Ever since I started college, an interest sparked in me to try gel pens. I had used ballpoint pens my entire life and managed to survive, but I would see posts all over Instagram and loved the way the ink looked on paper. It wasn’t until I began my junior year of college when I actually bought my first pack of gel pens but as soon as I began writing with them I was HOOKED.

The pack that I bought was the PaperMate InkJoy 0.7 Gel Pens. I chose them over their main competition, the Pilot G2 0.7 Gel Pens because according to online reviews, they were cheaper and wrote better. I purchased them at Target later to find out that they were cheaper at Walmart.

Earlier this year, I wanted to see what the hype was about the Pilot G2 pens, so I bought a pack at Walmart. Below I wrote a few phrases using the two sets of pens and will create a personal review based on the following categories.

1. Feel of Grip

For the Pilots, they include a rubber grip but didn't feel as comfortable as compared to the PaperMates include a smooth grip barrel all around, and its "craters" across its barrel made it more comfortable to hold while writing.

2. Quality of Ink

The quality of ink is very similar. The only difference is that the PaperMate pens have a thicker look when writing on paper, even though they were both 0.7 size ink. However, the PaperMate pens tend to run out faster than the Pilot pens. For me, a few of my PaperMates began to run out after a few months while my Pilots still continue to work perfectly.

3. Feel of Writing

The PaperMate pens have a much smoother feel when it came to writing the following sentence: The dog ran. While writing with the Pilot pens, it felt harder to write, and it had a heavier feel. Because of the lighter ink of the Pilot pens, I would almost have to push down harder to get similar results within the PaperMates.

4. Overall Experience

After using both brands of gel pens for a few months, the verdict was in: I prefered the PaperMate InkJoy gel pens rather than the Pilot G2 gel pens.

This surprised me because of all the hype that the G2 pens had. They were considered to be "the ultimate gel pen." Don't get me wrong, they're really great pens and would still recommend them, but I liked the overall experience of the the InkJoy pens.

While the PaperMate pens may have lose their ink a bit faster than the Pilot pens, it felt more comfortable and smoother to write overall.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author, and this review was not sponsored by either Pilot or PaperMate.