Review: Lamy Balloon Roller Ball

Another one of the great new Lamy products from JetPens, the Lamy Balloon Roller Ball is a very cool pen.  The great looking translucent colored barrels sold me, but would the performance keep me around?  Would you expect anything else from Lamy?

The Balloon Roller feels great in the hand.  The plastic barrel is lightweight, but in traditional Lamy style, it also feels very sturdy.  This is no cheap plastic pen here for sure.  I love how it writes too, but I do have a couple of minor concerns that keep this pen from being perfect.  One, I am getting a little skipping from the ink cartridge.  Until I can order a new cartridge, I am chalking this up as a fluke.  I either need to give this refill a good writing workout, or try another one to compare.  I have marked on the review where you can see the skipping.  From past experience, this seems like an outlier.

Secondly, I love the look of the clip, but I wish it was a little tighter.  That is an extremely minor complaint, but being used to how snappy the clips are on the Safaris and AL-Stars, this one is a bit of a let down.  It is by no means a deal breaker though.  It's just if I was making the perfect pen I would make it tighter.

In the big picture, I like the Balloon Roller more than the AL-Star roller I reviewed recently.  It feels better, and I am enjoying the blue liquid ink more than the black.  It doesn't seem as wet, and if I can get past the skipping it will be great.

Click here for the XL review.

Products used:
Lamy Balloon Roller Ball Pen - Blue Body from JetPens
Writing Pad from Doane Paper

Review: Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen EF Nib

Am I getting heavy into fountain pens now?  Not quite - I still don't use them on a daily (or even weekly) basis, but it is hard for me to pass up a new Lamy model.  The Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen is a recent addition to the ever expanding JetPens lineup, and comes in a few different flavors.  My model has the orange cap with metal clip, and an extra fine nib (see all options here).

My first impressions of this fountain pen is that is a design mashup of the AL-Star and Safari lines from Lamy.  The Nexx has a nice aluminum barrel like the AL-Star, and a plastic cap like the Safari, which results in a more industrial look, as the product description puts it.  The one thing that is different from both is that the grip area is a solid rubber as opposed to plastic.  It is still molded in the triangular shape, but the rubber gives you a litte more security in the grip area.

At the start, I only have the standard Lamy blue ink cartridge that came with the pen, but many other ink cartridges are available, and the Lamy Z 24 converter works with it as well.  I'm a fan of the standard Lamy blue, and the EF nib in the Nexx actually seems a little smoother than the EF nib in my Charcoal Safari.

The Nexx is a great fountain pen for Lamy fans and for those looking for something different.  Since I only have a Safari to compare it to my opinion is limited to those two, but gun to my head I will pick up my Safari first, but it is really close.

Click here for the XL review.

Products used:

Lamy Nexx Aluminum Fountain Pen EF Nib from JetPens

Writing Pad from Doane Paper

See also:

Review: Lamy Safari Charcoal/Black EF Nib

Review: Lamy Safari Lime Green with F Nib

Review: Lamy AL-Star Aluminum Rollerball

As I mentioned right out of the gate in my written review, the Lamy AL-Star Aluminum Rollerball pen has been at or near the top of my shopping list for years.  My hesitancy all this time has been nothing more than how much I thought I would use this pen in relation to the price.  I don't mind spending money for a pen as long as I use it, and I think I will be using this Lamy AL-Star quite a bit.

If you are familiar with the Lamy Safari fountain pen then you will have a pretty good idea of how the AL-Star will feel in your hands.  The only real obvious difference in the two is in the barrel construction - the Safari is a molded plastic while the AL-Star is aluminum.  As with any Lamy pen, the build quality is phenomenal.  Considering the styling and construction I would think this pen would cost at least twice as much as it does, which is a credit to Lamy.

From a writing perspective, the 0.7mm black rollerball refill is as good as any I have used in this category.  The line is exceptionally smooth and doesn't feather, but since the ink is so bold there is a bit of show through on the back side of this Doane Paper.  For my personal every day use I would like to try out an 0.5mm cartridge to see how the line compares.

I picked up this model on ebay for around $15 which is a complete steal.  You can find them all over the internet in the $25-$30 range, and in a wide variety of great looking barrel colors.  This pen is an excellent everyday writer and would make a great impression as a gift as well.

Click here for the XL review.