pen 47: pilot friXion point xfine 05 erasable

okay, so this pen is basically the non-clicky version of the friXion clicker that i reviewed yesterday, there are a few differences and there are a few new things occurred to me as i used it today.

the ink is the same, and refills are available, many of the office supply stores sell them over the internet the prices i saw on officemax.com and amazon.com ranged between $3-$10 depending on quantity and the other variables that come alomh with ordering online. i'm not really how much of a carbon footprint the outer shell makes but i bought two of these pens, brand new for $4.99 before tax... so yeah, if you're willing to pay more to save a few plastic trees that's entirely your call.

the refills do come in different sizes as you can see in the video, i just discovered that they are interchangeable you you could effectively have several different tip sizes that could be swapped out, or if the body breaks or whatever you can use the ink reservoir as a backup. neat.

the other bit of criticism that i made last night was the darkness of the ink, which isn't all that dark, i was thinking about this earlier and the ink wasn't any lighter than the the gray le pen that i reviewed a few weeks ago, and has the bonus that it is completely erasable.

i guess the overall conclusion that i've reached with the pilot friXion line is that i like it, and to address the statement i made about this pen not having any advantage over a pencil, is that there is one major plus, you won't


break the lead and you will never have to sharpen it.

pen 46: pilot friXion clicker 07 erasable

so something new here... a video! it occurred to me that i have a voice, a web cam and a new pen... so yeah. 

the pilot friXion erasable pen is the first erasable pen to live up to the name. i have featured one such pen, the sharpie and wasn't all that impressed, the other erasable pen i have is the paper mate erasermate, which i haven't gotten around to posting at the time of this post. the frixion set me back $5.99 for a pack of two at rite aid, i've seen these pens at other stores around town and have been dragging my feet in anticipation of another disappointing product.

it is not often i get a pleasant surprise, the ink is rather light, more charcoal than black, it doesn't goop up or smear, the pen has a good flow as long as you get it warmed up and don't make a lot of quick movements and and glide and bite ratio is pretty fair to good.

aside from the quality of the ink another thought out feature is the way they designed the clicking mechanism, instead of putting it on the top like most pens, they used the clip to be a sort of sliding trigger that took me a few seconds to work out.

overall this is the first pen that i would say is a true erasable pen, they are  a bit expensive and i'm not really seeing any advantages over a regular pencil. as a novelty it is pretty cool, i suppose it could make taking notes easier or something but thats about as useful as i can think of off the top of my head.

is it worth the cost? 

for me, no, not really.