Reviews Written by jen...

  This stuff is indispensable...., September 13, 2012

This stuff is indispensable. I write pretty much exclusively in black ink (with blue and green and a bit of red for color-coding) and I'm a bit of a perfectionist about how my writing looks, so every little error gets covered with correction tape and re-done. The Petit-Corre tape is easy to write over (I use hybrid ballpoints) and the best thing about it is the 2.5mm width - it allows me to correct just a tiny area. I've gone through about five of them in the past year and won't use any other correction tape!

  One of my favorite pens!..., September 13, 2012

One of my favorite pens! My love for ballpoint multi-pens is probably now the stuff of legend, but the Zebra Surari comes second on that list (behind the inimitable Jetstream 4+1). The plastic body is quite light and slimmer than most other 3- or 4-cartridge pens, which is nice if sometimes, like me, your hands get a little tired from holding up bigger and heavier pens. The downside is that it maybe doesn't look as "classy" as the Jetstream or the Dr. Grip 4+1s; this means I tend to use it for note-taking in the library or lectures but not at conferences and things. The grip is comfortable but nothing remarkable; the tabs are easily clicked, although I did find it confusing at first because they go in reverse of the usual color order. The ink itself is great - smooth and dark with no streaks, though the blue and green are prone to the occasional glob. The green ink is possibly the most unique ballpoint green I've ever encountered - it's much darker and warmer-toned, almost a forest green, and I absolutely love it!

  I love this pen... for..., September 10, 2012

I love this pen... for its body. I'm something of a multipen aficionado (Jetstream, Surari, Acroball, I've got 'em all, and usually multiples) and I absolutely adore the body on the Dr. Grip 4+1. It's really nicely weighted, the grip provides just the right amount of cushion, and it looks really classy. Unfortunately, the ink is pretty awful. All four colors are prone to white streaks, and the black and blue in particular are just average crappy ballpoint ink. If only the ink were as good as the regular Dr. Grip ink, it would be stellar. (I have, however, solved that particular problem by using the Acroball multi-pen refills, which fit perfectly! My beloved hybrid ink + classy body = win. Now I just need a green Acroball refill...)

  My absolute HOLY GRAIL..., October 16, 2011

My absolute HOLY GRAIL of pens! After discovering the amazingness that is the standard Jetstream, I decided to indulge my color-coding habit with the Jetstream multipen. It was the single best decision I have made in my life as a stationery addict. The pen body has a good solid weight to it, but isn't unbearably heavy (some fountain pens come to mind), and holding it is pretty comfortable, even if you have a super low grip like I do. It looks very sleek and classy, and the color tabs are very subtle, which I particularly appreciate in professional settings. (I like the Surari multi a lot, but the bright plasticky tabs are reminiscent of the good old Bic 4-color pen.) The ink, as you'd expect from a Jetstream, is smooth and pretty much flawless. I do find that with the blue I get the occasional tiny glob, and the green is a shade too light for my taste, but these are very minor quibbles indeed, and certainly don't stop me from blowing through refills with terrifying speed. (I write a LOT.) The pencil is not exactly a Kuru Toga, but it's perfectly serviceable - luckily, I'm not really a pencil person and only use the pencil function for doing paleography work and for drawing lines in my notebooks that will later be erased. But this one pen got me through an entire degree, and is well on its way to seeing me through another. I love it so much that I bought the green version, and also a pink 0.5 version, but they just aren't quite as perfect as the original black. Highly recommended!