Lamy2000 black 4-colors - multicoloured ballpoint pen (black, blue, red, green) - with a displayed automatic colour selection - incl M 21 ballpoint refills in black, blue, red & green

This is a beautiful 4 colour pen. It has red, green, blue and black refills. The refills are the ISO 12757 so they are small. Do not expect to get the same longevity from you blue/black refill when compared to a standard blue/black ballpoint. Personally I use this in conjunction with the Lamy 2000 fountain pen (a beautiful writer). As a result, I use this pen for annotation or for short jots. If you colour code notes at meetings, then this is a very professional looking pen to have with you. There are cheaper options (many in the Lamy range) and some include a mechanical pencil. However, I do recommend this as a good looking, professional and practical writer.

Very impressed by the LAMY 2000 pencil I next bought the matching fountain pen, also excellent, and decided to complete the set with the multi pen. Like the others, it is exquisitely made. The engineering is so precise that you can't even see or feel the join in the barrel until you learn where it is.The selected refill is held very precisely so there is no detectable movement - just perfect. Like the pencil and fountain pen, it fits very comfortably in the hand and feels so 'right' A pleasure to hold and use, it is not a toy or gimmicky, it is a precise and very practical instrument.Although the standard LAMY refills are pretty good, you can of course change them for any 'D1' alternatives. I now use an ultra fine Hi-tec gel black which allows very precise detailing and extremely small writing if you need it. A very worthwhile change for me and more pleasant than a standard ball point. I have also changed the blue to a Tombow BR-VMP. It is a pressurised 'space pen' refill which allows upside down use and the ability to write on wet or greasy paper. The Tombow writes no better than the standard refill but its nice to know you can do extreme things with it if you need to. Finally I have changed the green, which I never use, to a LAMY marker refill. This is florescent orange and acts reasonably well as a highlighter; far more useful to me than green. There are of course plenty of other alternatives if you want to experiment. I have heard that the Schmidt D1 refills are a bit special but I have not tried them.One word of warning!! When I first started changing refills I got in a bit of a mess because I was holding the pen horizontally. If you do that it allows the floating ball to move whilst changing and it jams the mechanism. You need to hold the pen vertically with the refills pointing upwards! To cure the jam, just unscrew the clip retainer and pull the button up. The clip may well fall out, as it is only held in place when the end is screwed on, so don't lose it!With that one warning, I have no hesitation in giving it 5 stars. It is difficult to see how it could be improved.

Love the ink flow and ease of colour changing etc - but Lamy are hardly going to win style prizes. It looks a lot cheaper than it is

The Lamy 2000 Multipen is my pen of choice for using colour on purpose. Those familiar with mind mapping or even "Six Thinking Hats" as thinking disciplines, will realise just how powerful it is to use colour deliberately. For me, red is my colour for action and for purpose. It can be used to capture the output from the question, "Why are we having this meeting?" At the end of the meeting, I'll use red to capture agreed actions and timescales. Black is my choice for my inner analyst (the Vulcan within us all)... I use this colour to capture the data for a meeting or a project - with no emotional contamination. Green is my colour for balance, for ecology, and for consequences... so I would use the green ink to capture ideas on what the consequences of a plan might be. Blue is my colour for blue-sky thinking - my options, my alternatives, my possibilities. Whilst these colours don't quite match Edward de Bono's choices for "Six Thinking Hats", I find the discipline of using only four colours in one pen a great way to guarantee that I take a psychologically and cognitively balanced approach to all my thinking projects. It's all too easy to just be creative, or just be sensible. Using this excellently engineered pen to direct your thinking will really save you time... and potentially money! Given that fact, I think it's well worth the investment. If you want to explore thinking on purpose, I recommend de Bono. Six Thinking Hats

It's relatively pricey. Yet it's a classical design and possibly one of few pens that incorporate multicolours in one seamless design.Easy to find refills and writes beautifully.The mechanism to choose different colours is simple. Just face the colour of you want, upwards.Mechanism feels slightly "rough", but it soothes out over time.

Love the pen and the mechanism for changing colour. Some instructions would have helped - I had to google how to change colour!Unfortunately the ink cartridges seem to be poor quality. There isn't immediate flow so I lose the first half of a letter each time I start writing anew. I guess I can purchase different ink refills when these run out.

After six months of hardly any use, I got this pen out to use, only to find a long crack in the plastic body. What a waste of money.

It has the Lamy quality and design and a very ingenious way to change colours that works flawlessly and is very fast, using gravity. You rotate the pen towards the colour you want. I'm impressed. I just wished Lamy offered it in brushed stainless steel like for the regular ballpoint.