Engage X2 Review: Best Gen 4 All-Court Paddle I've Tried?

Engage was one of the big brands in pickleball when I first started.

They fell off a year or two ago when they were a bit late to join the foam trend.

But since then, they've made some good, more modern paddles that flew under the radar in my opinion.

They sent over their latest paddle, the X2 — their latest gen 4 paddle. Let's see how it plays.

Intro

My name is Pickle Li. I'm a 5.0 pickleball player and I've reviewed over 50 paddles on this channel. I created MyPickleList, which does community-driven paddle ratings, and there are currently over 1,000 ratings.

Caveats & Disclosures

Reminder: This is a first impressions review, not a full long-term review.

I played with this for a few days, so I can't speak to long-term durability.

That said, it is a gen 4 paddle — it shouldn't core crush.

I'll be rating this on MyPickleList at the end of this write-up, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks to Engage for sending me this paddle.

Use code PICKLELI for 10% off at engagepickleball.com.

Quick Specs Overview

The Engage X2 is a gen 4 all-court paddle. There seems to be a slight trend of brands heading back toward all-court as of late.

• Thickness: 16mm
• Shapes: elongated or widebody

I'm usually more of a widebody and hybrid guy — I primarily used the widebody, but tried the elongated a bit for comparison.

• Both samples: 8.1 oz
• Initial feel: Head heavy
• Weight setup (widebody): Added weight at 3 and 9

On-Court First Impressions

Pop

Average to above average.

When dinking — especially out of the air — not too much pop, relatively easy to control. Whether it broke in later or not, it did heat up a bit and had more pop over time.

Out-of-the-air dinks felt nice, but I noticed some resets popped up more than I expected at times.

Firepower on counters is solid — didn't feel held back too much.

Control & Feel

Soft, more plush Inferno-like feel — still a bit of hollowness, but overall softer.

At a later session it broke in and felt a bit more hollow — kind of like that Inferno feel, but instead of a bunch of pop, it still pops while being softer.

Sweet spot: Good overall. I actually liked the elongated more than I thought — sweet spot seemed pretty good for an elongated, and in stock form I could dip shots better due to the shape.

The widebody sweet spot was solid but nothing crazy in stock form. Weight at 3 and 9 on the widebody felt a bit better.

Resets were surprisingly easy with the weight — kind of like my Q2 ease of resets where I just get a paddle on it and it goes over.

For context, the RPM Q2 Widebody 14mm is my current highest-rated paddle — my only 10/10 as of now.

These actually went a bit lower and shorter in the kitchen, which is better. The difference: sweet spot is just a bit worse — not quite Q2 level.

Playing them back to back, it was harder to tell where the ball was going with the X2. I think it's the softness and probably not being fully dialed in.

With more responsive paddles, I can usually tell how far the ball is going on resets — especially easy ones. With the X2, since it's so soft yet has some pop, some easy resets just popped up.

Grit: About average for a new carbon fiber paddle.

Spin: Average for a good paddle — wished the grit was upgraded, but it got the job done. If I focused I could get drops and drives to dip. Definitely better with weight vs stock form.

Power

Advertised as all-court — feels about right, maybe all-court leaning power.

With weight, a boost in power overall but still nothing too crazy.

I hit a bunch of returns pretty high and hard and they all still dipped right before the line — didn't really have to worry about hitting out.

In general it doesn't hit that hard on returns — definitely had to try to get them deep. Overheads I would've preferred a bit more juice, but that's what they were aiming for.

Verdict & MyPickleList

MyPickleList is a site I built for community-driven paddle ratings — a quick way to see how a paddle stacks up without reading long reviews. We have 300+ members and 1,000+ ratings; more ratings make it better, so please join if you haven't.

If you're in the Atlanta area, Premier Racquet Sports in Dunwoody is running $20 gift cards when you rate and comment on 5 paddles on the site.

Back to the review.

All-court gen 4 paddles are a bit rare — the only ones that come to mind are the Six Zero Coral and Flik F3. Engage made the X2 to join the party.

I really enjoyed the feel at first — that more Inferno hollow feel, but so soft it was a nice new feel I hadn't really experienced. Usually soft paddles are also denser.

I thought it performed well for what they were going for as an all-court paddle.

After playing with it in all my sessions:

Rating: 8/10 (Engage X2)

In my initial time with weight I was leaning 8–9, but playing back to back with my Q2, it stays an 8.

Out-of-the-air dinks feel really easy — maybe better than the Q2 since it doesn't pop up as much. But there were times the softness made it hard to know exactly where the ball was going — the main reason I've been enjoying more responsive paddles like the Q2 lately.

Spin is a noticeable step down from my Q2. In one session my drops were going high on the X2; switched to the Q2 and they were way lower and aggressive. I'm probably more dialed on the Q2, but other paddles I've rated 9+ I could drop and dip a bit better.

Sweet spot with weight is really good — almost Q2 level. With extra power for me personally, maybe slightly more responsive feel and extra spin, this would be really good.

Good fit if you're looking for an all-court gen 4 paddle — probably my favorite of the gen 4 all-court options. Sweet spot is best with weight and I like the feel a lot.

Maybe additional weight on top to increase spin, or a different setup, could optimize this paddle — I don't try every possible setup in these reviews.

Overall impressed with Engage's recent innovations. They made another good paddle, and their new stuff feels a lot different from what they were doing before — nice to see.

Thanks for reading. Join the MyPickleList community on site and Discord — we talk paddles, gear, and pickleball tips daily. If you caught this as a video too, like and subscribe there; it helps a lot. See you next time.

Shop Engage → (code PICKLELI, 10% off)