Quality/Construction: The Exsence is a very familiar form sharing, as mentioned earlier, the same overall shape as the former Chronarch D. The finish of this reel is charcoal grey with a very slight change in shade to a lighter grey on top of the reel. The frame and sideplate tolerances are very good but the handle does have some backplay in it. The knobs on our Exsence's handle are tight with no play in and out from the handle.

X-Ship is now a common feature in Shimano's baitcasting lineup.

Drag is provided by this single disc.

Drag: The Exsence, like most low profile baitcasters coming out of Japan is rated at 4.5 kgs of drag pressure. This equates to percentage points under 10 lbs (straight conversion equals 9.9208 lbs). The maximum drag we tested the Exsence out to with the dragstar tightened down as far as my fingers would tighten the drag was 9.76 lbs and I'm not one to really crank down super hard on the dragstar. Given that, the reel's max drag rating is easily achieved if that is your goal.

Fig 1: The Sweet Drag Performance chart above shows the consistency in drag performance of our Shimano Exsence DC.

As explained in the past and repeated here, our goal is always to chart out how a reel's drag performs under a consistent pull because for those of us who do not button down our drags, the factors of smoothness and consistency are more important. In this regard, the Exsence performs very consistently. It has a very sweet drag.