Taylormade Qi10 Vs Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons

ParadymAi vs Qi10

2024 is here and that means a whole host of new irons have just hit the market.

Callaway and Taylormade have already arrived at the party with new irons aimed at high to mid handicap players.

Callaway has come out with the 3 version Ai Smoke Irons and Taylormade have arrived with the 2 version Qi10 irons.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons Overview

Ai Smoke Irons

The Ai Smoke Irons from Callaway carry on from the Paradym Irons released in 2023 which were a bit hit and miss.

The AI Smoke Irons come in 3 flavours:

Ai Smoke Max: Hollow Body players distance irons aimed at high to mid handicappers

Ai Smoke Hl: High launching and more forgiving for higher handicap players. Cavity backs.

Ai Smoke Max Fast: Lightweight configuration for slower swing speeds. Cavity backs.

The Paradym Ai Smoke Irons are cast and not forged like the 23 Paradyms and the result is major cost savings, a set comes in at about $999.

The smart face has been generated by AI and ensure fast balls speeds and consistency from shots anywhere on the face.

The dynamic sole also plays a major role in increasing the ball speeds generated.

The pre-worn leading edge ensures the clubs cut through the turf effortlessly and despite having stronger lofts, they are longer and higher launching than the 23 Pardym irons, with more stopping power on the greens.

The clubs ook and perform a lot better than the 23 Paradyms, inspiring confidence without being too bulky.

Taylormade Qi10 Irons Overview

Taylormade has come out with the QI10 irons as a successor to the Stealth irons in the game improvement category.

Immeidatly we can see that they look similar to Stealth irons but slightly more polished and refined.

The have bigger heads, a larger face and stronger lofts offer enhanced forgiveness and consistency across the face.

They also come in two flavors.

Qi10 Irons: Hollow Body Players Distance irons for high handicappers.

Qi10 HL Irons: Higher launching irons with weaker lofts, suited to higher handicappers and slower swing speeds.

One of the big claims from Taylormade is that they reduce a slice from 27ft to 3ft and we actually saw this working very well in the driver. It must be the Ai, because it works extremely well in the irons too.

They look confidence-inspiring at address without looking too big and clunky and will certainly wind up in many golf bags in 2024.

Overall

The Qi10 irons are going to be excellent for high handicap players, espeically those with a slice.

They are for golfers looking for max distance and consistency. The trade-off is that the backspin rates are lower and we have less workability with the irons.

The Ai Smoke irons are fantastic. They are long, straight, and forgiving, no matter where you hit the ball on the face.

The Qi10 irons are best for those who suffer from a big slice.

The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke will suit slightly better players as they are still long and consistent but they also have higher spin rates and more stopping power.

Taylormade Qi Irons

Taylormade Qi Irons3

Category: Game Improvement

Taylormade Qi First Impressions

“I really liked the clean looks of these irons right away.”

There is nothing busy or flashy about them. And they look plenty forgiving too. They strike a good balance of face depth and blade length but they aren’t bulky and cumbersome.

After a couple of warm-up swings, I was finding the right tempo for these irons which usually takes me longer to do.

I attribute this to the moderate blade and head shape. And of course, the Taylormade Qi irons feature the Speed Pocket which covers your low-face mis-hits.

And as a player who hits the ball thin more often than I like to admit, this is a game-changer for me.

I was also impressed with the effortless stability of these irons. Without much of an adjustment period, I was seeing lower than average side-spin rates and my cut spin was all but eliminated.

So I was getting straighter than normal flight with almost no adjustment to my swing.

The progressive CG (lower in the long irons and higher in the short irons) allowed for excellent stopping power on approaches and at least adequate distance off the tee.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke First Impressions

“My first impression of the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons was that they were familiar.”

I love it when Callaway plays to their strengths and right away, I could tell the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons had classic Callaway design.

The face depth is about medium as is the width of the top line and the sole width. Again, very reminiscent of the size and shape of the Edge irons.

They look like they’re going to be forgiving at first glance and they live up to their initial appearance.

It took me just a couple of swings to get past the 170 yard carry mark with the 7-iron and I was also pretty pleased with the dispersion. Even on my toe-side mis-hits, I wasn’t over-drawing the ball.

Yes, I landed a little too right of the target, but the divergence was never greater than 9 yards.

Taylormade Qi Selling Points

Speed Pocket
Progressive CG
Variable face thickness
Bonded badge design
Hollow cap-back system
Strong-lofted

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Selling Points

Smart Face Technology
Extra ¼ “ of length in the mid and long irons
True Temper Elevate and Project X Cypher shafts available
Hollow-body design
AI-designed face architecture
Strong lofts

Who Are the Taylormade Qi Irons for?

The Taylormade Qi irons are excellent for high handicap players who typically find themselves 20 yards or more to the right of the target.

They were designed to correct possibly the most common type of mis-hit among high handicappers and beginners and they do a great job of it.

By helping to dampen the effects of high, toe-side misses, the Taylormade Qi will also help players who are losing out on total distance because they are diverging too far to the right.

The progressive CG and the hollow cap back design will also help you squeeze more distance out of the long and mid irons.

This means that the Taylormade Qi irons would also be good for players who are struggling to get adequate distance out of their longer irons.

The Qi irons are the latest from Taylormade so they currently retail for $1,100 for a complete set.

The Taylormade Qi Irons Family

Keeping with the modern trend of offering higher-lofted versions of new irons, the Taylormade Qi irons also have an HL version.

The standard Taylormade Qi irons are strong-lofted while the Taylormade Qi HL’s have weaker lofts to help the kinds of players that struggle to get the ball in the air.

They may also be more forgiving for players who have slower swing speeds.

Distance: 96/100

Accuracy: 97/100

Forgiveness: 97/100

Feel & Control: 97/100

Taylormade Qi Irons

Overall Score: 97/100

Who Are the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons for?

In my humble opinion, I think the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons would be great for handicappers in the 17-23 range.

This is the area where you’re still going to need a good bit of distance and help staying on the fairway – two things that the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons do exceedingly well.

But if you have problems hitting the ball low, the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons are not for you.

For the naturally low hitter I would recommend the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL irons which, as you can probably guess, have weaker loft profiles which means higher launch.

The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons Family

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Irons6

In addition to the standard Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons, Callaway has released the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL and the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast iron sets.

As already discussed the HL version is a weaker-lofted, higher-launching set. The 7-iron HL checks in at 30° in comparison to the 28° lofted 7-iron of the standard Paradym Ai Smoke set.

The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke HL irons also have deeper cavity backs and are generally a bit more forgiving.

Then there are the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast irons which also feature a deep cavity back and even weaker lofts – the 7-iron is 31°.

The Max Fast irons boast a lighter design than the standard Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke irons so they would be better for slower swing speed players.