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The drill is powerful and the hammer action is good for cement and brick fastner drilling. My only gripe is the chuck doesn't bite as hard as my Dewalt. The impact fastner is a beast! Light compact and battery last a really long time. I'm a general contractor and have Dewalt and Milwaukee lithium tools to compare. Makita and Dewalt win this round of lithium tools. Tool quality is excellent. The LED light and belt clip are handy.

This tool has gotten fantastic reviews. Ignore the few bad ones. This tool is heavy duty and can handle my punishment as a contractor. We use it every day. It is not made for computer nerds that can build computers yet complain about the reverse switch.

It's amazing how ignorant some customers can be.
"The tool is too powerful and strips screws".....really?? It is a heavy duty tool with over 1330 in.lbs of torque.
"It is less powerful than my Milwaukee 28Volt".......really? Wanna compare apples to oranges?
"It takes two hands to change the hammer to drill action"......again really??? What is your other hand doing and how hard, how often do you change from hammer to drill??Don't buy the other little compact combo kit (LCT200W) unless you rarely plan to use these tools for more than a few hours at a time and really need to save on weight. Spend a few dollars more, double your battery life, and have the option to add more tools later. Right now, the compact 1.5ah batteries that come with the other kit (LCT200W) only operate three Makita tools (drill, driver, and a light). THIS LXT line with the 3.0 batteries operate 35 tools!
In regards to this kit (LXT211), ergo's are important, but most of us are more concerned with torque and battery life. The driver in this combo kit runs at 450 in.lbs, and the impacter hits at 1330 or so. Plenty of torque for whatever you can throw at these tools, and right there with the competition. The impact driver laughs at 3 and 3.5 inch screws! If you need more torque, you should be using a corded rotary hammer drill or ½" pnuematic impact wrench anyway. For my first use of these tools, we built a large 50'X50' deck around a 35' above-ground pool. We tied the 4X4 piers to the 2X8 deck framing with 5/16th lag bolts. I used the drill to bore seventy-five, 5" and 6.5" deep holes through wet, treated pine with an auger bit, and then bolted the nuts with the impact driver. All done on a single charge. I used a Senco Duraspin collated screw fastening system to drive the 2.5" deck screws (3000 of them), but kept my impact driver on my belt for misfeeds and tight spots. It ran all day. I charged it around lunch the first day just to keep it running efficiently, but the charger took less than ten minutes to top it off. The next two days of decking were done on a single charge. I then used the impact driver to set 3" screws for the handrails and stairs. A single lunch-time charge (or battery swap if I wasn't using the drill) kept me going. These Lith-Ion batteries are brutes! The ergos on both tools are terrific, and the weight to power ratio is phenomenal. I will agree that the forward / reverse switch can be inadvertently bumped while in the reverse position. However, it only happened to me when I was in a very awkward angle. For instance, when I was driving the fulcrum screw on a lever board used to suck in a warped deck board. Drilling below plane forces your hand to grip higher on the tool, and can lead to bumping the switch out of the reverse gear. Not really a big deal though, I only mentioned it because others have made a fuss about it. O yea, and fan noise on the charger, really??? It's no louder than a regular PC fan! Lightweight, powerful, and with lithium legs to keep it running all day! Highly recommended!

I needed a tool like this to cut a square opening in my siding without removing any shingles. I thought it would be a one-time use tool so I did not want to spend a whole lot of money. I figured for the price I could not go wrong even if the tool broke after a few uses. I was not expecting much for the money. Well, it arrived and I was surprised at how robust the tool was. The head is made of cast material - not plastic like the Dremel. It did its job efficiently. It did not come with a case so I bought a plastic case at Lowes for $5.00.

I have now used this tool to replace a window (made cutting the sills an easy job); replace moulding around interior doors; cutting the opening for a porch light; and more projects to come. My thoughts of one-time use have definitely changed.

You pay almost as much for just the replacement blades for the Bosch or Dremel tools. I have already gotten my monies worth. If you are a professional, I cannot attest to the durability of this product. If you are a DIY type individual then this is money well spent for the occasional use. What the heck, if you buy two (one as a back-up) you still end up paying less than a comparable competitor's brand.

I know there are reviews that complain about the noise. For this price I do not care if it sounds like a jet engine. Honestly, I do not find the noise troublesome.OK, my neighbor has a Fein multimaster and it is awesome. We use it all the time and I kind of got the Fein envy a few weeks ago so I decided to try this brand out. I must say that I have used this now for about a month and it is awesome. Although it isn't a Fein, it weighs about the same, feels the same and is about the same level of noise. The heads are interchangeable with the Fein and it is about 1/10th the cost. I can't say whether it will last for twenty years but at 1?10th the price I can afford to buy one every 5 years for the rest of my life and still come in under what the Fein brand name costs. Not sure if this is a good financial decision for you but if you are on a tight budget like I am you would be a fool to pass this one up. I have used it to scrape paint and glue, cut drywall, concrete, metal and wood. The only thing I had any trouble going through was a concrete nail. (For what it is worth, my neighbor with the Fein burned a blade up as well and we ended up just beating the nail out instead) I would definately recommend this one and will be getting several to send out as Christmas gifts this year. My only explanation of the price difference from the Fein is that they must have lost the patent and cheaper models are now available.

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11/01/2012

This tool has gotten fantastic reviews. Ignore the few bad ones.

I know there are reviews that complain about the noise.