As mentioned in yesterday's review, I have more TRU RED products to review. More importantly for today, I have products to give away to you. One winner of today’s giveaway will take home both the 5-pack of TRU RED Rollerball Pens and the TRU RED Large Starter Journal to use them with. Read the rules below and enter away!
TRU RED Retractable Quick Dry Gel Pen Review
A bit over a month ago, TRU RED, available at Staples.com, sent me over a care package with several of their new stationery products. From meeting notebooks, to journals, to pens, they sent it all! I’m not going to be able to review everything, but I’m going to focus on a couple of different items for review, and mix in at least one big giveaway tomorrow.
Until then, let’s focus on the new TRU RED Retractable Quick Dry 0.5 mm Gel Pens, shall we?
Classified as “Business Essentials” right on the packaging, these gel ink pens are a step up from your standard office supply fare. Are they as good as the premium pens - the Pilot G2, Pentel EnerGel, Uni-ball Signo 307, and Paper Mate InkJoy - in this category? No. Do they hold their own at around half the price ($1.25/each vs. $2.50)? Absolutely.
The fully rubberized barrel actually reminds me of the InkJoy. It is lightweight and comfortable to hold, with a solid knock and clip. From a writing perspective, they are smooth, but not glassy smooth. If I strolled into the office one day and these were the gel pens of choice, I would be happy. If I were a dyed-in-the-wool pen addict, I would be able to notice the difference between the TRU RED, and, say, the EnerGel.
What about the quick dry aspect of this pen? I’d say they live up to that billing. For each color, I filled in a grid square with the pen, bushed my finger on my shirt to ensure it was dry, then ran it across the ink splotch. The black, purple, and teal left a slight ink trail, while the blue, red, orange, and lime left none. If I let a few seconds pass, I’m sure there would be no smearing at all.
Speaking of the ink colors, This 12-pack comes with two each of black, blue, red, purple, and teal, with one each of orange and lime. I’ll need to take it up with the orange lobby for equal representation in the future, and I may even speak up for lime, because it is a nice, readable lime green.
All of the colors were good, but I did notice two things. One, the purple is very dark for a purple gel ink. That can be good or bad, depending on your desires. In relation to other brands’ stock purple, it is darker. Secondly, the blue ink wrote with a wider line than its 0.5 mm counterparts. I’m not sure if that’s ink related or tip of the pen related, but it left a different line than the rest. All of the others were a nice, clean gel ink line, as I would expect from this size.
Overall, the TRU RED Retractable Quick Dry 0.5 mm Gel Pens are a good budget friendly gel ink pen. They don’t rank ahead of the best pens in this category, but at this price, they don’t have to.
(Staples.com provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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Misfill, Holy Grail Edition
Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:
— My Holy Grail Pen and Paper (CJ Chilvers)
— 1800 miles (with shortcuts) in a Tesla Model 3 (Six Colors)
— Review: Penlux Masterpiece Grande Koi Fountain Pen (The Pencilcase Blog)
— Pens in Daily Use April 2021 (dapprman)
— Urban Sketchers Tel Aviv Sketchwalk: Park HaMesila (Writing at Large)
— Notebook Review: Lamy Notebook (Notizbuch) A5 (The Well-Appointed Desk)
— Let's Take A Look At Paper Color (Fountain Pen Love)
— Masuwa's pencil knife (Bleistift)
— Handwriting vs. typing: Study shows which is best for notes (The Cramped)
— Taccia Grey Jeans on Midori MD (Inkcredible Colours)
— Silvine Memo Book Review (Writing at Large)
— Sailor black: Ink Review (Scrively)
— Permutations of good pen and ink pairings, and really bad eggs (mnmlscholar)
— The TWSBI Draco: I Had My Doubts (From the Pen Cup)
— Ink Review #1457: Ferris Wheel Press Freshly Squeezed Sunshine (Mountain of Ink)
— Ink Review #504: PenBBS #509 Honeysuckle (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)
— Troublemaker shading, Sheen and shimmer swatch tests (Nick Stewart)
— Ayush Paper Overview (SBREBrown)
— Handwriting Practice with Fountain Pens TWSBI Eco Smoke & Rose Gold (Gourmet Pens)
— Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island is underrated brilliance (A.V. Club)
— Pixel Artist (Gutty Kreum)
— Avner Landes' Playlist for His Novel "Meiselman: The Lean Years" (Largehearted Boy)
— The Enchanting Visuals of Portuguese Fish Tins (Hyperallergic)
— J.S. STAEDTLER Dictation 2325 (Lexikaliker)
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