Monami SigmaFlo Liquid markers review

I recently saw a completely new type of whiteboard marker on Amazon. Well, completely new to me. So clearly I had to buy them.

From the Korean stationery and office supplies company Monami comes a set of six pens called "SigmaFlo Liquid" that have some alternative, less common colours.

Writing characteristics

The pens are bullet tipped (2mm) and have a very smooth writing action. Even when writing at an angle, the tip passes smoothly across the whiteboard for an even line.

However, there was some small variation (in this pack at least) of the hardness of the tip and therefore width of the resulting line. The blue and darker brown pens delivered noticably finer lines when writing than the other four colours. This isn't a problem, however, just a curious find.

Ink

The ink coming out of the pens is pleasantly bright and solid, in contrast to the translucent, washed out colours that is common from many whiteboard pens.

The "light green" is a bright lime shade, easily differentiated from a darker green pen. The "pink" is more of a magenta shade, and whilst edging more towards red than most pink whiteboard pens, stills stands out as a different shade if you are also using red. The "orange" is very bright compared to every other orange whiteboard pen, many of which are virtually unreadable from a distance.

The "sky blue" pen is a darker shade than I would expect from the name, much more of a traditional blue. The "brown" pen is not a bright colour, but it is dark and solid and recognisable as brown from a distance. And lastly, there is "light brown", which is more fawn to the brown's oak in colour. They are differentiated, but not enough to make having two shades of the same colour in the pack feel like variety (even though these are pretty standard whiteboard pen colours).

The pens and the pack

The size in the hand is unremarkable, being almost the same as more common whiteboard pens such as those made by Expo and Staedler. As such, they are fine to use for protracted periods.

The tall, straight, and otherwise featureless shape of the lids is unusual and boldly satisfying, and the the tiny embossed "Monami" on them just adds to the pleasure. They are much nicer to look at that any other whiteboard pens I own, but still just as easy to remove when writing.

The lid on the pack can fold back on itself in the same manner as the Staedler packs, which makes for a handy stand if you don't otherwise have somewhere to store your pens to give you easy access.

Overall

If you don't already have whiteboard pens, or only have the standard black, blue, red and green colours and are looking for a little more variety, then absolutely buy these.

If you already have pens with these colours, there's no real reason to buy more, other than the vibrancy of the ink. If you don't know what I mean, then your current pens are just fine, carry on.

At time of writing they are selling for £7 on amazon.co.uk including shipping.

Monami also sell a second pack in the more traditional black, blue, red, green, yellow, and purple colours, also £7 on amazon.co.uk.