Bullpadel Hack 05 2027

Defence is where the Hack 05 asks the most of you. Ball exit is lower than on the Hack 04, the sweet spot is less generous and the balance sits higher, so low or awkward balls need more care than they did with its predecessor. When the ball comes slowly off the back glass, you have to push it and follow through yourself, because the racket gives you little help getting it deep.

Things change once your opponents turn up the pace. On fast balls the ball sinks into the face less and you can direct the shot very precisely, so defending at high pace is more comfortable than you might expect. If you like the result to depend on your stroke rather than on what the racket does, you’ll enjoy how direct it feels.

The net is where it’s strongest. It weighs 365 to 375 g with a medium-high balance of 265 mm, yet at the volley it handles normally and doesn’t call for an especially strong arm. In quick exchanges and changes of direction it gets there on time, and the ball doesn’t float off the face. When the rally speeds up you can hit firmly and load the ball with weight and spin without worrying that it will fly on you. With the same swing as the Hack 04, the ball comes off heavier.

At slow pace the volley has two sides. The crisp contact tells you clearly where the ball is and lets you place it precisely, but if you don’t push through, it drops short and seems to stick to the face. It takes a while before following through becomes second nature. Soft block volleys and hits high on the face or near the frame are its weak spot: there the racket feels very stiff and gives you no help at all.

On the vibora and the bandeja it’s clearly more aggressive than the Hack 04. The higher balance gives you leverage: the head picks up speed and pulls the ball downwards, so the shot doesn’t float. Set your feet, swing freely and you can play hard and firm without losing control, and a longer swing makes the ball run further. Arrive late or hit half-heartedly and you’ll pay for it, because at slow pace it doesn’t forgive and the ball comes up short.

On the flat smash it absorbs less of the impact than the previous version, so the ball sinks into the face less and leaves with more power. The x3 smash is a different story. The Hack 04 had more rebound and helped more when you didn’t fully crush the ball. With the Hack 05 you need a complete, well-accelerated swing.

Stiffness is medium, but contact is crisp, even more so than on the Hack 04, and it tells you very clearly where and how you hit the ball. It keeps the previous generation’s MultiEVA core and TriCarbon 18K face, with a 3D textured finish you notice more than on the earlier version. Despite that crisp feel, it’s comfortable at the volley from the start. What makes it demanding is the sweet spot and the ball exit.

The change from the Hack 04 is big and points one way: the racket drops its more all-round profile and becomes a clear attacking racket. The new one has a higher balance and is stiffer. With the same effort it gives more control in attack, whereas the old one relied more on rebound. In practice you gain power on the smash and weight on the volley, and you lose ball exit and margin for error in defence.

If you missed the harder, more aggressive style of the Hack 03, this version goes back to it. If you liked the Hack 04 precisely for its ball exit, the Hack 05 won’t give you that.

Among this season’s Bullpadel rackets of similar stiffness, we think the Hack 05 gives the most control when the pace is high. The Neuron Edge has more rebound in attack, more ball exit and a slightly bigger sweet spot, so its power comes with less effort. The Hack 05 needs a fuller swing and more acceleration, but hit it cleanly and hard and it absorbs less of the impact and punches harder. The Explode, with a higher balance and more rebound, is the most powerful of the three.

The choice comes down to how you play. If you accelerate every shot and want a racket that does what you tell it at high speed, the Hack 05 is the one for you. If you’d like the racket to supply some of the power and forgive the odd off-centre hit, the Neuron Edge is easier to live with.