When the Zebra Ola caught my eye thoughts of Spanish sunshine came to mind. My brain works in mysterious ways sometimes, maybe I could understand it if my focus was on something yellow or orange but the pen I’m reviewing is bright green!
The Zebra Ola is a 1.0mm retractable ballpoint, so no worries about losing the cap. It’s available in 5 different shades (black, blue, red, green & violet), the barrel indicates the colour of the ink.
At first sight, with its vivid lemony/lime green rubberised body & smokey grey translucent accents I’m thinking this is not a bad looking pen for something in this price range & there are plenty of places to view the ink level, there are two oval shapes close to the tip & two chevron shaped windows just under the clip. When my gaze moved on to the pocket clip & end cap, things started to change. For some reason they are a completely different colour, I would describe it as apple green & when combined with the white logo stamp, the snob in me finds it looks a little tacky.
On to the performance, arguably the most important factor of a pen. The Zebra Ola sits comfortably in my grip with the help of the anti skip grip, which is said to aid writing control. There is however a but, as the ink is such a faint shade of (olive) green I found myself sub consciously applying more pressure than normal. As well as making no difference at all to the text on the page, it became tiring after a short time.
The overall effect of the Ola for me is somehow spoilt by a couple of things & brings the old saying to mind you get what you pay for, which I find a bit of a shame as it does have a contemporary look & there is always a need for everyday low cost pens. That said I imagine it will appeal to a variety of people.
To conclude, in my opinion the jury is still out as to whether Zebra have earned their stripes or not with this pen.