Amazon Basics Wood Cased Graphite HB Pencils, presharpened, no smudge eraser tip,Pack of 12

Overview

This pack of twelve wood-cased HB pencils comes presharpened and ready to use, with a break-resistant core, an eraser tip and low dust for clean, smudge-free lines. They suit everyday writing, sketching and shading equally, and buying a dozen keeps the cost per pencil down for something that gets lost and rebought constantly. A 4.7 rating from more than 102,000 reviewers is about as solid as a humble pencil gets. Take a look at the latest price on Amazon.

How it compares on the pens & writing shelf

The typical pens & writing product on our shelf scores 4.6 out of 5, measured across 50 rated products. This one comes in at 4.7. Mid-table, in other words. The stars aren't going to pick a winner here, so it comes down to pack size, cost per unit and the details further down. Weighted for review volume, we place it second on this shelf.

That score rests on 104,209 ratings. The median for this shelf is 8,067. A score built on that many opinions is hard to shift and hard to game, which is why we weight review volume rather than ranking on stars alone.

On money, this sits in the middle third of a shelf running from £1.00 to £14.04, with the midpoint around £3.99. That's where most sensible buys land, neither the cheapest thing on the shelf nor the one you pay a name for.

Worked out from the 50 pens & writing products we track, not from the brand's own claims. How we rank →

Key features, as the manufacturer lists them

Taken from the product listing via Amazon's product API. These are the seller's claims, not our test results.

• Included: 12 graphite HB pencils
• Ideal for sketching and shading
• Break-resistant and easy to sharpen
• Low dust for crisp, clean lines and smudge-free results
• Provides the same level of hardness and break resistant strength as standard wood pencils

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