Panasonic cordless drill/saw combo (Rating: 3.00)
Review : I've owned a Panasonic 15.6V cordless drill for a couple of years now; it's a fantastic drill, the best I've seen or used. The Ni-Mh batteries are state-of-the-art; the feel and function of the tool is just about perfect. So I decided to get another along with with the cordless circular saw. The saw is pretty good, kind of rinky-dink as far as rigidity of the saw base, but typical of these tools and it does everything I could want as long as I don't expect it to be a fine finish carpenter's saw. So why don't I rate this kit 5 stars? Well, the blow-molded cases are worthless. If I pay $360 for a pair of good tools, I expect the case to be good too. This combo case is a huge, very inefficient storage unit with little room left over to easily store driver/drill bits, spare saw blades, etc. So minus one star for that. And the saw has a 20mm arbor, which means you are pretty much stuck with buying Panasonic blades for the saw. You can't just go to your local hardware or Big Box store and get the typical sawblade that has a 1/2" arbor. Poor thinking, worth taking off another star. It's too bad, I think. Panasonic definitely has the jump on every other cordless manufacturer as far as battery technology and ergonomics. They just need to work on a couple of details, and they'd be King. Some of these manufacturer's oversights make me wonder just who does any "real-world" testing of this stuff before it reaches the marketplace. It can't be working tradespeople, or maybe Panasonic doesn't care much for the feedback?
Panasonic tops all others (Rating: 5.00)
Review : I managed a national-scope tool store for six years and have been working in construction trade full time for the last three years. The Panasonic drill and saw have proven to be physically tougher, batteries last longer, and have more power than DeWalt, Porter-Cable, and Makita, or any other drill I ever used, sold, or recieved customer feedback on. In our shop, the saw positively humbles our Makita and DeWalt cordless saws for power and battery life ( like 4-5 times the run time - no joke). Our 5 Panasonic 15.6v drills outpower and outlast all the drills we have ever used, including out 18V Makita and 19.2V Porter Cable, while being much lighter. If you try one of these, you will not be dissapointed. Only tip - pick up a few extra blades, they are a bit hard to come by.
Other companies may do a better job marketing, but Panasonic does a better job buiding quality tools that perform better than the others in a hard use setting such as my cabinet shop.
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