Review: Zebra Surari Emulsion Ink 0.7mm - Fluorescent Violent Ink

I picked up a Zebra Surari emulsion ink with a 0.7mm in fluorescent violent ink over a year ago from JetPens. I've been using it regularly for that long now and I thought it was about time I reviewed it!

Pretty purple look.

Clicked out.

The Zebra Surari is a pretty cute looking pen, with a clear plastic barrel, a rubbery ink color matched grip with a few ridges, an ink color matched clicker, and a clear clip that works well enough, but it is not my favorite clip. The pen has a solid, pleasing design and build and it's really comfortable to hold and write with, in part due to the smoothness of the ink. The most important piece of the Zebra Surari pen is the ink. JetPens says:

The new Emulsion ink from Zebra combines the best quality of a ballpoint and gel ink pen. It has the smoothness of an oil-based ballpoint ink pen but features the vibrant colors of a gel ink pen. That's an incredible new development. The Emulsion is supposedly even smoother than "low friction" ballpoint pens, is smear-proof and water resistant. 

The Zebra Surari is indeed water resistant. As you can see on the line "Zebra Surari Emulsion Ink Pen" - there is no ink smearing or feathering. Good to know! Can't say that about a lot of gel pens...

Particularly with hybrid inks, there tends not to be a lot of color options available, but that is not the case with the Zebra Surari - there are plenty of colors available and they are made in 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 1.0mm tips as well. I prefer the 0.7mm tip because it puts down a thicker line than the 0.5mm would, and especially because the ink is so lightly colored though I imagine the 1.0mm would be nice and bold! The pen writes very smoothly - the ink feels like it's gliding out of the tip and onto the page with little effort involved. Better yet, the ink never skips, unlike many ballpoint pens. The Emulsion ink comes through! The ink certainly acts like gel ink but dries as quickly as a ballpoint.

It is a very lovely color of purple, but a bit hard on the eyes for reading large amounts.

Compared with a few other pens: Dong-A Cronix Hybrid 1.0mm ballpoint pen, Uni-ball Jetstream 0.7mm ballpoint pen, Dong-A Miffy scented gel ink pen 0.5mm, Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.5mm gel ink pen, and the Zebra Sarasa SE 0.7mm gel ink pen. 

Things to Think About
There are refills available for the Zebra Surari but as usual, only in the boring colors - black, blue, and red in all the tip sizes. However, I'm glad that it is refillable. I have heard rumors that this pen has recycled materials in its barrel and judging by the look and feel of the plastic (you know, recycled plastic just has that "look") but I can't seem to find any information about this to confirm it. Either way, thumbs up for refillable!

My insiiiides!!!

The fluorescent violent ink is quite light and may be too light for a lot of writing. It is, however, aptly titled as "fluorescent violent" so if that's the color you're hoping for, then you'll be happy! The color is reminiscent of a pastel purple highlighter to me. Unfortunately, I think the downside to the Emulsion ink is that it's not as dark and solid as gel pen inks, at least in this case.

I counted a few blobs in my writing sample, though they are very minimal and they didn't smudge as I continued to write. Perhaps it was a weird writing angle, I'm not sure. It didn't happen again, and I couldn't replicate the situation. Therefore, I am not concerned about this, but in case you saw them in the writing sample, I wanted to mention it as a rare occurrence!

Other Emulsion Reviews
PencilWrap
Office Supply Geek
Notebook Loves Pen 0.7mm
Notebook Loves Pen 0.5mm
The Pen Addict


Price
JetPens - $1.65


Overall
For the price, the Zebra Surari is a very nice pen - it's solid, writes well, and can be refilled - except I'd be selective about the colors based on what your needs are. I'd avoid the fluorescent colors if you intend to use the pens for any sort of real writing, although they're really nice for accents, doodles, and decorations! I think the 0.7mm Surari is a good place to start if you are interested in trying out Emulsion ink.