I received these a couple of weeks back courtesy of JetPens and I'm just now getting around to reviewing them. Look for a post for each of these in the next week or so.
From the top down:
Uni-Ball Lakubo Ballpoint Pen 0.5mm Black
Pilot FriXion Erasable Highlighter - Green
A.G. Spalding Hexagonal Body Ballpoint 0.7mm
Zebra Sharbo Smartline 0.4mm Ballpoint, 0.3mm Pencil
Labels: A.G. Spalding, Highlighter, JetPens, Pilot FriXion, Uni-Ball Lakubo, Zebra Sharbo Smartline
This pen was designed and created specifically for Office Max, so they are only available at their stores or website. Since I don't have an Office Max nearby, I never had the opportunity to pick any up, and it looks like I was missing out - that is until a wonderful reader sent me a couple to try out (Thanks Marilyn!). The pen design is solid, with a plastic barrel and a brass tip, as well as sharp looking graphics. The pen performance reminds me a lot of the Pilot G-2, which is a pretty big compliment. On top of that, the TUL is very wallet friendly, checking in at approximately $1.50 per pen. My only complaint so far is that the grip is a little slick, but it is already starting to get better with use.
If you have an Office Max convenient to you, or feel like placing an order online, I think you will enjoy the TUL.
The real Olympics are taking place in Beijing, China, but I bet you didn't know that the Pen Olympics are taking place right here at The Pen Addict! I have been wanting to do a side-by-side comparison of all of my erasable pens for a while now, so I figured lets give them the Olympic treatment by awarding medals to the best performers.
Gold - Pilot E-Gel 0.7mm
The Pilot E-Gel has the best ink color, the best writing performance, and the best erasability, so I guess you could say it won the all-around competition. The eraser is located in the right sopt, unlike the FriXions, which goes a long way in my book. This pen writes the most like a regular pen.
Silver - Pilot FriXion 0.7mm
I prefer the black ink of the 0.7mm over the blue ink of the 0.5mm, so thus it garners the silver medal. The shade of black is still a little off, and I'm no fan of the FriXion eraser. It smudges the paper too much compared to the traditional eraser models.
Bronze - Pilot FriXion 0.5mm
This ink color is way too pale for my liking. I like the finer 0.5mm tip, but the performance (and location) of the eraser just doesn't cut it.
India - Uni-Ball Signo Erasable 0.5mm
The ink color is great, and the eraser does a good job, but the writing experience is so bad I can hardly use this pen. The line skips and it is very scratchy. Hopefully you will win a medal one of these decades Uni-Ball!
Labels: Pilot e-Gel, Pilot FriXion, Uni-Ball Signo Erasable
