Best Budget Table Tennis Blades Test

Named after former world class player Mikael Appelgren, this $25 all-wood bargain of a blade is an absolute classic. Due to its lack of carbon, it is very forgiving and its soft characteristics make the Appelgren Allplay a perfect choice for beginners to start with. Slap on some Yasaka Mark V or Butterfly Sriver rubber on it and you'll have a very affordable allround table tennis racket to start your career. At 5.4mm thickness and just 80g this blade is the lightest in our list which also makes this a great choice for younger players and kids. Learn more about which other beginner rubbers are a good fit for the Donic Appelgreen Allplay blade by visiting our Best Beginner Table Tennis Rubber Guide which has a list of the most popular sheets with maximum control.

The Yasaka Sweden Extra is very well known and respected by players all around the world. Ask anybody for a recommendation for developing players who like to upgrade from their beginner blade. The chance that the Yasaka Sweden Extra is mentioned is very high. Made out of 5 layers of wood, this blade comes without carbon which gives it a lot of feel and control. With decent technique, you should have no problems getting the ball safely on to the table but at the same time you can definitely also give it a bit more speed compared to pure beginner blades like the Sweden Classic or Donic Appelgreen Allplay. The downside of the Sweden Extra is that it doesn't have the ultra high performance that more advanced players require when hitting the ball really hard. It also creates a lot of vibration when the ball hits the racket at high velocity. Therefore, for more experienced players we do recommend to step up to a a carbon-based bat. However, at only $35 the Yasaka Sweden Extra is an absolute steal and a great intermediate step between your beginner blade and a more advanced, carbon-based racket.

Looking for rubber options that go well with this blade? Check out our article Best Rubbers for Intermediate Players

The Donic Original Exclusive Carbon might be the best budget carbon blade you can get for the money. At only $35 you get amazing German build quality (no sharp edges, splinters and such) based on 5 layers of wood (kiri, ayous) and 2 layers of carbon. It is hard to find a similarly priced blade with carbon inside. Just like many other blades, the Donic Original Exclusive Carbon has its carbon layers inside, which means that 2 layers of wood are stacked on top of it. This build allows the player to benefit from the speed of carbon without sacrificing on the wooden feel that many people like. This technique has been popularized by the Butterfly Innerforce blade series which however is much more expensive starting at $150 and more. The Donic Original Exclusive Carbon however provides great control, spin and power for most hobby players. We highly recommend this blade if you're on a tight budget and want to try to switch from all-wood to an carbon-based blade. If you value more control, we recommend to combine this with a medium hard, not so springy rubber like Andro Good. If you would like a bit more speed and catapult, you might want to try this blade with an entry-level tensor like Nittaku Factive or Andro GTT 45. Last but not least, we also would like to mention that the Donic Original Exclusive Carbon does have a large handle, so it's rather suited for players with big hands while it is definitely not an option for kids.

The Yasaka Ma Lin Carbon is a great deal. For only $50 you get a solid, medium-stiff carbon blade which is made of 5 plies of wood (limba, soft wood, ayous) and 2 layers of carbon. Slap any modern tensor-based rubber on it like Yasaka Rakza 7, Nittaku Fastarc G1 or Butterfly Tenergy 05 and you will have a great racket that offers lots of speed and high durability for many years to come. Keep in mind that due to the faster speed of this blade you already need to be at a higher level of playing table tennis as you will have less feel when hitting the ball with this blade. The overall build quality is great. We couldn't find any imperfections neither on the hit are nor on the handle. We especially really liked the design of the handle which differentiates itself from many other blades with a unique blue/yellow pattern representing the national colors of Sweden (Yasaka is a japanese company with good relationships to swedish players). Overall, the Ma Lin Carbon is definitely a great value blade at only 88g which we highly recommend to check out.

The Nittaku Flyatt Carbon Pro is made out of 5 layers of wood and 2 layers of kevlar. It is the big brother of the Nittaku Flyatt Carbon and is a bit more expensive at $75, harder, stiffer, faster and therefore less controllable. This however doesn't make it a bad blade but you will definitely need a certain skill level to master it. Once you do, you will be rewarded with the ability to fire fast shots at your opponent and precise placement of the ball on the table. The build quality is overall very good and to put the cherry on the top, this blade also comes with an edge protection layer which is somewhat unique as other blades often do not have this feature. We recommend this blade as an affordable alternative to fast, but expensive blades like Butterfly Viscaria.

If you like to learn more about its smaller brother, then read our review of the Nittaku Flyatt Carbon here.