I'm a union professional carpenter with 10 years of experience, and my range of work is primarily commercial. I used the corded version of this saw for the last couple of years, and it has to be my favorite jobsite saw. After the last job, which required a lot of moving of cut stations and crossing over cords, I began to see a lot of potential for cordless stationary tools like a tablesaw or a chopsaw. So today I got to put the saw through its first test, cutting up panels for cabinet drawer faces and cabinet doors.
I made about 24 cuts with the 6AH battery, and noticed that after about 30% depletion, the saw began to sound like it got a little less power. Checking the battery, it still had plenty of juice. I swapped it for a 9AH battery 3/4 of the way through and noticed it sounded reved up the way it needed to be. The blade was not very impressive for finish work. I noticed that it had more tear out than I'd like. I didn't run with the guard on, but the guard seemed to be an exact match of its older brother, very easy to put on and off (and the splitter is easily adjustable as well). I checked the saw table right out of the box for straightness, and it seems like its a little bit out.. almost 1/16. This probably is just fine for residential and commercial contractor purposes (including finish work), but if you are planning on doing fine wood work with this--I don't think this is the saw for you. The flip down fence has some sharp edges, and I noticed that it was scratching my panels. Those are going to have to get gently filed down a little with an aluminum file. My greatest pet peeve of the saw was the On/OFF switch, which is different than the chorded version. In the chorded version you simply pull up the red lever to turn on, and push down to turn off. Here, it is a button system similar to big stationary saws. There are two ON OFF buttons and the lever is more of a safety cover. The problem is its a little bit of a pain to turn on if you're doing lots of cuts, and the lever can easily turn the saw off just by being dropped on its own to fall down. At first I thought there was some kind of issue with the saw, but you have to gently let the lever down. I prefer the old switch.
Out of the box, there's been some improvements to its bigger brother. The saw is lighter, it has no chords, and the fence extends out to a full 24 inches instead of 23.5 (something that always annoyed me). The holes for mounting the saw to a stand are different, 1/4" instead of 5/16", so if you buy a dewalt table saw stand you may need to go to the store and buy 5 bucks of bolts, nuts and washers (I use stainless for weather.. it rains all the time here).
The battery is the smaller 6AH battery, which isn't worthless, but a 9AH performs significantly longer. The cells are higher quality. Always remember, bigger batteries not only have better electrical capacity, but better electrical efficiency. All tool companies use cheaper cells on small batteries. There seems to be plenty of power for small workloads, but this tool doesn't strike me as nearly as powerful as its bigger brother. I cannot imagine this thing being on all day long and keeping up in a head to head competition. If you are running a jobsite, you need a corded table saw. I see this saw as more of an auxillary saw. Its nice for small, light duty jobs like residential trim or punchlist. The demands for commercial construction seem to favor corded tools for now.
Moving this saw around was really nice. I never realized how much of a chore it is to roll out a 25' chord for a few cuts. Need to move it to a different spot? no problem!
I thought about the saw size on this saw and it definitely doesn't hinder my work. I don't think most people are going to use this kind of saw for cutting anything more than 2" thick material, so don't let the blade size drive you away. How often do you use the full height of a jobsite blade anyway?
So Pros: Cordless (really convenient for moving around from place to place), more fence extension, quiet, light weight. Comes with a fast charger. Fence stores on board. Comes with blade installed ready to go.
Cons: Saw table is not machined flat. Only one guide dado making sleds that ride guides almost impossible. The saw comes with a 6AH battery instead of a 9AH. Bolt holes don't match the bolts for the table saw stand. Fence has some sharp edges that need to be sanded or filed for finish work. power seems a little exaggerated by Dewalt. Really awful switch redesign.
The takeaway: This job is more than adequate for light duty work, odd jobs, homeowners, handymen, punchlist guys, jobs that require moving saws around. For a contractor who needs to cut material all day long at times, this saw is not the tool. Its nice to have, but its designed for a cut here and there.. not ripping up bunks of material. Pick up a 9AH battery or the corded adapter for it.
**85%**