Phenix Adds to their Heavy Powered Arsenal : The M1 MX72H

Total Score: 7.92 - GOOD

Introduction: With aggressive designs and attractive price points, Phenix Rods has really made a lot of positive gains in the market place over the last several years. Their MBX Classic and Recon series of rods are now staples in tackle stores nationwide. Today we take a closer look at a rod in their latest series with our review of the MX72H, a seven foot two inch, heavy powered stick that's part of the M1 lineup.

Introducing the M1 MX72H.

Quality/Construction: The M1 rods from Phenix feature a mix of a lot of materials in the handle design. We bring this up because the more you mix materials and colors, the greater chance you have of something going awry during assembly. Fortunately, for Phenix most everything came together really well on the model we chose for review.

This rod features a glossy finish applied what appears to be over an unsanded blank. The result is a very unique glow in the sun.

The blank on our MX72H features a glossy finish over what appears to be an unsanded blank. The gloss evens out the surface, but underneath this clear coat, you can still see the pattern of the original, unsanded blank. The result is very interesting.

Aluminum to compressed cork to Eva to compressed cork to aluminum with a color accent band underneath to the plastic butt cap - a lot of materials to mix together and a lot of seams for potential misalignment.

The rod's grip is a mix of compressed cork and two different colors of EVA foam. There is a slight alignment issue with the rear grip and the reel seat on our test rod, but otherwise, the rod blank and guides are straight and perfectly aligned.

Yet the only issue we found, and it's a small one, was at the top of this joint between the rear grip and the reel seat.