Rome's Artifact Pro is a board that loves to get air.
But while getting airborne is it's best characteristic, it's versatile enough to be a one board quiver, if you you don't tend to ride powder.
I rode it on a day with a good variety of conditions, including some harder/icy patches and otherwise mostly soft bordering on slushy snow.
Off groomer wasn't much fun on the day, but this isn't a board well suited for that anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed to not be able to put it properly through its paces outside of the groomed trails.
Reference for Perspective of Review
I will take a look at the Artifact Pro as an all-mountain-freestyle snowboard.
And, as per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com, I will give the Artifact Pro a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other all-mountain-freestyle snowboards.
Overall Rating
Board: Rome Artifact Pro
Price: $559
Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle
Flex Rating: Medium (5/10)
Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5.5/10)
Rating Score: 83.3/100
Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards
Of the 33 current model all-mountain freestyle snowboards that we tested:
❄️ The Artifact Pro ranked 21st= out of 33
Overview of the Artifact Pro's Specs
Check out the tables for the Artifact Pro's specs and available sizes.
Specs
STYLE:
ALL-MOUNTAIN-FREESTYLE
PRICE:
$559
Ability Level:
flex:
feel:
DAMPNESS:
SMOOTH /SNAPPY:
Playful /aggressive:
Edge-hold:
camber profile:
SHAPE:
setback stance:
Centered
BASE:
Sintered | Rome's "Sinterstrong" base.
weight:
Felt normal
Camber Height:
6.5mm
Sizing
LENGTH (cm) | Waist Width (mm) | Rec Rider Weight (lb) | Rec Rider Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
147 | 251 | 99-139 | 45-63 |
150 | 253 | 105-145 | 48-66 |
153 | 254 | 118-158 | 54-72 |
154W | 265 | 128-168 | 58-77 |
156 | 256 | 130-170 | 59-78 |
157W | 267 | 140-180 | 64-82 |
159 | 258 | 142-182 | 65-83 |
160W | 269 | 152-192 | 69-88 |
Who is the Artifact Pro Best Suited To?
The Artifact Pro is most suited to someone who likes to get air (whether a lot of it or launching off of smaller features), but also wants a board that can carve and handle a good amount of speed.
Not going to serve you very well in powder, so makes a great pairing with a predominantly powder oriented board for a well balanced two-board quiver. If you don't tend to see much powder (or choose not to ride it), then it could also make a one-board quiver.
Not for beginners, IMO. Whilst it's not a super challenging ride, it's also not something that's likely to boost the confidence of a beginner, given that it's not catch-free and not super easy to initiate turns on.
The Artifact Pro in More Detail
O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Artifact Pro is capable of.
Demo Info
Board: Rome Artifact Pro 2024, 153cm (255mm waist width)
Date: March 29, 2023
Conditions:
Temperature: 2°C (36°F) with zero wind in the morning. 3°C (37°F) with a 5kph (3mph) westerly in the afternoon.
Overhead: Lots of sunshine. Perfect visibility.
24 hour snow: 0" (0cm)
48 hour snow: 0" (0cm)
7 day snow: 8" (20cm)
On groomer: Pretty icy to start but already with some softer areas. It was warm and got progressively softer throughout the day. But still plenty of hard and icy patches to test on, even at the end.
Off groomer: Real crunchy/icy to start. Not a fun off-groomer day. Got a little better later in the day.
Set up
Bindings angles: +15/-15
Stance width: 21" (535mm)
Stance Setback: Centered
Width at Inserts: 266mm (10.47")
Rider Height: 6'0"
Rider Weight: 180lbs
Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Response ADV
Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M
Weight: 6lbs 3oz (2800 grams)
Weight per cm: 18.30 grams/cm
Average Weight per cm: 18.71 grams/cm*
*based on a sample size of around 250 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models. Pretty close to average on the scales. A little under. And felt a pretty normal weight on snow too.
Powder
Nothing to test in but the specs suggest it's likely to be woeful in powder. Full camber, centered true twins without much nose don't tend to float well in powder, in my experience.
Carving & Turning
Carving: I found the Artifact Pro to be a really decent carver. Stiff enough to hold on to faster carves and you can feel all that camber helping to really dig the edges in on a carve. A great option as a freestyle board that can carve.
Ease of Turning/Slashing: It's not effortless to turn, but it's nothing that requires too much effort either.
Maneuverability at slow speeds: Again, it's not lightning quick to turn when riding slower, but it's also not bad.
Skidding Turns/Catchiness: There's some consequence to skidded turns on this board, if you do it at the wrong time. It's nothing that's super catchy or anything either, but it's not completely catch-free.
Speed
I found that this board can handle a good amount of speed without feeling unstable. It's not you're out and out bomber, but instead gives you a balance of good stability at pretty high speeds but also being fun at slower speeds.
Uneven Terrain
Crud: Felt pretty pretty stable in more cruddy conditions. It's heavy enough and stiff enough not to get bucked around too easily. It's not a crud destroyer or anything, but really decent for a freestyle focused board.
Bumps/trees: Not super quick edge-to-edge but not a slouch either, so weaving between bumps/trees was pretty fun on this board. It held and gripped well in the icier patches too.
Jumps
This board was born to jump, really. This is it's best feature in my opinion and was super fun getting this thing airborne. Great pop and really stable on landings (despite being a 153, which is small for me).
Pop: Pretty easy to access the Artifact Pro's pop. It's not the easiest access pop I've experienced, but it doesn't take too much effort to extract the pop out of it. And then when you do put in that extra effort, it has plenty of total pop.
Approach: Surprisingly stable on approach, given I was on the 153. Would have felt even more stable on a longer size (I'd ideally ride this in a 156). And also had a good mix between maneuverability and stability (maneuverability would be a little less on the 156 for me).
Landing: Again, despite being the 153, it felt really solid feeling on landings. Being slightly over the average weight helps here. And not being too soft and having all that camber likely helped it too.
Side-hits: Overall very good on side-hits. If I was being fussy I would say a bit more in terms of ease of maneuverability, but overall this thing was a blast on side-hits.
Small jumps/Big jumps: Really well suited to all types of jumps. On the 153, I would say the medium jumps are it's sweet spot, but in the 156, I think it would perform even better for large jumps.
Switch
Felt really good riding switch. No surprise given it's a true twin. Transitions didn't feel catch-free, but so long as I was concentrating, at least to some extent, on good technique in transitions, it was fine. Landed and took off well in switch for 180s too.
Spins
As mentioned above, it was good for taking off switch and landing switch, so good for those 180s, 5s, 7s, etc. Also felt really even and balanced in the air and felt like it had an easy swing weight (noting that I was riding a 153, which is small for me). The pop that it possesses was also nice, particularly off smaller features where I had to generate enough air to get the spin around to where it needed to be.
It doesn't over spin on landings and if you land short on your rotation it's not super punishing. It's also not super forgiving, so it can catch if you don't get all the way around, depending on the angle you're landing on.
Jibbing
It's not ideal, but also decent enough. More challenging than softer, less catchy boards if you're a weaker jibber, but if you're a strong jibber, should be fine for you.
Butters
You've got to put a bit of pressure on the ends to get them to flex, but it's nothing that requires (assuming you were to get the right size). too much effort.
Doesn't over flex - at least it didn't for me and I was on a smaller size, which I would be more likely to over flex, so it's unlikely too, again assuming you're on a good size for you.
Score Breakdown and Final Verdict
Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.
| FACTOR | Rating (/5) | Weighted |
|---|---|---|
| Jumps | 4.5 | 18/20 |
| Carving | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Turns | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Switch | 4.5 | 9/10 |
| Speed | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Spins | 4 | 8/10 |
| Butters | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Jibbing | 3 | 3/5 |
| Crud etc | 3.5 | 3.5/5 |
| Trees | 3.5 | 3.5/5 |
| Pow | 2 | 2/5 |
| TOTAL (after normalizing): | 83.3/100 |
The Artifact Pro is a really fun freestyle board that carves better than a lot of others and has good stability at speed too, for an otherwise predominantly freestyle focused board. As you'd expect, it's not going to be great for riding powder, but it's otherwise a very versatile board, that feels at its best when getting air.
More Info, Current Prices and Where to Buy Online
If you want to learn more about the Artifact Pro, or if you are ready to buy, or if you just want to research prices and availability, check out the links below.
If you want to check out some other all-mountain-freestyle snowboard options, or if you want to compare how the Artifact Pro compares to other all-mountain-freestyle snowboards, then check out the next link.
Hey what Board of the Artifact Pro or the Rome Agent 2024 (normal Version) got softer Flex and better butterability and pressability in your eyes? Thanks for an answer
Hi Nic, thanks for your message.
In my experience the Agent was softer and better butterability/pressabiliity – see our Rome Agent review for more details.
Camber height cant be correct Artifact Boards got all super low camber with around 2mm height.
Hi Inh, thanks for your message.
Camber heights can vary from board to board, but wouldn’t typically vary that much. Where did you hear that they’re supposed to have low camber and 2mm? Or have you measured some yourself. I measured this one (Artifact Pro) at 6.5mm and the regular Artifact was 4.5mm. I’m very careful to measure them accurately. If you want I can try to look to see if I took footage of the boards being measured and see if I can zoom in on the ruler. I’d rather not as that would be time consuming, but if you’re still disbelieving in these numbers and are really curious I can make the effort.
If you did measure them yourself, did you measure them weighted or un-weighted. I do all my measurements unweighted (including without bindings, though they shouldn’t have the weight to compress the camber by 4mm!).
Curious to hear your reply, as those numbers represent quite a big variance – and while there is some variance from board to board, I’ve never seen that much variance.
You can check the pictures of the Boards on the Rome site (on 2024 ones even better to see) and there you can clearly see the difference for example to a renegade with a high camber of around 8 to 10 mm. I measure the boards myself and yes there are differences (i got both Artifacts) but still the Artifact got a super low camber and maybe maxes out at around 3-4mm.
Just Check the 4th pic of the
Stale Crewzer for example
https://romesnowboards.com/products/rome-stale-crewzer-2324-mens-snowboard
compared to the 4th pic of the Artifact Pro
https://romesnowboards.com/products/rome-artifact-pro-2324-mens-snowboard
Cheers!
Hi Inh
Thanks for the followup. If your Artifact gets to 4mm, then it’s very similar to the 4.5mm I got. That’s an expected variance. What did you get on your Artifact Pro? For the Renegade I tested it measured 8mm.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into product photos, but if you’re measuring them yourself, then, so long as you’re doing it accurately, then that’s a much more reliable measure. To be clear, I always record the camber at its highest point on each board. Anything else would make it hard to compare between boards.
Hey. Thanks for your fast answers. I just got a new Artifact pro today and it really got around 6-7mm Camber height. Seems Like my old Artifact Pro got some manufacturing issues or just a super low tolerance cuz i got 3mm max Camber height without bindings and thats quite a big difference. New one feels to have quite more SNAP. Never seen Something Like that before in my 25 years of riding. But happy to have cleared it out. Thanks for your efforts. Cheers
Hi Inh
Thanks for the update. That certainly makes more sense and yeah, that’s a big difference. Might have been a manufacturing thing on your old one – or they may have increased it’s camber height now compared to older models. The 2024 model was the first time we’d tested the Artifact Pro. If your old one was before then, it might be that they’ve since changed it, giving it more camber. Glad to hear you’re getting more snap out of your new one!
Hey Nate,
Just curious how would you compare this to the Agent? I have a yes greats 152 and am looking for something a bit softee for jibbing and small/medium jumps. Would the 147/148 be too small for someone who’s 5’9 130lb with size 8.5 tactical advs?
Hi Leo, thanks for your message (and apologies for the delay in response – still catching up trying to get reviews etc published!)
I wouldn’t say it’s a whole lot softer than the Greats, but if you were going to ride the 147, then it would definitely feel more significantly softer than the 151 Greats.
Size-wise, I would put your “typical all-mountain length” at around 151, so I don’t think the 147 would be too small at all, given how you plan to use it. And definitely not too narrow for your boots or anything, IMO.
I preferred the Agent Pro (review coming), to this but it is a touch stiffer. I’d say very similar to the Greats. But again, in the smaller size of the 148, it should feel softer than the Greats.
Hope this helps