I finally came across the Pilot Easy Touch Pro on a recent Staples run after having my eyes peeled for it for the past few months. This pen is the boorish American cousin of the hip looking Japanese Pilot Acroball. Fortunately, some of the basic design elements translate.
If you happen to own both versions of the pen, you will notice right off the bat that they both share the same overall design. From the molding of the barrel to the wonderful herringbone style grip (best grip ever?), they are essentially the same. The only real difference is that the Easy Touch Pro has a more professional looking color scheme, as opposed to the fun colors available in the Japanese market. This seems fairly standard for the Americanized version of pens - make them appealing to the everyday office worker, or the company supply orderer.
From a performance standpoint, I don't have an exact comparison, since the Acroball I have is 0.7mm, and the Easy Touch Pro is 1.0mm. I can tell that the writing properties are the same - both write very smoothly and have the same feel - but the 1.0mm Easy Touch Pro comes off just a slight bit messier when compared to the squeaky clean line of the 0.7mm Acroball. Compared to other similar pens though, the Easy Touch Pro is an excellent ballpoint alternative. If you like the Uni-Ball Jetstream line, then you will like this pen as well.
Click here for the XL review.
