The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Part 4

I'm going to review the remaining pens in my collection that are worth reviewing before I decide which ones I'll keep, and I'll sell off the rest. So let's take a look at some at the ballpoints and gel pens that haven't been discussed here so far.

Porsche Design Tec Flex - This is one of the most interesting ballpoints I own. It's a click pen that's actually made by Faber Castell (I think the newer generation are made by Pelikan), and the entire body of the pen moves like a spring when you press it. It's a large heavy pen that takes a standard Parker G2 size refill. It currently has its original Faber Castell refill, but I'd like to see what the new ones are like, and otherwise I'd put in a Jetstream refill. 

Aurora Ipsilon - This is the second Aurora ballpoint I've reviewed. I don't think it looks as good as the Style, and the click mechanism is the same (the entire "cap" presses down), but it feels slightly less plastic-ey than the Style.

Zebra Blen - I'm not generally a huge fan of Zebra, not because they're bad, but because their refills seem to write not quite as well as their competing Pentel pens. For example I find the Energel to be smoother and more pleasant than the Sarasa, and the Vicuna to be darker, smoother, and more reliable than the Zebra Emulsion inks. However, the Blen is a fantastic pen, impeccably designed, great grip, good click, and the NCO7 refill is luxuriously smooth. Best pen that Zebra makes in my opinion.

Pentel Calme BXA107D - The Calme is Pentel's answer to the Blen. It uses the Pentel's hybrid ink, Vicuna, which is second only to the Jetstream in its classification (but very close!). The grip section is also rubberized, but the upper half of the pen feels rather cheap. The refill is engaged by pressing down on the side of the clip, and there is no click. The plastic feels cheaper and in general doesn't feel as refined of a pen as the Blen.

Parker IM - This is not a particularly notable pen, but it works well. It has the strong, mechanical sounding click that is typical of a good Parker, and the Quinkflow refill is alright. The pen has a metal body and has decent weight to it, but the threads are all plastic. Not a bad pen but not terribly exciting.

Faber Castell E-Motion - Faber Castell makes consistently high quality pens, and I'm starting to become a major fan of the brand. Although I'm not a big fan of this particular pen, the twist motion deployment feels better than any other, almost as if it's electronically driven. The pen is heavy and solid.

Anterique BP2 - This pen is from a rather obscure Japanese brand that uses a hybrid ink. I bought it to try the ink, and because it's a rather beautiful looking pen with a heavy brass body in the bottom half, and a colored plastic top half. However, the pen doesn't have any notable points other than its looks, as the refill is quite average in terms of smoothness and color saturation.

Zebra Sarasa Nano Premier - I took a chance on this one because it's a limited edition and there was one available at the shop. I was intrigued by the metal end piece characteristic of the Nano. However, it doesn't have any other interesting characteristics, as it's mostly like an ordinary Sarasa / Sarasa Nano with a different color scheme, and has the same rubberized grip as the other Nanos. I'm not a fan of smaller pen tips, but it does accept the other sized Sarasa refills.

Papermate InkJoy - These are a formidable competitor to the Energel, writing with incredible smoothness and with an attractive partially transparent body and rubberized grip. Like the standard Energel, this is not a waterproof ink, but it is water resistant in the color I tested (turquoise), and dried quite fast as well. It puts down more ink than an Energel, so it can smudge. Not as good for lefties like me, but very fun to write with.

Uni Power Tank High Grade SS-1001PT - This one wasn't easy to find, and it's quite interesting. I have it here side-by-side with another Power Tank. This one has an aluminum body, but feels a bit cheap with some plastic trim and components. It does however use a proprietary metal refill which looks quite different than the one in the plastic Power Tank. It can write on a lot of surfaces, but it has that somewhat draggy ballpoint feel.

Ohto Horizon - The are all-metal gel pens with needle tips and a unique mechanical-sounding click mechanism (kind of like the old Parker ones where you can feel all the components interlocking, but more metallic). Unfortunately for a gel pen these write more like a ballpoint in that they do not have a particularly rich or liquid flow to them.

Montblanc Serpent - I bought the coral one first, which was quite an old one with its original expired refill and the mechanism was damaged so that it couldn't retract. I was lucky to be able to pick up up the marble version brand new on discount with a fresh refill. It's very heavy and the refill writes extremely smooth for a ballpoint. The color saturation is quite good as well, though not quite as dark as the Aurora. 

Sakura Ballsign ID Plus 0.5 - The body of this pen is quite nice, has a good feel as it's rubberized, and the click mechanism is lovely and precise. The ink flow is strong and it does smudge, so maybe not that suitable for lefties like me. I'm also not a huge fan of the look, but it is a solid pen.

Pilot Juice Up 0.5 - I never have luck with Pilot refills, they always skip for me or have some issue. This one is no exception unfortunately. No idea what happened with it, but it barely writes now after letting it sit for a couple months (it was writing fine in the store). The clip/button also rattles around once you deploy it, so I'm not a fan of this one. Otherwise it resembles the Sakura, but the Sakura feels a lot better.

Lamy 280 - I was looking for a good example of a click Lamy and decided to give this 280 a try, in a nice dark blue. I'm not sure when it's from, but I know Lamy hasn't made this in quite a while, and it say it's made in West Germany - so it's for sure from before the 90s. I've read these were made in the 70s. It has the classic solid spring-loaded Lamy clip, and an old fashioned mechanical-sounding, loud click. Another Lamy I like the look and feel of, but it's held back by the M16 refill. Waiting for Lamy to update those refills.

Sailor Ballpoints - Not sure the model of these, but they use little D1 ballpoint refills that write reasonably nicely. I think they're only available in Japan  I'd say the 3 color ones writes a bit better, but the mono color one has a nice solid feel with a good click. Nothing particularly notable though.

Tombow Zoom L105 - Speaking of pens using D1 ballpoint refills, the one in this Tombow writes very nicely with good color saturation and quite smoothly. Not a fan of the rest of the pen though, it has a stiff twist mechanism and doesn't really speak to me in general.

Tombow Mono - I first got the green aluminum one and then the other day I found the limited edition plastic ones in new colors. These use really good hybrid refills. They're not the smoothest because they're a 0.5mm needle tip, and the ink doesn't dry particularly fast, but they are just about the most reliable ballpoint hybrids, in that they don't skip. This is a difficult feat to accomplish, as every other ballpoint, including the best hybrids do leave some skips or small tiny gaps. The Vicuna refills come the closest, but the Mono refill takes the throne because it never fails, and I think this speaks to the good engineering of this refill. Never seen these in another tip size but hopefully one day they make these in a 0.7 or 1.0. Was not a fan of the look of the old versions but looks great in the new colors, especially this brown.

Kokuyo ME / A Little Special - The ME and its limited edition counterpart are essentially the same pen body, but they came with different refills. The ME came with a branded refill that says its made in Korea (a bit surprising from a Japanese company), whereas the other one has no details on it aside from being advertised as having "Vividry" fast drying ink. Interestingly the standard branded ink in the ME dried faster, and is waterproof too. It's actually one of the, if not the, best gel ink I've written in for a 0.5, and has a deep black color, writes silky smooth, dries reasonably quick, and doesn't fade in water. Any idea who makes the ink refill? 

Uni Signo RT1 - Very nice looking pen, supposedly able to write on a wider variety of angles, but I didn't find it made any difference, and it didn't perform that well on some surfaces. Also not particularly saturated color.

Uni One-F - The One-F is Uni's latest addition to the One lineup, advertised as its most saturated ink color. The initially came out in some unusual faded colors (e.g. the blue-grey on the right) but I was able to pick up a limited addition green one on the left. I wish I picked up more, because they were sold out soon after. These pens are a great size, and the thick plastic gives it a high quality feel, as does the metal end piece. These refills write fantastic, even though 0.5mm is the biggest size they have. They work well on a variety of surfaces, dry quickly, and are permanent. The pens also fit other refills from Uni - I tested it with a standard Signo and an RT1 refill.

The below photo shows some other pens I tested, from Monteverde, Cross, Retro51, Sensa, Waterman, and Yafa. They weren't particularly noteworthy other than that I'm undecided on the Sensas, and the Yafa has exceptionally solid construction.

Conclusion - The Uni SXR-2200 is still my all-round favorite pen, especially in the limited edition colors. The limited green Uni One-F would be tied for second along with the Energel BLN667.  If Pilot and Lamy upgraded their refills, or if Tombow offered a more premium model with their hybrid refill (and offered bigger tip sizes), or if Kokuyo offered an executive gel pen as well, there would be a lot more contenders for 1st place. Maybe this will all be happening soon. As far as standard ballpoint refills go, Aurora and Montblanc are some of the better ones, though I'd like to try a fresh Faber Castell and Pelikan refill.

Top ranked pens: Uni Prime SXN-2200 Limited Edition colors

Water tests

My 3 Lamy pens (Aion, 280, Accent)