Bullpadel Hack 04: Score, Specs & Hack vs Vertex

How we grade, and how we make money. We don’t play-test rackets. We aggregate specialist reviews, video analysis, verified owner ratings and manufacturer specs into one comparable score, and we list every source at the bottom of this page. If you buy through a link here we may earn a commission, which never affects a grade: the score is locked before any link is added.

Paquito Navarro’s frame grades 8.6, and it comes with the lowest comfort figure in our database: 6.2. Five sources agree it is a finishing weapon — one describes it as “built to end points rather than manage them” — and they agree just as clearly on what that costs your arm.

If you are choosing between this and the Vertex, that comfort number is probably the deciding factor. The comparison is below.

The short version

Ten years of Hack development land here: diamond head, 365–375 g, balance around 264 mm, a TriCarbon 18K face and a triple-density MultiEVA core. The 2026 revision adds the Total Channel, a perimeter channel that cuts air resistance and stiffens the frame.

Power comes out at 8.8 with unusually tight agreement between sources. What separates the Hack from other power frames is stability — one source rates it 8.7 on that alone, describing the frame as unusually solid through contact for something this head-heavy.

How it scored

Hack 04 vs Vertex 04

Bullpadel’s two flagships, and the choice most buyers of this brand actually face. They are closer on paper than their reputations suggest.

The honest summary: on power and control these two are within a rounding error of each other. What separates them is comfort — the Vertex 04 gets praised for the Vibradrive elastomer and Hesacore grip in every source that mentions them, while the Hack scores 6.2. If you have any history of elbow or shoulder trouble, that is not a close call.

Where the sources disagree: the sweet spot

Forgiveness ratings land at 6.4, 7.0 and 8.7 — a 2.3-point spread. It is the second widest disagreement we have recorded.

Our reading: the 8.7 comes from a review of the Hybrid version, whose shape widens the hitting zone; the 6.4 and 7.0 come from reviews of the pure diamond. This is the same pattern we found on the Vertex 04, and it is becoming the single most common source of confusion in padel reviews: a “hybrid” version of a diamond racket is a genuinely different racket, and most reviewers do not say which one they tested.

If forgiveness matters to you, buy the Hybrid and treat any 6.x forgiveness figure as describing the standard model.

Specs

A note on the owner ratings

Amazon UK groups the Hack 04, the Hack 03, the Hack 02 and several racket bags under the same “Bullpadel Hack” umbrella — 186 ratings in total. Only 51 of them belong to Hack 04 listings.

We used those 51, which average 4.4 out of 5. The other 135 describe older frames and bags, and folding them in would have inflated the sample without describing this racket.

Watch which year you are buying

The 2025 Hack 04 sits around £121 on Amazon UK with 44 owner ratings. The 2026 version sits at about £265, and Bullpadel’s UK RRP for it is £305. Sources describe the differences between generations as real but incremental — the Total Channel is the headline change.

At less than half the price, the 2025 is the sensible buy for most players.

Who it’s for

• Buy it if you play the left side, attack hard, and finish points with the smash.
• Buy the Hybrid if you want that profile with a wider sweet spot.
• Don’t buy it if you have arm or shoulder history — comfort of 6.2 is the lowest we have recorded, and both sources measuring it say impact shock is substantial. The Vertex 04 gives you the same power far more kindly. See also the best padel rackets ranking and our guide to choosing a racket.

Verdict

Sources

Every source that went into this grade, with the month it was consulted. Manufacturer copy and retailer product descriptions count as specification data only, never as opinion.