything and I get a commission which helps this Channel and allows me to keep making videos like this [Music] so first a point of clarification about what exactly is being launched today today’s launch will include the pereus 4 in both the 16 mm and 14 mm thicknesses and the Agy Pro also in both thicknesses in this review I’m only discussing the pereus since I haven’t had much time with the Agy there are also two variances for these paddles one that’s dual certified which is being launched now and a upaa only certified paddle which will be launched later the difference is that the upaa only paddle has more texture due to slightly different regulations I only tested the Dual certified paddle so I can’t say for sure yet whether or not the extra grit on the upaa exclusive paddles provides additional spin but suffice it to say if you want to be sure you can play with this paddle at all sanctioned tournaments then I’d recommend going for the Dual certified paddle which is on sale right now and it gets good spin despite having less grit these paddles cost $280 there are no discounts offered for the first 60 days after launch and after that period you can get 10% off with the code John Q and if you want to support this channel you can use my affiliate code or link right now at no cost to you the Perseus is an elongated paddle and you can check out the dimensions in this graphic on the screen now the static weight comes in just above 8 oz for the 16 mm and just under 8 oz for the 14 mm so let’s get to the Brass taxs here what’s different about these paddles Yola is introducing what they’re calling tfp which stands for Tech Flex power and they’re adding tfp to the propulsion core which they rolled out in their gen 3 paddles and it’s what’s still being used in their 3s paddles basically the older propulsion core has two layers of foam surrounding a polypropylene Honeycomb Core like all thermor paddles there’s a layer of perimeter foam but inside that there’s another layer of softer white foam between the poly propoline core and the top and the sides of the paddle here’s the X-ray of the Perseus 3s so the paddle that Yola launched before the current percus 4 it shows Edge foam surrounding the entire perimeter of the paddle and a thicker layer of foam between the edge Channel and the polypropylene but just along the edges and top this gives the polypropylene core a peninsula shape kind of like a diving board and what they’re calling Tech Flex is higher density foam placed along the shoulders of the p ble here’s an x-ray comparing the Perseus 4 on the left versus the Perseus 3s on the right you can see the foam inserts on the perus 4 low on the shoulders the tfp foam is actually placed on the outside of the edge foam so it effectively pushes The Edge foam further up into the interior of the paddle so Yola actually had some paddles dissected for us to look at at the launch event in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago and I dissected one here at home also opening up the paddle you can see that the yellow ysh foam at the shoulders is the tfp inserts and it’s clear how these inserts are placed outside of the edge foam which bends in here toward the polypropylene core pressing your fingers into this foam you can feel that it’s soft but not as soft as the white foam and the propulsion core component looking at the profile of the surface layers under a microscope you can see a traditional three ply layup of unidirectional carbon fiber sheets topped with a peel ply texture I also inspected the polypropylene to check for any type of crushing or damage from the foam inserts in plan view you can see that there’s no cell compression caused from shearing force and in profile there’s no significant crushing from compression these types of damage were both evident in their earlier compressed course such as the mod ta15 Yola told us recently that they stopped compressing their cores after it became clear that it led to early breakage and their gen 3s and mod ta1 15s they did not compress the course of the 3s models and so far they’ve been more durable than their paddles with compressed cores and as you can see in this dissected profile they also haven’t compressed the core of the pereus 4 so I do have some confidence that the Yola 4S will be more durable than the mod ta1 15s and more similar to the 3s models since they’re not compressing the Coes but it’s still too early to say how durable these paddles will be overall as I’ll discuss in more detail later I ran my usual testing protocol on these paddles capturing ball Spin and speed with a Doppler radar signature and taking measurements of Swing weight twist weight and balance point and then combining these data into various metrics to help characterize the paddle performance the boxes at the top of this graphic give you the raw numbers and the radar chart on the bottom shows where these numbers fall in terms of percentiles for nearly 300 paddles in my database High values over on the left side of the chart indicate more Firepower and high values on on the right relate to the paddles control and forgiveness lastly the bottom of the chart tells you about maneuverability and hand speed by the way these radar charts are available for nearly every paddle in my database so head on over to johnq pall.com or follow this link on the screen to check that out what you can see here with the 16 mm perus 4 is the signature of a power paddle with a high power score and slightly less pop spin is 2112 RPM which is good but it shows as average on this chart because most of my metrics come from Top tier spin paddles so being right in the middle here actually makes this top tier twist weight is slightly below average and balance point is above average although swing weight and balance point are above average they are actually lower than most other elongated paddles so Hand speed on the Perseus 4 is predictively lower than smaller lighter paddles but better than most other elongated paddles and twist weight which correlates to the width of The Sweet Spot is slightly below average but as I’ll discuss later this paddle plays above its twist weight and The Sweet Spot on the pereus 4 does feel good here are the metrics for the 14 mm pereus 4 you can see the radar chart is similar with three main differences first there’s more pop and slightly less power second the 14 mm Perseus 4 has a lower swing weight and lastly a lower twist weight my unit also got slightly better spin than the 16 mm but this might be just within the margin of error combining power and pop into to a metric called Firepower you can see the Perseus 4 paddles fall very much in line with the Perseus 3s padal that were released last year other popular paddles on the market with similar Firepower include the paddl tech Bantam Esq C and alwc the Franklin c45 and carbon true foam so when you consider that the most powerful paddles on the market such as the gearbox Pro Power elongated and mod ta15 are being sunset this year this puts the perc’s four paddles in the mid to top tier power category the persus four paddles have a pleasant feel when hitting the ball especially for a power paddle the feel of the face is sort of soft and springy and there’s very little vibration that was actually one of the goals of the tfp foam inserted into the shoulders of the paddle to reduce vibrations another goal was to enlarge The Sweet Spot and I’d say this goal was also met I’d say The Sweet Spot on the percus 4 is similar to the mod which had an oversized sweet spot and it’s slightly larger than the sweet spot on the pereus 3s i’ characterize the feel of this paddle as closer to the mod ta15 than the 3s in terms of its plushness and springiness but the pereus 4 has a denser feel less vibrations and it’s less powerful than the mod I found both the 16 mm and the 14 mm paddles to have plenty of power but not too much so that control is overly compromised of these two thicknesses I’m still on the fence in terms of which is my favorite I do like the better hand speed and Popp of the 14 but the plushness and the better dwell on the 16 is also really nice and I don’t usually like thinner paddles so the 14 mm really impress me if you prefer more pop than power and good hand speed then the 14 mm is probably your option by Pop I mean the velocity you get on the ball with shorter Strokes like flicks speed ups and counters at the kitchen versus power which is found in shots with full swings like serves and drives at the Baseline I found both of these paddles so the 16 and the 14 relatively easy to control considering their level of Firepower the 16 mm options slightly easier to control than the 14 because it’s not as poppy working my way through the midcourt resetting the ball and the soft game felt pretty intuitive with both of these paddles especially the 16 mm and when it came to being aggressive both of these paddles offered plenty of options if playing aggressive at the kitchen with pokes speed up some flicks as your game then the 14 mm is a fine [Music] choice so it’s too early to say whether or not these paddles will experience significant Breakin Yola did provide us with used paddles at the launch event which had been hit thousands of times with balls projected by cannons and swung mechanically into a rubber stopper and my recollection of playing with these used paddles is that they hit only slightly hotter than the new pedals I’ve been testing since they also had a slightly lower tone and had a plusher more forgiving feel my initial impression is that these paddles will not break in like the mod so that’s to say I suspect they won’t get extremely hot and then basically just break and the reason I say that is not just because of the used paddles I played with at the event but also because they’re not using compressed cores with the pro four paddles like they did with the mod and these compressed cores were the primary culprit for these paddles breaking that being said I’m not not going to sit here and say that these paddles will not break I’ve heard very few reports of the 3s models breaking but there’s more going on in the core of the Pro 4 models with the addition of the high density foam in the shoulder area this adds more complexity and more interfaces between different materials that could potentially break down so if you’re at all concerned about Breakin and breakage similar to what happened with the mod then I’d recommend waiting until these pedals hit the mass market and then hearing reports from the thousands of people that will be using [Music] them so there you have it in terms of overall feel and performance I’d say that this paddle is the best that Yola has released today and I trust this paddle durability more than I did the mod and the Gen 3s before it now I’ll say it again I can’t be 100% certain that these padal won’t break we haven’t had enough time with them to know for sure so if you’re concerned about this I just basically recommend until a whole bunch of people have played with them for a good amount of time and then look for the report of breakage but yeah these are really good power paddles that do many things right for this category they have good Firepower but not so much that you’re sacrificing too much control they also feel good when you hit the ball there’s no weird vibrations and the face feels soft and predictable would I personally pay $280 for this paddle that’s a tough one there are cheaper options out there that have similar performance granted nobody’s using Yola’s exact same technology yet but there are F enhanced power paddles out there in the sub $200 range such as the 11624 power series but I also suspect that these Yola Pro four paddles will be very popular and many people will be willing to pay this much for the newest technology and for paddles that objectively play great I would love to see a hybrid shape from Yola I know that they already have a bunch of shapes especially not that the Agy shape is out there but currently there’s nothing between the 16.5 in elongated paddles and the 16.0 in wide bodies and the Yola lineup something that’s in between both in length and width with a long enough handle for two hands I think would be a great addition especially with the tech Flex core if you found this review useful and you decide to pick up one of these paddles consider using my affiliate code John Q or purchase through the link in the description eventually this will give you a 10% discount but in the meantime it doesn’t cost you anything more and it helps this channel okay that’s it for now as always thank you for watching and I look forward to seeing you again in the next video he [Music]