I wanted to stay in the sub ten-dollar range today to see if I could find a gem of a pen that’s super cheap. And I think I’ve found one made by Zebra.
Zebra is a company that you’ve likely heard of, and even if you haven’t you’ve probably used their products at some point. The Zebra Sarasa 1.0mm and Z-Grip gel pens jump to mind as a good representation of what they do. They’re very much focused on office supplies. As such, I didn’t expect to find that they also make a fountain pen. But they do: The Zensations Fountain pen, also known as the Zebra Fountain pen, is a disposable pen, and generally looks like it. It’s plastic barreled, torpedo shaped, fairly lightweight at 13 grams, and doesn’t stand out much in terms of design. The barrel is coloured to match the ink used and there are seven variants, all fairly standard pen colours like black, blue, red, green and purple. The is a grey design towards the back of the pen on all of these variants and both “Zebra” and “Fountain Pen” are written on the side. When looking at this pen, I’m not reminded of any of my fountain pens, but more of my office pens. That’s not to say that it looks bad, it’s actually a decent looker, but it looks like what it is. A safe design that’s not going to raise any eyebrows.
However, it is worth noting that it has an ink window that runs the length of the pen. And this is a brilliant feature and one that the Zensations Fountain pen can pull off due to it’s design. While other pens would likely look weird with a space along it’s length, the design of this pen doesn’t draw attention to it.
The feel of this pen isn’t bad either. It feels sturdy and a bit heavier than you would expect. There is no question about it feeling like plastic, but then, it’s a disposable pen. It’s practical and doesn’t feel too cheap for it.
The cap is made of the same material and is translucent, so one can see the nib when the pen is capped. I’m not keen on this; I would have preferred an opaque cap. It also bares a grey and coloured plastic clip which works well with the design, but doesn’t hold the pen very securely and feels fragile. The cap is a snap=cap, which holds to the pen well, though it requires a bit more force than I would like to cap and uncap it. It is also postable.
The grip takes up a decent portion of the pen, is transparent and made from the same material as the rest of the pen. This is slightly problematic as this makes it a bit slippery and there is no flare-out to prevent one’s fingers from slipping off. However, it takes up a decent portion of the pen and it fairly thick, so I found it quite comfortable to write with.
However, where this pen shines is in how it writes. And it’s marvelous. The pen comes with a 0.6 mm steel nib, which looks have a similar line width to the Pilot fine nib and and Lamy extra fine, though it might a bit thicker in practice. When using this pen in day to day use and in my Rhodia Webnotebook, this pen practically glided across the page and laid down a dark and rich line. On top of that, it was reliable and I didn’t have any problems with it and the included ink has a rather short dry time, making it suitable for left-handers. This was a complete surprise to me, but I am so happy with how this pen writes.
I can rag on how this pen looks, but at the end of the day, it is what it is and doesn’t try to be anything else. It’s meant to be cheap and disposable and if you have to sacrifice looks to produce a $3.00 pen, I’d say that’s a decent trade off. But on top of that, the writing experience with this pen is lovely. Though I’d like more options on the nib, the one that the Zensations Fountain pen comes with is really, really good and I’m looking forward to using it more. It’s not going to round out anyone’s collection, but it’s a great time to use and I think it’s worth trying one out. Can you go wrong for three dollars? If you can, it’s not with this pen.
This pen was purchased with my own funds.
The Pen Lover's Nook 