The popularity of The Sharpie Pen brought with it a lot of hot competition. Pens like the BIC Intensity and the Foray Stylemark began to encroach on Sharpie’s shelf space, so it was inevitable that Sharpie was going to fight back. And here it is, the S-Gel, a pen destined to take a slice from the lucrative gel pen market-share (they’re looking at you, G-2).

The S-Gel is currently available in three tip sizes: bold (1.0mm), medium (0.7mm), and fine (0.5mm). Medium seems to be the default size you’ll find in most places, but I decided to order a box of the fine tipped version online. They ended up costing a little over $1 per pen, but it ended up being a good choice, as the ink in this size never seemed too thick or runny.

Overall, Sharpie did a good job with these pens. The black ink is dark, and it fills a space very well with little-to-no bleeding or smearing. It’s smooth, and it feels good to hold. The grip section is firm and rubbery, and, though the entire body of the pen is made of plastic, the whole thing, including the clip, is quite sturdy. The black and silver color scheme looks good, or, at least, better than most of its “premium plastic” competitors, in my opinion.

But the S-Gel is similar enough in function to many other gel pens you’ll find in the market that I can’t exactly recommend it over other favorites like the Pentel Energel or Zebra Sarasa Clip. So unless you find the S-Gel on sale or you just happen to really like that Sharpie logo across the barrel, you won’t be missing out by letting these pass you by. That said, I always appreciate when stationery companies decide to try new things, so I hope we continue to see more from Sharpie.