I referenced the uniball Lite Touch in yesterday’s Pilot Calme Review, and found an extra one to give away this week. The uniball Jetstream Lite Touch 4+1 Multi Pen is about as good as it gets in my book. This giveaway pen is my review model, so it has been lightly used and has no packaging, and it is ready for a new home. To enter, read the rules below, and get to clicking!
Pentel Calme 0.5 mm Ballpoint Pen Review
It took me a while to come around to the Pentel Calme Ballpoint Pen. Why? Competition.
The $1 to $3 pen market is outrageously competitive, often to our benefit. Companies are willing to invest in barrel designs and ink formulations, all in an effort to make a name on the store shelves, and eventually our shopping carts.
The Calme is a fantastic pen. The barrel is super comfortable, including a half-length of the pen rubberized grip area. The knock is integrated to the clip, and it is smooth and quiet. You won’t be able to annoy your office mates with this one. And I love this limited Mauve Pink edition.
Writing-wise, the Calme uses Pentel’s Vicuna ink, their hybrid ballpoint ink formulation - aka, their uniball Jetstream competitor. This a solid refill. The lines are sharp, and mostly clean. Honestly, I have no complaints.
Except that other pens exist.
There were three pens I immediately wanted to put up against the Pentel Calme: the Zebra Blen 0.5 mm Ballpoint, uniball Jetstream 0.5 mm Ballpoint, and the uniball Jetstream Lite Touch 0.5 mm Ballpoint. To go ahead and spoil the results, I’d take all three of those pens over the Calme.
L to R: Pentel Calme, Zebra BLen, uniball Jetstream 4+1, uniball Jetstream Lite Touch.
The Zebra BLen is the closest in writing performance. 0.5 mm pens write fine lines to begin with, but Ballpoints - as compared to Gel and Rollerball inks - leave an even finer line. Both the Calme and the BLen have excellent fine lines, but I found the BLen more comfortable to hold, and have even quieter mechanics, which is a feature Zebra focused on for this pen.
Putting the Calme up against the Jetstream is where the ink begins to separate the pens. The writing experience is better with the Jetstream. The ink is smoother, darker, and cleaner. There is a reason this is my favorite Ballpoint pen. I will say that I might like the Calme barrel over the standard Jetstream Sport, but not by a wide margin.
The pen that makes all of these pens obsolete is the uniball Jetstream Lite Touch. uniball created a true step up in ink quality and color, and the only issue right now is availability. You can find them at importers like JetPens in the US, but not yet on the store shelves outside of Japan. Hopefully that changes in the next year or two because it is that good.
Where does that put the Pentel Calme at the end of the day? As I said before, it’s a good pen in a competitive category. If I were making a tier list, it would land in the B-tier through no fault of its own. It’s simply up against A-tier (BLen and Jetstream,) and S-tier (Jetstream Lite Touch,) competition.
At $2.50, I like it enough to own and use when the feeling hits, but I won’t need a stash of them around the house.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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Misfill, The Field Notes Thing Edition
Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:
— The Field Notes Thing (512 Pixels)
— Journaling into 2025 (Pete Denison)
— Monthly Inked // 2025 Rotation (Weirdoforest Pens)
— A small note-taking change (All this)
— My Must-Install Mobile Apps (Cheryl Lindo Jones)
— Aurora Ipsilon Deluxe Italic Fountain Pen Review 4K (Blake's Broadcast)
— Dancing fishes (José Naranja)
— Brian Eno’s Notebooks (Notebook Stories)
— Talking With John Darnielle (I Have That on Vinyl)
— Weekly Update: Model Sketches (Writing at Large)
— I didn't even know Midori made ink! (Inkdependence)
— The Utility of Handwriting (SBRE Brown)
— Carolina Pen Co. Convert (Figboot on Pens)
— Van Dieman’s Beeswax (Inkcredible Colours)
— Ink Review #2701: KWZ Turquoise (Mountain of Ink)
— My 'Rules' for Running My Membership Program (Craig Mod)
— Suspicious Animals Take Stock of Their Surroundings in Strangford's Vibrant Prints (Colossal)
— Fountain Pen Review: NAGASAWA "Odyssey Snow White" LE (The Well-Appointed Desk)
— ink review : Teranishi Guitar – Orchestra Tangerine (inkxplorations)
— Technical Skills and Style and Mixed Media (Comfortable Shoes Studio)
— Pied Beauty: Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (ca. 425–1100) (The Public Domain Review)
— Just nice things, vol. 3 - by Ricardo (Extra Fine Writing)
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