Uni-ball Signo Sparkling Glitter Gel Ink Pen – 1.0 mm – Blue

Feel the sparkles in your heart

I’m no connoisseur when it comes to glittery gel ink pens—I may snag one as a novelty, but I don’t have my finger on the pulse of that movement like I did in the 6th grade. My knowledge of the quality of entrants in the field is lacking. That said, I do have a rather cat-chewed Sakura Gelly Roll gel pen in sparkle purple that I will use for comparison.

Pleasantly acceptable!

The body is nice, as far as these cheap things go. Sparkles in the body and cap—noticeable but not gaudy. Cap posts securely on both ends. Pen itself is theoretically easy to refill (who knows how easy refills will be to find, however).

Looks like a mess waiting to happen, though I assure you it isn’t.

First, how the ink writes. I find it smoother than the Sakura Gelly Roll, and generally more consistent. If I’m gonna be taking some sparkly notes, on writing quality alone I favor the Uni Signo over the Gelly Roll.

Unless I’m writing on my hand, then the day goes to the Gelly Roll

As far as personal preference goes, be advised that the Signo ink is more translucent and the Gelly Roll more opaque.

Let it shine!

There is a big flaw in the Signo that you have to be warned of, one that does not plague the Gelly Roll: the Uni Signo glitter ink smells like fish. Smells *powerfully* like fish. If you write with it long enough (read: at all), you’ll think you’ve been transported to an open air fish market. It is truly bizarre.

Perhaps I should have known, blue—> water—> ocean—> FISH.

If you like fish, get this pen. If you want glittery and smooth writing, get this pen. If the mere thought of seafood turns your stomach, DO NOT get this pen.

 

Uni-ball Signo Sparkling Glitter Gel Ink Pen – 1.0 mm – Blue at JetPens

Dong-A Cronix Ballpoint Pen with Hybrid Ink – 1.0 mm – Black Ink

See that shadow line at the top? That’s from using a Rhodia Dot Grid notebook, writing several reviews in advance while out and about, having to fold back the review to start the next one…so inconvenient.

Any time hybrid ballpoint ink pops up, I’ve got to check it out. Thanks to JetPens for providing this sample!

Your basic clicky ballpoint

The Cronix is a no-nonsense situation: monochrome, with a semi-translucent smoky dark gray barrel and lightly accented gray grip.

There you go, that’s the only decoration you get

It’s simple. It works.

The final word is how it writes, and how it stacks up in the super-smooth pantheon. It’s pretty dark, but not every stroke achieves maximum darkness, with the overall effect being writing that isn’t as dark as the full capability of the ink (such as the darkness achieved on multiple passes, when coloring something in).

I really hope they come out with smaller tip sizes. I am not used to non-microtip pens nowadays.

Smoothness, however, is pretty good. I do sense some rare occasions of a sort of microhesitation, as if at times debris or a smidgen of gunked ink has to pass clear of the movement of the ball, but overall the smoothness is satisfactory. The Cronix isn’t going to unseat such kings as the Jetstream or the Vicuna, but it certainly beats out a regular ballpoint pen.

It’s like the Jetstream’s less-cool little brother or cousin or something. Forever doomed to live in the shadow of a greater pen…

If you’re looking for a down-low understated-looking super-smooth ballpoint pen, and for whatever reason the Jetstream just doesn’t do it for you (maybe you hate Uni-ball or kittens or something, I don’t know), take a look at the Dong-A Cronix.

Dong-A Cronix Ballpoint Pen with Hybrid Ink – 1.0 mm – Black Ink at JetPens

Pilot G2 Battle – Black Ink

The most writing I've done with a Pilot G2 since middle school, when I didn't know any better

I was asked by Arch Drafting Supply via Twitter what my opinion of the Pilot G2 pen was. My frothing knee-jerk reaction was “IT IS THE WORST THING“, followed by conceding that the 0.38mm Pilot G2 was inexplicably not an affront to human decency / everything beautiful in the world. But I still hadn’t done a comprehensive review of the Pilot G2 line. High time we change that.

Oh maaan look at how astoundingly unremarkable they are!

I’ve already laid down pretty much all the harshness I can in my previous post reviewing the 0.38mm Pilot G2—the design has reached the pinnacle of boringness. Can any pen hope to claim this title from the Pilot G2 through innovative use of the most uninspired and unappealing design techniques known to modern man? Unlikely. A design this steadfastly boring is a classic that will stand the test of time and remain just as boring 20 years from now as it is today.

Little plastic windows opening into the void

There are three elements of design that vary among the different sized models. One is the color of the barrel; the two larger tip sizes (1.0mm and 0.7mm) have smoky translucent barrels, and the two smaller tip sizes (0.5mm and 0.38mm) have clear barrels.

The Pilot G2: as exciting as a rollercoaster, provided that the rollercoaster only travels 1mph and never actually makes it out of the station before you give up and get off.

Second element: the writing on the clip—gold for the 1.0mm and the 0.7mm, silver for the 0.5mm, white for the 0.38mm.

I'VE SAVED THE BEST ELEMENT FOR LAST!!!!!!!!

And your final element: the color of the plastic on the tip (something that most people probably won’t notice, because who refills a Pilot G2 when it runs out? I’m pretty sure everyone just throws them away) is different for each tip size. But enough about the design. What really matters is what’s on the inside. In the spirit of fairness, I went out and bought these pens brand new for this review, hoping that the abysmal quality control would finally break in my favor, unlike every 0.5mm and 0.7mm Pilot G2 I would attempt to use at my last job.

When people say they love the Pilot G2, it's like when teenagers say they'll love each other forever. They just don't know any better.

Thankfully, I had no experiences of utter frustration resulting in throwing the pen across the room while writing this review (this happened several times with several previous G2 pens). All of the pens did what a pen is supposed to do, which is write.

The 1.0mm vs. the 0.7mm, the 0.7mm vs. the 0.5mm, and the 0.5mm vs. the 0.38mm

Of the bunch, I loathed the 0.5mm the most the 0.5mm was my least favorite. There was something that felt off, unsteady, annoying when I was writing with it. The 0.7mm came in at the cut-off of acceptable: perfectly fine if I need to write something down right now, but if I have the time and opportunity to go find another pen to write with, I will. The two extremes, 0.38mm and 1.0mm, turned out to be my favorites.

Baby bear and Poppa bear

Having such an audaciously huge rollerball made the 1.0mm the smoothest among the G2s. My writing looks awful and messy, but I wasn’t getting resistance from the pen (one of my main concerns). And the performance of the 0.38mm is no surprise; we already knew that one was a favorite, with neat, precise, and constant lines.

I doubt I’ll ever go out of my way to make sure I have any of the Pilot G2 models in my daily arsenal, but the 0.38mm and 1.0mm would be just fine in an office drawer, and those pens can rest easy knowing they probably won’t be evicted from one of my many homebound pen cups.

 

No link, because you can find these pens pretty much EVERYWHERE. Probably even convenience stores and bake sales. They’re ubiquitous.

The Write Dudes Super Smooth Retractable Ballpoint Pen

Do you see these colors? Am I hallucinating this?

Another product from the package of samples that Andrew V with the Write Dudes sent to me! This package originally included 18 smooth & retractable ballpoint pens, but my cat has teleported two of them into an alternate dimension accessible only to felines.

Not that you can really tell, but there are only 16 pens in this picture

The package promises only “assorted colors,” so I have no idea if red, orange, green, purple, light blue (all 2 pens each), blue (4) and black (also 4) are the standard colors, but that’s what I got.

Almost a full rainbow. Everyone always "forgets" to invite yellow...but even when you put him on the page, he barely shows up. </bad joke></barely even a joke>

The look of these pens is like a procrastinated school project hastily rushed to completion five minutes before class; it looks good from a distance, but the shortcuts show a mile wide if you get close. The only parts of the pen NOT made of plastic are the spring inside the pen, and the actual ballpoint nib attached to the ink refill (though I get the feeling there’d be no hesitation to make those out of plastic too, if it were possible). You pick up the pen, and it is lightweight to the point of feeling unmistakably cheap.

This...just....looks....unnecessarily tacky.

It’s a shame, because otherwise I actually quite like the design of these pens. Simple yet modern, with ink color clearly conveyed through the design of the pen body. The grip is comfortable, and thoughtfully molded into a triangular shape for better gripping posture. But that clip, I mean, look at that plastic seam running right down the middle. It’s garish. And I have full confidence that the plastic will quickly break if I try to make use of the clip. If The Write Dudes were to make the silver parts of this pen out of metal—any metal really, I don’t care if it’s cheap so long as it isn’t radioactive—then they’d have the design nailed.

Things get better at this point. These points.

I admit, before I first put these pens to paper, I’d already built up a bias. The cheap construction did not instill great confidence that these pens would even be smooth, let alone super. And the first few strokes of every pen weren’t great (even after first use, if the pen had been sitting unused for a while it was the same situation). But once I’d written a letter, perhaps two, definitely by the end of the first word, I found that these pens were actually, to my astonishment, smooth. Super smooth? Heck, I’ll give it to them. The line quality is decent, as good as any standard ballpoint, and certainly vibrant enough for me. Comparing the black pens, the Write Dudes super smooth ballpoint pen is gray when put next to Zebra’s Surari Emulsion ink or Uni-ball’s Jetstream (which is essentially like writing with liquid night 500 miles from civilization dark). But I think the Write Dudes ballpoint is intended to compete more with the low-end fare (in the neighborhood of, say, Bic sticks and no-name ballpoints), and in that class I’d say it’s a good contender. And I really enjoyed doodling with these pens. I’ll probably draft the light blue ballpoint into my daily arsenal/legion (blue ink/lead has a special property of making all doodles look magically better).

I think these are 1.0mm, by the way. In an ideal fantasy world, these would also be offered in 0.5mm. I'll keep dreaming.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a link on the Write Dudes website to the exact product pack I reviewed. Here’s a four-pack, featuring not my favorites among the colors I received. Try looking in your typical big box stores, like Office Max or Target. I don’t know what the full 18 pack costs, but based on the pricing of the 4-pack, this seems like a darned good value.