TaylorMade Qi10 vs TaylorMade Qi35 Driver: Read Our Full Head-To-Head Verdict

TaylorMade Qi10 vs TaylorMade Qi35 Driver: Read Our Full Head-To-Head Verdict

TaylorMade have a long tradition of making some of the best drivers money can buy and last year's offering, the Qi10 range, was one of the brand's most popular in recent times and was used to great effect by the number one players in both the men's and women's game, Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda.

For 2025, TaylorMade has introduced the Qi35 family, which takes its name from the ‘3’ pillars it stands for - form, function, and fit - plus the ‘5’ head models available in the driver, TaylorMade will be hoping that it can reach, or even surpass, the heights of the Qi10 range.

The Qi10 driver is a tough act to follow, so does the Qi35 surpass its predecessor or would golfers be better off sticking with the older model?

Both of these drivers have been rigorously tested by Golf Monthly, so here we take a look at the performance head-to-head to see which one might be right for you.

Technology

The tech in the Qi10 is all geared towards MOI and forgiveness and it represents a significant upgrade on the Stealth2. TaylorMade has stretched out the head shape giving it an 8mm longer profile from front to back, moving the CG deeper into the head increasing its resistance to twisting. This also gives the Qi10 a larger footprint which inspires confidence and makes it one of the best drivers for higher handicap golfers.

Taylormade has taken advantage of these new dimensions and pushed weight into more extreme locations which provides a significant boost to the club's MOI. The 60 layers of carbon have remained in the face of the Qi10 along with the familiar twist face technology.

The Qi35 range of drivers is all about CG (center of gravity) projection. The clubhead has been engineered so that the CG projects out to the face as low as possible, to increase what TaylorMade is referring to as ‘the area of opportunity’. What does this mean? Well you know those occasional strikes you experienced when the ball comes slightly high off the face, launches high but with minimal spin and goes absolutely miles? That happens because the ball has struck the face slightly above the CG projection, thereby creating a vertical gear effect that boosts launch and knocks off spin.

So, if that CG projection is lower, that gives you more chance of seeing those optimal flight conditions. TaylorMade have achieved this by saving weight (specifically from the crown, the ring, and the hosel sections) and moving it around the club head to bring that balance point or CG projection as low as possible.

In addition to this, two adjustable weights in the sole can be switched to fine-tune launch and spin, while the Qi35 also features a multi-material construction that includes chromium carbon, steel, aluminum, tungsten and titanium as well as a fourth-generation carbon twist face. In other words, it's ram packed with tech and is certainly one of the best TaylorMade drivers in years.

Looks

With the TaylorMade Qi10, the visual is much improved from its predecessor the Stealth 2. Taylormade has done away with the red face we have grown accustomed to, which always divided opinion and seemed to be a novelty that quickly wore off. The red was replaced with a deep blue that looks great against the black crown of the Qi10 head. It also has a nice clean white line across the top that genuinely helps with alignment, along with a super clean gloss finish on the crown of the driver. At address, we think the new shape of the Qi10 looks great, with a lovely rounded finish that resembles the Titleist TSR2 driver. The overall size of the head should inspire confidence for anyone who struggles with finding the center of the clubface.

While I liked the look of the Qi10, I have to say that the Qi35 looks spectacular, with a predominantly light grey carbon head that wouldn’t look out of place as the interior of a supercar. The minimalist look and the overall finish makes this one of the nicest looking drivers I've seen in many a year. It's just very subtle, with the merest hint of accent color coming from a handful of tiny pale green splashes on the sole that you have to look extremely closely to even notice.

The shape at address is significantly rounder than the profile of the Qi10 driver, so much so that the Qi35 is now the identical playing profile to the higher MOI Qi35 Max product. One of the main reasons I elected to put the Qi10 in my bag last year was due to the roundness of the head, which is something I have become very keen on in recent years, but when you put that driver down next to the Qi35, it looks positively pear-shaped now.

Feel

The feel off the face of the Qi35 is different from the Qi10, with a slightly livelier, more high-pitched acoustic creating a touch more of a firmer feel to impact which I must say I thoroughly enjoyed. Of course this is all relative to the ‘carbonwood’ products of the past few seasons, and to me the TaylorMade sound and feel still remain much more subdued and ‘thuddier’ than other drivers on the market, but the extra 'zing' you get at strike is another enjoyable feature of a much-improved driver for me.

Performance

The performance from the Qi10 was very impressive and it was right up there as one of the most forgiving drivers to come out in 2024. The most impressive thing to me was was that the dispersion from this driver off seriously mishit shots was outstanding, and the overall ball speed retention was excellent too. The spin levels were slightly on the higher side which is something to be expected when choosing such a high MOI driver, but this was easily remedied by simply dropping down the loft somewhat if required.

Onto the Qi35 now, and one thing that massively stood out to me was just how much of a difference changing around the adjustable weights made to the performance. This represents a big improvement on the Qi10, which does not have adjustable weighting. In the neutral setting, this is an incredibly stable, forgiving driver that really promotes confidence at address.

However, if you switch that heavier weight to the front you are looking at an entirely different animal. In this 'beast mode' setting, my spin dropped around 250 rpm, but my overall distance went up a considerable amount. My dispersion inevitably suffered slightly, but certainly not as much as I expected and it's worth the trade off for the extra length.

Which one should you choose?

Choose the TaylorMade Qi10 if...
- You want to pay less
- You value simplicity and don't want adjustable weighting
- You put great emphasis on feel and sound

Choose the TaylorMade Qi35 if...
- You want the newest product
- You want more distance without losing forgiveness
- You value adjustability and moveable weights