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Cobra Bio Cell Irons Review Thread

SuperStroke
I hit the SNOT out of this thing at the range today. I hit two large buckets (~220 balls) with at least 1/3 of them being with the Bio Cell.

My "meh" tune has changed from my previous review post. I was now at my "home" range (grass) and the conditions were perfect. Maybe its the better range balls, me getting used to the lighter swing weight....but I was simply destroying the ball with the Bio Cell today after warming up.

My previous post stated 160ish distance, with more loss than expected. 160 IS my normal 6i distance for my JPX, but "normal" for the Bio Cell is quickly becoming 175-180 for me. This is drastically different (ie. opposite) than what I experienced the first time I hit this, but now I had way more time to evaluate and tweak.

Ball after ball was just crushed. The ball soared up off the face and carried 180 with ease, time after time. I knew the distance was accurate in both sessions because I used a laser range finder to confirm the flag distances. Winds were minimal, a slight crosswind today, maybe 5 mph. The story on mishits is the same as before...lateral forgiveness abounds - the ball will go where you point it - with appropriate loss of distance depending on the severity of the miss on the face.

I also tried some chipping and punch shots. Piece of cake and wouldn't hesitate to use, especially in a bump n run play at a distance. Be careful though, the ball flies hot off of this face even with a 1/4 swing punch shot (100+ yards)!!!!

So in summary, I am really thrilled with the Bio Cell. I have never hit my JPX 6i over 175. My 180 club was my Mashie 4h! To carry 180 with 75% consistency is ridiculous for me....remember I just started less than 2 years ago and play to an 18 handicap. I have yet to break 90. The way the Bio Cell is shaping up for me though, I am going to have to do some serious pondering......these sticks are awesome!!!!!!


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ironcondor said:
Yeah you gotta see one in person....the cavity is far less "bulky" than it appears...
Click to expand...

I would love to check these out in person as I'm obviously only going by what I can see in these photos. From what you guys are saying, they seem to be performing like the XHP or the RB with the bump in loft and distance. That, I can get on board with, but the back of these things just looks way overdone to me. I have always preferred a simpler, cleaner look. I'll pop in Roger Dunn one of these days soon and see if I can get my hands on them for a few swings.
 
I have to agree with the in hand looks department all of you are saying. Much better in person! Well hopefully be able to hit one on Saturday! Keep up the great info testers!
 
Shook said:
Hi testers - aside from all the awesome feedback I'm sure you'll give, can you also keep an eye on/give updates on how well the mirror-chrome finish on the sole holds up? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ok, to be honest in addressing this question with what I have seen so far, I would say the mirror finish does NOT hold up as well as my Mizunos. Here's a pic of my JPX 825 6i next to the Bio Cell 6i. I have had my irons for about 8 months since new, and hit the range at least once/twice per week and play a round a couple times per month. The Bio Cell has seen a round of play and two long range sessions.

That said, I tried to capture the worst of it in bright light at the exact angle needed to show it...in person it honestly doesn't look as bad, and the mirror finish is still very much contrasted to the matte areas so the intent of the design is not lost at all.



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Playing on Saturday in a threat of some snow. Will get to test some more.
 
ironcondor said:
Ok, to be honest in addressing this question with what I have seen so far, I would say the mirror finish does NOT hold up as well as my Mizunos. Here's a pic of my JPX 825 6i next to the Bio Cell 6i. I have had my irons for about 8 months since new, and hit the range at least once/twice per week and play a round a couple times per month. The Bio Cell has seen a round of play and two long range sessions.

That said, I tried to capture the worst of it in bright light at the exact angle needed to show it...in person it honestly doesn't look as bad, and the mirror finish is still very much contrasted to the matte areas so the intent of the design is not lost at all.



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Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I kind of expected as much...
 
CJ you are absolutely rockin this review brother. Well done
 
Only got to hit about five balls outside today with the Bio Cell during my round. It was wet and only 38 degrees but I was 0/5. I wasn't striking my irons particularly well to begin so I will chalk it up to the conditions but at first I liked the swingweight difference but the more I swing this club at a ball the less it jives with me. I may have to go get this adjusted at the fitter in town because I am expecting more.
 
I was finally able to get in some actual swinging and ball striking time with the Bio Cell 6i today. I have purposely steered clear of this thread until I actually had a chance to play the iron so as to not have any preconceived notions based on what my fellow very capable testers have reported. I hit about 40 full shots, about 10 knock down shots and about 20 bump and run shots close to the putting surface. All balls I hit with the Bio Cell were on the actual golf course with 2 balls I normally play in cooler weather (Bridgestone e6 and Srixon Q Star).

Full Shots

The club head at address is quite pleasing as the top line is not near as thick as I would have expected from this top of club. The size of the blade was also quite pleasing and about what I am used to. As I expected from playing nothing but forged irons for the last 35 years, the feel of striking the ball with the Bio Cell did not provide as much feedback as I was used to. With that being said, I did not hate the feel of the club and there was more of a muted feedback feel and sound in comparison with what I have experienced with forged irons. I must say, for me at least, the Bio Cell is long and high launching! This feedback is in comparison to my Mizuno JPX 800 Pro 6 iron. I typically hit the JPX 170 yards with a normal, center of the club face strike. I hit a few balls with the Bio Cell about 185 yards. But notice I said a few balls which brings me to my next point of feedback was that I found the distances I was getting from good strikes with the Bio Cell to be inconsistent. For example, from the ground on the side of a tee box I hit 3 balls with consistent swings on the same line. When I got to the balls, 2 were within a yard of each other while the other was 10 yards further. I then hit all three again with what I felt like were good consistent swings and all three balls ended up distance-wise within 2 yards of each other. The club did seem to swing lighter than what I am used to probably because of the Dynalite 85 shaft. Initially, I had a little trouble staying down on the ball I believe because of the lighter club. Once I adjusted for that and toned my swing down a little, this issue was solved. If I over swung the club, a lower pull hook resulted every time. As far as working the ball left to right or right to left. I was able to do this pretty much the same as with my JPXs. I had not trouble with the Bio Cell working them right to left but could not work the ball left to right. This is not an issue with Bio Cells, it is an issue with me as I have never been able to fade any irons without giving up a lot of distance. My typical misses on the club face of irons is on the toe side. I did have about 8 misses on the toe end with the Bio Cell but I found those misses to be very forging distance-wise. I felt I only lost a max of 5 yards with the toe misses. The last topic I wanted to address with my full swing experience with the Bio Cell is turf interaction from various lies. I hit them all: off the tee, off the fairway, out of the rough from both fluffy and heavy lies and off of hard pan. The two lies I had a hard time making good contact because of what I felt like was poor turf interaction of the club head was a ball sitting down in the rough and off a a hard pan. I did not feel like the sole and leading on the Bio Cell were very friendly with cutting through heavy grass thus causing me to push shots from these lies and felt the head did not provide enough bounce to not dig some of sandy hard pan lies. The other shots I mentioned that I performed I did not have any issues with getting the club head to ball in a good position. As far as launch is concerned from the various lies I tested, I had no issue launching the ball quickly and easily from any of these lies.

Knock Down / Partial Swings

One of the easiest shots for me perform on demand is a low, right to left, knock down shot. The Bio Cell was able to hit this shot for me like a champion. A little higher trajectory than the same shot hit with the JPX but no so much that I would be scared to hit it out of the trees with fairly low hanging limbs. I also had no issue hitting a straight knock down shot with the Bio Cell although the trajectory was once again a little higher. Dialing down the swing a little to hit a partial 6 iron was also no issue with the Bio Cell. As I mentioned before, distance inconsistencies may have me a little concerned for the partial shots also. On;y hit a limited number of these today so the sample size was not enough to draw a definite conclusion around this.

Bump and Run around the green

I felt the Bio Cell was awesome from the get go in performing this shot for me. The distance control as far as roll out on these shots was what I thought it would be and was very consistent. I only performed this shot from right off of the green where there was plenty of green to work with. My course conditions (winter rye around the greens and soggy ground) are not conducive to hit a shot from say 30 yards out to land t halfway there then let it roll out the rest of the way. Any club that I would try to hit that shot with right now would fail miserably.

Does the Bio Cell meet expectations as far as the marketing claims of it being long, generating high balls speeds and being very forgiving? My short answer to that would be absolutely. As I mentioned before, the 2 negatives that I personally experienced were distance inconsistencies and poor turf interaction from difficult lies.

Below is a picture I took of the face after striking the ball about 70 times today. If I would have cleaned out the grooves, you would have a hard time telling that it has even been hit. As I would have expected, the chrome portion of the sole does have some light scratching.

20140118_163034_zps4569267e.jpg
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I hope to be able to get in some more testing tomorrow. Please feel free to post or PM me any questions you may have or anything different you would like for me to try with this club.

Thanks again to THP and Cobra for this awesome testing opportunity!
 
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Hitting the course again in the morning and planning on using the Bio Cell as much as I can.



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I had another lesson today, and it about 20-25 more shots with the BioCell today.

Today my swing was in better shape than last week. I really struck some solidly!
The ball really got up in the air, I was striking the ball just toe side of center(except for a few shots I'll cover later) and between 4th and 7th grooves.
The lighter swing weight than my Burner2.0's just feels great, I love the feel of this club. My ball flight today was nice and high, faith just the slightest hint of fade.
I didn't catch every balls flight, in fact only about 8. The sun was in my face, coupled with the snow on the ground, it was hard to tell exact distances.

What I can tell you, and with confidence is this Iron performs.
Standing over the ball with this club in your hand just feels right.
The finish on the bottom as expected shows some wear from the mats.

Now, I did hit 4 shots that were not so good. They did not feel good, the results were not good.

These misses were off the toe. These shots flew quite a bit right of target, noticeably shorter, and stingers a bit to the hands. Of course toe and heel misses are not something we try to do, but I'm confident everyone misses, and as with any club misses are penalized.

As always, if you have ANY questions at all, you can post them here, I am subscribed to this thread, and am notified of all posts within. If you don't want to ask here for some reason please feel free to PM me, and I will simply make a post saying I was asked the following question, then proceed to try and answer.
I know a lot of people may find their way here by google searching Cobra BioCell and may intimidated asking a question here. No need to feel intimated, but I am open to private messages.
I hope that may help.
Thanks again to Cobra and THP for this testing opportunity.
 
You guys are knocking out with this testing. The amount of information in this thread is amazing. If the rest of the Bio Cell line performs like the numerous positive reviews I read...look out. Keep up the work guys!
 
Awesome feedback guys!
 
Sox Fan said:
But notice I said a few balls which brings me to my next point of feedback was that I found the distances I was getting from good strikes with the Bio Cell to be inconsistent. For example, from the ground on the side of a tee box I hit 3 balls with consistent swings on the same line. When I got to the balls, 2 were within a yard of each other while the other was 10 yards further. I then hit all three again with what I felt like were good consistent swings and all three balls ended up distance-wise within 2 yards of each other.
Click to expand...

Sox - I had the same issue my first outing with this club. I felt like I would hit the ball fine several times, and some of the strikes went much farther than others. It was strange. Then, I took it out again to my local range that has better range balls, etc, and every well-struck shot was going 180+. I'm going to take it out again today/tomorrow and see what happens this time. I'm also planning on playing a round later this week and again next week so we'll see how it goes on the course.
 
Gave it another go today at the range & on the course.
I just can't get this club to work for me. Well struck were just low bullets that didn't go anywhere. My gamer 6I was on point every swing. I have some ball strike marks that are all in the center of the face but I'm not seeing the results others are.
That said, when they take off, they take off I just can't get consistency from it. I truly have no idea why not. I've asked others to take a few cracks with it & see the results others are seeing.
It's frustrating because I know I should hit this club well.


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Very interesting Matthew. Big difference in shaft between this and your current gamer from a weight perspective?
 
Matthew said:
Gave it another go today at the range & on the course.
I just can't get this club to work for me. Well struck were just low bullets that didn't go anywhere. My gamer 6I was on point every swing. I have some ball strike marks that are all in the center of the face but I'm not seeing the results others are.
That said, when they take off, they take off I just can't get consistency from it. I truly have no idea why not. I've asked others to take a few cracks with it & see the results others are seeing.
It's frustrating because I know I should hit this club well.


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Click to expand...

I know how you feel. I was expecting more. It is tough hearing the good reviews but it is what it is. The bio cell is slightly longer and a lighter swingweight than my gamer so I thought I would be longer. I may take mine to get it fit up but I am not sure if it's worth it but rather try and adjust around the club for mo more.
 
#Cookie said:
Very interesting Matthew. Big difference in shaft between this and your current gamer from a weight perspective?
Click to expand...

My gamer is a Dynalite 90 & the shaft in the Bio Cell is a Dynalite 85. I wouldn't think that little would make a big difference though. But I'm not a shaft guru.


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Matthew said:
My gamer is a Dynalite 90 & the shaft in the Bio Cell is a Dynalite 85. I wouldn't think that little would make a big difference though. But I'm not a shaft guru.


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Click to expand...

I wouldn't think so either. Much difference in soles? Curious if turf interaction is causing it. Also check swing weight differences.
 
The Bio Cell has a slightly thinner sole but nothing crazy. I'll have to check the swing weights.
I'm at a loss.


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Matthew said:
The Bio Cell has a slightly thinner sole but nothing crazy. I'll have to check the swing weights.
I'm at a loss.


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Click to expand...

Are you 'losing the club head' at any point during the swing? I ask because I let a friend hit this on the range and he saw similar results. really inconsistent, but when he made contact the ball just took off. One comment he mentioned was he just couldn't feel where the head was during his swing. Not so much the shaft weight, but think the club head itself might be lighter....
 
mikeg_74 said:
Are you 'losing the club head' at any point during the swing? I ask because I let a friend hit this on the range and he saw similar results. really inconsistent, but when he made contact the ball just took off. One comment he mentioned was he just couldn't feel where the head was during his swing. Not so much the shaft weight, but think the club head itself might be lighter....
Click to expand...

I think that's what's happening. I feel like I'm "losing" on the back swing.
To take a step back, I always liked heavier fishing rods & when I was team roping, I used heavier ropes. It was just a comfort thing with me. Lighter rods & ropes I felt like I had to baby a little.


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Matthew said:
I think that's what's happening. I feel like I'm "losing" on the back swing.
To take a step back, I always liked heavier fishing rods & when I was team roping, I used heavier ropes. It was just a comfort thing with me. Lighter rods & ropes I felt like I had to baby a little.


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Click to expand...

i'm curious If a heavier shaft might fix this issue for you. I know you mentioned your current gamer is 90 vs the 85 in the BIO, but that could be the difference. (again i'm in the novice boat when it comes to shaft/head pairings) may even try a heavier shaft with the head and see what happens?
 
Sox Fan said:
I was finally able to get in some actual swinging and ball striking time with the Bio Cell 6i today. I have purposely steered clear of this thread until I actually had a chance to play the iron so as to not have any preconceived notions based on what my fellow very capable testers have reported. I hit about 40 full shots, about 10 knock down shots and about 20 bump and run shots close to the putting surface. All balls I hit with the Bio Cell were on the actual golf course with 2 balls I normally play in cooler weather (Bridgestone e6 and Srixon Q Star).

Full Shots

The club head at address is quite pleasing as the top line is not near as thick as I would have expected from this top of club. The size of the blade was also quite pleasing and about what I am used to. As I expected from playing nothing but forged irons for the last 35 years, the feel of striking the ball with the Bio Cell did not provide as much feedback as I was used to. With that being said, I did not hate the feel of the club and there was more of a muted feedback feel and sound in comparison with what I have experienced with forged irons. I must say, for me at least, the Bio Cell is long and high launching! This feedback is in comparison to my Mizuno JPX 800 Pro 6 iron. I typically hit the JPX 170 yards with a normal, center of the club face strike. I hit a few balls with the Bio Cell about 185 yards. But notice I said a few balls which brings me to my next point of feedback was that I found the distances I was getting from good strikes with the Bio Cell to be inconsistent. For example, from the ground on the side of a tee box I hit 3 balls with consistent swings on the same line. When I got to the balls, 2 were within a yard of each other while the other was 10 yards further. I then hit all three again with what I felt like were good consistent swings and all three balls ended up distance-wise within 2 yards of each other. The club did seem to swing lighter than what I am used to probably because of the Dynalite 85 shaft. Initially, I had a little trouble staying down on the ball I believe because of the lighter club. Once I adjusted for that and toned my swing down a little, this issue was solved. If I over swung the club, a lower pull hook resulted every time. As far as working the ball left to right or right to left. I was able to do this pretty much the same as with my JPXs. I had not trouble with the Bio Cell working them right to left but could not work the ball left to right. This is not an issue with Bio Cells, it is an issue with me as I have never been able to fade any irons without giving up a lot of distance. My typical misses on the club face of irons is on the toe side. I did have about 8 misses on the toe end with the Bio Cell but I found those misses to be very forging distance-wise. I felt I only lost a max of 5 yards with the toe misses. The last topic I wanted to address with my full swing experience with the Bio Cell is turf interaction from various lies. I hit them all: off the tee, off the fairway, out of the rough from both fluffy and heavy lies and off of hard pan. The two lies I had a hard time making good contact because of what I felt like was poor turf interaction of the club head was a ball sitting down in the rough and off a a hard pan. I did not feel like the sole and leading on the Bio Cell were very friendly with cutting through heavy grass thus causing me to push shots from these lies and felt the head did not provide enough bounce to not dig some of sandy hard pan lies. The other shots I mentioned that I performed I did not have any issues with getting the club head to ball in a good position. As far as launch is concerned from the various lies I tested, I had no issue launching the ball quickly and easily from any of these lies.

Knock Down / Partial Swings

One of the easiest shots for me perform on demand is a low, right to left, knock down shot. The Bio Cell was able to hit this shot for me like a champion. A little higher trajectory than the same shot hit with the JPX but no so much that I would be scared to hit it out of the trees with fairly low hanging limbs. I also had no issue hitting a straight knock down shot with the Bio Cell although the trajectory was once again a little higher. Dialing down the swing a little to hit a partial 6 iron was also no issue with the Bio Cell. As I mentioned before, distance inconsistencies may have me a little concerned for the partial shots also. On;y hit a limited number of these today so the sample size was not enough to draw a definite conclusion around this.

Bump and Run around the green

I felt the Bio Cell was awesome from the get go in performing this shot for me. The distance control as far as roll out on these shots was what I thought it would be and was very consistent. I only performed this shot from right off of the green where there was plenty of green to work with. My course conditions (winter rye around the greens and soggy ground) are not conducive to hit a shot from say 30 yards out to land t halfway there then let it roll out the rest of the way. Any club that I would try to hit that shot with right now would fail miserably.

Does the Bio Cell meet expectations as far as the marketing claims of it being long, generating high balls speeds and being very forgiving? My short answer to that would be absolutely. As I mentioned before, the 2 negatives that I personally experienced were distance inconsistencies and poor turf interaction from difficult lies.
Click to expand...


Was able to get in approximately 50 more shots of the same types described above with much the same results. Once again, I tested on the course with balls I normally use. To clarify a couple of things I noted above, my toe misses were still within the grooves on the face of the club as opposed to on the chrome portion of the toe. That is probably why I did not see much distance loss like other testers noted they did on off-center hits. I still saw some of the same distance inconsistencies today on well struck balls and do not give the Bio Cell very high grades was far as turf interaction with balls sitting down in the rough and from hard pan.

One thing that I did not touch on too much in my initial review is the amount of spin I was getting from the Bio Cell. As far as backspin of balls hit into the green, I would rate it about equal to my JPX 800 Pros. As far as sidespin, I feel off-center hits fly a little straighter than an off-center hit with the JPX. And as expected, I feel the Bio Cell is a little harder to work from side to side although I was able to move it right to left fairly easily. Moving the ball left to right is not in my game so I can't rate that.

Again, if you have any questions or would like clarification on anything, feel free to post it here or send me a PM.
 
Matthew said:
I think that's what's happening. I feel like I'm "losing" on the back swing.
To take a step back, I always liked heavier fishing rods & when I was team roping, I used heavier ropes. It was just a comfort thing with me. Lighter rods & ropes I felt like I had to baby a little.


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Click to expand...

This makes sense. Compared to my gamer this feels like a stick rather than a stick with a weight at the end. I kinda am feeling something similar even though I thought I would like that.
 
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