Ok, I know shouldn’t do this, but anyway..the competitors are the pilot H-2003 and the Pentel p203. I’m not a huge fan of 0.3 lead, so there’s already a bias.

The main concern is not how they look, but how they write. 0.3 lead is tricky-it breaks easily and it takes practice to use.

The pencils are composed of differing materials, which affect their weight. After writing with both pencils, I determined weight matters when you have such a thin lead (the same lead was used in each pencil). While I managed to not break the lead when writing with either pencil, the Pilot H-2003 won, because metal front weight made the writing feel effortless, whereas the Pentel P203 is very evenly weighted and I had to push it a little more.

The sleeve has to be long for the 0.3 lead too, both pencils are about the same. The pilot h-2003 retracts though, with some satisfying clicks, and the Pentel P203 doesn’t retract. I’ve got a Chinese 0.3 pencil that retracts – price was $1.

This was just a short blurb on this. The Pilot H-2003 is vintage and has some collector’s value, and the Pentel P203 is an everyday workhorse pencil you can throw away. I have some affiliations with the music world, and this comparison very much reminds me of shopping for violin bows, where subtle refinements in weight make the price jump not hundreds, but thousands of dollars.

Back to Home