Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Ink Pen with Grip - 0.3 mm - Black

So I actually used one of these pens for day to day writing until it stopped working, and simultaneously used a Uniball Signo 0.28mm for the same purposes until it ran out of ink. I filled up one Doane pad, and two Clairefontaine pads with notes. I'll compare the two:

-The Uni-Ball pen lays down a thick, smeary river of ink, while the Pilot pen is far more sparing. I used both pens at about the same rate, and the Uni-Ball ran out when the Pilot was at about 2/3 expired.

-Both pens stopped working at around the same time. The Uni-ball ran out of ink, but the Pilot's tip just stopped functioning for some reason. There was no obvious mechanical failure, but with about 1/3 of its ink reservoir remaining, lines became spotty, faint, or not inked at all. I'm not very hard on these pens-- My writing style does not put very much pressure on the tip.

-The Pilot pen made the better line. Lines had superior definition, and smudged less overall.

-The uni-ball pen made a much more consistent line. It smudged more easily, and had poorer definition, but it performed in exactly the same manner until it ran out of ink. The Pilot pen sometimes took a few lines of writing until it started acting normally, and the quality of the line varied from day to day and line to line.

-Both pens were very nice to write with. The Pilot pen had a slight advantage, but both felt very good compared to other pens.

This pen lays down an amazingly fine line. However, I usually write with the pen at a heavy slant (I'm a lefty) and the Hi-Tec-C doesn't like that one bit. When taking notes in class, the ink frequently sputters which is, needless to say, annoying. They work just fine for my girlfriend though.

i initially LOVED this pen.
i was very excited to find a relatively inexpensive fine tip pen after years of feeling frustrated seeing .5mm or .7mm pens erroneously labelled as "fine" in stationary/office supply stores.
BUT! the honeymoon eventually ended..
i have used dozens of these pens in black, blue, and red..
to be fair to jetpens, none of them were purchased through their site.

my first big complaint is the colour of the ink.
i hate hate hate the colour black used.. i'm not sure how to describe what i hate about it.. but it just reminds me of something you'd expect from a cheap ballpoint pen that you'd hate writing with. so when the pen is functioning well, i hate the look of what i'm writing.
(i also hate the red used.)

inconsistency.
i have almost never used a pen until the ink has run out.
some of the pens work ok for a while, and then just stop writing, with a majority of the ink remaining.
a select few pens never worked from the start.
i can understand pens that are dropped on their tip no longer working. it's annoying. but i can understand it.
but i keep my pens in an old metal cigarette tin, in my bag. this shouldn't be continuously happening.

This pen is my favorite all-around fine point. Color, flow, feel... it's a ten!

It's hard to review such a classic in the pen genre. If you are a fan of needlepoint pens, then this is the one that everything else is compared to. I have found the .3 to be a teeny bit small for general writing, although I really like it a lot. The grip on this is an added bonus from the low end Hi-Tech C, and is worth the extra buck.

All in all'. Every pen lover should have several of these in their arsenal. It's a steal at this price.