Parker Esprit Review

[PolarMoonman]

Here is my view of the Parker Esprit Fountain pen Enjoy!

 

Pen: Esprit Telescopic

Make: Parker

Cost: $25

Nib: Medium

 

Packaging & Accessories: (8/10)

The pen came in a silver triangular metal case with a top and bottom that come apart. Inside there is foam padding and one blue and one black mini cartridge. Overall good packaging.

 

Appearance & Design (9/10)

This pen looks awesome. I got the metallic blue one and it has a wonderful finish. The grip is comfortable and the telescopic feature of this pen is an added bonus. It also has the Parker logo in white on the barrel which is awesome.

 

Construction & Quality (7/10)

I was a bit disappointed here. The pen's barrel is made of very very thin brass and it has a layer of white plastic on the inside. I personally like a more robust layer of metal on my pens. The clip is a bit odd as well, the overall shape and design of it are good. But it has two pieces of metal that wrap around the pen to hold it in place, but they do not join, there is an gap between them maybe an eighth of an inch wide. I am not sure of the reason for this....

 

Weight & Dimensions: (8/10)

Very light, can be collapsed, a little short for me, but overall well proportioned....

 

Nib & Performance: (10/10)

The nib is solid, it writes very smoothly and does not skip at all. No problems with ink flow, not scratchy at all, a pleasure to write with....

 

Filling System & Maintenance: (2/10)

Converter cannot be used. Only uses mini cartridges and when you are paying $5.50 + tax for like 2 mL of ink ($2.75 per mL as opposed to $0.14 per mL in a bottle) it can get expensive very quickly.....

 

Cost & Value: (5/10)

It's a nice pen but the fact you are paying up the yin yang for ink cartridges makes it not so great a value....

 

Conclusion: (49/70 – 70%)

The pen works wonderfully, awesome design, very unique and classy, but the thing that kills it is only being able to use mini cartridges. It's simply not efficient and it's horribly expensive. Bottom line, if you are going to buy this pen you will not be disappointed with it, but you will have to shell out quite a bit as far as ink is concerned. If you are willing to pay extra for the ink then it's a great pen.

[nm4]

Nice review. I have a Rotring Esprit (older version of this pen) and it has a ridged section that probably isn't as comfortable as the Parker section. It takes international short cartridges. What kind of cartridges does your Parker model use? Also keep in mind you can use a syringe to refill the cartridges with bottled ink - it's easy and resolves the cost issue you brought up.

 

Cheers,

NM

[PolarMoonman]

It takes the Parker cartridges have not tried any others i am very happy with Parker ink.... I have tried refilling cartridges and have had mixed results with the ink flow sometimes fine sometimes not. I find a converter works much much better.