Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is dewalt's newest version of their compact brushless drill. I have used the dewalt 771, 780, various makitas, and some other drills. This dewalt is easily the best cordless drill I've used. I work in a factory and use lots of drills to drill through steel, stainless steel, and aluminum on a regular basis. The chuck makes anything else I've used feel like a joke. The makita and porter cable chucks are not great. The other dewalts at least did not slip with smaller bits, but the metal 791 chuck is on another level. It's very precise and smooth and grips firmly. The chuck alone warrants the extra cost over the 780. The 780 is only $30 less, which I don't understand, because it's much closer to the 771 than the 791. If you're considering the 780 either save your money and get the 771 which is pretty much as good, or just spend a little more to get the 791 which is a huge step up. The brushless motor is extremely powerful compared to most drills. According to the internet this drill has an output of about 620 in-lbs of torque. In America, dewalt lists their drills based on some arbitrary non standard unit of output. There's probably some old engineer working there that thinks he knows everything and won't use the same measurement of torque that everyone else uses but there you have it, 620 in-lbs based on converted European (newton meter) specs. Anyway, if the drill bit snags you're going to be in for a surprise, at least I was, and I'm not a weak person. The drill whipped right around and if I had a weak wrist it might have hurt a lot. I guess you could say this is a good thing because more torque = more better (right?) but at any rate just be aware that a lot of drills this powerful have an extra handle, whereas this one is meant to be used one handed. It makes me slightly nervous now but I'm just being more careful. Everything else I've used that has a brushed motor, I am strong enough to stop the drill if it snags. I can't comment on the battery life because I haven't used it enough to have cycled the batteries or even run one of them down all the way. Based on the old model and typical brushless drill efficiency it should be good. It makes it harder to run out of battery when you can check the charge level and keep the second battery charged, anyhow, just pay attention. The case seems well made and everything fits well. I might have liked more room to store drill bits (there isn't much extra room, and no designated spot that I can see for storage) but the compact size of the case is useful in its own right. The light is very bright and has a few settings, not much to say there, but it's more useful than most. I can't imagine there is anything else out there right now that's better than this drill as far as a compact. I did a lot of research and the next best drill I found was a rockwell that's also sold here for about as much as the dewalt 780. The rockwell also has a metal chuck and brushless motor, unlike the dewalt 780, making it a better choice in my opinion. Bosch is known to make good drills, however their most recent models of compact brushless drills are reported to have frequent issues with the trigger, and they all have plastic chucks. They are relatively inexpensive though, although the torque ratings on the bosch are quite low (in the 400's in-lb) which is even weaker than the rockwell (530-ish in-lbs) and much less powerful than the dewalt 791 which appears to be the most powerful compact brushless available. That about sums it up, if this drill is in your budget I don't think you can go wrong, if your budget is limited get the 771 because it is half the price and works fine, especially if it's not being used in an industrial setting.