My last order from the good folks at
Cult Pens included a free sample pack of the new
Schneider Slider XB Ballpoints from Germany in black, blue and pink. Once I'd got over the shock of such a lovely surprise I thought I really ought to put the Sliders to the test.
My sample pack arrived in the card slipcase pictured above, inside of which was another card insert holding the three pens and providing me with loads of information about the Slider product line; this also included a test area so I could try the pens out straight away - what a nice touch.
The
Schneider website tells me that the Slider product line features their new revolutionary ViscoGlide® - Technology ink which, they say, makes the Slider like writing with liquid silk. I'm not sure I would go quite that far, though to be fair the Slider's performance is reminiscent of Uni-Ball's Jetstream line, and the sample's XB tip, whilst a little wide for my taste, did indeed lay down a smooth, skip-free line. My sample Sliders were very smooth to write with and slid effortlessly across the paper - it looks to me as though the Jetstream has some serious competition here.
Schneider puts the performance of the Slider down to a combination of their new ink, coupled with a 'special Direct2Point' tip which they say, guarantees instant ink flow; I can't argue with that as all three of my review pens started instantly.
Dimensions are as follows:
Length (capped): 152mm
Length (uncapped): 140mm
Length (posted): 163mm
Barrel diameter: 8mm
Weight: 10.2g
The pen itself feels a little too slim for my hand, though the rubberised grip is well positioned and of a decent size to provide a pleasant enough grip. The grip, based on my limited test, is also not a lint-catcher - always a bonus.
The biggest problem I have with this pen is Schneider's choice of ink colour/tip size combinations:
XB (1.4mm): Black, blue, pink, red, orange, purple, light blue and light green.
M (1.0mm): Black, blue, red and green.
F (0.7mm): Black, blue and red.
I would have preferred a wider choice of colours in the finer tip sizes as I'm not a fan of wide tips/nibs, though having said that I'd estimate the XB to be producing a line width of around 0.7mm (the tip sizes listed above are from the sample packaging). Cult Pens lists the M tip as producing a line approximately 0.5mm wide and the F approximately 0.3mm.
All in all I like the Slider - it's one of the better ballpoints I've tried recently, and I'm really quite impressed with the ViscoGlide® ink - it certainly seems to live up to the claims made on the packaging. Also worthy of note is that the black ink is listed as being waterproof.
I'd like to hope that Schneider will consider expanding the colour choices in the smaller tip sizes and may produce a retractable version of the Slider as the product line develops; there is a retractable ballpoint which uses ViscoGlide® ink, it's called the Xtension and is available from Cult Pens
here.
At a Glance:
Model: Schneider Slider XB ballpoint
Colour choice: in text.
Available from:
Cult Pens in the UK
Price: rrp £1.75; Cult Pens price £1.55
Overall: 4 out of 5*
* restricted colour choice in some tip sizes and narrow barrel.
Review: Schneider Slider XB Ballpoint
Posts
The Pi is a comfortable hand fit and the supplied refill writes well enough for a ballpoint. I have noticed a little skipping here and there, but not enough to put me off using it.
Stylistically, I am impressed with this pen's clean lines, the chromed clip and I really do rather like the toggle switch arrangement for extending the tip. Occasionally I find the switch does retract the tip if I'm being a bit heavy-handed when dotting my i's, other than that it's a great pen.
