Sign Your Name In Style With Pentel's 'Hybrid' Gold Gel Ink Pen
Written: Jul 08 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Permanent ink, smooth writing, acid free, refillable, writes great on darker papers.
Cons: Prone to smearing, a little on the expensive side.
The Bottom Line: You might not be a rock star but that doesn't mean you can't sign your name in style ...
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| Freak369's Full Review: Pentel Hybrid Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen Medium Line ... |
Gel pen junkies have a whole new series of pens to fall in love with. Well, the Hybrid series from Pentel isn't exactly new but they are finally starting to catch on with people outside the scrapbooking circle. So it's a gel pen, what makes it so much better than the ones you can get for .99 cents? First off, this has a metal roller ball tip to it, that makes it a lot more stable to work with than something that has a felt tip point to it. Second, the color is consistent; there's no need to shake the pen before you use it or to prime it on paper to get the ink flowing. If you don't recap it right away you may have to wipe the tip off to remove eraser grit or dust that may have come in contact with it but other than that, this is a very low maintenance pen. If you are someone that is concerned with the environment you will be pleased to know that this is a refillable product so you can save a few pieces of plastic from being dumped in a landfill.
Pentel Hybrid Gold .3mm Gel Pen
The .3 mm tip is what lets you create fine lines without any of the usual pitfalls of metallic gel pens. Some of the cheaper products clump, smear or have an uneven tone to them but not the Hybrid; this gives you the same hue no matter how little or much you are writing. Since this has a metal tip you don't have to worry about it becoming dull or wearing down, that means that you will always have the same crisp line and ink flow. Most of the gel pens that you buy these days are acid free so them adding this to the back of the cardboard package seems a little silly. The people that are most concerned with the acid free ink are artists and those who use gel metallics for scrapbooking. As far as the claims of being fadeproof and waterproof, those aren't exactly true. Waterproof means that it won't run if exposed to water, essentially that it will repel it. The ink may have some waterproof qualities to it but if the paper it is on gets wet, guess what, the ink will run. Fadeproof is another claim that I have to question. Leave something out in direct sunlight and it will lose it's true color.
Even though these are refillable, I choose not to refill them. Why? After I go through one of the inserts the barrel is usually pretty banged up and I hate writing with pens that are tore up. Sure I could save some money if I bought the refills but I would rather spend an extra dollar and get a completely new pen than to have to carry one around or work with one that has ink dubbed off of it or gold ink smeared on it. The refills can be purchased for about $1.29 and the average selling price of this is somewhere in the three dollar range. Office supply stores might sell them for a little less and trendy greeting card and craft stores sell them for more. Pentel does stand behind their products with a satisfaction guarantee so if this doesn't perform as well as you expected they will refund your purchase price or send you a replacement. The gold color isn't too strong, some gold gel pen metallics come out looking more on the brown side than a true gold. There's a minimal amount of sparkle to it but not something that looks like it came from Hot Topic. This looks great on white paper but even better on darker shade and of course black paper.
The Bottom Line
When you break down the pens in this line from Pentel there are a lot more positive points than there are negatives. Things can get a little messy if you toss them into a backpack or purse without putting the cap back on but on the up side the caps snap back on tightly. If you leave it off, there's no chance of them drying out because it has a metal roller ball tip. If you want to write out greeting cards, add some sparkle to address labels or just sign your name with a little bit of style, this is the pen to pick up. As far as the price, well, in this case you get what you pay for. Cheaper pens will clump or spit ink when writing because the roller ball tips don't move nearly as smoothly as these and they don't last half as long as the Hybrid's. If you just want something to put smiley faces on a card or to doodle with then stick with the cheap ones but if you want something that is consistently going to delivery a crisp line with an incredibly rich color then the Pentel Hybrid is your pen.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
Other gel pen reviews ...
Pilot G2 Gel Ink Roller Ball, Crayola Halloween Gel Pens, Pilot P500 Gel Ink Roller Ball Pen, Sanford Uni Ball Metallic 'Gel Impact' Violet, Sanford Uni Ball 'Gel Impact' Black, Sanford Uni Ball Signo Erasable Gel Purple, Sanford Uni Ball Signo Five Color Set Gel Stick Pens
Recommended:
Yes
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