Pilot Acroball Color Ballpoint Pen - 0.5 mm - Light Blue and Orange

One of my favorite pens keeps on getting better as Pilot has added color to its excellent Acroball ballpoint pen line.

The Acroball has picked up steam since I first reviewed it in 2009. At that time they were only available in Japan, but soon started showing up at importers in the US like JetPens. Nearly four years later, Pilot decided to put the Acroball on the store shelves and at least by the chatter surrounding it, it seems to be doing well.

Why does it take a popular Japanese pen from a major manufacturer four years to hit the market in the US and other countries? I'm still searching for that answer.

Back to the Acroball Color before I go completely off the rails. It's great - as good as any Acroball I have used in fact. If you have never used one or heard of it, what sets it apart from most ballpoints is the use of a hybrid ballpoint ink, similar to the Uni-ball Jetstream that is so loved. This gives it a smooth, clean ink flow that is as good as you will find in a ballpoint. It allows for a vibrancy in color too, which is shown in the writing sample below.

The use of the Miami Dolphins color scheme is unintentional, but it kind of works, doesn't it? Both light blue and orange are difficult to get right in ballpoints but Pilot pulls it off here. I could use both of these colors on their own without pause. And the grip? Why this hasn't propagated through Pilot's offerings (especially the G-2) is beyond me. It is fantastic.

The Violet model is in my future, and if they come out with a good blue black it might be game over for the Jetstream.

(JetPens is an advertiser on The Pen Addict and I received this product at no charge.)

Pilot Acroball 2013 US Version

A few weeks back I was discussing the results of my Field Notes Expedition Edition ink testing on Twitter. The conversation covered the pens that were working well, and of course, the ones that were not. I didn't test every pen at my disposal but tested at least one sample of most ink types. I mentioned that hybrid ballpoint inks worked the best, and that caught the eye of @PilotPenUSA, who touted the Pilot Acroball as a great fit.

Being the fan of the Acroball that I am I inquired if that meant it would finally be making its way to the US. The answer was yes, and soon - March of this year to be exact. They also offered to send me some samples, which you see pictured above.

Fortunately for the US market Pliot decided to keep the barrel design and grip used in the original Japanese model. I am a fan of both, and wish some of these elements would find their way into the old and stale Pilot G2 design. The white barrel/pastel accent color scheme leaves a little to be desired (all are black ink) but at least they are offering the 0.7 mm tip. The black barrels you see in the pic are marked with an "M" on the clip as opposed to the 1.0 mm which they are. I'm not sure why that isn't consistent across the product line.

Regardless, this is a great pen that hopefully more people will have access to in a couple of months. I highly recommend it and thanks to Pilot Pen for providing me with these samples.

Here are a few of my previous Pilot Acroball reviews if you want to read why I enjoy this pen so much:

Pilot Acroball 0.7 mm Blue

Pilot Acroball 0.5 mm Blue

Pilot Acroball 3 Color Multi Pen

(P.S. - I'll pass out if the 0.5 mm or Multi Pen ever make it to the States. Your move Pilot.)

Dong-A Cronix Hybrid Ink Ballpoint Review

I’m not up on my Korean, but does Cronix translate to “Jetstream” in English? Apparently, Dong-A would like you to believe so because the Dong-A Cronix is awfully similar looking to the black Uni-ball Jetstream Basic Series. Turn the grey grip into black and adjust the markings a bit and you are right there. The should have just gone ahead and called it the Dong-A Jetcloud or Dong-A Rocketstream for goodness sakes.

Too bad they couldn’t mimic the writing performance - that would have been an impressive feat! The Jetstream is widely known for its smooth, solid lines and its hybrid ballpoint ink is a personal favorite of mine. I tested out the blue Cronix for this review and while it is not a terrible pen by any stretch, everything about it is a notch below the Jetstream.

The ink is smooth, but not as smooth. The lines are solid, but not as solid. The ink is blue, but not as blue. The barrel is sturdy, but not as sturdy. The Dong-A Cronix is a good pen, but not as good as the Uni-ball Jetstream.

Why not spend .40 cents more and get the best?