I'm going to do a meta-review of pocket pens soon on my blog www.peninvestigations.com , but I wanted to post a quicker review of the ensso XS minimalist pocket pen here first. Especially since I couldn't find all that many reviews of the pen when I was considering buying it.
This is a TINY pen! Women's pants' pockets tend to be stupidly small, and I have some pants where the Kaweco Sport won't fit in the pockets. Not a problem with this ensso. As you can see from the photos below, it's a good bit shorter than the Kaweco Sport and the Pilot Petit1 and also quite a bit skinnier. But posted, it's comparable in length. It's a snap cap; it uncaps quickly and posts nicely on the back, with an o-ring to keep it secure. This makes it, in my experience, much quicker to deploy than the Sport. I really like the facets on this pen. Since it's a snap cap, not a screw one, it's really easy to adjust the facets to line up. This also makes it easy to make sure the clip doesn't dig into you while using it posted. Personally, I find this pen very comfortable to use.
I posted on FPGeeks earlier about my initial problems with the nib. When I popped in a cartridge, it wrote for a bit, and then the ink dried up. The tines looked really close together, so I tried flossing them, and pretty much immediately chipped away at the black finish on the nib. That was really frustrating, especially as black nibs are getting harder to find. With just a bit more work, I managed to get the nib to write wonderfully. Ever since then, I've not had a problem with this pen not writing. I even left it uncapped for a two hour meeting, just jotting notes occasionally, and it barely ever even skipped a stroke. While I wasn't initially a fan of stealth pens, I do now see the appeal. I didn't get any side glances while using this pen. However, it does look like this pen won't be stealthy for all that long. There are other places where the black finish is beginning to chip off as well. I expected this would happen eventually, but not within a matter of a few weeks. Even so, the pen itself looks like it'll hold up for a good long time.
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