rOtring 600 Mechanical Pencil | HB Lead, 0.5 mm | All-Metal Body Propelling Pencil |Pearl White | Non-Slip Knurled Grip & Hexagonal Barrel

UPDATE January 2026: I’m redoing this review to emphasize that this is quite literally the best pencil I have ever written with. I’ve used many mechanical pencils over the years, but the rOtring 600 is in a league of its own. The first thing you notice is the weight; it’s heavy and feels incredibly high-quality in the hand. Despite the weight, it fits into the hand nicely and easily, making long writing or sketching sessions comfortable. It glides across the paper with zero friction. I have no faults to mention regarding its performance. The durability is top-notch—this is a professional tool, and that is exactly what you are paying for. My only advice is to wait for a deal, as it is absolutely worth the investment when the price drops.

A quality product with great balance, weight and feel. Among this mechanical pencil type, I prefer the Pental Graphgear 1000 the most. This is for overall balance, size and grip. The 600 is extremely viable and no reason not to love this pencil.

I'd read quite a few reviews before deciding to buy the rOtring 600. It's a lot more expensive than the pens I usually buy, so price was a factor in my initial hesitation. The pen comes in simple, understated packaging. The small box also contains an instructional leaflet and a single (black) refill. It would be easy to miss the refill as it is taped to the underside of the sleeve holding the pen. The pen itself is an all metal body and looks to have been powder coated, or similar. There's a subtle, but useful, knurling around the barrel where you'd grip the pen while writing. It's extremely comfortable to hold and feels like it would survive whatever abuse you care to throw at it. Rotating the top of the pen releases one of three nibs...black ink, red ink and a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. The ink is smooth to write with and doesn't feel 'scratchy', which is especially noticeable to me as a lefty. The pencil is excellent too. To change refills, you pull the top of the pen, just above the pocket clip and the whole internal barrel can be removed. Each refill slides out of a tube and you simply slide the new one in. The pen takes standard D1 type refills. The pencil has one lead already fitted and two spares inside the tube. There are other things to be aware of with this pen. One is the weight. An all plastic pen will typically weigh around 8g. The rOtring 600 weighs 33g. It is heavy, so if this is an issue for you, it's probably not the best choice. Although there's a mechanical pencil built in, there's no eraser. I half hoped I'd be able to remove the cap to reveal a small eraser, as you can do with most mechanical pencils, but I guess the design didn't allow for that. If you are in the market for a decent quality 3 in 1 pen/pencil, you can't go wrong with this one. Provided you can justify the price.

The everlasting search to find the perfect pencil has found me here. It is not perfect but it is good. The weight is heavier than an average mechanical pencil but not so heavy it becomes tiresome. It is sturdy but has the flaw of an exposed fragile tip. Surely they could develop some kind of protector and not expect people to fork out for the doubley expensive retractable 800 series. The clip can be removed with a little brute force. The grip is excellent, the best I've seen so far. When using the 600, I forget about it and the writing/drawing takes the forefront of concentration- that's why I tried the 600- to move away from repetitive sharpening/lead pointing. Even though this is an old design, it doesn't have any retro appeal to me and is modern in appearance. The selling point that the hexagonal body will prevent the pencil sliding off is somewhat of a stretch, unless the surface is practically flat anyway. There is no rattling unless spare leads are kept in the body; there is no movement or play in the tip, so it's a solid writer/draughter. It is the pencil of the moment for me, but how long its charm will last, I don't know. A solid 4/5

Another great workhorse pen. Great weighty feel to it. The pencil isnt perfect in design but for what you are after in a 3 in 1 pen is perfectly solid. The grip knarling is great. Comes with red, black and pencil with a spare blue cartridge/stick.

I love German Design aesthetic, German Engineering and Rotring pencils. I definitely recommend Rotring (Redring) 600 to everyone. After reading the reviews and watching Rotring design engineers videos; I chose Rotring 600 over Rotring 800 & 800+ The pencil is so solidly built, it makes my hands feel powerful. It produces amazingly neat lines and I would even say it improves my handwriting. The pencil click is seamless, the pencil leads don't break, even with substantial pressure (an issue with 800 & 800+; one of my key reason to choose 600 over 800 & 800+: more in the comparison below) As fellow reviewers have pointed out; the Hexagonal barrel prevents the pencil from rolling off of surfaces easily. As you can judge by now, I am in love with Rotring 600... Comparison of Rotring 600 with Rotring 800 offered by a fellow reviewer on Amazon.com: In general, Rotring essentially offers the best drafting pencils and the Rotring 600 is simply superb. It pains me to have to leave a negative review for Rotring 800. It is simply a poorly designed product that is overpriced. Rotring touts the 800 as their cream of the crop mechanical pencil and it has a nifty twist mechanism, which makes the pencil pocket-friendly by removing the sharp point, which works; however, when you try to write with the pencil you will notice a play in the metal tip, which defeats the purpose of a mechanical drafting pencil: they are supposed to be precise. Having a loose tip defeats the whole purpose of precise writing. The pencil does look quite attractive, however; that is why it gets two stars. It is only good in the pocket not on the paper. For high-quality drafting pencil go for Rotring 600 or even Rotring Rapid Pro, which is also pocket-safe. If you are not worried about the sharp point then buy the legendary Rotring 600.

Great quality

I am really happy with it so far, although it’s much smaller than i previously thought. Insides are mostly plastic, while everything else is metal. Didn’t have any issues with dropping it and braking a tip, you just gotta be careful. Doesn’t shake, etc, makes satisfying click noise when extending a lead. Just feels really industrial and like a real engineering tool, which i think, it is. Clip is removable, although i enjoy using it so it stays on. Oh and also, a rubber is really really tiny, and as i understand, expensive, so just better use a separate rubber. I think that is pretty much everything important here.