New Product Spotlight: Atlantis Exact & Atlantis Comfort
I like ballpoint pens - specifically retractable fine point blue ink ballpoint pens. Don't even try to give me black ink or medium point. Just don't. I also don't like gel ink or rollerball ink. Sure, the gel ink pens are fun because you can get them in fun ink colors like pink or purple or orange or green (I can do that with ballpoints too) but I don't like the way the ink writes, the way it feathers on the paper or the way it smears. Yes, I know there are all kinds of "new, revolutionary" gel ink pens out there, but I run into the same issues with all of them. The same goes for rollerballs.
And I like wide barrel pens. I have big hands and it's hard for me to hold a regular size pen. The wide barrels feel so much more natural and comfortable to me. My all time favorite pen is the Sanford PhD. Oops, I mean the PaperMate PhD - I forgot they changed the name. (I have 3 of them in various places around my home.) The only exception I make to the ballpoint preference is for the Pilot Frixion pens - those are phenomenal! They're the only pens I use at work (they're erasable).
Recently, the Bic manufacturer's rep came to see me with samples of some new products for me to test out and showed me the Atlantis Exact and the Atlantis Comfort. My first reaction was "The Atlantis isn't new." "True," he said, "but these versions are."
Let me introduce you to them both.
The Exact is fine point and the Comfort is medium point and they both come in blue and black ink. They are "normal" size pens - meaning that they have a thin barrel. It may be difficult to tell from these pictures, but the entire barrel of the pens is covered in rubber, so they're easy to grip and hold on to (there goes objection #1). The rubber barrel also makes them look more upscale. (There goes objection #2. Let's face it, the regular version of the Atlantis looks like a cheap plastic pen. Here, the rubber gives it a little more class.) Do I care about having a classy looking pen? Not really, but some people do. But I digress.
According to Bic, the ink in these pens is smoother than the classic Bic ink. Yeah, right.........every pen manufacturer out there says their ink is the smoothest. I really didn't expect these to be any great shakes, but I was ....was.....not exactly as right as I usually am. These pens write so smoothly, I was blown away! They really are different than other pens. Although they are listed as fine and medium, they feel like extra fine and fine to me. The medium point feels just like my fine point PhD pen and the fine point feels like the old Bic accountant pens I used to use in grade school. Which is perfectly fine with me, since I like fine point, but those of you who want a true medium point may not like these as much.
I honestly didn't expect to like these pens - they didn't look like anything special or innovative and they were too skinny for my taste - but they really surprised me.
I'm about to do something that I haven't done in over a year of writing this blog............
Wait for it..............
I give the Atlantis Exact and Atlantis Comfort.... 5 paper clips!
I have some more samples coming from Bic - if you'd like to try one, send an email to wizard@oexusa.com and I'll send one out to you when they arrive. You'll love this pen!