Last month, I was in my local Tesco and decided to have a look around the stationery section on the off chance that there was something of interest.
I was extremely surprised to see a new, unfamiliar Uni-ball pen, since I’m pretty up-to-date on the latest products from the Mitsubishi Pencil Company. I don’t know how I missed this one, it has even appeared on a couple of the stationery blogs earlier this year.
In my defence, the usual places I look for brand new Uni-ball pens are Mitsubishi Pencil’s Japanese website and on Jetpens, a US based reseller specialising in Japanese pens. At time of writing this, the Japanese website still didn’t have it (they just announced they’ll be available in Japan starting 26th of November 2015) and neither does Jetpens. Yet.
The Uni-ball Air is a liquid ink rollerball pen with a unique tip. The tip has stainless steel on the inside and is surrounded by a black plastic that gives it a distinct look and seems to flex with pressure, enabling the pen to write at more angles than the similarly-inked Uni-ball Eye series. The advertising says that the tip gives a similar feel to a fountain pen (without the leaks), because you can get an effect where the line changes in thickness, depending how you hold it.
The tip has stainless steel on the inside, but it’s surrounded by a black plastic which gives it a distinctive look and also seems flex with pressure, enabling the pen to write at more angles than the similarly-inked Uni-ball Eye series of pens.
The thick black line has turned out to be a very good pairing with the Workshop Companion edition of Field Notes. I have enjoyed using it for sketching diagrams on large A4 pages, but for my usual daily note taking activities, I’m going to be continuing to use my 0.7 mm Jetstream Prime for now. I love Jetstream ink too much to give it up.
The Uni-ball Air has made it into my pencil case and will be used as an option whenever I want to use this kind of ink. However, I hope to acquire a thinner version in the not-too-distant future, so that I might have more opportunities to use it.
By the looks of it, the version you get in the US is actually thinner and, in my opinion, better looking. I’m not keen on the stripes they’ve given us in Europe. Why are they even different?
I find it interesting that it came out in the US and Europe first. In fact the slogan they’ve been using on all of their international sites is “West meets east“. It certainly seems like it was released in the West first, for some reason.
Pros
- Interesting and unique tip design
- Variance in line thickness
- Super smooth writing
- Uni-ball’s secure ink
Cons
- Liquid ink is not ideal for all uses
- Only seems to come in medium/broad in the UK
- Not thrilled by the stripy look of the barrel
As a final thought, I’d like to say that I’m pleased to see Uni-ball are still innovating. They are my favourite pen and pencil manufacturer and I often worry about their lack of new designs in rollerballs and ballpoints. I’m essentially using the same type of ink refill I was using almost a decade ago. The Air feels like something different to their existing line-up, and that’s good.
Update
The Uni-ball Air is now listed on the Japanese website, and it looks like they have the same designs. The broad ‘stripy’ version, and the cooler black version. The black version is shown with ‘micro‘ branding on the side, and is 0.5 mm. Hopefully I’ll be able to get one soon!