The Pongbot Pace S Pro is one of the machines leading the new generation of AI powered ball machines, and it is hard to move on Instagram or YouTube without someone talking about it. I own one, and after a few months of weekly sessions it has earned a permanent spot in my practice routine. This review covers what it is actually like to live with, based on my own time with it on the courts I play on, in typical British conditions. Wind included.
Quick Verdict
The Pace S Pro delivers on its promises. The player tracking works, the recovery trigger changes how drills feel, and the battery has never once cut a session short on me (2 hours of hitting typically uses up 1 bar of battery). The app takes some learning and its interface could be cleaner, and a couple of the default shot types needed adjusting before they felt realistic. Neither of those has stopped me reaching for it every week. It offers features that machines costing considerably more simply do not have.
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Key Specifications
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Maximum Speed | 80 mph (129 kph) |
| Spin | Up to 3,600 RPM (topspin and backspin) |
| Ball Capacity | 150 balls |
| Battery Life | Up to 8 hours |
| Weight | 19 kg |
| Preset Drills | 564+ |
| Custom Drill Capacity | Up to 45 balls per sequence |
| Warranty | 1 year |
Figures are from the official Pongbot site. For how it sits against the rest of the market, our best tennis ball machines guide covers the full field.
Set-up and getting it to the court
Set-up was easy. Out of the box and hitting balls took very little time, and getting it onto court each week is mostly painless thanks to the wheels and telescoping handle. The one slight faff is lifting it in and out of the car boot. At 19 kg it is not a machine you swing about one-handed, and the shape of my boot does not help. I put that one more on my car than on Pongbot, but if you drive something small it is worth knowing.
One tip from experience rather than the manual. Get the dust cover. The machine sits low to the ground and picks up dirt and debris from general court use, and keeping it covered between sessions keeps all that out of the workings.
The AI features on court
The headline act is the Ultra Wideband tracking. Small sensors clip to the net posts and to you, and the machine follows your position on court in real time. This is the bit that separates the Pace S Pro from traditional machines, and having used it properly over several months, it is not a gimmick.
The recovery trigger is the feature I rate most. A normal machine fires on a fixed interval whether you have recovered or not, which quietly teaches you to cheat by camping wherever the last ball went. With the trigger on, the next ball only comes once you are back in your recovery zone. It sounds like a small thing. On court it changes the entire character of a drill, because your footwork discipline sets the tempo rather than a timer.
Adaptive rally mode feeds to wherever you are standing, so moving around the court changes what comes back at you. Combined with match challenge mode, which scales difficulty across the full NTRP range, there is a genuine sense of the machine responding to you rather than just cycling a pattern. That is the difference between this and the random oscillation you get on machines like the Lobster Elite, where the placement varies but the timing never does.
What it is like to hit against
If you have never hit on a ball machine before, expect an adjustment period. You lose all the cues you normally read from an opponent, the shape of their swing, where their body is facing. It took me a little while to stop feeling half a beat late. What you learn to read instead is the machine itself. You can see the head moving side to side before it feeds, and that becomes your new cue.
My first session threw up a lesson worth sharing. The machine initially felt underpowered, with balls landing shorter than I expected. It turned out the wind was knocking the flight down, and the fix was simply customising the drill settings to add depth. Once I had that figured out, the feeds were consistent for the rest of the session, and it is an adjustment I now make without thinking on blustery days.
The spin is noticeable and mostly realistic. Topspin feeds kick up off hard courts the way a proper topspin drive should, without ballooning. The slice feeds were the one thing I felt needed work out of the box. The default underspin was heavier than anything I face from opponents at my level, so the ball behaved more like a drop-shot exaggeration than a rally slice. The per-ball spin settings let you dial it back, but expect to tweak before slices feel like the real thing.
Be under no illusion about the physical side either. This can be a serious workout if you want it to be. I have come off court after two hours with the Pace S Pro feeling more worked than after plenty of matches, because the recovery trigger never lets you stand still and admire a shot. If you want structured, sweat-soaked movement work rather than lazy basket feeding, it delivers.
The app and the remote
I control the machine almost entirely through the Pongbot app, which connects over Bluetooth. Custom drills let you set spin, speed, height and placement for up to 45 balls in a sequence, and the drills I have used do exactly what they say they will. There is also a large preset library and a community sharing feature, so you are never short of session ideas.
My main criticism after months of use is that the interface could be cleaner. It does everything, but finding your way around takes longer than it should, and first-time users should expect a learning curve when building custom sequences. Over-the-air updates keep improving things, so there is reason to expect it gets better.
One practical mistake worth learning from. Early on I wanted to film my sessions using my phone, then realised the phone was also my controller. The included P-Control remote syncs with your saved drills and solves this completely, so if you record your practice, bring it. It lives in my bag now.
Living with it long term
A few months of weekly use is where cheaper machines tend to show cracks, and the Pace S Pro has not. The build has held up to being wheeled across tarmac and loaded in and out of the car with no issues beyond the dirt pick-up I mentioned, which the cover sorts.
The battery deserves its own mention. Pongbot claims up to 8 hours and I have never got close to running it flat, including those two-hour sessions. Charging after every couple of outings has been more habit than necessity.
I run 72 pressureless balls in mine and the hopper holds them easily, with room to double that against the 150-ball capacity. Pressureless balls are the right choice for any machine because they keep their bounce over months of abuse, and Pongbot sells them alongside the machine. Our guide to tennis balls covers the wider options.
How it compares
Against the traditional premium machines, the Lobster Elite and its rivals, the Pace S Pro trades decades of proven track record for features they simply cannot match. No amount of oscillation replicates a machine that waits for you to recover. The Lobster counters with simplicity and legendary support, and some players will rightly prefer that trade.
Within the newer AI-powered category, the Tenniix is the closest rival, while the PUSUN PT-Max C offers app control and programmable placement at a friendlier outlay but without real-time player tracking. The Slinger Bag is a different product for a different job, portable feeding without spin control or smart features. If you are weighing up the used market instead, our second hand ball machine guide is worth a read first.
Who should buy this
Players who practise at least a couple of times a week and want sessions that feel like matches rather than feeding drills. That is the player I am, and it is why the machine has stuck in my routine. The recovery trigger and adaptive modes specifically reward people working on footwork and court coverage, which makes it a strong fit for improving intermediate players through to advanced competitors. Coaches get a lot here too, since the machine can run complex adaptive drills while they watch and correct rather than feed.
If you want a machine your less technical club mates can walk up to and use without a phone, or you would rather have a longer warranty and proven decade-long reliability than clever features, the traditional brands still make a strong case.
Final verdict
After a few months of owning the Pace S Pro, the early hype has survived contact with reality. The tracking features are the real deal and they have changed what a solo practice session looks like for me, from hitting balls to proper, exhausting movement work. The rough edges are real but minor. The app interface needs polish, the default slice wants taming, and you will want the dust cover and the remote in your bag.
It earns its 4.5 out of 5. The missing half point is the app experience rather than anything that happens on court. If your priority is training that transfers to matches, this is the most complete machine I have used, and you can read the full specification on the official Pongbot site.
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