Kurutoga Advance Upgrade Model 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil, Gun Metallic Body (M510301P.43), Black

I’ve been using the Uni Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade Model 0.5mm mechanical pencil for a bit now, and it’s easily one of the best pencils I’ve owned. The standout feature is the rotating lead mechanism—it keeps the tip consistently sharp as you write, which makes a noticeable difference in how clean and precise your lines look. It’s especially great for neat handwriting and detailed work. The build quality also feels like a step up from standard mechanical pencils. The metal grip adds a nice bit of weight and balance without being uncomfortable, and it gives you a more controlled, premium feel in hand. The grip itself has just enough texture to keep it from slipping, even during longer writing sessions. Another thing I really appreciate is how well it prevents lead breakage. The tip design and internal mechanism work together to make writing feel smooth and reliable, even if you tend to press a little harder. Overall, this pencil strikes a great balance between smart engineering and everyday usability. Whether you’re taking notes, sketching, or just want a consistently sharp writing experience, this is a solid upgrade from your typical mechanical pencil.

These mechanical pencils are awesome. Every time you lift the pencil up after writing it rotates the lead a little bit so, in theory, you will always have a sharp pencil. Writing in cursive, though, it really doesn’t work any better than a pencil. I find myself rotating it to the sharper side. It was designed for lifting the pencil with every jot and tittle. Other than cursive, it writes great and it’s a good price for a quality mechanical pencil. I tend to go for the 0.5 because it writes sharper. The size is compatible to other mechanical pencils. It does come with a few extra erasers. It’s one of the more comfortable ones out there and I like this style better.

Just received my Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade 0.5 mm mechanical pencil. TL;DR = What an Excellent Pencil! And the W-speed engine makes a big difference. Prior to owning this, my "go to" pencils were: (1) the Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.5mm (limited edition black), (2) the Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.7 mm, and (3) a standard Uni Kuru Toga 0.7mm (black barrel). My standard Uni Kuru Toga *works*, but is a distant 3rd place because of two issues. First, the lead sleeve doesn't retract, leaving it to poke holes in my pockets, digging into me if I move wrongly, and/or accidentally getting broken off on a hard surface. Second, while the Kuru Toga engine *works* (and is awesome), it was designed for writing Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Those use MUCH shorter strokes than the Western (Latin) alphabet, so the lead is turned more gradually than I would like. Enter the Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade. PROS It has the new W-speed engine. (I assume the "W" stands for "Western Scripts.") This rotates the lead roughly TWICE as fast as the standard Kuru Toga engine so that it stays sharper when writing in English. I can confirm this works, and works well. The lead sleeve is retractable. I could wish that it had the niftier mechanism found in the Pentel GraphGear 1000, but it certainly works well enough that I can carry it in a pocket without breaking it or having it stab me. The lead sleeve "rides" up with the lead as you write. This little trick reduces the number of times you have to click to feed the lead, and is a welcome feature. (If you want a true auto-feeding pencil, Uni makes the Kuru Toga "Dive" which advances the lead every time you lift it from the page. It even has a feed speed adjustment!) The color is vivid. Mine is a deep vibrant red and the metal and plastic parts all match without color variation. It is a beautiful, professional looking writing instrument. CONS The Kuru Toga Advance Upgrade is both shorter and lighter than my GraphGear 1000. This may be a "PRO" to you if you prefer a less-weighty pencil, but I would spend an extra few dollars in a heartbeat if they made a heavier, all-metal version. The sleeve requires pressing on a hard surface to make it retract. This is just a MINOR nit! But I prefer how the GraphGear auto-retracts when I squeeze the top of the pocket clip. Coolness Factor? My standard Kuru Toga has the window that shows the engine. When I pull this out in front of any fellow pen/pencil afficionado, they ALWAYS immediately ask about it! Of course, my "Advance Upgrade" pencil looks a WHOLE lot more professional... but I'd certainly buy a version that had the clear window around the engine. Better yet? Sell a version that has swappable lower barrels -- you could then "dress it up" for professional meetings, or "geek it up" when you want the coolness factor. (Are you listening, Uni?) .

This mechanical pencil really impressed me. The design is not only stylish but also delivers exactly what it promises—comfortable to hold, smooth to use, and with a mechanism that feels precise and reliable. Writing with it feels very different from regular pencils; it gives a sense of quality and control. Definitely worth it if you’re looking for functionality combined with great design.

So, to give some context, I got this for writing, and I got it as a curiosity since I absolutely love the original Kurutoga. I discovered the Kurutogas when I was still in Japan a while back. Due to the way Japanese is written, I was looking for the thinnest possible pencil that was still useable comfortably. 0.3mm pencils are not the best choice since the lead is so thin that it has a bad tendency to break, especially if you like using soft lead. 0.5mm became my go to due to that. The Kurutogas let you write with a thinner line than normal 0.5mm pencils, so it was a great solution to get what I was looking for, a nice easy to use pencil that gives you an extra thin line. I recently fell in love with dark graphite in pencils, since it gets close to the darkness of a nice pen, but it's immensely smooth to write with in most situations. The normal Kurutogas do spin the lead, but 2B is basically the limit for how soft you can go and still get a thinner than normal line when writing normally. I wanted to use 4B lead but it wears down too quickly for the normal Kurutoga engines to keep sharp. When I saw the Kurutoga Advance and I knew that would be the answer. I actually really love this pencil, and I don't think I'll ever actively use any other pencil at this point for writing. The build quality is excellent, it is decently weighty, and it's comfortable to use since there is some minor texturing for grip and it's a little thicker than most other pencils. The advanced engine makes it so using 4B lead is now an option for me. You can actually keep a thinner than normal line at almost all times due to the fact that the advanced engine turns twice as fast. It also has the nice feature of a retractable tip as well, so you are less likely to break it when storing it. Basically, if you are looking for a nice mechanical pencil for writing, and you want to use softer lead while being able to have the thinnest lines possible, this is the choice in 0.5mm.

This is the best pencil I have ever used, 7 years and ive only replaced it once. A bit finicky but easily fixable. Writes nice neat lines. Insanely durable, and very comfortable to use. if you struggle to write small things, this is for you.

Amazing little pen the material feels good quality, it has some weight to it, feels good on the hand , it may feel a little slippery as it doesn’t have cushion grip or nothing like that. Surprisingly the eraser does a nice job even with 2B led pencil. The pencil comes with 5 sticks included inside the pen. I like it. I hope I don’t lose it tho.

Good heft and feel and the autorotating lead technology is really good. I highly recommend. There are more expensive mechanical pencils out there but they don't perform better than this one.

Hafif ve ergonomik. Çok severek kullanıyorum. Eşime de aynısından aldım. Tavsiye ederim.

Best deal by amazon sg. Shopee / lazada (singapore) are selling at a higher price which is around 1.5 times more than how much amazon sells. Came in original packaging too 👍 The bottom of the pencil is all made from metal and only the top is made of plastic. The weight distribution of the pencil is all close to the tip which makes for a very comfortable writing expetience. Didnt realise how much i love and needed the line consistency from the kuru toga as i tried switching back to my old fure fure corone and immediately hated the big fat line and having to manually turn the pencil to get a sharp thin line only to be back to the fat ugly line in just a few seconds. All these problem are solved here with this pencil and the metal premium feel of the pencil is also what i didnt know i needed too 😂 Writing with a plastic pencil and a metal pencil makes ALOT of difference.

C etait pour offrir mais cet objet ma l air impec

una delle migliori matite meccaniche mai utilizzata in vita mia. la punta rimane sempre fina, il meccanismo è fluido e offre buone sensazioni quando si scrive. perfetta per prendere appunti o disegnare. è ben bilanciata e rimane leggera alla mano

great pencil, but to fix is a big pain (I had to research how the mechanism works to replace a stuck led that lead me to return once before. Easy to use and works well, but metal slips in the hand a bit (I've got sweaty hands). Designed well, light and feels alright in the hand. maybe not great for long term use due to the metal frame hurting your hand, so not that comfortable