Zebra Sarasa 3+S 3 Color 0.5 mm Gel Ink Multi Pen + 0.5 mm Pencil - Orange Body

This *is* my pen. I bring it everywhere with me, and keep a backup as well.

The line is ultra-thin, and completely *solid.* It photocopies perfectly.

This pen excels at detail: *schematic work,* *logging,* and *annotation.* The small line means that you can fit in entire paragraphs between lines of print-out, or clearly record small log records with great information density. When working with diagram and schematic, you can modulate size cleanly, with no loss of quality. Because red, blue, and black are quickly available, you never have to reach for another pen -- until you want something in bold text.

I have never used the pencil, and wish instead that I could use green in its place. However, if you are exclusively doing schematic work, I can see how the pencil would be invaluable: You can pencil in how things should be, correct mistakes, and then pen in afterward, all without moving your hand from the drawing surface.

My only serious complaints is with the eraser: It is tiny, and only a small portion of it is usable without actually removing the eraser from the top of the pen.

I've used this pen daily for about three-quarters of a year. The line is always even, smooth, and thin and never skips, down to the last drop of ink (in fact, I often wind up replacing the ink before it stops writing just because I'm worried that it'll run out before I have a chance to swap in a new stick). The ink goes pretty fast, but the refills aren't particularly expensive ($25.00 of ink has lasted me around 8 months with daily use for taking notes about three-quarters of that time). The erasers go fast too, so buy some extras, especially if you don't use a separate eraser for big corrections.

One problem: The ink does not go well with Moleskine paper. I've had to tuck extra little pieces of binder paper to put between the pages when I close it, because the ink takes *forever* to dry. As in, it can still smudge a good minute and a half after you write it. I've never had trouble with it drying on any other paper besides that notebook, though.

Also, the clip broke off of mine after about five months--I just picked it up one day and it fell off. It still works just fine except for the fact that I can't clip it to anything anymore, which is a bit annoying.

I took off one star for the clip and the dry time on Moleskine paper, but in general I love this pen, and for the price, it's a bargain.

So I now own 3 multi pens - this one, the uniball signo MF3, and the Staedtler Multi 3 (works exactly the same as the newer Staedtler avant garde models).The zebra sarasa 3+s has a bunch of features, yes, but the body is really fat which makes it uncomfortable to hold, almost unusable. Also the ballpoint tips are really pointy if that makes sense, which makes writing not that smooth. The binder clip is a really cool feature and the pen is attractive overall. The gel ink sets down a nice dark thick line with very saturated color but as with any gel ink it can smear if you touch it before it dries. I much prefer the uniball signo MF3 - as it is thinner and writes more smoothly.

I love the way this pen was developed, esp. the ability to retract the pencil part so it doesn't break when I sit down. I always had to deal with that at work and losing valuable lead. The only downside for me is I wish the tips were large rather than 0.5mm. I like big bold ink writing. If Zebra changes the size, I'm sure to buy.

Sometimes it is hard to decide on things like... "One mechanical pencil, and two or three gel inks? Two gel inks means a slimmer body, but, maybe I will need the third ink!" So, I went after the 3+S, unfortunately, it feels very thick, even with my big hands (I can pull a basket ball with my open hand from the ground). I haven't tried the 2+S yet, but I feel very comfortable using the competition from Uniball, the MF3. Personally I prefer slim pens overall.