Kickstarter projects are usually a hit-or-miss, and the Phantom retractable fountain pen by India-headquartered Endless is clearly one of them: good design, decent performance, but highly inconsistent execution across units sent to users.

Phantom in focus

• Aesthetics – The pen comes in solid black and clear demonstrator, with add ons available to change the default chrome trim to silver or black. There is also a choice to remove the clip, also for a fee. 
• Durability – The clip feels flimsy that it could probably break when clipped to a shirt on the daily. It also uses a rubber
• Ergonomics – Phantom is quite light on the hand, and the clip doesn’t really get in the way of the grip. But it is understandable if you want to lose it.
• Ease of use – It is a pretty straightforward retractable penThe proprietary converter included is easy to use (just slide it to suck in ink) but it can also take in short standard converters.
• Price
  • US$39 (super early bird rate)
  • US$44 (early bird rate)
  • US$49 (Kickstarter rate)
  • Add ons:
    • Clip replacement kit: US$10 
    • Black trim: US$10 
    • Gold trim: US$10 
    • Extra fude nib: US$15 
    • Extra blade nib: US$10 
    • Extra stacked nib: US$35 
• Availability – It was only available on Kickstarter, with no updates yet regarding regular availability on their official website.

What’s good

Unboxing the Phantom already immediately presented quite a number of issues. But we’ll get to that later. There’s a couple of good things about this pen that we can discuss first.

First the medium nib that came with the pen was a smooth writer with rare hard starts in the couple of weeks that I used it daily.  It is on the light side of things but still a little bit heavier than the non-retractable budget pens within or below its price range.

The design is also good up close, with a jet-like silhouette that is uncommon but works on the looks department. Getting the demonstrator with a gold trim proved to be the better option as well, since it made it very easy to work on some of the pen’s issues.

 

Instead of using a mechanical trapdoor, Phantom hit the relative budget pricepoint by opting for a silicon rubber seal. There were only two instances of hard starts during the two weeks of testing it, and they were pretty when the ink was almost used up (so technically not really hard starts due to the nib drying up). Other than that, it always wrote nicely.

And that is it. Buckle up for the next part.

 

What’s iffy

First, the fountain pen’s click mechanism was misaligned when I opened the box: the side that goes on your thumb is supposed to be curved down at an angle, with the higher sharp side facing up. But it was placed asymmetrically. Thankfully, it was an easy fix that only needed a full disassembly later on. Good thing it was easy to do with a demonstrator.

 

Next, the click mechanism didn’t immediately work properly, with an annoying delay. It turns out that an inner ring holding the mechanism was not screwed all the way in. After fixing it, the clicking sound and feel became less annoying, but still annoyingly slow or delayed half the time. 

The nib that came with the pen was a very smooth medium. However, our order was for an extra fine nib. 

Also, the add-on stacked nib, which cost almost the same as the entire pen, gave a horrendously scratchy writing experience. It also came in chrome, even if the gold trim option was purchased. A look through a loupe showed that there’s a chip near the tip’s cross section. Well, here’s a look.

For a nib that cost almost as much as the pen, this was disappointing. But maybe we expected too much from the stacked nib since we own one from Ralph Reyes.

To disclose, we posted our initial thoughts on Instagram Stories, tagging Endless. They responded that they will send in the right EF nib, together with a replacement for the stacked nib. However, that was way back on July 16. There has been no word from them at the moment.

Quite honestly, if one would look at their Kickstarter comments, it won’t be surprising if the correct nibs won’t ever come. Multiple backers still didn’t get their pens, and some of those who did complained about the nib and click mechanism quality. Others also had faulty silicon pieces that either fell off or didn’t seal the pen enough to prevent the nib from drying.

 

Noob verdict

Basically, the pen is a decently smooth writer. But the hiccups are quite challenging to address, that an absolute pen noob might find it difficult to troubleshoot and will inevitably blame the makers for quality issues.

At the US$39 price point, there are much cheaper retractable options such as Jinhao and Writech that generally give decent experiences straight out of the box. And if you run into any quality issues with these, at least they didn’t cost more than US$39.

After months of delays, getting a pen that needed a full disassembly is quite disappointing. Good thing we’re not afraid of taking pens apart. But then again, there shouldn’t be any need for that if the pens were properly made in the first place.

UPDATE: As of December 5, Endless has yet to send the right nib and the proper stacked nib. Also, the spring has started to rust. To compare, the Platinum Curidas’ spring never showed any rust in the year I used it (with much hate, because the unit I won had a lot of issues. But that is a story for another time.)

Endless is also launching a new Kickstarter fountain pen campaign.