Zebra Arbez Eo Ballpoint Review

The Zebra Corporation holds a competition each year for young designers where the winner gets their product produced under the Arbez name. The 2011 winner was the Piirto, an icepick-shaped ballpoint from a Finnish designer. In 2012, the British winner designed a set of pens around the London transportation system, with the double decker bus styled Eo 0.7 mm ballpoint taking center stage.

The design of the Eo is fantastic. It is unique and eye-catching, but may not fit everyones grip comfort needs. One side of the barrel is flat, the opposite side is rounded, and the other two sides gradually connect the two. Essentially, a capital D shape. For me it works well, but others may not like it.

If that doesn't bother you, then this is a fun pen to own. The bright red barrel features a slick white racing stripe running the length of the barrel, and both the tip and end caps sport a translucent ink color section. I find myself continually marveling at how well designed this pen is.

For a standard ballpoint it writes well. The lines are clean and sharp and very little white shows through. I enjoyed it but I wonder if the Arbez competition would be better suited to design around the Sarasa gel ink refill instead?

Regardless, a part of London's transportation system now resides on my desk. Time to take a ride!

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

Zebra Prefill 3 Color Multi Pen Review

The Zebra Prefill Multi Pen is about three years too late to the gel ink multi pen party. The Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto is the heavyweight champion in this space, holding down that title for longer then The Pen Addict has been in existence. Uni-ball joined the party in 2009 with the Style Fit, along with the Pentel Sliccies. You would think Zebra would have jumped into the fray by now, no?

Despite the delay, Zebra came out with a pretty good product. I was hoping that the ink refills would be as good as the Zebra Sarasa Clip and I think they are. I ordered the black barrel with black, blue, and red 0.4 mm gel ink cartridges. All of the inks performed well with clean, sharp lines. The barrel is no-frills, taking a lot of design elements from the aforementioned Style Fit.

Where does the Zebra Prefill rank amongst its competitors? You may be surprised. Here are my rankings:

1. Pilot Hi-Tec-C - The leader, and no one else is close.
2. Zebra Prefill - Not as many options as the Style Fit, but better writing performance.
3. Uni Style Fit - Well made, but don't love the writing experience.
4. Pentel Sliccies - Don't bother.

How do you rank your gel ink multi pens?

Zebra 301A Ballpoint Review

It has been nearly a year since I wrote the review for the Zebra 301A above - things sometimes have a way of getting overlooked in my Flickr stream. Re-reading what I wrote last January though, my first thoughts still hold true today.

When I see someone using the traditional Zebra F-301 Ballpoint I know they at least care a little about the pen they are writing with. It is a good pen, even a little bit above average, and many people swear by it. I won't go that far but I do understand its appeal. With the 301A, Zebra has gone after those same customers by applying a fresh coat of paint to an already good pen, but did nothing to take it further than that.

The 301A comes in four barrel colors - blue, gray, maroon, and gold - with the same grip and knock as the F-301. The font on the barrel has been "upgraded" too, but I liken it more to a logo you would find at the $2.99 t-shirt shop down at the boardwalk. It is not as classy as the old logo, and combined with some of the new colors it is downright disappointing.

Unlike the original, I have never seen one of these in use by anyone other than myself. I missed the mark in not reviewing this pen when it first came out, but Zebra missed the mark by not making a real upgrade to one of the anchors of their product line. Bring me an F-301 with an emulsion ink refill and then we can talk.