I was late to the Zebra bLen party.
When the 2020 OKB48 results dropped, a pen I had never heard of slotted in at number two. New pens sneak up on me all the time, but I would expect them further down the 48-pen list. Not directly into the number two spot.
I had a friend reach out at the time and offer to send me over one to check out, as they were only available in Japan on launch. And it was good. I liked it. And then I misplaced it, or maybe even gave it away. Why I didn’t slot it into the review queue at the time is odd for me, but now that the bLen has become even more popular, and propagated worldwide, it is time to correct that miss.
The marketing of the bLen revolves around two things: Zebra’s emulsion ink technology, and unique barrel construction.
Originally launched as Z-Mulsion ink, this was Zebra’s answer to the hybrid ballpoint ink technology popularized by the Uni-ball Jetstream, and later, the Pilot Acroball. What hybrid ballpoint inks offer is a far superior ink formula over the purely oil-based traditional ballpoint ink. It’s smoother, darker, cleaner, and more consistent. In short, this ink is far better than typical ballpoint ink.
Z-Mulsion didn’t exactly take off for Zebra on it’s first go-round. But going back to the drawing board and building around a solid refill put them on the path to a better product in the end.
In collaboration with Japanese-Canadian designer Saki Oki, the bLen barrel was engineered for silence. How often have you heard that in pen design? And if you haven’t, you know exactly what it means. Often times when using pens, primarily retractable pens, there is rattling going on in the barrel. It could be from the tip area where the refill is exposed, or it could be in the internals where the knock mechanism resides. The bLen was designed to eliminate all of that sound and vibration.
And it works. The Zebra bLen barrel is lightweight, and solid. The knock engages cleanly, and is quiet. The tip is cushioned, and smooth. Overall, Zebra delivered on their design ideas.
That design allows the refill to shine. Zebra always had something with the Z-Mulsion ink, but it didn’t land from a design and marketing perspective. Now with this unique barrel design, the refill performance is able to be noticed. I have an 0.5 mm Blue and an 0.7 mm Black in hand to test, and they are fantastic to write with. The 0.7 mm will win the popularity contest due to the tip size, but I, of course, have a soft spot for the 0.5 mm.
As much as I like this ink (especially the Blue 0.5 mm,) I do think both the Uni-ball Jetstream and Pilot Acroball do it slightly better. If the Jetstream was a 9 out of 10 ink performance, the Acroball is an 8/10, and the bLen is a 7/10. Still good, but a clear third place for me. The barrel practically makes up the difference, though. It’s that good.
The lines on both pens are consistent, and fine. Compared to similar tip sizes in gel and rollerball pens, the line from ballpoints is narrower on the page. The ink doesn’t spread on the page like the other two, despite the same manufacturing size of the tip.
I did see a little bit of what I call “spidering” in some of my writing, more from the Black 0.7 mm tip than the Blue 0.5 mm. If you look at the word “meaning” above, you will see a strand of ink from the bottom left of the A, to the top of the I-like a spider’s web.
I’m really enjoying the Zebra bLen now that I’ve given it some dedicated usage time. At $2.50, they are competitively priced, and have become more widely available. With the success Zebra has seen with this pen barrel, they launched a gel ink bLen option as well, which I’ll be looking at soon.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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