Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the first Makita tool that I have ever been truly dissatisfied with. Prior to purchase I had read many different reviews on it, and unfortunately, the reviews that had the best information in them have turned out to have been the bad reviews that it received. After the tool was delivered to me I ran a test on it using 1 1/4" brads on both softwood and hardwood. I made certain that the depth setting was on the deepest possible before starting and then began on a piece of doug fir. On this piece of soft wood the tool worked as advertised setting every nail at full depth, but when I tried the nailer on a piece of white oak, the results were not so good. In fact, the tool was anything but consistent. The first five nails seemed to set approximately flush with the surface of the material and then it started to set the brads in a very inconsistent manner, sometimes setting them flush, but most times leaving the brads proud by as much as 3/16 of an inch. The length of brad used is well within the manufacturers specs for operation and the tool failed to deliver. At the same time I ran this test on the Makita, I also ran an older Dewalt cordless brad nailer using the exact same nails. The Dewalt set every nail, and while it did not set the nail heads as deep into the hardwood as it did the softwood, it did set them consistently to the same depth. I cannot recommend the XBN01z for anyone who would want it for production purposes. It simply does not perform well enough in the variety of materials a professional might run into on a daily basis to make it worth any consideration. Performance aside, there are a couple of other issues that I feel I should mention. First, the balance of the tool in operation is unusual. It is very bottom heavy and holding to tool horizontally for any length of time would tire one out much sooner than if you were using a different tool. Much like a pneumatic tool with a long hose attached to it. Secondly, the continuous operation mode does not operate like it's contemporaries. It operates at about the same speed as the single nail setting and does not offer enough of a speed increase to make it worth having as an option. In other words, when activated, it still requires that the tool cycle up before firing the nail when you apply pressure to the tip. The design of the Dewalt tool, in comparison, allows a rapid bump fire when set to continuous mode. Why a two star rating instead of one? The tool is made of good quality materials and does have some minor features going for it. It is just that they are not worth mentioning when compared to it's failure to operate on a consistent basis on what I consider to be standard construction trim materials.