Pongbot Pace S Pro Review: The Ultimate AI Tennis Partner is Here

Tennis has seen a massive surge in popularity in the past handful of years, a trend that really took off when everyone was looking for safe, outdoor ways to stay active during the pandemic. Whether you are a regular at your local indoor courts or hitting at the park in the summer, you know the struggle: sometimes your hitting partner cancels, or you just want to grind out 100 backhands to fix your mistakes.

Pongbot recently sent us their latest Pace S Pro, and after putting it through its paces, it is clear this isn’t your average ball machine. It is marketed as the world’s first true AI tennis partner, and it definitely brings some smart features that change how you practice. The Pace S Pro debuted earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas.

Effortless Setup and Portability

Right out of the box, the Pace S Pro is impressively easy to handle. It features high-quality rollerblade-style wheels and a sturdy extendable handle, making it a breeze to transport from the car to the court. At a net weight of 22 kg (about 49 lbs), it is substantial enough to stay stable during high-speed drills but light enough that you won’t throw your back out loading it into your car.

The design is quite clever: the ball hopper, which holds over 150 balls, doubles as a hard cover. This keeps the unit compact and protected when it is tucked away in your trunk. The setup is truly wireless. Once the 7800 mAh battery is charged, you can play for up to 8 hours without a single cord in sight. Pongbot even includes a handy 3-in-1 charging cable for the various sensors included in the box.

The Tech: AI Coaching and App Experience

While the hardware is top-notch, the software side has a bit of a learning curve. The initial firmware update performed over Bluetooth took a while to download and install, so you might want to do that at home before heading to your court booking. The app can feel a bit clunky at first, but once you get the hang of it, the level of customization is staggering.

One important tip for staying friendly with your court neighbours: the machine makes a loud, piercing beep when starting up or during drills. Thankfully, you can dive into the app settings under Preferences and toggle the Buzzer off so you aren’t pissing off the players on the next court over (if the boomers aren’t upset you’re doing something right). The people next to us on our court were really interested in the machine and didn’t care it was firing balls at us at a crazy rate. That’s a good sign that this won’t annoy neighbouring courts.

Real-World Training: This Thing Will Cook You

We took the Pace S Pro out for a standard one-hour court booking, and let’s just say we were pretty exhausted by the end. While you can get a moment of rest when your hitting partner makes an error, a ball machine doesn’t make any unforced errors. It will feed you balls non-stop. The AI features are what truly set this machine apart from the dumb feeders of the past:

Recovery Trigger: This is the cool feature. You clip a small sensor to your waistband or shirt, and the machine actually waits for you to return to the centre mark before firing the next ball.

What’s cool is the Pace S Pro moves beyond the fixed timing of traditional machines by using Ultra-Wideband tracking instead of cameras (yes, same tech found in AirTags). This tech scans at 100Hz with sub-10cm accuracy, meaning it works perfectly in any lighting condition to basically ‘see’ exactly where you are.

Because it knows your position, the machine’s Recovery Trigger waits for you to return to the centre mark before firing. This synchronizes the machine to your personal rhythm, letting you focus on realistic footwork and timing rather than just chasing a ball on a timer.

Precision Drills: With over 564 preset drills, you can practice everything from a delicate drop shot to heavy top-spin baseline rallies. The consistency is incredible, allowing you to build your muscle memory.

The Skyball Incident: We did try cranking the machine to its max 80 mph speed and 60 rps (3600 rpm) spin. In our excitement, we messed up the trajectory, and instead of a line drive, the machine launched a few balls straight into the clouds! It was hilarious, but it reminded us that there is a bit of a learning curve to the custom programming.

As for battery life, we had no issues over a few hitting sessions running the machine hard. It was within the stated battery life at just under 8 hours, which is plenty before you need to charge it again. It’s nice that the battery is removable and not fixed into the machine. This lets you easily charge up the battery.

The Pace S Pro is also great for two people to use as well. You can set the length of time for the drills. So one person will help collect balls that are hit while the other does the workout. You then switch and that way you can maximize your court time and practice.

Maintenance and Final Thoughts

One thing worth mentioning is the tennis ball fuzz. Like all high-performance machines that use spinning wheels, it generates a fair amount of yellow fluff where the balls exit. It is totally normal for any machine of this calibre, but you’ll want to give the machine and the court a quick wipe-down before you leave to keep things tidy.

We also showed this to our weekly tennis group and they were pretty impressed with how easy it was to transport the machine and to get it set up and running. Everyone wants to get better and with a ball machine you can really work on parts of your game that need help, whether it’s your backhand or doing serve plus one drills.

Now, let’s get to the price. The Pace S Pro is priced at $1,199 USD (about $1,646 CAD after exchange rate). That’s not cheap by any means but the segment is pretty flooded right now, so it’s within range of what’s being offered here. Tennis nuts will spend any amount of money possible to improve. There is free shipping to Canada, which is a bonus. You can also save 5% off by using coupon code iphoneincanada at checkout.

Overall, the Pace S Pro is a serious investment for anyone looking to reach that next level to beat their buddies consistently. While the app and remote take some time to master, the ability to practice with an AI partner that tracks your movement is a total game-changer. All need next after this? An automated AI tennis racquet stringer?

• Get the Pace S Pro: Shop Here
• Save 5% Off: Use coupon code iphoneincanada at checkout.