[Pen/Pencil Review] The Sharpie Gel Highlighter
So, it’s pen blog time. Bear with me as it is also…Post Convention brain dead pen blog day. Fortunately, I photographed three things last week knowing I needed something to prompt me today. And since I’ve done two of my three Halloween novelty pens, and there’s still a week to go, I’m going to do a highlighter today.
I know…right? Highlighter? This one was new at Office Depot a couple of weeks back. This one is from Sharpie, and it’s called a “gel†highlighter. We looked at a sample, and picked up a multi-pack with yellow, green, pink, and orange.
As an aside…I want a package of highlighters that just come in like green and blue. Seriously. I’ll use the yellows. But I have to be pretty desperate to use the pinks and oranges. Which I will be when I use up the green one in this package.
Anyway, I’m using the green one at work. So this one is either the pink or orange (with my photography skills, I’m really not sure what color this is). But I love this concept. I don’t know really why, but I think it has something to do with speaking to my inner child. The “gel†concept of this isn’t in the INK. It’s not at all wet, it’s more like a transparent crayon. It’s waxy.
Pros to it are that you don’t have to worry about smearing or leaving the cap off. It does not dry out. It doesn’t smear ink. It is just kinda cool, y’know? The cons…it has a twist up (like on deodorant – which visually is what it reminds me of), so the cap doesn’t fit securely. I’m always flinging the green cap across my desk. It’s gel so the point wears down pretty quickly. And it’s a WIDE top. There’s no fine points here – so it’s not meant for precise work, like thin underlining. It’s meant for big, wide strokes.
But, honestly? I like it. I just want a dedicated batch of green ones. Maybe also blue.
Now to the numbers:
1. How does it work? – 0.5 It’s decent. It doesn’t smear. It doesn’t have drying time. It does wear down. And it’s definitely NOT for fine work – just broad strokes.
2. Grip and feel – 0.5 – It’s an inexpensive, plastic, no grip highlighter. The cap doesn’t stay posted, but you can leave the cap off and not have it dry out. So there’s a plus. It’s not too wide to be uncomfortable. The barrel is oval, and that might not be comfortable for some people.
3. Material – 1 For an inexpensive plastic highlighter, it’s well built. The advancing mechanism works well. I’ve not had any failures with it.
4. Overall Design – 1 -I’m giving it a high mark because it’s the most useful highlighter I’ve had in a long time. I LOVE the fact it doesn’t dry out or get lighter the more you use it. There’s no “priming†the point to make it work longer. I’ve used the green one EVERY WORK DAY for two weeks now, there’s no sign of it giving out.
5. Price Point – 1 – It seems to be in line with other highlighters. About $2 each depending on how you buy them. Cheaper if you get more than one at time. Online they say a multiple color 4 pack is $7, which makes it a bit less than $2. But you get that full $2 worth of use and then some. These guys pay for themselves.
4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils
