I teased my review of the Monami Super Gel-Q a couple of weeks ago on Twitter and mentioned then that I wanted to spend more time with it before posting my review on the the blog. Well, time has been spent and I think I am able to paint a better picture now than when I first bought the pen.
I purposefully set low expectations for this pen before testing it out. Why? First of all, I don’t have a lot of experience with the Monami brand. Secondly, it looks like they are borrowing heavily design-wise from the Pilot Hi-Tec-C and Uni-ball Signo DX. My experience in the past with pens that fit this criteria usually haven’t been positive, so thus the low expectations.
So, with that background out of the way, how did it perform? Initially, much better than I imagined. It wrote so well and was so nice to use I kept stopping, looking at the pen, and asking “is this really happening?” It was happening all right. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I took it to work to continue testing it out. And then …
… the other shoe dropped.
Have you been around long enough to remember my review of the Zebra Sarasa Stick? I had high expectations for this pen since I am a huge fan of the regular Zebra Sarasa line. The Sarasa Stick was great at first, but all of a sudden the line would dry up in the middle of writing. Sometimes it would come back, sometimes it wouldn’t. As I continued to use the Monami Super Gel-Q the same exact thing started to happen.
I was upset because I thought I found another great everyday use pen. I scribbled and scribbled but I still haven’t been able to get as good of a line as I did in the photo above. My lettering looks great that picture, and I want it back!
I’m not giving up hope yet though. Sometimes a pen needs a break to get started down the right path again. Plus, I have a black 0.4 mm that I haven’t used yet so maybe this is a one off issue. My recommendation? Try one, but just one. They have several great colors to choose from but I wouldn’t go buying up six or so right out of the gate. If that one works well then dig a little deeper.
Just remember to keep your expectations in check.
