RPM Friction Pro Review: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

"This is the RPM Friction Pro, and it's being advertised as 'the paddle that shouldn't be legal'."

Their claim apparently worked as all 3 shapes are currently sold out online, but does it actually live up to the hype? Let's find out.

Image via RPM

Caveats & Disclosures

As a reminder, this is a first impressions review, not a full review. I've only played with it for a few days, so I can't speak to long-term durability.

I'll be rating this paddle on my website MyPickleList at the end, so stay tuned!

Shout out to Premier Racquet Sports for letting me demo this paddle! Check them out if you're in the Atlanta area.

Also, if you do decide to get an RPM paddle, use code PICKLELI at rpmpb.com/PICKLELI.

RPM Friction Pro Specs & Price

The RPM Friction Pro comes in at $250 ($212 with code PICKLELI at rpmpb.com/PICKLELI), which is like $30 less than its most obvious comparison, the Joola Perseus Pro IV.

The Pro IV and the Friction Pro look very similar, and I believe James Ignatowich said he took 80% of the Pro IV's construction with the main changes being in the throat.

I tested the 14mm elongated version since it was the only one Premier Racquet Sports had, but did play a game with the elongated 16mm one.

Kind of like the Joola, there are some inconsistencies with the grittiness of the paddle. The one I was using was way less gritty than the one my friend had.

My paddle came in at 7.85 oz which is pretty light. Did not feel that way personally, probably because it's elongated.

Now let's get into how it actually played!

Image via RPM

RPM Friction Pro Performance: Power, Control & Feel

Power

This paddle definitely packs a punch on the counter. What I did enjoy was that it wasn't overly poppy, just taking dinks out of the air or resetting, so I would say less pop than the Selkirk Boomstik Elongated for example. I think the power is probably similar to a Pro IV or somewhere around that range.

Regarding power, I would say it's definitely towards the top. Serves and returns were easy to hit and in general felt like I could keep the ball in for the most part. People also did mention my drive was better with this paddle, but keep in mind in addition to it probably being a more powerful paddle than I usually play with, it is also an elongated shape.

Control & Feel

What surprised me the most was the control given that it is one of the more powerful paddles on the market.

As many of you know, I typically add weight on all my paddles and test with and without weight on my reviews. The Friction Pro didn't really need weight and already played really well. Resets popped a little higher, which I would expect from a power paddle. It just never felt like it was uncontrollable with a bit more drilling or time with it.

Also, it played well for an elongated paddle in terms of sweetspot. There were a couple times I did notice the smaller horizontal sweetspot, but played well for the most part.

Overall, I really like the feel of this paddle. It had enough dwell time that I didn't need to change the way I normally play, which is more topspin focused. I really didn't need much of an adjustment period which is impressive for a paddle in stock form.

The difference in feel between the 14mm and 16mm was pretty significant, I would say. Given the 14mm was in true stock form and the 16mm had an overgrip and a bit of weight, the 16mm just felt a lot more muted and had a different sound. That being said, from what I heard so far, the 16mm seems to be the more popular option.

16mm definitely more muted and less feel.

14mm is responsive but it's not like the ball doesn't dwell.

RPM Friction Pro Rating & Verdict

Now let me rate this on MyPickleList.

I won't go too in detail since I already did before, but essentially my website has a bunch of paddles which you can add to your list and rate, and by doing so, it updates the community rating of the paddle. This ideally makes it really easy to see if a paddle is good or not without having to watch a bunch of YouTube videos or blogs like this one! In all seriousness, it's probably a good supplement to reviews. For example, if you see a paddle rated 5/10, you probably know it's not worth looking into.

I'm giving the RPM Friction Pro 14mm a 9/10 - this is on par with my top ratings I've given out.

I played better with this paddle than I did when playing with the Pro IV's. I guess James Ignatowich's innovations worked.

I could've gotten better over time, but I really did enjoy playing with this paddle and it being in stock form the whole time was really impressive.

If I main this, I would definitely look into different setups to see if I can get even better performance. I think this is towards the top of paddles I have used in stock form, especially it being elongated which I typically don't prefer.

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This is a first impressions review based on a few days of play testing. Long-term durability and performance may vary. Shout out to Premier Racquet Sports for providing the demo paddle.