Dong-A Cronix Hybrid Ink Ballpoint Review

I’m not up on my Korean, but does Cronix translate to “Jetstream” in English? Apparently, Dong-A would like you to believe so because the Dong-A Cronix is awfully similar looking to the black Uni-ball Jetstream Basic Series. Turn the grey grip into black and adjust the markings a bit and you are right there. The should have just gone ahead and called it the Dong-A Jetcloud or Dong-A Rocketstream for goodness sakes.

Too bad they couldn’t mimic the writing performance - that would have been an impressive feat! The Jetstream is widely known for its smooth, solid lines and its hybrid ballpoint ink is a personal favorite of mine. I tested out the blue Cronix for this review and while it is not a terrible pen by any stretch, everything about it is a notch below the Jetstream.

The ink is smooth, but not as smooth. The lines are solid, but not as solid. The ink is blue, but not as blue. The barrel is sturdy, but not as sturdy. The Dong-A Cronix is a good pen, but not as good as the Uni-ball Jetstream.

Why not spend .40 cents more and get the best?

Dong-A Fine-Tech 0.3 mm Review

I haven’t had the opportunity to review many Dong-A pens and pencils, so when my Twitter friend Rachael mentioned she had a new favorite every day pen and wanted to send me one I was more than happy to put it to the test.

It was pretty obvious when I opened the package what the Dong-A Fine-Tech 0.3 mm gel ink pen is trying to accomplish. It wants to be a Pilot Hi-Tec-C. Aside from a few small design tweaks it is pretty close in the appearance department. If the Fine-Tech could pull off a similar writing performance to the Hi-Tec-C then we might have something here, but unfortunately it falls short.

Since it is clear where this pen is trying to position itself I can’t help but compare it directly to the Hi-Tec-C. The ink flow of the Fine-Tech is nice when it is going well. My lines were clean and sharp and the ink was solid and dark. Where it started to falter was in line consistency. Sometimes the ink flow became too heavy - especially for an 0.3 mm gel - and sometimes it was to light and thin.

This is not a bad pen by any stretch. The Dong-A Fine-Tech sells for about half of what the Pilot Hi-Tec-C does, and in this case you get what you pay for.