Customer Reviews

You're buying the nib when you get this pen. The body is cheap plastic and only serves to move around what has to be [the] finest nib I've yet to use on a fountain pen. With about a .4mm line, this is what I [expect] when a manufacturer labels their nib "F." If you, like me, actually write using narrow-rule or smaller - this is your pen. Love it.

This is a wonderful pen. It is not as fine as a Pilot, which is good in my opinion. This pen, for me, produces what a fine line should be. It gives a wonderfully smooth feeling when I write with it in my Moleskine or Rhodia notebook.


The pen does have a plastic body, but I still think the colour is attractive.

Consider this...this is my second favourite pen because of how it feels when I write. My favourite pen is a Sailor with a 24K gold nib. But the Neo is a close second. I recommend this to everyone reading this review.

Huge surprise ! After a bad experience with two "Young Profit" pens I had little hope for this but was really wanting a Sailor for the waterproof ink cartridges that I could use for travel drawings. Yeah, it's fit and finish are definitely on the cheap side but so is the cost. The pen performs way out of it's league laying down a smooth, consistent line on all surfaces, all inks. A tiny bit thicker than the Pilot fine (also surprising) but still definitely a fine. Very pleased.

First of all, fast shipping on this order. Pen arrived today with blue black ink.

This is an inexpensive pen but it is well constructed. Whether capping or posting, the cap has a nice, secure snap to it. Writing quality and flow is excellent. This pen writes a very fine line. The nib glides across paper. My only suggestion on this pen to the manufacturer would be to offer this pen with a medium and perhaps a broad nib.

Overall, this pen is much, much better than what one would expect at this price point. It is a quality product with an excellent nib. So, if you are on the fence on this one-buy it. You won't regret it.

I want to start out with saying that these pens write nice and fine. The line is fine and for the most part doesn't skip or smudge either. I am new to the whole fountain pen thing, and I would like to say that I am a complete convert to it. I have two of these pens, one black and the other blue. One of them worked from the time I put ink into the converter, the other not so much. It took some time to get the ink to flow in the other one, which wrote on the dry side, and also had lots of skipping. But after going to the LA pen show I found out how to adjust the flow and now it works perfectly. So I would say these are great pens to start any collection of inexpensive fountain pens. They are relatively inexpensive and write quite well for the most part. If they had been a bit more consistent in quality and writing, then I would have gave it another start, but as it stands 4 out of 5 is good for me.

If one desires an inexpensive pen with a well-made extra-fine nib (Japanese fine= Euro extra-fine), and excellent ink flow, this is a terrific fountain pen. It writes the way a fountain pen should! No pressing required. The nib glides across the surface of the paper laying down a lovely, narrow line.

I have mine filled with a Sailor blue-black pigment ink cartridge and it handles beautifully. No skipping; no false starts--as a matter of fact, it started writing almost the instant I inserted the cartridge!

For those who like to post the cap of the pen on the barrel while writing, the pen has a nice feature. The cap snaps onto the end of the barrel and won't fall off.
Say I forget to use this pen, and the pigment ink dries out in the feed. If I can't flush it out, no worries! It's not expensive! But I imagine I can clean the feed, if that happens, because all Sailor pens are of good design.

When I got this pen I also got some ink. I used that ink in the pen and it wasn't working right so I got a replacement pen. I used different ink in the new pen and it has worked perfectly since. (I think the ink was bad since every pen I have put it in, it has clogged my pens.) I like that fact that it is very basic, but it writes well. It has turned out to be one of my favorite pens I use daily!

I purchased this for my husband and we both think it's a nice, basic pen. We will travel with this pen because it's not something we would get upset about if we were to misplace it.

Full review with photos here: http://simplicityembellished.com/2010/04/sailor-highace-neo-beginner-fountain-p en/

TO gurl930: I'm a little confused (not that I'm trying to be picky or something - just want to make sure that amateurs like me don't get confused): in your post you mentioned the Pilot brand... Did you mean to say/type "Sailor"? If I am not mistaken, Sailor does have a Manhattan line...

I had bad experience with the Pilot Manhattan series, but loved their disposable fountain pen, so i gave Pilot another chance. I'm quite satisfied with the pen, except for the plastic that comes across as somewhat cheap, so i knocked off one star. Recommended.

Excellent pen, especially for the price. It's not flashy, but the nib is great- a very smooth, consistent fine line. The plastic is a bit lightweight, but the pen's well-balanced and comfortable to hold and the light weight makes it possible to write for a long time without fatigue.

Works with Sailor cartridges (I like the Clear Candy Reddish Brown, a beautiful coppery color) or converter (I have used both Private Reserve and Rohrer and Klingner inks from a bottle with absolutely no problems).

Compared to the Ohto F-Spirit that I purchased at the same time for the same price, the Sailor is definitely the superior pen. The F-Spirit's metal body has a nice design and a good weight to it, but I have experienced a lot of skipping and hard starts when writing (having tried several different Kaweco inks from cartridge and the same bottled inks that have worked well in te Neo) compared to none of those problems with the Sailor HighAce Neo.

I have already ordered a second HighAce Neo in blue and am looking forward to it.

This is actually my second HighAce Neo. Real "F," tip and suitable for narrow-rule paper or smaller. Expect a true fine line.

Fantastic fountain pen for the price! It's a smooth writer plus the cap posts on the barrel end with a secure "click." That's a nice design touch on a relatively inexpensive fountain pen.

Great pen for the price…great for sketching because it’s a very fine line. I’ve used this pen for several weeks now in my sketching kit, no ink bombs, and I’m rough on pens. It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.

Love it very smooth.

The fineness of the nib is just about perfect for me; my non-fountain pens are usually Uniball Micro 0.5mm, and this writes just about exactly like that, only smoother. (I find my Lamy EF nib to be wonderful, but a bit too broad for anything but prose; it's too broad for math or notes.) The tines seems pretty well aligned and I haven't felt much scratchiness, despite the fineness of the nib. I have Noodler's #41 Brown in it, and so far so good.

The pen does feel incredibly light. Posting the cap, which is the only reasonably hefty-feeling part of this pen, leaves it reasonably well balanced.

This pen is really great especially for the price; however, I find that if you write too quickly (like when I'm crossing my T's), it often skips. I bought this pen to replace my Sailor Recruit thinking that it would be at least similar. But in the end, nothing can really replace the Sailor Recruit which is by far the best fine point fountain pen I have ever used. I really hope they produce/sell them again on this site!

Fantastic pen!

I use my pen for mathematics and detailed diagrams, so I have always used F & XF nibs. This pen writes better than the Pelikan Souveran XF that has been my go-to pen for years -- this Sailor nib renders a slightly finer line. Good uniform flow with a uniform line width. I'm using the Sailor black ink in this pen. I prefer a pen that is a little heaver in the hand, but that is just a personal preference. WOW!

Great pen, writes really nice and makes your handwriting look nice, but I can't speak for the quality yet. It seems to be okay, but I've only used it a few times.

Great value for a fountain pen. The Sailor HighAce writes with a true fine line, but does not feel very scratchy. I normally prefer a medium width nib, but this pen is great when I want a fine line. I purchased black ink cartridges and a converter- both work well in this pen.

A truly fine line! This is a spectacular nib for drawing, loaded with a Sailor Nano ink cartridge. Runs tiny circles around my Lamy Vista EF...

The only faults I can find are that the pen feels fairly cheap overall for the price (seems more like it should be about $8-10, really), with slightly misaligned cosmetic trim on the cap that doesn't seem to affect performance or comfort in any way. The grip area can become slippery if your hand environment is on the moist side, but as the pen is so light, it's not likely to tumble out of your grip. Lastly, the red plastic is fairly dull compared to the photo, like Evil-Superman's cape in Superman III.

A little pricey at first, but the twinge evaporates the more you play with that superb line.

I ordered this fountainpen on the branchename Sailor. It is very payable and it writes perfect: a very smootly wet line, light in the hand and perfectly soft hitting the paper. I realy recommend this pen!
Service at JetPen is as usualy very good.

Does anyone know what happened to the Sailor Recruit? I got on to buy one, as my school pen, and they are gone. The beginner's are nice, but I really love the barrel on the Recruit.