rOtring800+ Mechanical Pencil and Touchscreen Stylus, 0.5 mm, Silver Barrel (1900183)

High quality piece of kit

This is for the replacement that I got as the first one I received had no packaging or spare parts and was faulty in both the stylus rubber being ripped, the pencil having had the front tube sheared off and the feed jammed.The differences between the two items was more than just accidental damage, it extended to the thread length on the front body, the design of the "JAPAN" label at the clip as well as the smoothness of the retraction mechanism. I am left wondering if a counterfeit product got into the supply chain or if this was just a design change and drop damage.

High quality and convenient with stylus at the front end.

I purchased this during the Black Friday event. The RO800+ is a revamped version of the original Rotring 800 pencil, which if made in Germany is something of a collector's item. Originally, Rotring pencils were all made in Germany but for the last few years, production of their top-end pencils is in Japan.What Rotring have done here is to replace the gold dome on the end of the original 800 pencil with a rubberized dome in the RO800+. So now, once you have retracted the metal tip, you can use the RO800+ as a stylus.The writing tip is retracted by twisting the knurled piece at the back of the pencil and once retracted the tip sits a couple of mm inside the dome area. The ability to retract the tip makes the pencil pocket-safe (compared to the Rotring 600, which has a fixed lead pipe). The pencil can hold half a dozen standard leads which are loaded by removing the metal button at the back of the pencil. Leads are advanced by pressing the same button.Overall the pencil body has a sturdy and solid feel. The tip of retractable pencils can sometimes be prone to wobble, but this wasn't noticeable in the pencil I received. One thing you do have to watch out for is to not drop the pencil onto a hard floor because given the weight of the solid metal body, the tip is likely to become damaged.The pencil was supplied in a cardboard sleeve which had been squashed a little by overzealous packing. Note that the pencil is available in either silver and black finishes, and in 0.5mm and 0.7mm lead sizes. There is also a 2mm leadholder which uses a different mechanism. The current price of £58 is steep, but if you shop around you should find it for £40 or less. And if you don't need the stylus feature, consider Rotring 800 0.5mm Silver Barrel Mechanical Pencil Gift Box

I have also the black version but after a few months the paint started peeling.This one for the moment works fine