I bought this kit earlier this week, so the impressions below are only from a few hours of use. Also, I'm a DIY homeowner, not a contractor or professional. Because some people may be considering Ryobi's similarly-priced cordless P842 18V Nicad kit, I've thrown in a few comparisons to that as well.
By component:
DRILL: It feels a lot like the lower end of DeWalt's range. The motor section is heavy and substantial, though with nowhere near the front-weighted heft of DeWalt's XRP line. The handle is thinner than I expected and the design is closer to compact than full-size. It has a motor brake and a 1/2" metal chuck, two useful professional features. Balance is above-average, though overhead and precision work would benefit from a lighter unit. The torque clutch has 32 settings and isn't excessively difficult to adjust. The drill has a two-mode switch, a variable speed trigger, and generally sounds refined. Both modes are powerful and were capable of driving a 3" boring bit. In torque and RPM, the high-speed mode isn't far off from my Ryobi corded drill from a few years ago.
The only negative so far is in the build tolerances of the chuck. There's about 1/16 turn of chuck play before the gears engage when the trigger is pressed, and my particular drill's chuck is noticeably misaligned. The wobble radius for very small bits can be wider than the bit. This makes it slightly harder to drill in a precise spot, though it has minimal effect once the hole is started. Both my corded and cordless Rybois are perfectly aligned. I've docked a star from the PC kit for this. On exchange, I tried two more of the same drills at Lowes. The first replacement was out of true to the same extent. The second was only slightly off, so I kept it. I also noticed a small power variance among the three.
Relative to the 18V Ryobi drill, the Porter Cable is a small step above. The Ryobi chuck is plastic, it isn't quite as powerful, and the battery on my tester was unusually difficult to dismount. The chuck was perfectly centered, however, the torque clutch is easier to adjust, and the drill handles very well. Other reviewers have noted durability problems with the PC's battery spring, rubber grip, and forward/reverse switch with professional use. Porter Cable has a 3-year warranty on this tool set. Ryobi, only two.
Porter Cable sells a slightly better version of this drill with Lithium batteries. Minor cosmetic differences aside, it has one key advantage: the chuck has a hand-tightened locking system that sounds like a ratchet wrench. This prevents the chuck from loosening before you want it to. DeWalt, Hitachi, and others have equipped a similar system on most of their drills.
FLASHLIGHT: A throwaway, but effective. It weighs almost nothing without the battery, so it'll hold itself up when one is mounted. It has a rubberized push-button on/off switch. The lamp creates a moderately narrow spotlight beam and does not articulate. Rybobi's version does. The bulb is incandescent, so even if the unit could stand being dropped, the bulb would probably break. A wider LED beam would be more useful and would have better battery life and impact resistance.
CIRCULAR SAW: Really decent for a cordless tool. It uses a 6.5" blade as compared to Ryobi's 5.5" and is therefore a larger unit. Build quality is very good. The height and angle adjustments work smoothly with no slop, and the motor has an automatic brake when the throttle isn't activated. The included blade rotates with almost no horizontal movement and leaves a smooth, unsplintered edge with 1" pine, though the wide kerf chews up more wood than I'd like. 2" wood is well within the blade depth of the unit. The limiting factor is the battery. It lasted for a half-hour of random cuts into 1" and 2" pine. The saw's RPM is lower than a corded model. It lacks the power to push through a bind, and so requires more care in how the wood is arranged. Pacing is slower. Even with two batteries, I'd choose a corded saw for anything more strenuous than small projects, though this saw is definitely capable of cutting 2x4s. An aftermarket blade will improve battery life and cutting capacity.
RECIPROCATING SAW: Build quality on par with the other units. Not too large, not too heavy. The Goldilocks of saws, though pint-sized relative to corded models. Cheap blade. Lots of slop in all directions on a dry run, but accuracy improves considerably when the blade begins to bite. I bought it to cut tree limbs outside. I sliced through five in the 1" to 3" range with minimal effort, and I look forward to doing the rest of the yard. The battery is plenty powerful for this saw and lasts for about an hour. Like the drill, the trigger is variable-speed, though there isn't a motor brake or orbital blade movement. The blade mounting system is standardized and fits almost all aftermarket blades. There's a practical limit to the advantages of a longer blade; my 9" pruning blades with giant gnarly teeth don't cut much faster than the stock unit. A chainsaw or one of the heavier corded units would be preferable for branches greater than 6".
BATTERIES: Lighter than the old 19.2V packs. Charges take 40 minutes and cause the battery to noticeably warm. Dismounting is spring-triggered, so changing batteries is very easy. Durability as yet unknown, but if you want nickel-cadmium batteries to last, don't charge them until they've run down.
BAG: Canvas with internal metal frames. It's rectangular when open and triangular when closed, like an old-fashioned purse. There are no internal partitions of any sort, nor any compartments to hold bits and other small pieces. On the plus side, you can just pile your tools in the bag instead of arranging them in plastic. On the minus, you're piling your tools in a bag. It's perhaps a statement of build quality that Porter-Cable believes they can all just bang together, or more likely, the bag was cheaper than a plastic case.
PRICING AND VALUE: Lowes often sells this kit for $129. The drill/saw combo is $90. I believe the reciprocating saw is the second most useful tool here, and therefore find the more expensive kit a better value. Ryboi's kit is similarly priced. Between the two, and given that the Ryobi circular saw isn't as good, I'd choose Porter Cable unless Ryobi's larger selection of 18V accessory tools is a compelling factor. PC's lithium batteries are backwards-compatible with this kit, so upgrading power sources requires only a new battery and charger. I'm not convinced that even a serious DIYer would require a more professional set of tools. PORTER-CABLE PC418C-2 18-Volt NiCd Cordless 4-Piece Combo Kit - Circular Saw - 18v - Porter Cable - Do It Yourself'
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