I've been switching off between two different pens. The Uniball 207 Needlepoint, in Fine (0.5), as well as the Pentel Energel Needlepoint in 0.5. I've been enjoying both pens, but they lay down very different lines. The Energel is more of an extra fine point, while the Uniball is noticeably wider, verging on a medium tip.
From a design point of view, the Uniball is much nicer looking. There is a nice soft-touch grip with subtle texturing, and the body of the pen is clear, with a smoked black tint. The body of the pen is nicely contoured, and it feels much smaller in the hand than the Pentel.
The Pentel is like writing with a dowel. it's a straight body, with a fairly slick soft touch grip. There isn't any contour to the body, and there is a block of usage instructions on it-Remove tip before use, Always retract after use, etc. visually, there is a lot of mass in your hand as you write, which makes the pen seem somewhat back heavy. The Uniball is much more visually front loaded, making it seem much smaller and lighter.
Earlier Energels has a self retracting mechanism that would retract the point when putting it into a pocket, but that's been removed, which is a big loss. I much prefer the Pentel as a writing instrument, but visually, the Uniball is much nicer.
4 comments:
I think the Energel in your post is the Deluxe RTX version; to my knowledge, the original Energel still has the self-retracting mechanism.
Thanks, I'll have to look closely the next time I'm at the store.
I'm at a loss as to why I can no longer find the Pentel Energel 0.5mm needle tip pen at my local stores. It is not a retractable pen but I love it because it writes smoothly and dries quickly which is a big plus for the charting I have to do at work. Did they stop making them? I am now ordering from online from a company that I don't know and pray that they will come. They even said they only have 12 left. I bought 5 but I wanted to buy the whole thing.
I've found out that the Big Box stationary stores tend to cycle through things like this, and their stock changes frequently. Have you looked on the Pentel web page to see if they are still making them? The other possibility is Jetpens.com. Everything I've ordered from them has come through, and they have an excellent selection
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