The BIC Velocity Gel is a “premium plastic”-style retractable pen, very similar in design to the Pilot G-2. It has a transparent barrel, a rubber grip, and black trim. It’s an uninspired design, but it looks nice enough. The gel ink inside, however, could leave your writing a little uglier because it flows a bit unevenly and smears pretty heavily, even transferring to the opposite page in a notebook that is closed too fast.

The Velocity Gel is comfortable enough to hold, although it’s worth noting that the grip flares out a bit at the tip-end of the pen. For someone like me who grips the pen close to the tip, it feels a tiny bit awkward. Anybody who grips a pen a bit higher on the barrel won’t have this issue and might actually like this feature, as it will prevent your fingers from slipping too far down.

It isn’t a bad pen, probably ranking somewhere on the lower end of mediocre. But with so many options, it’s just not a pen worth buying. On every store shelf with a BIC Velocity Gel, there is probably a better pen sitting right next to it.

Extra Links

• Review at TurtleDog’s Blog. He loves the grip of the Velocity Gel but also has problems with uneven ink flow after continued use.
• Review at A Penchant for Paper. Like me, she disliked the raised lip of the grip.
• Review at Good Housekeeping. Their consumer testers seemed to like it, but they found it “only somewhat precise” to write with.