Uni-ball Vision Ultra Micro 0.38 mm Review

I’ve had these Uni-ball Vision Ultra Micro rollerball pens in hand for nearly a year now. Uni-ball was kind enough to send them to me, along with some other goods, and I was planning on reviewing them sooner. I swear!

The one thing that held me back was their actual release into stores. They hadn’t really hit the market this time last year, and looking around today, it looks like they are barely available still. Aside from Uni-ball directly, my search only turned them up from Office Depot and Walmart. Not even the Amazon behemoth lists them.

So, what gives? Welcome to the reason I launched The Pen Addict. Micro tip pens will never be the darlings that their 0.7 mm and 1.0 mm counterparts are. Fans of those types of pens have to work to find the pens that they love the most.

Luckily, we have wonderful companies like JetPens to feed our inky addictions. Just don’t expect the big box retailers to ever fully come on board. There is a reason why the G-Tec-C and Signo DX live on a single peg on the bottom shelf of the pen aisle - if at all - regardless of Pilot and Uni-ball’s best intentions. That’s what the market dictates.

With that realization out of the way, let me tell you specifically about these Vision Ultra Micro pens. They’re fantastic. And I don’t say that lightly, because the traditional 0.7 mm Uni-ball Vision is one of my least favorite pens, ever. Why? They can be an inky mess.

If you like wide, bold lines from your liquid ink pens, the standard Vision is a good option. I know friends who swear by them, and artists that use them on the regular. I don’t deal with those wide, wet lines as well as others.

The Vision Ultra Micro though? This tip size mitigates my complaints completely. These pens are fantastic. The line on the page lands somewhere around an 0.4/0.5 mm gel ink pen line, which is great for my regular writing. Artists may like the finer option as well. Could there be a slight bit of feathering or bleed on the wrong paper? Yes, but it is minimal.

Outside of the writing experience, everything else about this pen is pure Vision. Same style, barrel shape, clip, ink formulation - everything. I have no issues recommending these to anyone, but don’t get them confused with the litany of other Vision (or Eye, depending on where you live) pens. I don’t think the wider-tip sizes are a good choice, and I think the Needle model is downright bad. The Vision Elite? It is such a good pen that it doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the rest of the Vision crew.

Just like the Vision Ultra Micro.

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

Review: Uni-Ball Vision Elite 0.8mm Blue Black

You are a pen addict, right?  That's hopefully why you are here in the first place.  So, being the good pen addict that you are, when someone else asks you for a pen recommendation, what pen do you choose?  For any of us that have tried more than their fair share of pens, that is nearly an impossible question to answer.  What is the pen going to be used for?  What type of paper?  Type of ink?  How often?  Retractable?  So on and so on - the questions are really endless.  I run through all of these items with many of the people that email me looking for a recommendation, and that allows me to narrow it down quite a bit, but picking a pen is such a personal thing.

Why all of the rambling on this Uni-Ball Vision Elite review?  Because this pen tends to rate positively in pretty much every category across the board.  Let me list out a few things:

-- Great barrel design.  Classy for work, but functional anywhere.

-- Very smooth writer.  The liquid ink just glides across the page.

-- Good price point.  These can be found regularly in the $2-2.50 range.

-- Uni-Ball Super Ink technology?  Check.

-- Airplane safe?  Check.

-- Refillable?  Check.

Another big reason I recommend this pen a lot - it passed the mother-in-law test.  My mother-in-law is aware of my pen addiction and asked for a few pens recently.  I gave her all of the basics - Signo 207, Precise V5, G2, Jetstream, etc. - and the Vision Elite is the only one she asked for more of.  If that doesn't say something about the quality of this pen then I don't know what does.

Click here for the XL review.