Posts filed under Acroball

Pilot Acro ILMILY Ballpoint Pen Review

Look, the marketing department deserves to get paid too, ok? I mean, how else can you explain Pilot’s ILMILY stationery lineup? What does ILMILY stand for, you ask? “I Like Me, I Like You.”

ILMILY is a lifestyle stationery collection, featuring products with soothing colors, and designed around themes like positivity, happiness, warmth, and general awesomeness. Ok, I’ll stop having fun with the name now, because Pilot has created a product idea we can all get behind.

The ILMILY lineup features several different products, from pens and markers to paper and pen cases. Pilot releases ILMILY products as a series each season, with each containing various products themed to be used together. For example, the first series in 2021 contained a dozen Pilot Pastel Gel pens, FriXion stamps, journaling stencils, small envelopes, and colorful paper pads. The products are made in limited quantities, with each new season bringing us new stationery goodies.

All products are sold separately, which is how I was able to get the Pilot Acro ILMILY Ballpoint Pen from JetPens. The standard Acroball is a personal favorite of mine, so I was interested to see how this upgraded barrel design compares to the standard.

Writing-wise, it compares perfectly. It was safe to assume as much, seeing how they use the same refill. Acroball ink is Pilot’s version of hybrid ballpoint ink technology, made popular by the Uni-ball Jetstream. I believe it is just as good as Jetstream ink, but Uni simply had 1. A years-long head start, and 2. Far better barrel designs, which place them at the top of the market.

The ILMILY Acroball features an 0.5 mm black ink refill. It is fine, clean, and fun. The upgraded barrel of this specific model features a smooth, shiny barrel, that, while called slim, feels like a standard barrel diameter and width. It is very lightweight, and reasonably plain-looking outside of the faux-chamfer where the barrel unscrews. The knock is very clicky.

The barrel colors I have are Winter Navy and Summer Light Purple. Both are excellent, although my preference lies with the darker model. There are six other barrel colors available as well.

At this point, we have sorted out that this is a good pen, and we all love each other. But what we haven’t sorted out is if this is a pen you should rush out and purchase. At $13.25 each, that answer is clearly no. That is a heck of a premium to pay for aesthetics. It looks awesome, that’s for sure, but the standard Acroball has an arguably better barrel, and an inarguably better grip, and is 1/4th the cost.

I like the fact that Pilot has created the ILMILY lineup. I’ll always take good stationery, with a good story. That said, cost will-be a long term limiting factor for many consumers, especially with quarterly limited releases. But Pilot is taking a different tack, with different marketing, for a different market. I love to see it, and I hope it succeeds.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on March 21, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Pilot, Acroball, Ballpoint, Pen Reviews.

Pilot Acroball T 0.3 mm Ballpoint Pen Review

What the difference between the Pilot Acroball and the Uni-ball Jetstream?

Marketing.

I’m a Jetstream super fan. Always have been, and always will be as long as they keep executing each pen to perfection. That said, if I were to take a blind writing test with the Jetstream refill and the Acroball refill in neutral barrels I don’t think I would be able to tell the difference in pure writing performance.

The Pilot Acroball is every bit the Jetstream’s equal in performance. In popularity? The Acroball is Pilot’s forgotten pen.

From day one, it didn’t seem that Pilot believed in this pen. In Japan, it launched as the Acroball and featured bright colored barrels that stood out on the shelf. In the US, it launched as the Easy Touch Pro, which looked as boring as the name. It doesn’t get more generic than that.

Under the hood, both the pens used the same great Acroball ink, a hybrid ballpoint ink made specifically to compete with the Jetstream. And it did! The ink performance is outstanding, but if a tree fell in the woods and … well, you get the point.

The Pilot G2 is the best selling gel ink pen in the world, which Pilot will not hesitate to mention. The Pilot FriXion is the best erasable gel ink pen on the market by a wide margin, and has the product line to prove it. The Pilot V-Series rollerball pens have been around for decades, are loved, and are supported by Pilot in various marketing campaigns.

The Pilot Acroball? It exists.

That’s not to say Pilot has forgotten about this pen. It has the requisite barrel color variance, a few different ink colors and tip sizes, and even a premium barrel option. I admit that is a solid base lineup, but my contention is it warrants more. This ink was designed to compete with the Jetstream, and it does. But Pilot seems content to play second fiddle to the Uni-ball behemoth.

That’s their loss, because it deserves more.

I was happy for these 0.3 mm Acroball pens to become available in the Acroball T lineup so I could see how they stack up against some of the finer Jetstream pens. Performance-wise, they absolutely do. The lines are clean and sharp, and for an 0.3 mm ballpoint, it is as smooth of a writer as a tip size that small can be. They are great.

The only downside for the 0.3 mm option is that it only ships with black ink. You can order 0.3 mm blue refills separately, but it would have been nice to have one of the five new 0.3 mm barrels ship with a blue ink. The barrels are nice, with the “T” series offering a group of metallic/pearlescent plastic barrel colors. Nothing more than that, but thankfully the stock shape and feel of the Acroball is fantastic - especially the grip.

I love the Acroball, and I want more. Is that too much to ask?

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on January 31, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Pilot, Acroball, Pen Reviews.

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

It's been a little while since I've looked at a multi pen, so the timing is perfect to take the latest Acroball multi pen for a spin. The Acroball Spotliter is a 3+1 multi pen, which doesn't sound like anything unique at first glance. 3+1 multi pens are usually a combination of three ink colors and a mechanical pencil component, but that's not the case with the Spotliter. In lieu of a mechanical pencil component, the Spotliter has a small highlighter tucked into the top of the pen — as well as the expected three ink choices.

I've spent a lot of time with Acroball multi pens in the past, and this version sports the same refills as other models. This means you'll get a buttery smooth writing experience, bold colors, and decent life before it's time to replace the refill. If you're a fan of hybrid ballpoints, like the Jetstream, you owe it to yourself to try Pilot's offering at some point. I'm not sure which one I like better at this point — Acroball versus Jetstream. They're both so, so good at what they do. In a lot of cases, I like the aesthetics of the Acroball multi pens more than the Jetstream. And in this specific case, the highlighter on this pen is something that Jetstream doesn't offer...yet.

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter

Writing with this pen is identical to other Acroball multi pens. It's a great experience, and I love these multi pens. The refills are 0.7mm and come in black, blue, and red. Standard stuff. Let's focus on the unique part of the Spotliter: the little highlighter on the back. It's not often that I need a highlighter, but when I know I need one, I'll grab one from the closet or carry it with me in a bag. It's tough to beat a dedicated highlighter in terms of ergonomics and how long the ink will last. This is similar to the idea of carrying a dedicated eraser with your pencils — they're just better than what you find on the ends of pencils. But, just like with the pencils, it turns out the best highlighter is the one you have with you. In a pinch, the highlighter on the Spotliter is a fantastic little tool.

It works exactly as you'd expect. Uncap the highlighter, mark over stuff to emphasize it with a bright translucent color, and get back to writing. To me, it's somewhat fiddly to flip the pen over, uncap the little highlighter to use it, then recap and flip over again. I'd much rather use a separate highlighter if possible. But the fact that I have one in a multi pen makes it very interesting for those instances when you don't have a highlighter on hand.

Similar to the small erasers on wood case pencils and the even (comically) smaller erasers found in many mechanical pencils (the ones that are hidden under the lead click button on the top of the pencil), this highlighter is more of an "in case of emergency" solution as opposed to a full-on replacement for a dedicated highlighter. That being said, this highlighter performs as well as any standard dedicated highlighter I've used, which is more than can be said for erasers. It really is a fantastic solution if you find yourself occasionally needing a highlighter.

While the highlighter tip shape and color are great, I do have a couple complaints. For one, the ink chamber is really small and you won't get much life out of this highlighter. I don't have any numbers on how long it should last, but I wouldn't bet on it going very far. Fortunately, Pilot sell replacement highlighter components that you can snap in instead of tossing the whole pen. That's fantastic. Plus, you can choose between yellow or pink ink.

My bigger complaint is how easy it is to accidentally remove the highlighter component from the pen body. If you grab the cap and pull straight out, the entire component slips out. According to the instructions, you have to rotate the highlighter cap to uncap it. This works great every time provided I remember to do it correctly. My muscle memory is ingrained to just pull caps off to remove them, so this has been tough to re-learn with this pen.

Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 Multi Pen and Highlighter Writing

Also, given how easy it is to remove the highlighter component, I worry that it could come off in a bag or pocket and get lost. It really doesn't take much pressure to remove it, and I just know I'll lose the highlighter at some point if I'm not really careful.

Aside from those concerns, I'm really happy with this pen. It's great having a multi pen I already know and love, but with a new hidden feature tucked into the back. I don't need a highlighter often, but it's easy to swap this pen into my "out of the house" kit with a similarly sized Acroball to ensure I have a tiny highlighter around if needed.

The model I have is the blue body with pink highlighter, but you can also get a black body and/or yellow highlighter. The highlighter refills are almost $3 and available in pink and yellow.

The Pilot Acroball Spotliter 3+1 multi pen is just $9.75 at JetPens. It makes a great addition to any kit, and I highly recommend checking it out if you're looking for a good multi pen or if you haven't yet tried the Acroball ink.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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