Callaway Ai Smoke Max Driver Review
As the first of a swathe of product launches get revealed in 2024, the first we've got covered is the new Callaway Ai Smoke driver and Joe 'The Pro' Ferguson has pitted it up against last year's Paradym to see how the looks, feel and performance compares. By the end of this video, you'll have a clear understanding as to how this driver looks, sounds and performs so you can decide if it's worth upgrading to before the 2024 season kicks into full swing.
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00:00Okay, I'm here at Ryder Cup venue, the Celtic Manor Resort and I've got two
00:04drivers with me from Callaway. I've got the original Paradigm and I've got its
00:082024 iteration, the Paradigm AI Smoke Max. Now I'm going to compare and contrast
00:15these drivers for looks, feel, performance and I'm going to see how, if at all, the
00:20Paradigm AI Smoke Max has moved things on.
00:31Okay, so what's actually changed? Well, from an aesthetics point of view, quite a
00:35lot to be honest. First thing you notice is obviously the original Paradigm was
00:39quite a dark, deep navy colour and on its own that didn't bother me at all. I just
00:43never was quite convinced by the clash between the main crown and the sort of
00:48dark grey banner strip at the front where the navy and the grey met, didn't
00:51quite suit my eye. So when I pulled out the AI Smoke, I was delighted to see that
00:56the crown is now a light grey colour and that light grey blends beautifully
01:01into that dark grey strip at the front. So from an address position point of view,
01:05that's a real plus point for me. I know it's only colour but things have to suit
01:08your eye, I think. On the underside, the shelf appeal I think again has improved.
01:12So in the AI Smoke, we've got that lighter grey colour and I think that
01:16really highlights the sort of smoky effect that's on the bottom again and
01:21I really do like the blue colour they've chosen for the font and the
01:25front and back weights. I think that pops really, really well with the grey. So
01:29again, from an aesthetic point of view and a shelf appeal point of view, I think
01:33this will fly off and really catch people's eye. From a tech point of view,
01:37well the main story here is, well their tagline is sweeter from every spot.
01:42So Callaway have taken thousands of swings from real players, they're not just
01:47robot tested, they've tested thousands of pieces of data from real golfers and
01:51basically created what they call their swing code. They've inputted that into
01:55their AI supercomputer which has spat out an all-new face. So that's got
01:59variable thickness across the board and what it does is essentially, Callaway
02:03are telling us, creates numerous sweet spots across the face. When you hit it in
02:07certain areas, the new face creates micro deflections, so extra flex basically, that
02:13helps the ball bounce around and creates that springy effect from
02:17more places so you retain more ball speed and it also helps dispersion. Now I
02:22don't hit it in the middle all the time, so I really like the sound of that.
02:26Rambo's keen too, so let's see how it looks in practice. I'm just gonna hit a few
02:30shots away here, we've got top tracer technology here in this studio at Celtic
02:34Manor. Good hit, nice high draw, yeah good launch window, not spinning up too much
02:44and that's pretty much what I see with the Paradigm that I've tested before
02:48here. Similar ball flight, maybe six, seven yards left of the first one. Just left
03:02that one a little bit out to the right. Face stayed a little bit open on that.
03:09Okay so that's the baseline numbers done with Paradigm, let's have a little look
03:13at the Paradigm AI Smoke and see what that's producing for us. As I've spoken
03:18about, a little bit of a different look down behind the ball which I like. Good
03:27solid hit, very similar flight window to what I've seen with Paradigm. From a
03:32field point of view there's not huge amounts in it, I would say, let's go again,
03:37but the first one I've hit there felt a little bit more muted. Another good hit,
03:46it's not moving much that. Very stable ball flight there, a little bit higher
03:51that one I think than the first one and yeah again from a field point of view
03:55it's difficult to quantify but probably just a slightly less harsh, slightly more
04:01muted would be fair I think. Another decent hit there, just turning over a
04:14fraction but a good really similar flight window to what I saw with the
04:19original Paradigm. It's been really interesting to compare those numbers and
04:22see if there has really been any progression or whether it is just more
04:25aesthetic. However before we look at those numbers I wanted to dive a little
04:30bit deeper into the forgiveness story that Callaway are telling this year.
04:35Okay so I've come to the studio here at Churston Golf Club and I've brought both
04:40heads with me and my gamer shaft and I really wanted to test out some of those
04:44off-center hits. So we've got GC Quad with its impact location technology and
04:48I'm going to be hitting a lot of heels, a lot of toes, I'm going to see if there is
04:52much difference in the story they're telling. So I'm going to start out with
04:54the original Paradigm, let's hit a few away.
05:06Okay so I've dragged a number of shots there, a little selection from everything
05:10I've just hit. I've got with each driver, I've got a couple out the toe, a couple
05:15out of the heel and a couple of fairly centered strikes to go into that
05:18comparison mix. So generally speaking what you expect to see when you miss the
05:22middle heel or toe is a little bit of a ball speed drop-off, which I'm certainly
05:25seeing with both drivers here. The story around the AI Smoke Max has been more
05:30about the consistency of that drop-off, that's the story Callaway are
05:33telling and I'm pleased to report it's looking true from what I've seen. The
05:38original Paradigm here, if I take the two toe strikes at the bottom, I've got ball
05:42speeds of 167 and a half miles an hour and 163.6 miles per hour
05:48compared to my sort of centered strike average is about 169 miles per
05:53hour. So the differential between those two drop-offs, that 167.5 hasn't
05:59dropped too far but obviously the 163.5 is quite a big drop-off and a
06:02four mile an hour differential between the two, which is significant. If I go up
06:08into the AI Smoke Max, which has its newer face and the micro deflections
06:12that Callaway are telling us will sort of neutralize that drop-off a little bit,
06:16it looks to be the case here. My two toe strikes were 168.3 miles an hour and
06:21167.5 miles per hour, that's within one mile per hour of each other. I saw the
06:27same in the heel strikes that are up in front of you there, again with the
06:31Paradigm I dropped to 166.7 but then my really poor one was 162.8, so again that's
06:38sort of four mile per hour differential, which is going to cause you some
06:41problems over time. Whereas with the AI Smoke Max, it was again less than one
06:46mile per hour, around that one mile per hour mark, which is really interesting. If
06:50I pop it over to the to the club data here and look at the club efficiency,
06:55whilst the average is coming out very similar or exactly the same 1.41, how the
07:01two clubs are achieving those averages are very different. So the Paradigm AI
07:05Smoke Max, my lowest efficiency was 1.40 and my highest was 1.42,
07:13that's a very very tight window. With the Paradigm I saw some slight bigger
07:17differentiations than that, so whilst I got my most efficient strikes with the
07:22Paradigm at 1.43, so that's the most ball speed relative to the clubhead speed I
07:26was putting into it, I also got my lowest at 1.37, so again what I'm seeing here is
07:32from those misses probably a little bit more consistency, which over the course
07:37of a season is going to be really beneficial. So in summary what have I
07:41found? Well to be honest I find the AI Smoke range a lot better looking, I've
07:45already touched on the aesthetics, the new colourway and I think it's oozing
07:49shelf appeal, so from an aesthetic point of view I think they've done a great job.
07:52From a performance point of view, am I going to see massive gains from centred
07:56strikes? No, I'm not to be honest, but would I expect to? Again probably not,
08:01that isn't the story about this driver, the story about the AI Smoke range is
08:05all about forgiveness, remember that sweeter from every spot tagline. And from
08:10my testing that was true, I retained more ball speed on off-centre hits more
08:14consistently than I did with the Paradigm, so in essence it's doing what
08:18it's supposed to do and over the course of a season that's going to put you
08:21further down the hole, closer to the hole generally means lower scores, so they've
08:25done a really good job. I hope you found that video informative, if you have
08:29please give us a like, comment down below, let me know your thoughts on the
08:32new AI Smoke range and hit that notifications button so you can see all
08:36of our other videos coming out. That's all from me, I'll see you next time.