The Uniball 207 gel pen is the cheapest pen I’ll use.
Sorry, that’s not absolutely true – sometimes I use others, such as the Uniball One with micro tip, but not for everyday writing tasks.
I also have my non-disposable favorites, such as the Parker Jotter in stainless, Energel Philography but with needle-tip gel refills, and others.
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But when it comes down to disposable pens, one I’ll use in my office, to help my kids with their homework, and even in the workshop, it’s the Uniball 207.
I used to be a Pilot G2 fan. Those gel pens aren’t bad – here are a bunch at Amazon – but I’ve had mixed experiences in recent years.
The Uniball 207 pens have been more consistent.
If given the choice, I prefer any number of my metal-bodied pens. Well, at least most of the time. Right now I’m in a “just give me something to write with” phase, and these are what I grab for.
Oops, one went missing. So, I grab another from the box. They all turn up eventually.
Right now Amazon has the 12-count of black ink pens with 0.7mm tip for just over $14. They have the black, red, and purple ink pens for just under $15.
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Growing up, we had a large plastic cup – a casino coin cup – filled with random pens. My father went to different conventions in the city, and at every stop they gave him a pen, and those pens filled that cup.
My parents had a couple of other pens that I can remember, but not many. For school, we had boxes of Bic or Paper Mate pens.
Some time in high school, that’s when everything changed.
I don’t recall what brought me to the pen section at the office supply store, but I believe I was searching for a compass or drafting tape, or something like that. We had to take a drafting class and also a CAD class.
Everyone had to buy the same basic starter kit, but I was curious to see what else was out there.
I remember visiting the Staples near my house, and I also walked the aisles at Pearl Paint after school.
It was around that time, roughly, that I started paying attention to the pens I used.
At some point – maybe it was late high school or early college – I switched to gel pens, and then from gel pens with 0.7mm tips to 0.5mm. The narrower pen tip forced me to write a little slower, and slower meant a little neater.
Fast forward a bit. Almost 6 years ago, I bought a box of Bic Clic Stic pens to keep for around the house use. I paid $6 for the box of 24 – it’s now up to $7.
I was tired of grabbing whatever hotel or promo pen I could find in the kitchen drawer. So I bought the Bics for consistency when I didn’t have one of my regular refillable pens close at hand.
They were functional, but not suited for me. I hated using them, even for quick tasks.
Is it really worth upgrading from 24 for $7 to 12 for $14?
In that regard, the Uniball 207 pens are hardly “cheap” – they’re around 4X the price!
The Bic pens, fine for a cheap office pen, were slower to write with, but without helping to make my handwriting any more legible. Sometimes I use pens to sketch quick diagrams, do some quick math, or similar, and they were just not fluid.
The Uniball, on the other hand, delivers a more pleasant and unobtrusive experience. They’ve been consistent.
They advertise that the 207 delivers “an exceptional writing experience.” You know what? It does.
Before I was particular about tools, I was selective about pens and school supplies.
I don’t prefer the Uniball because it brings me any joy to use; I like it because it doesn’t cause any frustrations.
That’s the same way I feel about tools.
Uniball also makes the 207 with a slimmer tip. I tried those a while back, but prefer Pentel Energel refills better for narrow sizes. I prefer 0.5mm or finer point gel pens, but with the Uniball, 0.7mm is a better fit for everyday quick tasks.
Sometimes my choice of pen, tool, or whatever, brings me joy. But most of the time, I don’t want to think about it – I want an instrument that blends into the background of getting things done.
I didn’t like the 207 at first. It didn’t bring me joy. It didn’t help me write neater. Meh. Years passed. I gave it another try a little over 2 years ago, when I bought a box of 12 (medium 0.7mm, black ink).
I love that I don’t hate the writing and sketching experience. This is the cheapest pen I’ll use.
My wife doesn’t agree with me. However, she was a “hotel and promo pens are fine” kind of person up until recently, when I introduced her to Pilot B2P gel pens.
Uniball pricing isn’t very good at small quantities – Pilot and Pentel are much better about that – but they do have a 207 Plus 4-pack at Amazon and elsewhere. Apparently the Plus has a more upscale look. The price per pen is also a little lower – $4.48 for the 4-pack at the time of this posting, which seems strange.
Many of you are preferential about your tools, accessories, consumables, and supplies. I’m sure some of you are selective about pens as well. Any other Uniball 207 fans?
I should add that Uniball promotes the fraud-proof permanence of their ink. That’s a selling point, but not one I’ve ever been concerned with.
Robert
Been bitten by check fraud, so the fraud version is the only one I buy. I do still accumulate hotel and convention pens for less critical use.
fred
Getting a checking account was one of those rights-of-passage in my youth. Initially, I wrote checks for nearly everything I could. Then I got a Diners Club credit card followed by others – and the number of checks started to drop off. Today I can count on my fingers the number of checks I write each month. The only check I wrote in September was for my passport renewal.
Most transactions that I observe are either via phone, credit card or EFT – perhaps with the exception of those who are members of the cash economy. More and more establishments will no longer take checks – and I’ve visited some that do not accept cash (likely because of robbery concerns).
Anyway – back to pens – my dad used the same Pelican fountain pen almost all of his life. I bought him a Mont Blanc as a gift – and I inherited it back still in its presentation box. When I was working – many of our suppliers would hand out pens etc. as promotional items. We did some of the same for our customers. In those years I never wanted for a pen. Then in the age that I did a lot of travelling – hotels were a source for pens – some (from European hotels) quite nice. So now – I can’t recall when I purchased a pen for general writing tasks and what I use is whatever’s laying around that still writes. I do buy various pencils and marking pens for shop use – and like some of the newer styles that allow the point to reach into holes. The most recent ones I bought were pretty inexpensive and seem to work well enough
https://www.amazon.com/Azureblue-Waterproof-Construction-Multi-Purpose-Woodworking/dp/B0FC2VDW84
Ray
I found the Signo 207 years ago, probably 10. And I use it religiously up until about three years ago, in fact kept no others around would fond them up and give them away. Then about three years ago or so I found the Pentel Energel RTX. These pens have almost completely driven the 207’s out of my life. I picked one up a few weeks ago just to see if I was missing something and nope, I love the Pentel more than ever. Funny, you should have this article, I used the G2’s prior to the 207 as well.
MM
It’s funny, I am very opinionated about most of my tools and, given the chance, will gladly go into detail explaining the minutiae behind my choices, but I don’t really care for pens in general, and most of mine are cheapo promos.
I have used nice pens. I once owned a very expensive set of Koh-I-Noor technical pens. Nice pens certainly feel better in the hand compared to cheap pens. And nobody likes the frustration incurred when a crappy pen doesn’t write properly. But I dislike pens in general. It’s the ink. I am left-handed and I write fast–this is a bad combination.
I’ll use a pen if I have to sign a document or if I’m writing an in important personal letter or card but otherwise give me a pencil. When I have to buy pens I usually opt for either Pilot Precise or Pilot G2. I don’t think either are anything super special, but they’re not junk and they’re reasonably priced.
TonyT
There are quick drying pens for lefties. MT_Noob recommenda the Sarasa (which is a good pen), for more ideas Jetpens has a curated selection https://www.jetpens.com/Left-Handed-Supplies/ct/555
KokoTheTalkingApe
The Uni-ball Jetstream has ink that dries almost instantly. It’s also fade-water- and solvent resistant. It also doesn’t skip, blob, etc. like the G2s I’ve tried.
Andy
I really like those 207 pens as well. Oddly enough, the first one I got was a “freebie” type thing. Or as I like to joke about it, my $150,000 pen. When my wife and I refinanced our home about 10 years ago, the bank gave us each a 207 pen with the bank logo on it to use for signing everything. I discovered how much I liked it and have bought them a few times since then.
blocky
I keep Pilot G-7 in my bag. It is acid-free, which makes it conservation-friendly in a museum context. Sometimes I use it like a stain-pen to touch up a something black, and it doesn’t leave the purple sheen of a Sharpie/ RevMark/ Inkzall.
conrad
I have tried more pens than I want to admit. A favorite is the Uniball Power Tank – it is pressurized in some way and the flow is consistently good on a variety of surfaces, and it has a thumb-click switch.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/uni-ball/page/D7B4AB5A-329C-4025-B1D0-91410C8C0179
bob
try these;
https://www.amazon.com/TUL-Retractable-Medium-Point-Barrel/
smooooooth, very little skipping
Scott F
I have a few types floating around my desk, like them all differently and hard to pick an exact favorite.
Pilot Precise V5RT – Arguably my favorite general use – love the 0.5mm tip, used these throughout college.
Zebra F301 – I like the stainless barrel, it feels nice and weighty. Writes good for a non-gel pen. It’s really between this or the pilot most of the time if I’m taking a general purpose note. Have not used the 0.5mm version only the 0.7, and think I prefer that size for this pen.
Zebra Sarasa – these are typically my colored pens (I keep a red and blue around) for notating or making changes. They are very VERY reminiscent of the Pilot G2 in look and feel – but they don’t get that “scratchy” writing that I feel like I experience from every G2 (won’t use them because of it). When they were released, the Sarasa ink was also touted as instant dry/no smears – good for lefties. Because these are colored I have never actually replaced the ink barrel, but need to soon on my red one – cannot say for sure if new refills are still instant dry.
These are my main contenders. I don’t use fancy pens, but do feel like the middle-of-road ones provide a much nicer experience than cheapos and ball point pens. I recognize the 207s and have definitely written with them, just never made it into my arsenal. I don’t write enough to burn through pens very fast, so the few 12 packs I’ve bought over the years will probably last me long enough not to think about buying more.
MT_Noob
I’ll second the recommendation for the Zebra Sarasa. As a southpaw I really appreciate the near instantly dry gel. The 0.7 and 0.5 write like a dream and I could not ask for anything better. The 0.4 has on occasion felt a bit scratchy or I had struggled to get the line starting. Not sure if that was a fluke or not, but I stocked up on both the 0.7 and 0.5 sizes. I can’t say enough good things about them.
Martin
I’ll second the zebra F301. I used them extensively in the Army. They write okay, I’m not enough of a pen person to say they write great with any authority, but their most important feature to me was they could go through the washer AND dryer without exploding ink all over everything.
I almost always check my pockets before the wash but you just need to mess up once. Uniforms are expensive so I turned down all the free Skilcraft pens I could ever use and bought my own Zebra F301s.
Derek
I really like the Uniball 207 gel pens too. I use the micro for certain tasks but the medium every day at work for quickly taking notes.
My wife used to get some branded pens at her last job that I like even better. I tried to order branded ones at my job but they were ballpoint. I ended up finding them on Amazon and ordered a pack.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B38DQSR3
Wayne R.
My Montblanc stays at the desk. If I’m running around, I carry a Fisher Bullet Space pen, which are terrific.
But it’s hard to beat the OG Bic Cristal, and today they’re 24 for $3.89. That’s only 16 cents each.
(Back in the day, I managed to used one all the way down, so that looking down the tube from the rear, I could just make out the ball at the other end. Only managed that once.)
TomD
Every once in awhile the “take a pen” things at conventions or businesses will have a GOOD pen; I always ask if I can have a few. Never heard a no yet.
Donny
Uniballs are by far the best and made in Japan. I prefer the 1.0mm. Also their power tank pens are fantastic if you don’t like the smudging you get with gel and they’ll write on just about anything. They are slightly less bold than gels of course.
Mike
My favorite retractable pen is the Pilot Precise V5 RT. The retractable uniball pens have any annoying clicking that seems to come from the metal tip banging around in the body of the pen/the metal nose. I find the V5 RT to be the smoothest writing of them all, though I suppose it is more of a rollerball than a true gel pen. The G2 is a decent pen but for whatever reason it makes my writing very sloppy. The downside of the V5 RT is the inherent lack of durability with a needle point — drop it while it’s not retracted and the tip will get pushed back up into the body of the refill and shortened. Give it to someone else to write with who is heavy handed and get it back bent.
David F.
Fisher Space Pen was #1 for years. I worked outside, and they would write thru the raindrops.
Been using G 2 last few years but had a couple leak into a shirt when I forgot to retract. Going to check out some of the ones posted here.
AKJ
For me, it is the Made in USA Skilcraft U.S. Government “Writes a mile” ball point with medium tips in both stick and click forms. Not the fanciest, or the cheapest, but always reliable with no dried globs, smudges, or having to write swirls to get the ink to come out. Since I started buying them pre-COVID I have yet to run out of ink in any of the pens that I regularly use. The only drawback is that occasionally one of the stick pens in the packs I buy for various occasions do not have an ink cartridge as these pens are put together by blind people. But it is a minor drawback.
Jack
That Parker Jotter Stainless for $7 is really a miracle of modern production. Think about the machinery (and logistics) to make that all come together and still make a profit for $7. I mean c’mon formed stainless steel for that price? Anyway I’m off to watch How It’s Made for the 100th time.
Jack D
I like the Uniball, but ever since I discovered the Cello Butterflows, I’ve never looked back. (Not the Butterflow Simply which are a cheaper, schoolhouse version)
As a pen nerd, I’ve tried a bunch over the years, and these are a daily carry for me, outside of tactical pens with the space pen refills, which I carry when working. Of course, I’m always looking for the next great pen, so plan to try out a few of these others mentioned in the replies…
KokoTheTalkingApe
I’ll throw in my favorite, the Uni-ball JetStream RT. Retractable, so there’s no cap to lose. The ink doesn’t smear, fade, blob, skip or commit any other sins. It’s also resistant to fading, water and solvents.
James Madara
I used the Uniball Signo until the sharpie gel pens came out. They perform similar, but feel like a better writing experience. They write fast and don’t smear or glob. I’d recommend giving them a try.