[Pen/Pencil Review] The Platinum OLEeNU Mechanical Pencil – 0.5mm
Today’s blog is a mechanical pencil from Platinum. The last thing I reviewed from Platinum was the Preppy Fountain Pen, so I thought it was time to try something else. This is the Platinum OLEeNU Mechanical Pencil.
At first blush, this is a typical mechanical pencil. It has a clear barrel with a frosted rubber grip and accents. It’s 11mm diameter is a comfortable size for long-term writing. The grip gives it a slight squish for added comfort. It’s about 5.75″ long, which makes it long enough to be comfortable. The metal tip retracts into the barrel completely to protect the lead in a pocket or purse. The eraser is the typical white rubber eraser under a clear plastic cap.
It comes with a good 0.5mm lead. It’s a standard lead point, but where this differs is the in the clutch mechanism. With most mechanical pencils, when the lead gets down to a certain length, the clutch stops working and you end up wasting part of the lead. This one claims to let you clutch all the way down to the last millimeter, which lets you get more use out of the lead. I haven’t used it down that far, but I like that idea. The literature says in order to use that much of each lead, there has to be one extra piece of lead, I would take that to mean this comes with four leads instead of the standard three.
The literature also says the metal tip has a dual structure that protects the lead from breakage. This I can attest. I thought the pencil felt more secure, that it was harder to break the lead. I had a friend borrow the pencil, and she said how much she liked it because the lead didn’t break as much. It’s also got a spring to absorb shock – for those like me who tend to put a lot of pressure on a tip. The lead advances through the typical pusher through the eraser, as well as with an automatic advance mechanism.
This is a “go to” mechanical pencil. I like it a lot. I picked it up from JetPens. It’s not overly expensive, but it’s not dirt cheap either, but if the mechanisms work the way advertised, then this will pay for itself in longevity.
The Numbers.
1. How does it work? – 1 – This is a solid mechanical pencil. It has two ways to advance lead. It does protect from breakage as much as possible. It seems to let you use much more lead than typical mechanical pencils.
2. Look and feel – 1 – I like that it’s transparent plastic. But it’s also long enough and wide enough to be comfortable without being blocky.
3. Material – 1 – It’s plastic. The innovative stuff is in the mechanics where you can’t see.
4. Overall Design – 0.5 – The only knock? When I was erasing some samples, I ended up advancing the lead quite a bit and had to put that back before I snapped off a significant length of lead. But other than that, it’s awesome.
5. Price Point – 1 – This pencil runs $3.30 on JetPens.com. That’s more than some everyday mechanical pencils, but with the mechanics totally makes it worth it.
4.5 out of 5 bronze pencils.
