Pilot Prera

Would iPen have been too obvious?

When you look at Pilot’s pen lineup, there is a lot of love for the Metropolitan and for good reason – price, construction, and reliability. While it can fly under the radar in a meeting due to it’s clean look, it does leave room for a more “happy hour” model in the lineup with the same 9-to-5 strengths of the Metropolitan. Enter the Pilot Prera – a sibling with a bit more visual pop to it. The Prera is a demonstrator and has a clear plastic body with some colored accents on the ends (reminds me of the old iMac designs from ’99). The colors include a dark blue, light blue, green, orange, pink, red, and Black (which looks Dark Grey with the transparent plastic).

The available nib options- like the Metropolitan – include fine and medium with a 1MM stub only available on the blue and black models. I’d love to see a broad and perhaps a wider 1.5mm or 1.9mm stub available to give the Lamy Safari a run for it’s money when it comes to options. The nib on this Orange Prera is a fine and it really feels borderline extra-fine so keep that in mind and opt for the medium if you want a bit more ink on the page. The fine nib and feed are an excellent match and it never has issues starting or skipping.  The nib design is pretty plain with “Pilot Superior Quality Japan” and the nib size as the only decoration – which is too bad as they could have used the dot pattern from the Prera logo to create some visual interest on the nib. The nib itself is pretty stiff and there is no flex but it is smooth and there is no scratch – just a little feedback which is just how I like it.

The section has a slight taper with a metal trim ring at the end to provide some grip. The feed can be seen underneath and the ink looks fantastic as it works through the fins. The ink is delivered to the feed via Pilot’s CON-50 convertor – which has always been solid and easy to clean in all my Pilot models that use it.

The size of the Prera when capped is on the smaller side measuring only 4¾” (121mm) and growing to 5 ⁵⁄_16″  (136mm) when posted. You can see it above next to the TWSBI 580AL. I don’t mind the smaller capped size as it fits fine in my hand when posted. The barrel does have some taper but runs roughly ⁷⁄_16″ in diameter. The Prera uses a friction fit cap with a white inner sleeve (that really should be clear so you can see the nib) to keep the nib from drying out. Once posted it stays in place and when returning it to the capped position closes with a snap letting you know it’s on properly. The cap clip as a nice curved design and is just stiff enough to hold it in my case without being a pain to open. The center cap band is a simple silver ring with the Prera logo band silk screened onto the cap itself. While I am normally a fan of fancy engraved bands the screened approach does give the pen a unique look with the ink visible underneath. What I missed with the Prera and only noticed when inked up was that the inner barrel features some subtle faceting that runs almost to the lower band.

Overall this is a solid pen and one that I keep inked up quite a bit at the office. It has the quality construction you expect from a Pilot pen with no nib, feed or leaking issues. Price for this pen in the US runs about $55 – which may be it’s biggest downfall. The price in Japan for this pen is about half that and would put it closer to the Lamy Safari and TWSBI Eco if it were priced the same way here. At the higher price point it runs into much tougher competition from pens like the Lamy AL-Star and  TWSBI 580AL.