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By independent reviewer Martin Hopley

Whilst the Callaway Ai Smoke driver has the Paradym name in its title, this is a completely new driver that replaces both the Paradym and Great Big Bertha ranges.

There are similarities in that the 360°Carbon Chassis is still there, but it has been refined with support from an internal titanium structure to make it 15% lighter. The Jailbreak rods that were behind the face in recent models to connect the head and sole have gone and the saved weight is moved elsewhere in the head to make it more forgiving.

The Ai part of the name refers to the improved Ai face using data from thousands of shots from Callaway owned facilities like TopGolf and TopTracer on tour. This means that the mass behind the face has been placed to match the points most golfers hit the club on at impact. It’s the next stage in the use of real player data to improve clubs with Callaway’s Ai software.

The Callaway Ai Smoke driver comes in three models and I put them through their paces in the Lyle studio using the same shaft that I had been custom fitted for in my previous Callaway fitting.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Driver Review

The Callaway Ai Smoke Max driver sounds like a game improvement driver, but this is the main model. We all like a bit of improvement and compared to the Paradym the Ai Smoke Max certainly delivers.

The look is much improved with a carbon lattice crown giving a more stealth look and thankfully a darker grey colour. There are still elements of blue along with a camo design effect on the sole, which may not appeal to all but thankfully can’t be seen at address.

At address the Callaway Ai Smoke Max driver looks great and the rounded shape gives plenty of confidence for what is to come. The sound is a bit firmer and more solid and the redesigned face was more forgiving in more places.

There is a sliding weight in the rear of the head to enable SGGT fitters to dial in the CG position with the adjustable loft on the hosel. Callaway claim 19 yards of shot shape correction and it is a useful tool.

On Trackman using Titleist Pro V1 balls, the Ai Smoke Max generated more ball speed with less spin than the previous Paradym driver. As a result the flight was slightly lower, but I was gaining over 10 yards of carry and nearly 13 yards total distance. This starts to put the Ai Smoke right up there with the longest drivers in the market. With what should be a competitive price, it will make the Ai Smoke one of the drivers to look out for this year.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max D Driver Review

The Callaway Ai Smoke Max D driver follows pretty much the same design principles as the standard version, but the head has been made deeper at address to move the CG back and encourage a draw. The toe area does seem a little more open at address, but that could be there to improve the draw bias.

The sliding weight is replaced with a single rear weight to improve this stability and in testing this proved to work well. Shots that would have been a block right for me, were going straighter, yet there was not a major draw bias on straight shots.

Looking at the Trackman data showed that for me the spin was a lot higher with the Ai Smoke Max D driver and that is what reduced the distance. The ball speed was still very good and it was longer than the Paradym so if you are looking for more forgiveness with no loss of distance then the Callaway Ai Smoke Max D driver is going to be a good choice for mid to slow swing speed players.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Driver Review

Like previous ranges, the Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver is at the other end of the spectrum for high speed players.

The more compact 450cc head is taller and not as deep in order to drop the spin and make the club move through the air a little faster. There is a single 14g weight in the sole that can be swapped with the front weight if you need to drop spin still further.

On Trackman the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond produced very similar results to the Max for me, but generally it felt like hard work. The open set up at address will appeal to high speed players who don’t want to see it going left and if you have a swing speed of over 110 mph or need to drop a lot of spin then the Triple Diamond is playable enough to suit a range of players.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Driver Review Summary

Callaway has simplified the range this year and as a result has done a good job with the Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver range. There is a good choice of heads and lofts so there should be something in there for everyone. The Ai Smoke looks and sounds a lot better than the last couple of models and most importantly delivers on the claims for more distance and forgiveness. This could be a contender this year for a lot of golfers when they come for a custom driver fitting at SGGT.

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