Pentel Tetra: There's Nothing Fishy About This Roller Ball!
Written: Aug 27 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Incredibly fine line, no smudging of ink, professional look, visible ink supply.
Cons: Not refillable, caps get lost easily, hard to find.
The Bottom Line: Awesome coverage, darkest ink and it looks cool too!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Pentel Tetra Roller Ball Pen Black Ink |
If you do any amount of writing then you appreciate a good quality pen when one comes your way. The Tetra from Pentel is an impressive roller ball pen with a smooth ink flow, visible ink flow chamber and a very sweet look to it. This is one of the nicer pens from last years roller ball collection and it is something that makes writing a little less painful. No, there is no rubber comfort grip to it and the caps can get lost easily but once you write with it and see the fine sharp line that it produces, the few small cons of this pen fade into the distance. Being a pen junkie I am always eager to try out anything that is even remotely 'new' on the market. I must be slipping because I missed this when it was first released. In any event, I eventually tracked down all four colors in the Tetra series and have been impressed with all of them. The blue and red versions may not get used all that often but they are nice to have around in case they are needed.
Pentel Tetra Black Roller Ball Pen
If you pick this pen apart and look at the pros and cons of it, the scale tips greatly in the direction of the pros. Likewise, there's nothing new here and for me, a pen addict, to say that, well, you know there is merit in the comment. Sure it has a very cool ink window on the side of the pen but it isn’t 100% accurate. You have to allow the pen to rest for a long time to get an accurate dead-on-balls reading and even then, the gelatinous material inside the pen that forces the ink through the feeder system can skew the amount of ink that is actually in the pen. But let's not mince words here, if you are cutting it that close then you deserve to be out and about and have your pen run out of ink. As far as the hue, it is a true black. Pentel puts out pens with the absolute darkest black ink available. Smudging can happen on slick papers but for the most part, the ink dried almost immediately.
Writing with this is nice but it would be better if there was even the slightest comfort grip to it but that is something that can't be held against the overall design of the Tetra. It is extremely comfortable to write with but if you are going over an hour in a class and taking notes, you will end up with divots in your fingers and possible hand cramps. It's not a heavy pen since most of it is plastic, to pen purists that is a negative because they think that a pen has to have weight to be worthy. That's fine; they are entitled to their own opinion even if they are wrong. That just leaves more pens for me. This is a disposable and no refills are sold for it. Why? That's just the way that they designed it silly. No, seriously, there is a reason. Because this has a clear liquid inside the chamber, it needs to be an air tight seal for the ink and the feeder liquid to work properly. That is why you can pick this up and write with it without fail from the first stroke to the very last stitch of ink in it. Any air that would get trapped inside it would seriously screw with the flow and you would end up with skips and broken lines.
This is one of the thinnest roller balls on the market but by Pentel's standard it is considered a 'fine line' pen. Anything finer than this and it would be impossible to have the ink hit the paper and be legible. If you try this out and think that it is too thin for your writing needs you can get it in the .6mm size instead of the .3mm tip. Both are capped pens that can not be refilled. Please read the box, carton or packaging closely to ensure that you get the correct tip size. These have a long ink supply life; I used one exclusively for writing and managed to fill and entire 80 page notebook [that's front and back] with notes and there was still ink left in the pen. What's the cost? If you can find them locally you are looking at about two dollars a piece, there is a price break online if you buy them by the box but I strongly suggest that you try them out first to make sure that you like them.
The Bottom Line
You can get the Tetra in four snappy colors; black, blue, red and green. All of the colors write well so it all boils down to what you need them for and if there are color restraints for jobs. I am partial to black ink and was completely impressed with the way that this performed. Even after pages and pages of writing, the last word looked just as crisp and clear as the last. Pentel backs their products with a guarantee that you will be satisfied or they will refund your purchase price or replace it with another product. Not many companies are willing to back up their product line with any type of a guarantee so it's nice to know that Pentel is going to be there if needed long after the purchase has been made. If you are looking for an inexpensive roller ball pen, look for the Tetra in any of the four available colors.
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2007 Freak369
Pentel Pens
R.S.V.P., EnerGel, Hybrid Gold
Lancelot, Hybrid DX Silver, Clarius
Pentel Pencils
Forte, Razzle Dazzle Icy
Champ, Clarius, Gizmo
Recommended:
Yes
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