A good rollerball pen! I'm Impressed!
Written: Feb 24 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice looking, smooth writing. Overall a very nice pen!
Cons: Slightly small grip and a plastic cap that may become scuffed with use.
The Bottom Line: If you like Rollerball pens, you should try this one. Good ink color, nice looking and reasonably priced for a good pen!
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| mjwood0's Full Review: Pilot P-700 and P-500 Precise Gel Roller Pens |
Introduction
As I’ve mentioned in my other pen reviews, I’m a bit of a pen snob. I’m not one to spend a ton of money on the fanciest pens, but I do appreciate quality while writing. Usually, I find rollerball pens to be difficult to use and messy. The Pilot P-700 was just the opposite! Usually I prefer ballpoint pens. I still prefer ballpoint pens, but I find myself grabbing this pen out of my pen cup more and more. Needless to say, I was impressed with this writing instrument!
The P-500 and P-700 pens are both the same except for the P-700 has a 0.7mm tip and the P-500 has a 0.5mm tip. I've only used the P-700 so that is what this review will be based upon.
Design
This pen is stylish! The barrel is a black and gray cloud pattern and it sports a clear lid. On the side of the pen is written “Pilot P-700 Fine”. Very nice looking barrel!
The cap is also quite attractive! It’s fashioned out of a clear plastic with a small ball at the tip which I’m assuming is the color of the ink. (I have no other colors of this pen to compare with, but it seems like a safe bet) This function is very nice when your pens are standing in a cup on your desk and all you can see are the tops of them. I really wish all pens had color coded tops. Most do, but all should! The cap also features a metal pocket clip. Granted I rarely carry pens in my pocket, but I do use the clip for clipping the pen to a folder or notepad quite frequently. Therefore, I like metal clips. They seem to be much more secure than most plastic clips and you don’t arrive with you paper only to be missing your pen. The clip on the Pilot P-700 also has the diameter of the tip at the top (0.7 in my case). Another great feature for quick identification.
From reading some of my other reviews, you may get the impression that I am biased toward pens with rubber grips. This is generally true. Moreover, I’m biased to pens that have a slightly thicker grip. I have large hands and I hate it when my hand is constantly sliding down the grip. It makes my hand tired from having a death grip on the pen in an attempt to prevent such slippage. While the Pilot P-700 doesn’t have a rubber grip, its grip is grooved to prevent slippage. This actually seem to work quite well.
The tip of this pen is quite long. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. I’ve used it quite a bit and haven’t seen any problem with it bending so I’m going to pretty much say that it works. No preference on the long narrow tip for me.
Writeability
This pen writes very smooth. Smoother than I anticipated. So much so that I am truly impressed! And the ink is a nice dark black. No gray shade here, but pure dark black. Very nice. Really not much more to say here since it performs quite well.
Extended periods of writing are slightly fatiguing due to the narrowness of the grip. However, this pen is much better than many and therefore, I can’t complain significantly. Also in this pen’s favor is that with the tip on the butt end while writing, the pen has a nice heft. Not too light and not too heavy. Quite nice in my opinion!
Conclusion
Pilot has really done a great job with their P-700 pen. It’s smooth, the tip doesn’t get clog up with excess ink, the ink is a pleasing dark black and the pen looks nice overall. I’m actually at somewhat a loss of words. I expected very little from it and am pleasantly surprised. If I had to find one problem with it besides the somewhat narrow grip, it would be that it has a clear plastic lid which can get rather scuffed with use. Other than that, a great product!
If you liked this review, check out my other office supply reviews:
Stanley Bostitch B515 Stapler
Pentel RSVP BK90-C Ballpoint Pen
Zebra F-402 Retractable Ballpoint Pen
Sanford Uni-Ball Rollerball Micro Pen
Pentel e-Sharp 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mjwood0
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Location: Southern Tier, NY
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Engineer who enjoys the outdoors, computers and is trying to start a small hobby farm!
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