I ended up hitting the jackpot a last month when I went into the local Staples. There was a display in front with a bunch of different new pens, and so I picked up a bunch. I'll start with the Uniball Vision RT.
(Purchased @ 2.99 each, pretty steep, but it was sold in singles, which was nice)
I've stopped using a Moleskine for my daily writing. I finished off one, and I realized that:
1-I rarely go back and look at the things that I've written
2-I think before I write in the notebook, to make sure that I'm writing something that is worthwhile (Pretty sad, I know).
so I pulled a Circa notebook out of a pile,and printed out some day planner pages from diyplanner, and away I went. I'm scanning the pages to PDF as I write on them, so I have a permanent record of what I've written.
Now that I'm writing on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, I'm not so sensitive to writing so small, and a larger pen point is acceptable.
The Uniball Vision RT is a reasonably nice pen. I've been using the 0.6 point, and it writes reasonably well. Cosmetically, it's a nice looking pen, with a combination of clear and dark grey plastic. The dark grey is soft and grippy, but not as sticky as a real rubberized grip, so it slides in and out of a pocket easily.
One feature that I really like is the retract button has a release under the pocket clip. When you slide this into your shirt pocket, then fabric slides between the pen body and the pocket clip, and releases the ink cartridge so you don't pick up an ink spot in the bottom of your shirt pocket. The mechanism isn't particularly smooth, but it works reasonably well.
One nice thing about this pen is the tip is quite solid when you are writing. On some cheap pens I've used, the tip moves around as you are writing, something that I find very irritating.
Now, as to how it writes. This is a liquid ink pen, not a gel pen. Even though I'm not looking for a 0.18 pen, it writes a bit broad for my taste. In addition, it seems pretty sensitive to the amount of pressure on the tip. With a really light touch, I end up with a very fine line, and then when I put a little pressure on it, the line thickens up to the normal width. I also ran into some situations where the ink flow didn't start up immediately when I wrote. I picked up the Black, Blue, and Red, and then colors are quite nice. I get a thick, opaque line for all three colors.
Overall, I'd have to give this pen a B. It writes pretty well, it's attractive, and the pocket clip retract is a real plus.
