As MVP Disc Sports continues to grow as a company we’re seeing their ideas turn into new plastics and new molds. They’ve slowly, but surely, worked their way up from putters to high speed distance drivers with the release of the new MVP Disc Sports Photon. The Photon is their first distance driver with a rim width of 21.5 mm and is initially released in their new Fission plastic.

MVP says this about their new long distance bomber:

The Photon is best described as a longer Tesla, with power throwers able to achieve some flight extending turn, and all throwers getting a reliable fade. The Photon is naturally headwind resistant but average power throwers can use a headwind to emulate those extended flights of high power throwers.

MVP sent us a Fission Photon that weighed in at 157g. The idea behind the Fission plastic is to bring down the weight of the core of the disc while keeping the majority of the weight in the outer rim. According to MVP this will in turn create more of a GYRO effect which could translate to longer flights.

We typically throw max weight discs for the majority of the time and we were curious to see how a 157g distance driver could hold up. After our tests, we were quite surprised with how the Photon performed. While it wasn’t overstable, it was certainly more stable than we were expecting.

The flight plate is feels pretty thin, which is expected, but the plastic has a nice grip. You shouldn’t have much to worry about in terms of grip. You can dig your thumb into the flight plate with confidence on the Photon in preparation for that big drive.

Lightweight discs tend to have the reputation of being a more understable than its max weight counterparts. In our experience with the Photon, that wasn’t the case. We surprised ourself multiple times with how stable the Photon was. Average arms were able to get a little turn out of the Photon, but it was certainly less than expected. If released on a little hyzer it would flip to flat and maybe turn just a hair before kicking into a fade, but it wasn’t too dramatic. Power arms were able to get a little more action out of it, but it never wanted to just roll over and burn. This really defined what the Photon can do. Being able to really power into a lightweight disc and get such nice results was an unexpected, yet pleasant finding.

While there was a little turn to it, the Photon would always fade out on us. It was never the strongest fade, but it always had movement to the left. If we did get a throw with a little more turn in it, the Photon will flatten back out and return back to the left at the end of the flight. Straighter throws that had less turn would show a more predictable fade.

There was a decent amount of glide on the Photon which helped it carry down the fairway. It was very similar to what we saw on the MVP Tesla too. In our experiences, we believe the Photon leans more on speed than glide for its distance. The lighter weights will make it a little more wind sensitive though. We found it could hold up in a small headwind with ease, but the cross winds gave it a little more movement on the turn or fade depending on the direction of the wind.

Overall, we’d rate the MVP Disc Sports Photon at 12, 4.5, -1, 2.5. Slower arms might see ratings around 12, 4.5, -0.5, 3. There will be a little turn there and a solid fade, but the ratio between the two will depend on your arm speed.

This begs the question… Is this MVP’s answer to the popular Innova Destroyer? It could be. The Destroyer still has a little more fade out of the box, but the flights were similar to that of a worn in Destroyer. Even if the flights are a little different, the overall distances could be close.

The MVP Disc Sports Photon really was a disc that we could power into. When combined with the low weights the results were impressive. A few years ago when fans of MVP heard they were coming out with distance drivers, this is what they had in mind. Yes, the Motion, Tesla, Inertia, and Impulse have some speed to them, but they don’t quite reach the level of the Photon.

MVP has a solid start to their high speed distance drivers with the new Photon. A lightweight disc that flies close to a max weight counterpart is impressive. While ours wasn’t the lightest of the bunch, it really didn’t make much of a difference. Regardless of the manufacturer, lighter discs should fly further. Now, if you can combine that thinking with a disc that can actually hold up to some power, you have a winner.

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