The GNU Upgrade is a versatile ride that straddles that boundary between playful and aggressive perfectly and has no definable weaknesses, at least none I could detect.
As you get with boards that are good at a bit of everything, it's not top tier in any one particular area, but it's consistent across all the factors we test for.
In this review, I will take a look at the Upgrade as an all-mountain snowboard, which we define as the do-it-all swiss-army knives of boards.
As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Upgrade a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other men's all-mountain snowboards.
Overall Rating
Board: GNU Upgrade 2026
Price: $599
Style: All-Mountain
Flex Rating: Medium
Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5.5/10)
Rating Score: 88.6/100
Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain Boards
Of the 32 current model men's all-mountain snowboards that we tested:
❄️ The Upgrade ranked 9th out of 32
Overview of the Upgrade’S Specs
Check out the tables for the Upgrade’s specs and available sizes.
STYLE:
ALL-MOUNTAIN
PRICE:
$599 - BUYING OPTIONS
Ability Level:
flex:
feel:
DAMPNESS:
SMOOTH /SNAPPY:
Playful /aggressive:
Edge-hold:
camber profile:
HYBRID ROCKER
hybrid Rocker - GNU's "C2X"
SHAPE:
setback stance:
Setback 20mm (0.75")
BASE:
SINTERED | GNU's "Eco Sublimated Sintered Base"
weight:
Felt A TOUCH LIGHTER THAN normal
Sizing
LENGTH (cm) | Waist Width (mm) | Rec Rider Weight (lb) | Rec Rider Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
151 | 251 | 105+ | 45+ |
153 | 253 | 110+ | 50+ |
156 | 255 | 115+ | 50+ |
159 | 257 | 120+ | 55+ |
157W | 260 | 125+ | 55+ |
160W | 265 | 130+ | 60+ |
* weight recommendations are as per GNU's website
Who is the Upgrade Most Suited To?
The Upgrade is best suited to someone looking for a one-board-quiver - something that they can do a bit of everything on, without needing more than one board, particularly if you prefer your riding feeling a little more on the surfy feel side, rather than more locked in.
While it's pretty easy going, it's not beginner friendly enough for beginners, IMO.
Upgrade DetailS
O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Upgrade is capable of.
Demo Info
Board: GNU Upgrade 2025, 156cm (255mm waist width)
Date: March 3, 2025
Turning
Ease of Turning/Slashing: Nice and easy to initiate turns and to slash out the tail, particularly at slower speeds. Not beginner easy, but it's pretty low effort and forgiving.
Maneuverability at slow speeds: Nice and agile at slow speeds. It has that little bit of a surfy feeling and you can feel that pivot point from the rocker in the middle. It's got enough camber that it doesn't feel super loose/rockery, but you can feel that rocker and that really helps to quickly use that pivot to help you get edge-to-edge nice and quickly, and with very little effort needed.
Catchiness: At slower speeds there was barely anything - if I wasn't feeling for it, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. But surprisingly, it got a little more catchy when riding faster. Still nothing that was enough to bother me, but I found it interesting. It's not the first board I've found can be more catchy when going faster on it, but it's certainly an exception. I find typically that boards get more catchy as you ride slower, but in this case it was the opposite.
Carving
Decent enough on a carve. I'd still put it in that above average category, but it has its limits. It felt best carving at slow to moderate speeds and began to feel a little washy at higher speeds.
Speed
As mentioned above, it could start to get washy above certain speeds, but it does take a fair amount of speed to get it there. Stays pretty stable up to moderately fast speeds, but again, does have its limits.
Powder
We didn't have powder to test in on the day, but based on specs and feel, the Upgrade should be above average, without being amazing in powder. It had a bit of a surfy feel, which should be fun in fresh snow and it's 20mm (3/4") setback on effective edge, longer nose than tail and hybrid profile, that has rocker in it, should all help with powder float.
Uneven Terrain
Crud/Chunder: Smilarly to my comments in the carving and speed sections above, I felt the Upgrade was good, without being amazing in messy snow. It remained pretty stable and could smash through and remain on line to an extent, but again had its limits with how fast you could do it and still feel comfortable and depending on how uneven the snow got.
Trees/Bumps: The Upgrade definitely felt at home in the trees. That quick edge-to-edge maneuverability made it really fun to weave between trees and bumps. Should be decent enough in powdered trees too.
Jumps
Nice snap and ease of setup. Only thing that slightly detracts from it is that mild looseness and that small bit of catchiness at faster speeds. Otherwise would score even higher the 4 I've given it.
Pop: I found the pop nice and easy to extract from the Upgrade and had more to give when putting effort in to load it up.
Approach: Stable up to certain speeds and nice and easy to make adjustments. Better for slower to moderate speed approaches than faster ones, for me, so best suited to small to medium jumps, IMO.
Landing: Landings were nice and forgiving when you were landing a little wonky or a little tail or nose heavy and it was easy to make any quick maneuvers after landing, when needed. Again, not as good for bigger jumps, when you're landing at a higher speed - a little more wobbly on landings from larger jumps. But just about ideal for small to medium jumps.
Side-hits: Really fun. That easy pop and good agility really help it here.
Switch
Riding switch felt good, with a really similar feeling to its nose-first feel. Transitions were good. Faster transitions took on that little more of a catchy feeling, but still fine for the most part.
Spins
I felt good spinning on this board. It had a slight tendency to over-rotate after landing, but not major. Easy to finish under- rotations on the snow. And easy to setup and land switch. Again, like is a theme here, not as well suited to going really big - at least not for us most of us mere mortals - but for everything else, was a nice spinner for me.
Jibbing
Had some great elements for jibbing - easy maneuverability and easy pop, but not perfect for me. If I was going to be doing a lot of jibbing on this board, I would detune the contact points for sure.
Butters
Not too much effort to press the nose and tail and both felt very similar - but it's not so flexy in the nose/tail that you could over-flex it. Or at least I couldn't.
Score Breakdown and Final Verdict
Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.
| Factor | Rating (/5) | Weighted |
|---|---|---|
| Powder | 3.5 | 10.5/15 |
| Carving | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Turns | 4 | 8/10 |
| Speed | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Crud | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Trees | 4 | 8/10 |
| Switch | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Jumps | 4 | 8/10 |
| Spins | 4 | 4/5 |
| Butters | 4 | 4/5 |
| Rails | 3 | 3/5 |
| TOTAL (after normalizing): | 88.6/100 |
The Upgrade is a lively, snappy board that likes to whip edge-to-edge quickly and pop off all the little hits it can find on the sides of groomers, or small to medium jumps in the park.
It's not a beast for speed, but it's pretty decent and requires a fair bit of speed before it starts to get the speed wobbles. Really decent in icy conditions too.
More Info, Current Prices and Where to Buy Online
To learn more about the Upgrade, or if you're ready to buy, or if you just want to research prices and availability, check out the links below:
To check out some other men's all-mountain snowboard options, or to see how the Upgrade compares to others, check out our top rated all-mountain snowboards by clicking the button below.
How would you compare to the GNU Hyper? Similar board?
Hi Nick, thanks for the message and good question.
When I first saw the Hyper was gone and that one of the new boards was the Upgrade, I guessed it would be similar – and while it’s certainly not the same, they are, IMO, more similar than they are different.
I felt the Upgrade had a very comparable flex and feel/personality. But not exactly the same. Subtly, the Upgrade was a little more stable feeling – still on the looser side of stable, like you typically get with that mid-board rocker, but not as much looseness as I felt from the Hyper. Not sure if that’s partly to do with the fact the Hyper had 6mm of taper and the Upgrade is directional twin (so, no taper). The Upgrade also felt subtly damper, but still nothing that felt overly damp or anything.
The differences in shape (which are the biggest differences from a technical standpoint) naturally make the Hyper a little more suited to powder and the Upgrade a little more suited to switch riding.
But yeah, more similar to different, IMO, but the Hyper a little more oriented to powder and the subtle feel/dampness differences mentioned above.
Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker also a similar board, though, as well as some shape, contact length etc differences, the Upgrade comes with the better base, so would be my pick between them, because of that. Otherwise quite similar.
Hope this helps
Thank you Nate, the Upgrade seems really interesting!
Now let’s hope to get some snow in november!
Cheers,
Nick
Hey Nick. Yes, bring on the snow please!