Ryobi has recently announced a new line of One+ HP compact brushless cordless power tools. Today, we’ll be taking a quick look at the new Ryobi High Performance brushless drill/driver, which looks to be one of their best cordless drills yet.
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The new Ryobi 18V One+ HP compact brushless drill/driver won’t win any awards with respect to speed or power. But, it looks to be a very nicely balanced and well-polished model, and one that takes full advantage of modern cordless power tool tech.
The new Ryobi cordless drill will be available in a kit (PSBDD01K) or as part of a drill and impact driver combo kit (PSBCK01K).
It features:
- Brushless motor
- 1/2″ keyless chuck
- 400 in-lbs max torque
- 0-450/0-1700 RPM
- 24 position clutch
- On-board LED worklight
- Lanyard loop
- 6.4″ length
Ryobi describes the new drill as being heavy duty yet lightweight.
Compared to their brushed motor cordless drill, the new compact brushless drill is 30% more compact and 20% lighter in weight.
The kit comes with a compact charger, carrying case, and (2) 1.5Ah Li-ion batteries.
What’s notable about the new battery is that 1) it features a built-in battery fuel gauge, and 2) it’s smaller than Ryobi’s other compact batteries.
Side by side, the differences between this battery and the older ones are very slight.
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But, if you take a closer look, the new battery appears to have been completely redesigned, at least on the outside. It’s slightly shorter, and with a tapered front, and to me, the new battery feels a lot smaller than comparative measurements would suggest.
I have a lot more time to put in with this and the other Ryobi compact brushless power tools that arrived for testing and review. But at the start, I’m optimistic.
Compared to the older Ryobi brushless cordless drill, shown here, the new model is more compact, but with some tradeoffs. The older model is more powerful (460 vs 400 in-lbs max torque), a little faster (0-500/0-1800 RPM vs. 0-450/0-1700 RPM), and it comes with 2.0Ah batteries instead of the new 1.5Ah with fuel-gauge.
The older model comes with a belt clip, and while the new model has a port that accepts belt hooks and clip accessories, it doesn’t seem to come with one.
The price is the same – $129 for each drill kit.
Here’s a size comparison between the two, where I used the battery connection length as a base for approximate (and hopefully close-enough) scaling. A weight comparison is not yet available.
The new drill is indeed more compact and lighter in weight. That does mean shaving off some performance points, but it could be worth it for the sake of a better user experience.
Price: $129 for the kit, $179 for the combo kit
Buy Now: Drill Kit via Home Depot
Buy Now: Combo Kit via Home Depot
Compare: Older Drill Kit via Home Depot
It will be interesting to see where things go from here.