First of the major brands entered the competition for next gen. synthetic shuttles:

So curious to see if they managed to come up with a significant improvement from the 1st gen. Carbonsonics.

Update:
Will be ordering two tubes from Racket-Company asap. Seems like they are having some sort of exclusive deal for Germany.

They seem to stock the regular NCS, not the pro?

Badminton planet claims the pro is deliverable from July 15th. I'm excited!

Great find! And they will be cheaper then the "non-pro" from racket-company. Weird. We'll have to see if there really will be two versions or if that's just some naming conflict. Badminton Planet also has listed the "non-pro" ones for the same price as the Pro - with the exact same pictures and description. Double weird.

Maybe they've just put the placeholder online? I'll check back next month

I didn't know there were 2 options. I just got my hand on 2 non Pro tubes yesterday.
The naming is really confusing. There was a NCS (v1) before and then recently a new version also named NCS (v2) and now a Pro version (v2 pro)? Or is it because that is so confusing that they naming the version 2 the Pro version.

Badminton Planet is listing both versions right now

Let us know how they perform, interested in how things will play out, I guess the first step is for them to have this in professional tournaments before we see masswide adoption for casual/club players.

Yeah, hopefully sooner than later.

Our club will get theirs next week and I'm eager to test them, even though I didn't like the original ones at all.

I tested the V1 two weeks ago during a warm-up. They were okay, feeling light and sometimes wobbly, especially on soft shots.

For the V2, I bought the slower ones (speed 77). My clears couldn't reach the backcourt if I hit as usual.
They were more stable than the V1. The flight was very good, I would say 90% like the feathers. The other 10% was during my drop shots where the shuttle was a little floaty. Instead of going down directly, it traveled straight, so the angle was not as usual. On spin net shots, the shuttle kept spinning, making it more challenging to return.

During actual play, I needed 3-4 rallies to adapt to the shuttle, but after that, it was great. Some off-center shots made the shuttle wobble. The shuttle lasted two sets.

Another member could play for a complete mixed double match plus two sets of single match. The shuttle was still almost intact, which is impressive.

All in all, I am very impressed. I needed some quick adjustments when switching from one to another, but the overall feel and trajectory were good. These are better than feathers at the same price range.

That's why I didn't like the original ones. They felt like bombs on contact but flew straight instead of falling down. Curious how the new ones will be. Also still looking to play the Mizuno Tech Feathers, but they are impossible to get here in germany.

I tested them yesterday. Compared to the initial version (Carbonsonic), Victor has made significant improvements to the concept (I still have the old version, so I was able to compare them in the same session). The weight distribution is much better now (I found the old one to be a bit 'head-heavy'). The feel is closer to that of a feather shuttlecock, especially during net play. The flight performance is quite good. The synthetic feathers are slighty more prone to breaking (previously, the carbon stem would break), but the shuttlecock are still usable.
The durability is excellent, lasting through several matches. The cork is very nice - not a smooth, spongy type found on cheap shuttlecocks.
In France, the price is around €20 per dozen (badmania.com, badmintonpoint.com), which is a steal, especially considering it's far better than other 'no name' or branded shuttlecocks available in that price range.

I'm completely sold on it!

The only downsize is the reluctance from other players to try an "unknown technology shuttlecock", which is not approved by our national federation...

I also tested with NCS Pro from China. I found some slowing in the shuttle during drives and a tendency to not spin as much as feather shuttles. Did u get any of that as well?

It plays much better than the previous ones though and the goal isn’t really to replace feather shuttles it’s to create more durable shuttles so I’m very happy with it.

First test with the NCS (non-pro) yesterday. And I’ll make this quick - I’m very impressed. If natural shuttles were now banned completely, I would happily keep on playing badminton with NCS as an alternative.

A bit more in detail.
We used them in doubles matches and had our hardest smashers in the game. The NCS lasted for 3.5 games before a heavily mishit smash literally broke its back and it looked like roadkill.

After 2 games, still perfectly usable:

After 3.5 games, it was still flying okay before that last devastating smash

Hitting sounds is amazing, even on normal clears. Crisp contact with good feedback, we found it easy to control the length of lifts. No issue with droshots or control the spin on netshots. It didn’t need any real time or effort to get used to it.

Clearly this is a massive improvement since the 1st generation Carbonsonics. I’d say that they have achieved 85% of the feel and flight behaviour of good natural shuttles. If that is the basis for further developments, we could end up with ~95% very soon. Especially if other major brands will join the competition hopefully very soon.

Edit:
We used NCS in speed 78 and they were comparable to natural shuttles in speed 77.

how is the arc from a clear?

Felt pretty natural. At least nothing negative that really stood out.

Thank you for this feedback I'll order some too and post my test !

Just curious and for reference: which natural feather do you normally play with and how long does it hold when you play with these players?

Forza S-6000 and we normally need 1-2 shuttles per game.

Wow, per game !

Per game not per set ! In my club (beginners and intermediate, there are 2-3 national level which only come very rarely) we use rsl dtl 82 and If we use them, this figure can go up to 2 to 3 shuttlecocks per sets with all the miss hits xD (even if I think it comes from the fact that they are much too dry it's less worse if we moisten them, at nearly 20€ the tube ouch)

With game I mean one „set“ to 21 points, not the whole match.