rollerball Pilot V-Ball Vs Uni-ball Eye

[Asteris]

When not using my Fp, my choice of writing on good paper has always been the Pilot V-Ball 0.5mm Blue . Yesterday I was in a stationery store and I picked up the Uni-Ball Eye Fine Blue, since i wanted to try it out and compare to the pilot's single use rollerball. I do not have any good photos, so I will explain the best way I can.

■External factors:

● Uni-ball Eye is thicker than the Pilot V-Ball and looks like it hold more ink

● Eye has softer plastic on the cap and tail than the V-Ball.

● Eye's clip, although is a little more dificult to use, secures the pen better than the V-Ball's clip.

■Internal factors:

● Eye's grip is a little bit larger than the V-Ball's

■Ink and writing

● V-Ball's ink is dark. Navy dark almost like blue-black. On the othe hand Eye has a  lighter shade of blue, almost azure.

● V-Ball's line is as thin as expected from a 0.5mm pen. Eye's line is a tad thicker, which in return make the a pen a little smoother.

● In the particular paper I used Eye feathers more than the V-Ball and bleeds more, although this might be because of the thicker line it lays down.

■Waterproofness

● The Uni-Ball, just as advertised, performed well in my water test and less ink was displaced than the V-Ball, which also held quite good (although worse than the Eye)

 

Which one do you prefer? I will do more testing to see which one works better for me.

[The Elevator]

My experience with rollerballs, gels, and ballpoints, is that the "fine," "medium," "extra fine," or "bold" classifications are a boatload of rubbish, especially when comparing different manufacturers.

For example, take the Pilot G2 series, in which 0.5 is "extra fine," 0.7 is "fine" and 1.0 is "bold" Where did medium go...? 🤔

Further complicating things is the fact that Pentel's competing Energel series places 0.5 as "fine," 0.7 as "medium," and 1.0 as "bold." It seems not to correlate with Pilot's measure.

 

The Uni-ball Eye's point width can be seen at the end of its model number, UB-157, in which the "7" means 0.7mm tip. The "Micro" version's model number is UB-150, and the "broad" version is UB150-10. I don't know why they didn't just use the same naming format for all of them, but the point size is hidden in all except the "micro."

 

The model number phenomenon appears in other pens too, like the Pentel BLN75 and BL77 models (guess the tip size there)