The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Ballpoint Hybrids

Introduction to the Artis This is a pen that had been on my mind for a couple years, but was released (and subsequently discontinued) some years before that. The exact history of the Uni Artis is a mystery, but it was only ever available in Japan. The particular model number of the ballpoint version in my review is the SS1400AS-P07 and the colour variant of this one is the 1P.26. At the time this caught my interest, it was because I was looking at the Uni pens with the pressurized refills (of which there are only a handful) to test out. Uni made a couple types of pressurized refills which I've written about before. One type is a plastic refill encased in a pressurized suit, and the other is a pressurized metal refill (like a Fisher). All of the pressurized refill pens were from a series called the "Power Tank", of which there were several grades, from their basic SN series, to their metal bodied pen with metal refill, fittingly called the "High Grade". Outside o...

I received a few interesting pens recently, including a batch of Uni Ball (Uni Mitsubishi) pens which seem to be from 20+ years ago, the new Monami Zenith 7 which is a pen I have not seen reviewed anywhere yet, and a Tombow Airpress which I couldn't resist trying after seeing it in a shop on discount. Let's get to the reviews. Monami Zenith 7 - I was excited to see that Monami released a new pen, because in my earliest set of reviews the Monami FX4000 refill in 0.7mm ranked very high (the 1.0mm wasn't as good), and I was also very impressed with the refill in the Kokyuo ME which has a Korean-made gel refill (not sure if it's made by Monami, but there's a decent chance). The Zenith 7 looked quite striking, and for 5000 Won (about 3.50 USD at the moment) I had to give it a try. The design is one of the highlights, and I'd say it's somewhat based on the Ballograf Epoca with its retro look, faceted top part of the body and rounded grip section. The faceted part ...

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 t...