What’s the best $100 widebody pickleball paddle?

Hey guys, today we're taking a look at the best widebody paddle you can buy with $100. Out of the Ronbus Quanta R5, the Vatic Pro V-Sol Blooms, and the upcoming Friday Fever 102, which one do I think is the best bang for your buck? Let's take a look.

The Numbers

All right, starting off, let's look at the static measurements for these paddles.

For the R5 Quanta, we have the lowest swing weight and twistweight combo at 102 and 6.13, followed by the V-Sol Bloom Pro at 108 and 7.20, the V-Sol Bloom Power at 110 and 7.25, and finally the Friday Fever at 112 and 7.20.

With the exception of the Quanta, the rest of these paddles seem to be all in that average range for maneuverability and stability, though the Fever is on the higher end. We’ve talked about the Quanta before on this channel, but the whole series comes in very light, similar to the Franklin C45s. So, across the board, all the shapes are below average in metrics because the paddle is meant to be played with weight added onto it.

My Weight Setup

Moving on, for the weight setup I did, I mainly wanted to bump the balance point higher and increase the power and hitting area up at the top of the paddle. So, I use Pickleball Effects’ 1G per inch tuning tape from the top two corners down the sides. For the V-Sol Pro and Powers, I used 3 inches on each side. For the lighter Quanta, I double stacked two 3-inch strips on each side for a total of 6 in per side. And lastly, for the heavier Friday Fever, I only did 1.5 in per side. And for those of you curious, this bumped the Quanta to 114 and 7.65, the V-Sol Pro to 114 and 7.75, the V-Sol Power to 116 and 7.95, and finally the Fever to 116 and 7.85.

Friday Fever 102

Now on to the paddles themselves. Let's talk about the Friday Fever 102 first, as it's the only Gen 3 paddle on this list. Friday has actually asked me not to share all the details of their construction at this time until we get closer to the official launch date. So, I'll just talk at a high level. It's a 16MM honeycomb core with Gen 3 style construction. So, thermoformed with a second foam layer and a carbon fiber surface.

As for playability, this doesn't have that hollow power feel you get on the Joola Pro IVs, but instead more of a denser pocketing feel. What I mean by a dense feel is that on contact with the ball, the paddle has a much more fuller feel in contrast to something like a 14mm Gen 2, which has a much stiffer and lighter feeling. It's not a plush or muted feel, but just a fuller one that I would describe as being more dense. Out of all the paddles on this list, the Fever 102 has the most dwell time, and it pockets the ball the most.

I did find the overall feel to be different compared to the original elongated Fever. That one was more hollow feeling and lighter, but the new Fever 102 doesn't have that hollow feel anymore and it's more solid. It's got more pop off the face compared to the original. But still, compared to the rest of the paddles on this list, I would place it on the bottom for overall firepower after all the weight setup.

Now, I do know that with Gen 3 style paddles, they usually have a bit of a breaking period, and this one I've been using has only been used for a week. So, changes I've noticed have been minimal. If it's anything like my elongated fever paddle, I don't expect there to be drastic increases in power and pop, but I'll provide an update in a future widebody video if I do have a different experience. For right now, I would say the power is a step up compared to a Pegasus Alpha Pro Power, but not to the level of a Pro IV Scorpeus.

Overall, I think the widebody fever is the most beginner friendly of these $100 paddles. It's higher in the scale for control, and I find the dense impact feel it has to really help players feel their shots better, especially newer players who are still improving their fundamentals. This fever is a more accessible version compared to the elongated one and is going to be my top recommendation to newer players that want a forgiving $100 paddle from Friday.

Ronbus Quanta R5

Next, let's talk about the Ronbus Quanta R5. This does have an R2 widebody shape as well, but I was only sent the R5, so we'll only be talking about this one. As mentioned earlier, this is a very light paddle, and in stock form, I found the paddle to not perform well at all. Similar to the Franklin C45 series, the lightweight is a feature allowing for players to have more flexibility in customizing their pedals.

While I do think that's a great feature to offer, I don't think it's something necessary for a widebody. On average, this shape is the lightest with the most maneuverability. So, typically all wide bodies already come in stock form with more customization opportunities compared to hybrids or elongated shapes.

With swing weights averaging from 106 to 112, most players are already going to be adding weight and bumping it up to around a 116 or even just leaving it in stock form because it's already a forgiving shape to paddle. Personally, I don't think there's a need to come in at close to 100 swing weight like the C45 Tempos, Pursuit Pro1 widebodies, and now the R5 Quantas, but there could be that rare group of people that really do want to heavily customize a widebody paddle. and if so, these might be more to your liking.

All right, end rant there and let's talk about the playability.

Construction-wise, this is a Gen 4 foam paddle like the remaining paddles on this list. And this particular one is a floating EP foam core with a carbon fiber surface. This is a similar construction to the Selkirk Labs Boomstik and the bread and butter loco, which is why many people have drawn comparisons against those paddles. The overall feel is largely the same as those. It has that stiffer and hollow impact feel that provides high levels of pop. Once weight is added, the power and stability really opens up more. And I would place it in the same firepower category as the Bread & Butter Loco.

The big difference here though is that on contact, the ball has a lighter ball feel with the similar weight setup as the other wide bodies. The stability gets similar, but it's just more hollow and lighter feeling compared to everything else. Personally, I don't like that light feeling because it gives off a sort of flimsy feel and I enjoy the more solid impact feel I get on the other paddles on this list. As for overall firepower, it's at the top of the list for its pop while the power is top tier as well. Overall, this is an interesting one. I'd recommend this for that person who really enjoys customizing or someone who likes paddles that have the lighter hollow feel but high firepower.

Vatic Pro V-Sol Bloom Pro and Power

Moving on, let's take a look at the last two paddles, the two new V-Sol from Vatic Pro. The Pro shares the same construction as the Quantas, so is a floating EP foam core, while the Power is a solid slab of foam with holes in it. What's really interesting here is the naming convention because you would think that the Power is the power paddle and the Pro is either all cord or control, but that's actually not the case. In fact, both of these I would consider in that power category. And the difference between them isn't in the power, but just the feel. It's similar to the Sword and Shield NF series and their FC+. Both different types of construction with similar overall firepower levels, but just different feel.

Let's talk about the V-Sol Pro first. The feel is very similar to the Quanta, and the main difference is that it's more solid feeling and you pocket the ball a bit more. Firepower-wise, I find the two to be close, but I do give the edge here to the Quanta for pop. But overall, the V-Sol Pro Bloom is basically a Quanta you can use out of the box. It comes in a state where you can use the paddle in stock form, but also customized with weight if you prefer. In my opinion, it's a better balance compared to the Quanta.

Now, the V-Sol Power has a completely different feel. It's not stiff and hollow like the Pros, but more of a muted feedback. It feels softer to the to the touch and has a feedback that reminds me a bit of a honeycomb core. The paddle I would say this is the most similar in feel to is the enhanced 4.5, but the V-Sol does have more firepower than that. In the NF versus FC+ analogy, the power is more like the FC+ here. It doesn't have the stiffness and pop of the V-Sol Pro, but is instead more muted, but still with good firepower on drives. But to clarify, I'm not saying the Pro is like the NF, and the Power feels like the FC+. I'm just using these two series as an analogy to describe the difference between the Pro and the Power.

The Verdict

Now, let's talk about all four of these paddles. Overall, the Quanta and the V-Sol Pros are basically the same paddle, except the Quanta comes in at a much lighter stock weight. It's got a lighter and stiffer feel, but it does provide more customization opportunities. Though, I would recommend the V-Sol Pro to more people, while the Quanta is for the select few that really want to customize a widebody even more. The V-Sol Power is the most interesting one of the bunch as it has a more unique feel compared to the others, while the Fever 102 is the most beginner-friendly one of the bunch, but also the lowest in firepower.

So, which one would I pick out of the four?

The runner up is going to be the Fever 102 because it was such an easy paddle for me to pick up and play, and this is one I would recommend to more people to use.

But my personal favorite is going to be the V-Sol Pro Bloom. I enjoy having that high firepower in my widebody paddles to combine with the fast maneuverability of their shape. The V-Sol Pro is just solid overall with a great sweet spot, spin, and having been using the Bread & Butter Loco series a lot. The ball feel on the Pro was a familiar and easy transition for me.

All right, that's it for this video on the popular $100 widebody paddles on the market right now. I hope you guys enjoyed it and let me know what you think down in the comments below. Also, if you do want to support this channel and pick any of these paddles up, I've added my discount code and links in the video description below where you can buy them. All right, catch you guys in the next video.