Rotring Rapid Pro Drafting Pencil - 0.5 mm - Black Body

Background info: own Rotring 600 0.5mm silver (purchased from JetPens), 2000 vintage Rotring 0.5mm silver retractable mech. pencil (unsure of the model #), and Uni Kuru Toga (purchased from JetPens), engineer by trade so I take a lot of notes and draw a lot.

Purchased the Rapid Pro 0.5mm black after a lot of research as I was considering the Rotring 800 as I need a good retractable version of the Rotring 600. I love my 600 (and those around me who comment about it) in every way except for the non-retractable tip that scares me when I walk away from my office. Nothing compares to the feel of a good writing instrument.

People complain about the Rapid Pro's lightness (lighter than my 600, but a tank compared to most everything else), the less aggressive knurled grip (no issues as it still is knurled and provides good grip), too much plastic (the 600 has plastic parts internally and the only Rapid Pro plastic that you can touch without disassembly is the red strip. the body is all metal albeit thinner than the 600).

The Rotring 800 was too expensive and heavy...plus to extract the tip required you to twist the top. I prefer just to press down on the top in a single handed motion to extend the tip instead of 2 hands for the 800.

My older Rotring retractable has zero knurling on the grip, so it looks cool, but has zero grip. I wish the Rapid Pro had this type of retractable tip as the extension and retraction are made with simply pushing down on the top where as the Rapid Pro I have to push the tip in manually while pushing down on the top to retract the tip.

The only thing I don't like about the Rapid Pro is the hole in the top of the cap that shows off the eraser. Probably would have chosen the silver version if I knew of that hole. In general I like using it more than my 600 which is now been moved to home office duty...both awesome pencils, but the retractable tip is the trump card for workplace duty.

SparcEE

i just got this pencil today and it writes very good. it looks cool,it feels great>overall i would recommend this pencil to a lot of people.the only bad issue i have is that the cap has a big hole that shows off the eraser.all in all,i'm very happy with my buy.way better than the rotring 800.