I just reviewed the R7/R5's this weekend. Here's my review:

PREFACE: I don't need to preface the R7/R5 series. Everyone knows about their tour performance, and the success of this club. I was very curious to see if the weight changes would actually work on the course, and see what the hype is all about. I did notice the Taylor made rep did not have any 580-series drivers at all - obviously, they're marketing the R7/R5's, and getting ready to phase out the 580 series.

APPEARANCE: I loved the appearance of the R7. I'm an engineer by schooling, and I find beauty in mechanically-crafted items like the R7. It looks modern, purposeful, and very technical, with it's weight ports. Some people find this a gimmicky solution (like the Callaway folks!), but I like the concept of changing weights to suit your swing.

FEEL/PERFORMANCE: Ta-DA! The R7 "Tour" TP with a Fujikura 757 shaft was ROCKING for me in the morning! I was smashing drives straight, long, and perfectly straight! I have no idea what combination was working for me (the drivers was setup in the "neutral" weighting configuration), but I absolutely loved it. I tried a couple of other R7's with different weight port configurations, but they all seems to perform very well for me. One of the drivers in a "fade" configuration was not working well, which lead me to believe that yes - the weight port concept actually works!

R5 Neutral - I liked this club very much, the feeling at impact, sound, and distance/performance seems very good, but I did find myself losing some drives to the right. If you like to work the ball, and want to save some $$$, this may be the driver for you.

R5 Draw - Awesome! This club hit straight for me EVERY TIME. The face felt good, the shot pattern was very straight, long, and penetrating. And………I couldn't slice/fade it. This club was fitting me perfectly at the end of the day, even better than the R7 TP/Fuji 757 combination I was hitting earlier in the day.

SUMMARY: The weight port concept is NOT a gimmick, IMO. I tested a few different R7's, and the two different R5's, and I can honestly say that moving weight around in the clubhead DOES work to assist your swing and product desired results, especially for a draw/fade bias. As far as high/low bias - I did not notice consistent results in this manner - my swing is not consistent enough to generate accurate testing data towards validating the high/low bias.

Sound - Moving the weight ports in the R7 does indeed make this club sound and feel different. If I tried the larger weights in the extreme left/right of the club, the club sounds differently. The R5's reward you with a very nice "WHACK" sound that is higher pitched, but very satisfying.

In short - Taylormade had a winner here. I liked these clubs a lot, and since my swing DOES change, I can see some value in having the moveable weight ports. Time will tell if the durability of this system will last, but it truly draws a lot of attention from golfers. Oddly, at the beginning of the day, the R7 TP was working the best, but at the end of the day - the R5 "Draw" was working best for me. ???