Well, this may look like a deep, royal purple, but the color is actually much lighter - and pinker, than as shown here, of course your perception may vary (the color of the ink in the writing sample is just a bit lighter than the actual barrel color). I have used the red, blue, and black G-2s, but this was my first experience with the purple ink G-2.
I thought the pen performed quite well, and the .5 point size dried faster than the .7 and was not as scratchy as the .38 G-2 can be. I liked the color quite a bit, though this will not be in my rotation (actually my girlfriend nabbed this one right off my desk when the writing sample was complete). But I think that anyone that likes different shades of purple and .5 gels will enjoy this pen.
And look! The gel inside the refill doesn't have that weird orange tinting like the black refills do. The clip, grip, and barrel are all otherwise the same, and I'm assuming most, if not all of you, have tried the regular G-2 at some point. I do think that Pilot needs to revamp the barrel a bit, but it might be hard for them to justify changing a classic, especially when it is still one of the most prevalent gel pens on the market.
Looks pretty good, right? I think so. And I'm glad that Pilot took the time to add additional colors to the lineup. As it stands, this is a very solid pen that has no real flaws to speak of.