Reviewing the Zebra Z-Grip Gel Pens

One of my favorite writers over at the OfficeSupplyGeek blog recently reviewed the new Zebra Z Grip sticks pens that were recently recently released to the market. She wrote a great review, which I've posted below with all the links and images intact so you can see the info on her site as well. Take a look at what she wrote and then I'll post my thoughts on this pen below the review:

A little while ago I got a great little package of new pens from the folks at Zebra, which included these nice Z-Grip Gel Stick pens in blue and red. I know many of you prefer to hit up Amazon or Staples for lots of your office supply shopping, however the link there is right to the Zebra Store since it looks like lots of places are not carrying these yet.

Zebra Z-Grip Gel Stick Uncapped

The Z-Grip Gel Stick by Zebra is a very understated pen with minimal branding and a nice clean and simple design. Personally I like when pen manufacturers don’t go overboard on the branding and design elements, so these fit my sometimes simplistic and minimalist needs. They are available in a .7mm or medium tip, and come in blue, red, and black…I didn’t get a sample of the black so you only see the blue and red above. The pen as a very smooth but ribbed grip that is very comfortable, and the cap posts nicely, sliding down a good length over the body of the pen.

Zebra Z-Grip Gel Stick Writing Sample

Writing with these was an absolute pleasure, the .7mm tip glides completely effortlessly across the page, laying down very vivid blue and red gel ink. In my limited time using them, I didn’t experience any skipping or splotching with them. I did have the chance to use these for one extended period of writing and the grip of the pen, as well as the balance were perfect and comfortable for me even with the cap posted. My one minor quibble with the pens were that the blue version had a slight bit of rattle in the tip as I picked it up and put it down on the paper. There wasn’t a huge amount of play in the tip, but I did get a little bit of that “tap” and “click” as I wrote. Overall this is a great performing and inexpensive pen, with the tip rattle being only a very minor annoyance. These would make a great everyday workhorse pen for most, so check out the Z-Grip Gel Stick pens at the Zebra store and give them a try.

© 2011, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

It's no secret that I'm very particular about the pens I use, and, once I find a model or models that I like, I tend to stick with them. With that being said, I'm stepping outside that approach to give you an honest opinion. My Zebra rep dropped out a sampler series of this exact same pen in blue and red. I took the time to spend some time writing with them on various papers, surfaces, and situations.

My thoughts: To be quite honest, I wasn't a huge fan initially as I didn't care for the kind of jerky movement that the pen seemed to generate as it wrote. It turns out that these pens need a bit of use to get the ink flowing well, so I was experiencing an issue with the ink flow not being 100%. Once I moved past that issue, I found the pens to be well made, and fairly comfortable (although it will never replace my ergonomical favorite). They were dependable and performed as expected during the testing period. The .7mm tip is a little small for me personally, but it writes quite well.

Let's face it, this pen series is really designed to be disposable, but it's a nice value for the money. While I like the stick version, I'm a much bigger fan of the Zebra Z-Grip Retractable Pen versus the stick models.