Zebra Sarasa Nano 0.3 mm Gel Ink Pen Review

The Zebra Sarasa Nano Gel Pen caught me slightly off guard. What is Zebra doing here that they aren’t with one of my all-time favorite pens, the Zebra Sarasa Clip?

Let’s explore!

The two obvious differences between the Nano and the classic Clip are aesthetic. The Nano has a solid color barrel (similar to the Vintage Series,) and a metal nose cone, which is new to the series. The clip uses the same excellent Clip of the namesake Zebra model, and the exact same refill.

The only refill tip size available is 0.3 mm, which is perfect for me. The marketing on JetPens calls this pen “Ultra-fine yet delightfully smooth,” which is just asking for trouble. It’s difficult to pin “delightfully smooth” on a pen tip this fine. By nature, it’s not. It almost can’t be. Now, they are relatively smooth to other 0.3 mm tipped pens, but not compared to other, more mainstream, 0.5 mm tip gel ink pens.

“Ultra-fine” is much easier to agree with, and the Nano is. The lines in this group of pens, the Think 4 Color set, are awesome. They are clean and consistent, and the colors-in this case Magenta, Gray, Night Blue, and Viridian-are excellent. Even the light shade of gray is readable on the ivory page of the Write Notepads Engineer Notebook. Night Blue is the easy winner of this group, but I enjoy them all as a collection.

There are four other 4 Color sets available as well, but if you are interested in this pen, I would start with a single color. Why? They cost almost twice as much as the standard Sarasa Clip, for no good reason that I can see.

Metal nose cone premium, maybe? It’s not the “cushioned by an inside spring to absorb shocks as you write” premium, because I can see no technical difference between the Nano and the Clip in that area. Same refill, same spring, same interior design.

$1.75 for the Sarasa Clip, or $3.30 for the Sarasa Nano? The Nano is not a bad pen-not even remotely-but it provides poor value. I’m happy to have this set of four, but I’ll be shopping in the Clip aisle if I’m looking to add to my Sarasa collection.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Zebra Sarasa Grand 0.4 mm Gel Ink Pen Review

One of my favorite things about standard pens is finding a good one you like, and then finding out they make fancy pen barrel for it. The Zebra Sarasa Push Clip is a perennial favorite of mine, so there is no doubt that I am going to love the Zebra Sarasa Grand, aka the Fancy Sarasa.

The only question to answer in this review is: Am I going to love it, or am I going to LOVE it? As with love in the real world, it’s complicated.

The Sarasa Grand is a heck of a good upgrade for the standard plastic barrel Sarasa Push Clip. The brass barrel gives is a fantastic writing weight, especially when compared to the Push Clip. The metal clip and knock add to the durability that is built into this upgrade, and all of the barrel color options are great. Even the price is fantastic, with models ranging from $8.25 for standard barrel colors and $12.50 for Zebra’s Vintage Color series.

(Sidebar: There is no difference that I can tell between the two, other than Zebra is drinking their own Kool-aid with regards to the popularity of their Vintage series and feel they can get away with a sizable premium. They aren’t wrong (just look at what’s sold out at JetPens), and luckily - no matter the version - this feels more like a $20 pen across the board, so I’m not going to ding them on the pricing mismatch too badly.)

So, what is my hangup between love and LOVE for my personal use? The grip, and the style.

If the standard Push Clip had never existed, I would be singing the praises of the Fancy Sarasa from high upon the mountaintop - “I AM A BELIEVER!” It uses one of the best performing gel ink refills on the market, especially on the micro tip side of the ledger. But, the Push Clip came first, and I’m forced to compare the two.

And when comparing them, I can’t help but long for the soft, tactile rubber grip of the Push Clip. The Fancy Sarasa uses the same vertical stripe design, but it’s the same paired brass as the rest of the pen. I can’t help but think of the Push Clip grip when I’m using it, and longing for something a little more different.

The style is another thing. The Fancy Sarasa looks amazing! It’s very classy, very well designed, and never looks out of place. The Push Clip is an oddity, with its translucent barrel, ink color-matching grip, and obnoxiously large clip. It’s weird in all of the right ways, and I love it for that. It’s the Aggretsuko, compared to the Sarasa Grand’s Retsuko.

I want heavy metal karaoke.

The Zebra Sarasa Grand is a killer pen. In a vacuum, it’s about as close as you can get to a 10/10 gel ink pen. I’m not sure I could even put that number on the Push Clip, but personally, I’ll pick up the Push Clip first every time. Something about that style works for me.

My Fancy Sarasa comes with an 0.4 mm black refill in the black barrel, but that is no longer an option it seems. The good news is all of the refills are compatible between the Push Clip and the Sarasa Grand lineup, so feel free to toss a Neon Pink refill into a Turquoise body. Maybe I can have it both ways?

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm Neon 5 Color Set Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Fall is officially here, and that means that we're in store for the lovely autumn colors that change during this time of year. The rich browns, reds, oranges, and yellows is such a welcome treat after the long, hot summer months.

But, let's say you want to freshen up the mood with some colors that are a bit more electric. If that's the case, there are many, many options, but a great starter set is this Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm Neon 5 Color Set (what a name!). In this set, you get a handful of neon fluorescent refills packed in matching Sarasa Clip bodies. The colors range from yellow, pink, green, purple, and orange.

We've done so many various reviews on the Zebra Sarasa Clip pens over the years, and this variant is no surprise. Aside from the shockingly bright colors, these pens are exactly what you know and love from the Sarasa Clip. The refills are extremely smooth when writing and lay down a vibrant, crisp 0.5mm line on the page.

Where these pens differ is in the ink color area, and they are more than capable of exceeding your expectations if you're in the mood for some bright, happy, fun colors.

My personal favorite out of this bunch is the green. It's not quite as fluorescent as the others, but it's such a cheery and happy light green with plenty of oomph behind it. The other colors are a bit lighter but have no problem bringing on the cheer.

I did have some complaints with the yellow color in particular since it's so light. It's practically a highlighter, but that's entirely due to the base color. Yellow is a really light color to begin with, and it's difficult to use it as anything but a highlight in most cases.

Despite my own frustrations with the yellow ink on white paper, it quickly dawned on me that this is the perfect ink for a dark paper. So, you can imagine my despair when I was unable to find any dark paper in the stationery drawers. I have some on order, but I made due with some darker poster-board that we had in the garage. It wasn't a smooth writing surface, but the yellow, pink, and orange colors popped like crazy off the dark gray background. It was incredibly enjoyable to make squiggly lines on this scrap poster-board, and that's the entire purpose of this set of pens. They are pure fun and worth every penny. You can't help but be delighted when you see them, and using them is even more satisfying.

I've had a lot of fun using these pens over the last couple of weeks, and I'm sure many of you will too. The long, dreary winter months are ahead of us, and these pens are a great way to boost your spirits when you're stuck inside the house.

My only serious complaint is that this set doesn't include a blue! I think Zebra really missed an opportunity by not including a blue. It wouldn't have been difficult to make this a 6-pen set!

The 5-pen set only sets you back eight bucks, and I think that's a great value for the amount of cheer these colors provide. If you're only in the mood for certain colors instead of the full set, you can purchase them separately as well (green, orange, pink, purple, yellow).

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!