Two sliding-pipe mechanical pencils for people who like to write without being afraid of lead breakage.

Both have plastic barrel, brass clutch. RINT is a bit lighter but not so significant. While many Zebra pencils focus on “unbreakable lead” (like the DelGuard), the Rint was designed with a completely different philosophy: visibility and posture. Zebra marketed this pencil under the idea that if you can’t see what you’re writing, you slouch and ruin your posture

The pipe : This part is what the ORENZ and the RINT are all about. I test on Oxford and MIDORI papers without any problem, my writing style doesn’t produce any scratchy feeling, but it does make noise, but that noise is music to my ears. Interestingly, the sliding pipe on the ORENZ can be removed without any effort. Meanwhile, the RINT’s part refuses to pop out, but its movement is very unidirectionally smooth. On RINT, the pipe has a fixed part and the moving part which render the whole sleeve a bit longer, I like this approach, as it makes even easier to see where the tip is, useful for drawing small details, 4~5mm exposed (a bit overkill, as ORENZ has already been doing this job very well, 3~4mm exposed). RINT features one of the longest pipes in Zebra’s history.

The cone : ORENZ is 100% metal, RINT has metal tip and a plastic part for the rest. This was intentional, the dark resin coating is to reduce reflection, hence helping to concentrate on writing better. Both has plastic barrel curves inward as it meets the metal tip, further clearing the “visual field” around your paper.

The barrel : nothing much to say, ORENZ has many colors, RINT has some variations. Luckily I found my favourite pigment on both, presented in this set of photos. RINT’s barrel has an opaque finish but there is 1cm near the tip it’s made glossy, and the diameter is slightly expanded there, acting as a stopper for slippery hand (it’s not slippery to begin with anyway). ORENZ’s grip is getting smaller toward the tip, but it does have some indents to increase the friction.

The eraser : for those who care, ORENZ’s eraser is much longer and usable, while RINT’s is shorter (and cuter imo), more likely acting as a lead stopper.

The cap : RINT has a hole on its cap. Not a wow factor, but it reminds me of EU requirement which I strongly support.

The clip : ORENZ has its own design and RINT has a very basic design. From my experience, ORENZ’s clip is very easy to rust.

The lead size (in mm) : ORENZ 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7, RINT 0.3 0.5