Zebra Mini T3 Ballpoint Pen Review

Mini pens are a tough thing. I think that everybody can benefit from having one for various reasons - wallet carry, pocket carry, purse carry, etc. - but there are equally as many reasons for not carrying one. Most of those arguments are size related, and are valid points. Can I even grip a pen that small? How long will the ink last? Am I just going to lose it? The Zebra Mini T3 Ballpoint doesn’t pretend to solve those problems, but it may be the best of the bunch if you want to give a mini pen a try.

The thing that stands out to me the most is the barrel construction. It is fully metal, and just feels durable. If a pen is going to be this small, I at least want to feel the weight in my hand when I write. On top of that, the default blue ink cartridge pleases me to no end. You can order black, red, and green refills for the Mini T3, but blue ballpoint ink is my favorite. It writes wonderfully.

One minor issue that cropped up from time to time is the knock release in the clip. You press the knock down like normal to write, then to retract the pen you press the end of the clip. Since the pen is a shorter length, I sometimes hit the clip with the cup of my hand if I rotate it when writing. Most of the time it isn’t an issue, but I did want to mention it because it happened more than once.

It may not be perfect, but I am not sure what else I could ask for in a mini pen. What do you look for in a mini pen? What other mini pens do I need to check out?

Pen Reviews by Andrea Joseph

I am honored to be able to share with you these great pen reviews by my friend Andrea Joseph. Her ballpoint ink drawings are some of the most amazing pieces of art I have laid my eyes on, and I am very grateful to her for sharing these with the readers of The Pen Addict. Be sure to click on the drawings to read the reviews. Thanks Andrea!

When I approached The Pen Addict about doing a ballpoint pen review I felt there was only way to go about it; draw it! At first, I intended to review blue ballpoints but I couldn’t stop there. So, here are some of the ballpoints that I use for drawing and doodling. They are by no means my favourite pens or the only ones that I use, they are just a random selection. Actually, maybe not that random, they were selected because they worked well in the over all composition of the drawings. I hope!

A little about me; my name is Andrea Joseph and I am a ballpoint addict. It doesn’t just stop at ballpoints; I am a pen addict in general. I have three bulging pencil cases for ballpoints alone (there are, of course, all the other pencil cases with fine liners, fountain pens, colour pencils etc.). These drawings are a selection from each of them.

If you’d like to see more of my ballpoint drawings, you can find them on my Flickr page. For more information on drawing with ballpoints you might be interested in my ballpoint zine or my ballpoint ‘starter pack’. They can be found in my Etsy shop. And, for all other news on my work check out my sketchblog.

Office Depot Foray Retractable Ballpoint Review

Continuing this weeks theme of readers favorite pens, this lovely chap you see in the photo above is the Office Depot Foray Retractable ballpoint. Pen Addict reader Amy sent me a few of these earlier this year after a discussion on the blog about which store brand pens are the best. My stance was there is only one that is worth the money - the Office Max TUL Gel. And honestly, there wasn't much disagreement with that. There just aren't many store brand pens that stack up well to their name brand counterparts.

The Foray Retractable is a decent option though. I like the needle tip style, which you don't see all that often in a ballpoint. The pen writes smoothly and relatively cleanly, although there were a few instances of extra ink hitting the page. Overall, it is a decent writing experience.

The barrel has a great design, but just feels average in the hand. It is fully plastic, even the "chrome" parts, so it is lightweight as well. The only thing I didn't really care for was how high the tip section screwed into the barrel shaft. Being a low gripper, that got in my way a bit.

Overall, you could do a lot worse than the Office Depot Foray ballpoint, which I guess is saying something. :) Do any of you have any store brand pens that you like that I need to check out?