03The buyer's guide
First, the thing that changes the price: you get two
The Amazon title reads "niupipo Pickleball Paddle", singular, and our own card said the same thing until we checked. It is wrong on both counts. The box holds two paddles, four balls and a carry bag.
Three independent places say so:
- The listing's own fifth bullet: "This pickleball set includes 2 pickleball paddles, 1 collecting bag, 2 indoor balls, and 2 outdoor balls."
- Amazon's structured product data for this ASIN, which records NumberOfItems: 2.
- niupipo's own product page for model MX-38, which lists the contents as "1 Bag, 2 Pickleball Paddles, 2 Outdoor Balls, 2 Indoor Balls and 2 Grip Tapes".
That is a different purchase from the one the title describes. At the price this listing has been sitting at, the per-paddle cost is half what a reader comparing it against a single paddle would assume, and the four balls and the bag are not rounding errors at this end of the market. If you were weighing it against a one-paddle purchase, you were weighing it wrong, and so were we. We have renamed the card accordingly.
The caveat, and it matters. niupipo sells this model through a parent listing that offers more than one configuration — different colors, and in places a four-paddle option — and each configuration is a separate ASIN at its own price. Our buy button points at the two-paddle variant. Check the variant selector before you pay, because the photo and the title do not change between them.
The spec nobody publishes: a 9.8mm core
Core thickness is the single most useful number about any paddle — it is the one that decides how much of each impact your hand absorbs rather than your arm. Our core thickness guide spends its whole length on the 13mm-versus-16mm question, because that is the range almost every paddle sold today lives in.
The Amazon listing for this paddle never states a core thickness. niupipo's own product page never states one either. But USA Pickleball's certification record for MX-38 does, because submitting the number is part of getting approved, and the entry is public: core depth 9.8mm, core material "pp honeycomb", cell size 6mm, surface "glass fiber+matte surface", finish "UV print", shape round.
9.8mm is the thinnest core of any paddle on this site, by a clear margin. The budget 13mm paddle we specifically warn sore-elbowed readers away from on paddles for tennis elbow has a third more core than this one. That is not a scandal — thin cores are how a paddle gets cheap and poppy — but it is a fact a buyer is entitled to before they spend, and it is published nowhere a buyer would look.
Does it square with the rest of the paperwork? The listing publishes 0.55 in of overall thickness, which is 14.0mm. Take 9.8mm of core out of that and roughly 4mm is left for two fiberglass skins, the finish and the low-profile edge guard the listing advertises. That is plausible, and the fact that the two numbers are consistent is the main reason we are comfortable publishing the 9.8. We cannot break the remainder down further and are not going to pretend otherwise.
What it means on court: expect pop rather than plush. The ball leaves quickly, you need less swing to send it deep — which is genuinely useful for a player with a tired shoulder — and the trade is that touch shots give back more pace than you want and the hit is felt in the hand. If you are learning the soft game, see how to dink, and expect this paddle to make it harder than a 16mm paddle would.
The approval is real, and niupipo undersells its own paddle
The listing's first bullet claims "USA-Approved Pickleball Paddles for Sanctioned Tournament Play". That is the sort of claim we normally treat as marketing, because sellers copy the badge onto listings for models that were never submitted — the reason our USA Pickleball approved guide tells you to check the list yourself rather than trust a bullet point.
We checked. MX-38 is on the official list, added 07/02/2023, status Pass. It is one of about thirty niupipo models on there. For once the bullet is straightforwardly true.
The odd part is that niupipo's own website is lessconfident than its Amazon copy. Its approval page says "All of our Paddles have been approved by USAPA" and then, in the next breath: "if you are prepared to play the national pickleball association's officially sanctioned tournament, only professional series paddles are qualified." The MX-38 is not a professional-series paddle. By niupipo's own hedge it would not be tournament-legal; by USA Pickleball's actual record it is. Believe the governing body, not the brand.
Worth keeping in proportion. Approval is a dimensional and surface test, not a quality rating, and it does not make a cheap paddle good. What it buys you is that nobody can wave you off a court with it if you join a club ladder in six months. At this price that is unusual, and it is the strongest single argument for this set over an unapproved one.
Where the listing is confusing rather than wrong
"4.72 in grip" is not the grip size
The bullet reads "4.72" grip length and 4.25'' grip circumference", and plenty of readers see the first number, compare it to the 4-1/8 to 4-1/2 inch range they have read about elsewhere, and conclude the handle is enormous. It is not. 4.72 in is how long the handle is; 4.25 in is how thick it is around. Circumference is the number that decides whether the paddle fits your hand, and 4.25 in sits at the small end of the normal range.
That is good news for small hands, for arthritic hands, and for anyone our grip size guide puts between sizes — a grip you can build up with an overgrip is the right direction to be wrong in. It is bad news if you have large hands, because you will be squeezing, and squeezing is the fastest route to a sore forearm. A 4.72 in handle is also on the short side for a two-handed backhand.
"10.8 x 7.79 in" is the face, not the paddle
The listing labels those as facedimensions, and it is right to — but a shopper comparing them against another paddle's overall length will think this one is five inches shorter than it is. niupipo's own page gives the real figure: 15.6 in long overall. Face plus handle, and the arithmetic closes: 15.6 minus 10.8 leaves 4.8 in of handle, within a rounding error of the 4.72 in grip length.
Run those numbers against the rules and it is a comfortable pass. USA Pickleball caps length at 17 in and length-plus-width at 24 in; this paddle is 15.6 in long and 15.6 + 7.79 = 23.4 in combined. It is a short, wide face — which USA Pickleball records as shape round, and which the listing calls widebody. Both are describing the same thing: maximum sweet spot, minimum reach. The trade is laid out in elongated vs widebody.
The bullet that calls them graphite paddles
The fifth bullet finishes: "having high-quality graphitepaddles can make a significant difference in your performance." The title says fiberglass. The second bullet says fiberglass. niupipo's spec sheet says fiberglass. USA Pickleball's record says "glass fiber". It is a fiberglass paddle, and the graphite line is recycled copy from a different niupipo listing.
It matters only because the two materials behave differently — graphite is stiffer and a touch more controlled, fiberglass is springier and gives easier free pop. That difference is the whole subject of graphite vs fiberglass, and if you bought this expecting the graphite behavior you would notice. If you want niupipo's actual graphite paddle, that is the Pro Graphite, which we review separately.
This set versus our starter-set pick
niupipo sells a second two-paddle bundle that we rank first on best pickleball starter sets, and the two are easy to confuse: both are fiberglass, both are around the same money, both ship two paddles, four balls and a bag from the same seller. The published differences are small but real.
| Published spec | This set (MX-38) | Our starter-set pick |
|---|
| Paddle weight | 7.6 oz (niupipo says 7.6–7.8) | 8 oz |
| Face dimensions | 10.8 x 7.79 x 0.55 in | 10.71 x 7.80 x 0.43 in |
| Grip circumference | 4.25 in | 4.25 in |
| On USA Pickleball's list | Yes — MX-38, added 07/02/2023 | No model we could match; the listing claims "USAPA standard" size, not approval |
| In the box | 2 paddles, 4 balls, bag (+2 grip tapes per niupipo) | 2 paddles, 4 balls, bag |
Our read: if there is any chance of league or club play, this is the one to buy, because approval is the only difference between them that you cannot fix later. If nobody in the household will ever play anywhere that checks, the starter set is a slightly heavier, slightly thinner-faced version of the same idea and the choice comes down to whichever is cheaper the day you look. We are not going to manufacture a performance gap between two paddles whose published specs are this close.
What we could not verify
- Durability. We have no measured failure data and will not publish a guess. Fiberglass faces lose their texture with use, which costs spin over time; that is a property of the material, not a complaint about this paddle.
- Who actually makes it. Amazon records the manufacturer as Dongguan Mingxuan Carbon Fiber Technology Co., Ltd. and the buy-box seller as a third-party merchant, not niupipo or Amazon. A 1-year warranty is listed. We have not tested what claiming it involves.
- Noise. Thin, poppy cores are generally louder than thick ones. We have no measurement for this paddle and are not going to imply one.
- Which colorway you will receive. The variant we price is one of several and they move in and out of stock. Buy for the configuration, not the photo.
Who should buy something else
- Anyone whose problem is impact shock rather than fatigue. A 9.8mm core is the wrong tool. Our tennis-elbow list ranks thick cores first for exactly this reason.
- Anyone with large hands. 4.25 in around is small, and the handle is short. Check yourself against the grip size guide first.
- Anyone who already owns a paddle they like. You would be buying a spare you did not need. One good paddle plus a tube of balls is the better spend — see starter set vs buying separately.
- Anyone who wants free power from the baseline. Light paddles ask you to supply the pace. A mid-weight paddle from our beginner roundup drives the ball with less effort.
The verdict
It stays our top pick for an older player, and it is still the least demanding paddle we can point anybody at: light, wide-faced, small-gripped, genuinely approved, and cheap enough that getting it wrong costs almost nothing. What has changed after reading the paperwork is why we say so. The value case is stronger than we had it — one price, two paddles, four balls and a bag — and the comfort case is narrower. This paddle protects your shoulder from swinging, not your elbow from impact, and the 9.8mm core that nobody publishes is the reason. Buy it for a tired arm and a tight budget. Do not buy it as a cure for a sore joint.
