We’ve seen USB pens before, but the UBONI Pen one ups other pens with its nifty laser pointer. As a USB key, it comes with 1 GIG of memory for a fair price of $33. The pen itself is classically designed with a shiny black finish and silver accents that make it look like one of those pens that cost a fortune. And it also looks and feels like a quality pen made of good materials. Accessing the USB connector is done by screwing off the top of the pen from the bottom half. The ink is refillable like a regular pen, and in general the pen writes well. The Laser Pointer works also well and can be practical for using at meetings, or you could have fun annoying co-workers with it. Admittedly we tried out more of the latter.
Transfer speeds were good. A 51MB file transferred on to the Pen in about 30 seconds. We wanted to do a more scientific test using HD Tach RW benchmarking software, but the company’s site is currently down and the software is not available to download. Our only gripe with the pen is that it is a bit thick, and after sometime writing with it our hands cramped up. Unfortunately, because it does need to fit in a USB connector there is no way that the manufacturer could have made it any thinner.
Overall, we love the pen and think is a great gift for professionals, as well as geeks, and just about everyone else. It comes packaged in a gift box so that all you have to do is wrap up the box and you’re all set to give it away to someone for an occasion. The UBONI USB Laser Pointer Pen is available from Valvolo whom also has a lot of other neat affordable gadgets and accessories, many of which aren’t easy to find on this side of the Atlantic.