Thanks to the fine folks at Zebra Pens, I have a slew of samples from their new 2010 product lines in hand, and the Regal Roller stood out as the first that I wanted to try. The design of this pen is beautiful, and I am glad to see Zebra stepping it up a notch in that department. Their previous designs chose minimalism over flash, and while that serves many of their products well, it is nice to see them branch out a little with the Regal line.
Not only is this a great looking pen, it may be one of the smoothest writing liquid ink needle tip pens I have used. That is saying a lot when comparing it to similar pens like the Pilot Precise V5, which is hugely popular and successful. I tend to get a little excited about new products and ooh and ahh a bit, and maybe cut the pens more slack than I would if I had spent months and months using them, but I could tell a difference with this pen immediately. I started writing with it and had to stop after a few lines to check and make sure that this wasn't a gel ink pen, because that is what it felt like. It wrote so well it confused me a little bit.
If there is one knock on the pen, I have to say it would be the grip area. It is not the same smooth plastic that the barrel is made of, but rather a section of brushed plastic with some small ridges. It isn't bad, and the more I used it the more I got used to it, but I would have preferred just the same plastic as the barrel, but maybe that is too V5 like.
I can't wait for this pen to hit the store shelves so I can pick up a few more. Best part - It comes in eight colors: the standard black, blue, red, and green, plus pink, light blue, orange and brown. I love the fact that these colors are available right out of the gate instead of wondering if there are any non-standard colors in the pipeline.
Thanks again to Zebra for sending me this pen to review, and stay tuned for more new Zebra product reviews in the coming weeks.
Click here for the XL review.
