[Pen/Pencil Review] Zebra Sarasa Grand – 0.7mm

This week’s pen review is another Zebra Sarasa. This one is the Grand in what Zebra calls navy blue, but I would call a dark teal. This is one of Zebra’s “business” class pens. This one I picked up at Office Max/Depot in Tyler, Texas as part of the birthday acquisitions.

The Sarasa Grand has a great black gel ink. This one comes in the 0.7mm point with a metal, cone tip. The ink is the Zebra Rapid Dry Ink. The ink is smooth and doesn’t smear much. It writes quite well. It’s refillable with the Zebra JF-0.7 Sarasa Gel Refill. This is a water-based ink but is fade resistant and does dry really fast. I’m likely to change out the ink to do one of the JF in a smaller point – like maybe one of the 0.5 or 0.3 mm from one of my other pens, just to check it out. But the 0.7mm isn’t bad. It’s thick and dark and rich.

This pen has a solid brass barrel with a beautiful paint job. The barrel color is beautiful. The barrel threading is on the inside, making the barrel smooth and ridgeless. The clip is a solid metal spring clip that is strong. The only quibble to the clip is that it come up higher than the barrel – not quite as high as the plunger but high enough to maybe get in the way.

This pen is about 5.5″ long retracted and about 5.75″ long with the tip extended. This is a typical length for a retractable pen, and it’s well balanced and has a narrower diameter and the plastic Sarasa pens. The clip is sturdy and strong even though it’s plastic with metal mechanisms. There are some grooves in the grip area but the smooth barrel doesn’t have significant ergonomics.

This is not the cheapest of the Zebras, but it’s not an expensive pen – especially since it’s easily refillable. It runs $8 at the box office supply stores and outlets like JetPens (the finer points seem to run a bit more expensive for some reason) a little over that on Zebra’s website.

The Numbers.

1. How does it work? – 1 – This is a solid workhorse business pen. It’s more expensive than other Sarasas but not overly expensive. It comes in several colors, styles, and point sizes.
2. Look and feel – 1 – It’s average length with a good diameter. There’s not a huge amount of ergonomics.
3. Material – 1 – It’s a solid metal pen with some heft for the size because of the brass barrel.
4. Overall Design – 1 – It’s a lovely metal pen with good color and solid, quick drying ink.
5. Price Point – 0.5 – These things are relatively inexpensive for a business pen. It’s $8 – roughly – and refillable. So it’s that weird point between an investment pen and one that can be stolen off a desk. I won’t let mine go easily.

4.5 out of 5 bronze pencils.

Tags: black ink, Jet Pens, office depot, Office Max, pen, Pencil, Rapid Dry Ink, review, Sarasa, Zebra