In hindsight, I think I should have drawn some sunglasses on here. Should you find yourself interested in legibility, click on the picture.
Aside from accidentally bending this page when scanning (not sure how I managed that), I’m quite happy with how this review came out. I wasn’t expecting to get good sketches out of this pen, but as long as I’m not doing tiny drawings, this pen does nicely. No blobbing of ink on the tip. But look, why don’t I try to talk about this pen in a more logical, perhaps less haphazard way?
Sleek. Silver. No nonsense. A business pen's business pen.
We met in your typical office supply store; I can’t tell you now whether it was Staples, Office Depot, or Office Max. All I know is that I locked eyes with this pen, and its discounted price of $4, and I knew that we were meant to be together, after a small monetary exchange. The combination of sleek and matte silvery metal gives the pen a look of subtle class that a solid covering of only one or the other wouldn’t achieve. The pen isn’t very heavy, resting in the palm of my hand, but has just enough weight when held for writing. I don’t know what to say about the textured grip–it is neither irritating nor impressive. Metal texture grips always confuse me.
I know what you're thinking. This image is crappy. Look, just focus on the plunger end, okay? This picture is all about that.
The plunger has a satisfying click. Even better, the plunger has a spring mechanism that pushes the plunger back up after it’s clicked; even when the nib is deployed, the plunger stays up, meaning none of that annoying plunger rattling that some click pens are plagued with.
Look at dat sexy plunger. I JUST WANNA CLICK YOU BABY
The neverending curse of the left-handed individual.
The ink isn’t waterproof, but I was impressed with how resistant it was to bleeding through the page, and how crisp my writing remained even as I was obviously picking up ink and moving it around the page with my hand. You can see some of the ink on the side of my hand here, and I suppose if you look close enough you can find it in the writing sample. It would be nice if it didn’t move ink like that at all, but it’s certainly much better than the abominable smudge-messes I’ve produced while, say, writing with a Pentel RSVP (which used to be my favorite ballpoint pen, until I realized what awful messes I was making every time I wrote with them. This was also before I discovered Jetstreams).
You won't find blobs of ink here
This particular pen is 0.7mm, and I eventually intend to give some 0.5mm EnerGel a try. I found its writing consistent, its ink a good shade of black. The pen started writing after probably months of me not using it. It isn’t any sort of artistic go-to, but it suffices in a pinch (read: boring business meeting). If I need to pack a briefcase with something professional looking…well, frankly, this is probably the most professional-looking, full-size, serious business pen I have. But, if some intimidating corporate-type uses my pen and keeps it forever, I won’t go broke getting a new one.
Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT Gel Ink Pen at Office Max
I am going to assume that maybe I got this pen at an Office Max, considering they were the only site with a link to the pen.
No Pen Intended 
I saw that you mentioned the Uniball Jetstream ballpoint pen. I liked the look of this pen and bought it thinking I would give it a try. I have never been a big fan of gel pens. My handwriting is too sloppy for gel pens. This one was the same. I liked the look and feel of the pen but not the ink. I was bored one night and trying to find a ballpoint would fit the pen. I looked at the Jetstream and didn’t think it would work because the of the bulge near the end of the cartride but it worked perfectly. I have been using it ever since.
Thanks for the tip, J! A Jetstream cartridge would definitely improve this pen, in my opinion, and give me a more professional-looking Jetstream option. I’ll have to try this.
My handwriting only approaches not looking terrible with very fine tip pens; I’m wondering if the fine-tipped EnerGel would be fine enough to look halfway decent…as it is, 0.38 and 0.28 mm (and a few 0.5mm, like the Jetstream) pens are my favorite if I want my handwriting to look nice.
Hey, great post. Great blog. It is fresh and to the point. I just read literally dozens of blogs, because I can’t sleep, and yours is by far the best quality. You know it is rare to find decent content on these things… Most of them are cheap and spammy.
Aw, thank you! :) I try to use this blog to practice all kinds of creative endeavors–photography, handwriting, drawing, writing, composition of words and photos, etc. A lot of set-up can go into each post, but I think it’s worth it! I’m glad you like what I’ve done so far; one of my New Year’s resolutions is to post at least twice a week, so please keep checking back. :)
[…] played with an EnerGel before, I decided it was time to continue sauntering down needle-point micro-tip lane and go straight for […]
[…] completely undermines Pentel’s claim of the EnerGel being leftie-friendly. Do you recall this problem? Though the ink did seem to dry quickly and not smear, it still, after dry, managed to get […]
[…] onto the page (especially noticeable in the white areas). I’ve had the same problem with the Pentel Energel. Pens, why? You have to stop doing this to me. Branding is informative, without being […]
[…] it’s working, I like how it writes, though it does do that same annoying thing that Pentel EnerGels do: ink picks up on my hands and gets redistributed onto the page (thankfully without […]
[…] Review at No Pen Intended. Overall it seems to be very positive review, though it sounds like she had some minor smudging issues. Despite the awesomeness of the Energel refill, I did notice that the 0.7mm version (that comes with this pen) tends to smear. I plan on replacing it with the 0.3mm version, which barely smeared at all. […]