Astrolux TP-01 Review
I got a cool pen!
For starters: It's a pen. It writes, in ink. The cartridge itself isn't anything to write home about, but that's not why we're here. It is replaceable with a common cartridge size, if that's your thing. I'm eyeing one with purple ink, myself.
The pen claims to be machined in raw titanium. I don't have the equipment to actually test that, but I'm at least sure it's not aluminum. It's also not steel, although I was surprised to find the pen somewhat weakly attracted to a magnet. I set about disassembling it (all the tools were included), and found that the ink cartridge has a steel sleeve. Without that (or the spring), the entirety of the pen body was not attracted to a magnet. I don't have any reason to think it's not titanium, and it has the right feel.
The overall feel of the pen is raw. When I'm holding it or writing with it (or fidgeting with the bolt-action mechanism), it feels like raw machined metal. This is not a finished feel, this is not a smooth or refined feeling for a pen. But it is kind of cool. It's nice that the clip is removable, and that they supply all the tools to disassemble the pen, as well as a spare of each of three screws (two for the clip, and one for the end of the pen which retains the ink cartridge) and even an extra spring. It can be fully dis- and re-assembled with ease. The only trick is to re-insert the "bolt" from the bolt-action with the shallow cutout facing away from the pen tip.
Let me be serious for a moment. You don't need this pen. I don't need this pen. It doesn't offer any real advantage over other available pens, and it even lacks some of the common additional features of tacticool pens (like a window-breaking point, because a pen needs that?). But it's cool, and it's made of nerd-metal. I will admit that it's likely to make me replace ink cartridges rather than entire pens, and I'll use it more than my other pens because it's cool. So maybe it has a tiny net impact on my plastic use/waste. And maybe the mechanism will be more reliable than other clicky pens I own. But I'll be honest, I can only remember buying one pack of pens in the last ten years, and that was nominally for use at university. My pens before that were provided by parents, and my pens after that have mostly been the left-behind pens of retail customers at a previous place of employment. I still have several Pilot G2s from that...
This pen writes worse than my Pilot G2s or my Uni-Ball Jetstreams. Although it bleeds less than either and can't be smudged like the G2, it's just an average ballpoint cartridge. It's also a bit short; it looks worse than it is, but it's around a half-inch shorter than most of my other pens sitting at my desk.
Disclaimer: I don't do any affiliate stuff. I didn't receive any compensation for this review; I bought the pen because I wanted it. I will admit, I didn't pay full price, M4d M4x helped me out a bit.
