2006-03-09
08:47
Pilot Super Grip Mechanical Pencil Review
Sorry – images are missing from this page, lost in some rearranging.
What Is It?
An automatic pencil – a ‘clicky’ pencil. The Super Grip is Pilot’s budget pencil, so it’s cheap.
- .5mm lead.
- Eraser under clear cap.
- Rubber grip.
- Pocket clip.
- Price: £1.45 RRP here (£1.16 at time of writing from Cult Pens, probably around $2 in the US.
Looks
Well, it looks like a cheap plastic pencil. There’s not a lot more to say about it. The mechanism shows through the clear part near the tip, and the clear barrel lets you see how much lead you have remaining, but other than that, it’s a fairly ordinary thing.
Feel
Surprisingly good, actually. The rubber grip is comfortable, and the balance is quite good. I generally prefer a heavy pencil, and this is not one, but it still handles quite well. The balance is neutral – balance point is almost dead centre.
In Use
The lead is quite good. Smooth, without the unpleasant scratchyness you sometimes get. I like a softer grade, usually, but the HB supplied isn’t bad.
The tip retracts inside the pencil, making it what they call ‘pocket-safe’, but as with most pencils of this type, if the top gets pressed in, your leg can still get stabbed.
At first, I thought it wasn’t refillable – the top section doesn’t seem to unscrew. However, when you remove the eraser, there’s a small hole that the spare leads can be shaken out through, and more leads added. Considering the price, I doubt Pilot intend you to replace the leads too many times, but it’s good that the option is there.
The cap over the eraser is good, as it stops the eraser getting caught on things when you don’t want it to be, but unfortunately, the eraser underneath isn’t so good. It would do the job when you don’t have an alternative, but if you use an eraser much, you’d want to carry a
Conclusion
For the money, it’s a really good pencil. My guess is that if you’re reading reviews of pencils, you probably want something a bit better quality than this. If, however, you like to have a lightweight pencil as a spare, or for using where it might get lost, this could be ideal – it’s cheap, but handles much better than you might expect.
Disclosure: The Pilot Super Grip we reviewed here was sent to us for review by Cult Pens as a freebie, and they give us a small discount on our orders. We bought from them and mentioned them here before getting anything from them, but we’d rather be open about it.
[...] It’s a cheap plastic pen, and it looks like one. Not actually bad, but nobody’s going to think it was expensive. It looks a bit cheaper, somehow, than the same-priced Super Grip. [...]
[...] pencil doesn’t feel quite as well made as Pilot’s Super Grip. The mechanism rattles, the side button has quite a lot of play in it before it starts actually [...]
[...] Shaker looks very similar to the Super Grip, but with a black plastic tip section, rather than the clear plastic. The clear barrel lets you [...]
I just have read what I have written about the Super Grip and I think that this may be a little confusing: in fact, the Super Grip is really an excellent choice for a cheap mechanical pencil. The main differences between the Super Grip and the Sabilo fun min are the shock absorber (I hope this is the correct word), the smoothness of the mechanism (the Stabilo is more pleasant), the grip (the Stabilo seems to be a bit thicker in the hand, even if this is not evident when you look at the two pencils, and I find the rubber more comfortable (soft) than the one used for the Super Grip), and the leads (I prefer the Pilot, really excellent leads to write and draw).
I have to add also that I have not seen any Bic Silk Metal available for sale in France since a very long time, and since nobody talks about this model, maybe it is not distributed or hard to find in other countries (?).
Finally, compared to other “cheap” mechanical pencils like the Pentel .e-Clic or the Reynolds 826 AutoPencil, or even the Rotring VisuPencil, the Pilot Super Grip is really far ahead, even if the clip is a bit noisy (not really adjusted).
This time I think I have said all I had to say about this very good model. Much better than more expensive pencils like the Pentel Energize (for example) that is an uncommon deception (a real soap!).
For approx. the same price in France, the Stabilo fun min is really more comfortable than the Super Grip when you have to write for a long time (at school, at the office and so on). There is a shock absorber. The leads are maybe a bit better for the Pilot but the Stabilo is so pleasant to use that overall, the “fun min” is really a better choice for a low-cost mechanical pencil (I find it is really the best at this time). For approx. 2 or 3 Euros more, you can buy the excellent Bic Silk Metal (with fabulous leads). In all my mechanical pencils (more than 40!), the Silk Metal remains the best.
Is the pilot super grip a shaker pencil like the pilot 2020 pencils are from Japan?
Nope – the Pilot 2020 is available over here too – it’s The Shaker H-245. The Super Grip is top-button only.