Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Review: Uniball Jetstream RT 0.7mm Blue

Running a pen blog lead to some unique situations.  One unique situation is hearing about a certain pen, in this case the Uniball Jetstream, and not being able to find it.  All over the internet, specifically the office supply are of the internet, the Jetstream is spoken of with reverence.  My problem was getting my hands on one.  Driving around one day I made a random stop at a Staples I had never been too before, and to my surprise they had a nice offering of Uniball Jetstream's available.  I snagged a couple and went to work testing it out.


The body of the pen is really cool looking.  It's simple but doesn't look plain.  The Jetstream also does something I love, they match the barrel of the pen to the color of the ink.  In this case the Jetstream I bought was a 0.7mm with blue ink, and a blue barrell.  There is a lighter strip of blue around the clicker.  The tip, a Jetstream logo, the clicker and the clip are all silver colored plastic.  I think the silver and blue combo looks good.  The grip isn't anything special, but it's not bad.  It's the same material as the rest of the body but it has little indents in it.  When writing a lot your hand does not get fatigued so even though it isn't the fanciest grip it does the job well.

What had gotten me excited about the Jetstream was the hype around how smooth it was writing.  I felt like I was gliding across the page.  It didn't matter whether I was writing on my 17 cent Marble Composition book or my 15 dollar Black n Red notebook, the pen just glided across the page.  The ink is a really dark blue which I love.  The only problem that I noticed is a little bit of white space when writing.  But it's not so bad  as to completely ruin the writing.  Honestly I am just nitpicking at this point, because this pen is great!

Obviously this pen has a ton of positives and is a great all around pen.  Despite the positives it still doesn't have the WOW factor for me. It seems to me as above average/good, but not great.  It's hard to explain, there is nothing technically wrong with it, but to me it just isn't a great pen. I prefer .05mm pens or lower, so a pen that's smallest tip is 0.7mm tip is going to limit how well I like it.  So for me I have to say that I like it, and I would write with it again.  I wouldn't worry about lending this to a friend though.

8 out of 10 mummies.





Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Review: Sharpie Liquid Pencil

When I first heard the news that Sharpie was going to be making a liquid pencil I was interested immediately. I press very firmly when I write, so when using traditional pencils or mechanical pencils I would break the tip quite often. It's a cool idea and something that sounds like it's out of the future.  It sounds like something a robot would use to take a math test.  Sadly the Sharpie Liquid Pencil does not live up to its futuristic sounding coolness.  It has the potential to be a great product, but just isn't there yet.


The body of the Sharpie Liquid pencil is nothing extraordinary.  It has a simple design that looks good but not great.  The top 1/4 of the pencil is actually used to deploy the tip of the pen/pencil/cool metal thing refill that writes with the liquid pencil ink.  This makes the design a bit more unified but causes a bigger problem.  When deployed the top 1/4 of the pencil rattles constantly while being used.  This might not bother some people, but it drives me crazy.  Other than this there are no real problems with the body of the Liquid Pencil.  The design is simple but uninteresting.


The other major problem with the Sharpie Liquid Pencil is the way it writes.  To be blunt, it writes badly.  It skips, leaves a ton of white space, and requires a ton of pressure to produce a mark on the paper. It leaves a lot to be desired.


Once again it is a cool idea, and I like thinking about robots taking tests with this.  But until Sharpie makes some tweaks to this product, which I think they will do, I won't be using it very often.  Cool can only get you so far.





5 out of 10 mummies

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Review: Roaring Springs Spiral Notebook

On lunch break the other day I decided to take a stroll through my campus store. I came across a fantastic deal on what seemed like a pretty solid notebook. I picked up a few.


The notebook is made by Roaring Springs, a guess they made a special line that features my college, which is why the logo is embedded on the front. It came in a vast array of colors. Overall a solid looking notebook. It also features a nice pocket on the front cover which I find very handy.


This notebook is big. The pages are 9x11 inches. Which is bigger than your standard sheet of computer paper. It comes with 100 pages. The pages are nice for your average spiral notebook. Definitely smoother than your run of the mill generic brand.


Overall these notebooks are a no brainer for the price of $1 which is what I got them for. I would even recommend one at the full price of $2.79.


8 out of 10 mummies

-Cody