(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)
Uni makes great gel pens and their Uni Style Fit multipens are very popular. But here's a fun new profile from them that I actually prefer: single color slim gel pens. These are ultra skinny pens with the same great Uni refills and ink, but with a small enough footprint that you can cram a lot more of them into your pen case...or house. The body is just wide enough to accommodate the refill, and there are no frills, bells, or whistles.
They can be refilled with any Uni Style fit refill, which includes ballpoint, gel, or even mechanical pencil. They can be .28 mm, .38 mm, or .5 mm. I have the 16-color bundle in .5 mm and they write smooth as glass with wonderfully saturated colors.
The colors in this set are violet, pink, baby pink, rose pink, red, mandarin orange, orange, golden yellow, lime green, green, sky blue, bright blue, blue, blue black, black, and brown black. It's a lovely spectrum, with enough difference between the shades that I can justify dragging all 16 around with me. And because they're so portable, I can do that easily.
Uni has great ink technology. The ink is resistant to water, fading, and forgery chemicals. It doesn't skip or railroad, and it writes easily even after being left exposed for long periods of time.
While I love the slim, clipless design, the pens are a bit flimsy. The clear plastic feels light and brittle, and it often comes unscrewed from the barrel--seemingly even by itself when the pen is just sitting in a pen cup. Unless my pen cup is haunted. I've had to twist them back together fairly regularly. The plastic wrap label is loose and seems like it's intended to come off, though you'd then lose your color label. Still, it's not difficult to identify colors with the tips and end-caps so clearly visible. The pieces are a bit rattle-y and don't fit together as flush as some of Uni's other pens. I was actually a bit surprised to learn that they're refillable, because they feel quite disposable.
Issues with build aside, I still really like these. The ink and portability take priority over other inconveniences. They're great to tuck into my planner case for journaling on the go and don't add extra bulk to my already slightly ridiculous edc situation. They also fit nicely into the slim pencil slots in cases, so if you prefer coloring with pens rather than pencils, these are great to take along.
I do worry that the very small refills will drain too quickly, but with the ultra fine-pointed refills, I doubt that will be a problem. And with 16 colors to choose from, they rotate quite regularly, so no one pen gets too much play.
If you've got journaling or coloring to do on the go, these are a good option. I don't expect them to last forever, and they aren't the cheapest of gel pens, but they do meet a specific need that I haven't had met by other varieties.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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