Zebra Airfit Jell review and Giveaway

I saw on one of my friends page that she had a new Dr. Grip like pen purchase and was intrigued.  Whats this pen?  it looks like a Dr. Grip pen but not?  I've got to have it!  So off to Jetpens I went-- and found the Zebra Airfit Jell pen.  It  is very reasonably priced at $5.00 USD and when you compare it to say a Dr. Grip pen they are priced even better.  Dr. Grip pens retail here for 6-10$ depending on where you are looking for them, so at $5, pretty reasonable.   The pen came fast (really fast) from Jetpens.  Unlike Dr. Grip pens that have a box, or plastic shrink wrap, this pen came unwrapped, no box -- less to throw away.. and less for me to injure myself with the shrink wrap.  

The description of the pen on Jetpen claims that this pen is found "all over Asia" but hard to find in the US.  Apparently its popular because of the grip, and the binder-like clip that allows it to be attached to thicker material.  It also states that there is a "layer of air between the rubber grip and the body of the pen to allow heat conduction from your fingers. Perhaps it's because of the hot weather in Asia, but cool hands seem to be an important factor in Japanese pen design!"  


Aesthetically this pen is lovely, but that is the case with most Japanese pen companies.  There are several colors to choose from, and as I like blue, i went with a light blue version.  clip and the grip section is made of light blue transparent plastic.  The top portion of the pen is a pearlescent white barrel.


The pen does have a clip, and similar to the zebra multipens it does have the binder clip like clip-check the top photo to see what i mean.  I've not used the clip yet but if its anything like the zebra multipen that i own, it will clip this pen to a binder cover, a notebook, etc.   Hopefully it is sturdy - aka I shouldnt drop it to find out :)


 Unlike the grip on the Dr. Grip pens, this pen's grip looks like it has spokes, I don't know if you can tell from the picture below.  The grip is rather comfortable, but has a different feel than the Dr. Grip pens because of the spoke like things.  The Dr. Grip pens' grips are whole rubber, whereas these pens have an air-pocket (hence the spoke like things).  The grip is slightly tacky-- i bet this eventually attracts a lot of fuzz, but the rubber is really pretty comfortable. 

The pen is billed as a 0.5mm tip.  Its a gel ink pen and writes nicely-- I have not had any skips or blips but as I have had this pen for about a day I've not had a lot of opportunity to write with it extensively.   Like the jetstream alpha, this pen is also interchangeable with the Sarsa click pen inks -- so if you wanted a finer line than what you are offered with the standard ink, go ahead and swap with the Sarsa's which come in 0.3mm.

The one grip i have is, why zebra, why would you make a gel ink pen that allows the gel ink to spatter?  I opened the pen to test the Sarsa ink and noticed that the back of the ink cartridge was uncapped as with most gel pens, but where most pens there is no ink ring, with yours you have a blue ink ring.  See below.. its the blue circle in the middle..

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Now I accidentally picked up a 2nd one of these pens so why keep a 2nd one for myself when i can give it away?  Giveaway time!  You are only allowed at max 2 entries, and here is what you need to do.

1. write me a comment about what is your favorite ergo pen and why

2. tweet about this giveaway and post me a link

As before, I will use random.org to determine the winner of this giveaway.  Once I announce the winner, you have 1 week to contact me via email, twitter, etc.  If you do not contact me, then I will pick a new winner.

This giveaway ends on the 16th of June at midnight EST.  Winner will be announced by June 25th.

Where to Purchase?

• Jetpens $5.00
• Stationary Art (Ball Point version) $2.45

Other Reviews

• Cat Lo
• Pen Addict (Ball point pen review)
• Office Supply Geek
• No Pen Intended (Has really great photos of the grip)