I bought this drill about five years ago at an inventory close-out sale at Yardbirds. It was my first pro-grade cordless tool purchase. I originally bought a Skil 12V amateur "toy" drill and found that the Skil had terrible battery life and had almost no torque even though it was at 12V(what a joke the Skil was!). I vaguely remember the Skil 12V had around only 180 in-lbs or 190 in-lbs. of torque. That's abyssmal and probably at the end of the pack for a 12V drill. Maybe the current 12V Skils have improved, but I kind of doubt it. Skil and Black and Decker are generally all amateur toy tools, but Makita is pro stuff. So I returned the 12V Skil right away and bought the 9.6V Makita 6203DWAE and have been very happy with it. At 280 in-lbs., this 9.6V Makita drill has about as much torque as any current top-of-the-line 12V drill. By comparison, Makita's 12V version of this drill, the 6213DWAE, has 287 in-lbs. of torque. This 9.6V Makita has way more torque and battery life than the 12V Skil that I returned. Today, the 280 in-lbs. may not seem like that much anymore, but five years ago, it was a lot of torque as I remember it. Even today, 280 in-lbs. is probably still the highest torque of any 9.6V drill that anyone can find. This much torque comes at a price in the form of short battery life. But since I am a non-pro DIYer, who only uses the drill to maintain my mom's rental properties and for doing occasional stuffs around the home, the battery life does not matter at all, as long as I have a second battery as backup and a fast charger.
The large torque, on the other hand, has been very important. I can easily drill 1" or larger holes in wood with a spade bit, although for such large holes, it can only drill a few at a time before the battery dies, but as a DIYer, where I may only need to drill a couple of holes at most, the short battery life is not a concern. I have used it to drive 3" long x 1/4" thick lag bolts into pre-drilled holes in a wood door jamb to install a security steel screen door. In fact, I have yet to come across a situation where it did not have sufficient torque for my DIYer/home/rental property maintenance applications.
For a DIYer who only uses his tools very occasionally, the NiCd batteries in this kit are also generally better than the newer higher capacity NiMH batteries because NiCd can hold a charge for much longer during storage. I could put a fully charged NiCd battery away for a couple of months at a time and take it out and would still have enough battery juice to finish my light duty DIY repair work.
This drill is larger than most 9.6v drills. It in fact has the same shape and about the same size, as well as the same torque, as Makita's 12v model. It is heavier than Makita's other 9.6V drills with an elbow-shaped handle, but also has much higher torque than those. The T-handle on this drill has excellent balance. This drill weighs exactly 4.0 lbs. It has a keyless chuck. It has two speed ranges. Top speed is 1200 rpm.
Lastly, it has a very responsive variable speed trigger switch that allows you to precisely set screws down to a tiny fraction of a turn.
What it comes with:
Drill
Two 2.0 AH NiCd batteries
1-hr fast charger, which only works with NiCD batteries. This charger does not work with NiMH batteries.
Plastic case.
