Editing The Pen Addict 665/transcript (section)

== Uniball Zento Analysis ==

* Okay. I'm still trying to recover from the IA conversation. And now I have to talk about the Uniball Zento, which I clearly have thoughts on.
* And I don't know what those thoughts are, is where we're at. So, the Zento from Uniball, this is kind of funny because just last week, I think, you know, I talk about Uni Mitsubishi as just like one of my favorite companies in the world. And that they create and release the Zento is one of the reasons why. So, the Zento is essentially a new ink formulation for them.
* And I can't tell what it is.
* And I've tried. I've really tried. I've got all the press releases from the Japanese site. I've got the U.S. marketing. I've got everything. One of them calls it a liquid gel ink pen.
* The Japanese, on the U.S. site, it's called a liquid gel ink. In Japan, they call it a water-based ballpoint.
* I mean, that's technically correct, right? All pens are generally ballpoint pens. So, I'm really trying to understand the ink formulation. And I think that's the point we've reached with Uniball to where I need a chart. I need to know why someone should choose the Zento pen. You can tell me that the Zento is great. And it has this wonderful smooth ink. And it dries quickly. And that's great. But how many other pens have the same marketing in your product lineup? And I made a list that I'm going to go through here in a second. And I don't think I even covered everything.
* But my job as a pen reviewer is to explain what this pen is good for, why someone might like it, versus the pen right next to it, right? What does it offer? And I can't discern why you should buy the Zento over. Let me go down this list, Myke. So, this is just from the Uniball US site. These are different ink formulations. Not different pen models. Ink formulations. Jetstream.
* Jetstream Light Touch.
* Power Tank Ballpoint. So, that's their ballpoint category, those three. In the gel, we have the Signo. The Signo DX. The Signo 207. The Signo 207. Plus.
* The Signo 307. The One. O-N-E. And the Zento. O-N-E, yeah. And the Zento, which is listed in the gel ink category. Oh, by the way, if you go over to the rollerball ink category, guess what's there? The Zento.
* Is it one pen?
* Like, is it possible there are two? I think it's... Okay. We're going to get to that. Okay.
* Trust me.
* The answer's no. There's four. So, we're going to get to that in a second.
* Settle down. That's not what I expected. Settle down over there. Okay.
* The rollerballs. You have the Vision, also known as the Eye, over there in the UK.
* Extremely popular pen. The Vision Elite. The Uniball Air, which is a liquid ink, but with a different tip style. So, I don't even know what ink that uses. It could be just the standard Vision ink. Like I said, the Zento is listed under the rollerball. And then you have your standard rollerballs, which are the Onyx and Deluxe, which those are the traditional Uniball office supply cabinet pens that have been around for 20, 30 years. So, what is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Well, Zento's in there twice. So, 14. And that's...
* Which one should I buy, Myke, out of these 14 pens? And... How much overlap is there in this... In these categories? Like, the Signo one has always been the one that's bothered me, right? Because how many different ink formulations can one pen have? And believe me, they've tried. This one's smoother. This one's darker. This one dries faster. That's great. Where's my quiz to say, this is what I'm looking for in a pen, and give me an answer? And the problem I think they have with that is because you could answer 10 or 20 questions and end up with, like, 3 or 4 pens with the answer. Like, there's a lot of overlap here, I think.
* So, to answer your question, there are four Zento's. Because they... This is a little bit different, I think, in how they've handled some of the other product releases. Although the one was pretty close, but they did kind of trickle it out a little bit slower. They just went in full product lineup from the jump on this one. So, there's an entry-level pen that's just, like, your basic Jetstream or Signo.
* There's an upgraded barrel with, like, a half-and-half aluminum grip section and then, like, rubberized upper barrel. There is a...
* What do they call them? What's the difference between standard? So, there's a... Okay, gosh, this is so confusing. So, the Signature model is the high-end one. So, I hadn't even talked about that one. That's, like, a $25 full metal capped pen, really nice executive-looking pen. The Flow model is the half-and-half aluminum barrel, half aluminum, half light touch. That's, like, a $10 pen. The standard model, which is what I have, is your basic, you know, looks like a Jetstream or a Signo pen, you know, like your $2.50 or $3. And then the basic model, which is only designed... It looks like the standard model, but it only comes in black, red, and blue in one tip size.
* Okay.
* So, not only do I need a quiz to know which Uniball to have, which Zento should I buy? Like...
* So, at this point, I think... And I've done this before when the One came out because it was the same confusion that I had. Why is the One better than the Signo? Is it better than the Signo? Are you telling me this pen is better than the Signo if I like gel ink pens? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. They're just different. How are they different?
* Like, what is... What is the difference between these pens? I need a chart. I need something from Uniball at this point because I'm just getting overwhelmed with choice here. The problem is a good one in that they're all good. Right? There's kind of no wrong answer. So, I've been taking... I'm going to review the Zento and I'm going to have some of the comparisons with, you know, all the... I have most of these pens. Shocker.
* And, like, not all of them need to be compared to the Zento, but the One does. The Signos do. Maybe even the Jetstream just for a visual comparison.
* When I've been testing these out, the more the Uniball One stands out above the fray. Okay. The more I think that is the pen that's the future of their gel ink and rollerball ink products. The dark black ink product, I think, is leaning towards this One ink formulation. And the One ink formulation was a pigment-forward, kind of color-forward ink formulation. But it's still really smooth gel. Dries, you know, as, you know, reasonably quick. Like, it's darker than, like, the Signos stuff. It's darker than the Zento, which is a rollerball. I'm putting the Zento in, like, in the roller gel category. Is that even a thing? I don't know. So, it's lighter in, like, so I'm using the black ink. The Zento's lighter than the One in the Signo to me. But using the 0.38 millimeter in all of these, which I have, the Zento, the line is a little bit finer, which is interesting.
* So, yeah, make me a quiz, Uniball. Tell me why I should choose the pen from your product lineup that I should choose.
* Don't make me come up there again next year and have to, like, have a full, like, PowerPoint on your own products because they're not organized well enough to differentiate between all the models. Like, we've reached an inflection point. My question to you, no, Brad, is do they care? Like, maybe they're just, they have all these different things to just stock different things at different places. Like, is a customer perusing the entire Uni line to buy a pen? No. So, let's take the general, like a, like a store, like a retail store, big box retailer, right? You go there, you look at the Uniball pens, you're going to have Jetstreams,
* Signo, 207s, then maybe 307s, probably the one, definitely the Vision, definitely the Vision Elite, probably the Air, and then now probably the Zento. So, that's like seven or eight pens. So, yeah, I think, like, if you, like, if you go to, like, Staples or, like, a Walmart or something, like, yeah, you're going to have, like, six to eight of these on the shelf. Yeah.
* But then, isn't that a benefit, like, if you're a Uniball, you take up more shelf space? Yeah, dude, Uniball's crushing it. So, here's, my argument is this.
* Why I love Uniball, and why I mentioned it last week, is because they're in the lab making ink formulations. Yeah. And, they should be proud of that. And, they should be yelling, look what we did.
* And, we just get a product in the end that I'm having to sit here and try to figure out why this product exists. I want them to tell me more. Not that this is just a liquid gel and it's, it's quick drying and it's fast, but, I want them to, like, they'll never do this.
* But, they should say, this pen is better than the 207. You know, you should buy the 207 for, like, the office supply cabinet. You want to write something awesome? Buy the Zento. Like, now they're telling me everything, they're telling me everything in this lineup is equivalent.
* And, they're very much not. And, especially as this product lineup gets deeper and deeper every year. I mean, we just, like, just in the last year, a year, maybe two years, we've gotten the Light Touch, the One, and now the Zento. And, those are all, like, premium elite ink formulations.
* So, do they take over these previous product lineups? I, like, I just want them to, I want to know what they want me to buy.
* Whatever one looks nicest to you. I genuinely think that's what it is. This is a completely other argument. Do you know how similar the One, the Zento, and the Light Touch look now? Like, I have to double take on my desk.
* Well, then I have no more. So, yeah. Like, if you look at, the prosecution rests, so that, you know, when I, yeah, that, yeah, you, that was a misstep right there by the prosecution.
* They're using the same colors and same shapes and a similar looking clip. Yeah, they have like, the clip is the same overall with just like maybe some differences in the way they attach it to the barrel. Like a different connection. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't get it. But I'm trying to like,
* I'm trying to wonder, right? Like, why, why would you, you know? And so like, the best I can come up with is just like, the more product that they have, they can just take up a wider range of shell space. But yeah, it becomes complicated for a customer of like, outside of what it looks like, which if they did look particularly different from each other, fine, but they don't, then like,
* yeah. You know, this, this is, this is the problem of success, right? Like, they're so good at what they do, right? This is why I don't like the Pilot G2 because it just sits there for two decades and never changes. And like, people still like it. I was like, ah, there's so much better options. It was like, which should I buy? And then I go look at the Uni-Ball shelf. I'm like, hey, do you like the G2? Yeah, maybe stick with that because I don't know what to tell you.
* So, what is the, what are you going to, what is the result? Is you just hoping they'll contact you? No, you have nothing, there's nothing? No, no, no, no, no. No, I'm going to, I'm going to try to figure it out myself and try to, there's a couple of these pens that I need to buy and I don't know that I'm going to do like all like 14 different pens but I'm going to take some of the, the main popular ones and try to tell you which one's the best. Right.
* But like, best is subjective, right? The best what?
* Well,
* we can't go so far down that layer of questioning because that one does everything. Yeah, it'll be best for me like, and then we'll kind of try to relate that.
* Either tier rank them or just top five them. Yeah, that's what I should probably do but like, the tier ranking is kind of meaningless because once you put like, if like the Vision Elite and the Signo 307 are both in B tier, they're drastically different pens, right?
* Talking about tier ranking, something you can put down on a topic list for the future. I want to give you a blind ranking of pen brands. Okay. Are you familiar with blind ranking?
* Not exactly. So, there'll be like, say like one to ten, right? And I'm just going to tell you a brand and you have to tell me where it goes on the one to ten without knowing what else is coming. Sweet. Okay. Yeah, we'll do that. I also, so we're going to put that on the list and then we're going to,
* and this will require some prep, we're going to do, if I were the president of stationery, what's my platform? Oh, Brad, I love it. And we get three things. Yes. So someone submitted that. but we need, we need some, I need some time to think about. Yeah. Number one is Uniball, Uniball, tell me what ink is best. To shrink the product lines. That's so pretty nice. So we'll, we'll do the president of stationery down the line, but yeah, that'll be fun. Love it.
* This episode is brought to you by our friends at the Canalea Pen Co. They make stunningly beautiful products inspired by the images of Hawaii that they hold so dear. Canalea's founders, Hugh and Carol, believe that these locations can help recharge our spirit and connect us with nature. This week, we wanted to remind you about Canalea's newest release, the Papacolea collection. For this pen, Canalea are taking inspiration from Papacolea Beach with its beautiful green sand and beach that contains olivine crystals from the volcanic cinder cone that surrounds it. Papacolea Beach is one of the only four beaches in the world with sand like this. So it's incredibly worthy of being celebrated with this brand new collection. The Papacolea collection features fountain pens in Canalea's five profile options as well as a ballpoint. And you can pair your pen with a hibiscus medallion in your choice of Argentium silver, 14 carat gold, plated silver, or rose gold. But with this collection, you're able to once again give your pen the extra special touch with the Maoloa or Mailele band made of lovingly crafted Argentium silver. It makes this already special pen even more so. These bands feature beautiful details that are a joy to see and they're both available in the classic profile of this pen. This is my personal recommendation as always with the Canalea pens now. I really love these bands. They are visually very nice just in general like the artwork that's on them. But I also like that it provides kind of like a visual break with the patterns. I think it helps them stand out even further because you have something that draws your eye and then you can kind of naturally explore the beautiful patterns that they make. And it also makes the capsidule a whole. Especially if you, like me, I don't post my pens. I like to hold my caps most of the time and this makes it very pleasurable in the hand because it adds the extra weight to the cap. Very nice. Canalea fountain pens feature Yoa number 6 nibs. You can buy steel or 18 karat gold nibs directly from Canalea. They offer sizes from extra fine to a 1.1mm stub and Hue will smooth and tune every nib before it leaves their shop so that your Canalea pen will write beautifully straight out the lovely black all-night keepsake box. And with every purchase of a pen from the new Papacolaia collection, Canalea will be making a donation to the Maui Food Bank and the Maui Humane Society to give back to the communities that inspire their designs. You can find out more about Canalea's whole offering and place an order today at canaleapenco.com and there'll be a link in the show notes. Our thanks to the Canalea Pen Co for their support of this show. They didn't ask me to do this nor have they ever. I bought this pen full retail from them so that tells you what I think about this pen. You know, every, I can't buy them all, right? They're expensive and beautiful and gorgeous and love them. This one spoke to me in a way that I put my money down on it so obviously they're a sponsor of the show. I don't have to do that. I can look at the pen and send them back which is what I do most of the time. This one I said send me an invoice. I'm not surprised actually that this one has really spoken to you. Yeah. It is. It's beautiful. It was really nice to hear from Hugh saying that it was a big hit at the Chicago Pen Show which is where they were just last week.
* Yeah, so follow up from Chicago I think went really well. New location. Also the Little Craft Fest in Houston went well. I think we might have mentioned them a little bit last week but looks like we had a good couple shows the last couple weeks and I'm interested to get back out on the road here soon. I gotta make some plans Myke.