When you are taking apart some electronics to start a repair a normal screwdriver will work but a battery operated one will make the job go faster. Thanks for Black and Decker for sending in this Gyro Screwdriver for review. I have used battery operated screwdrivers before but nothing with the technology that this one is packing. To operate it all you need to do is squeeze the handle of the screwdriver which will depress the large button at the base. As soon as it is squeezed that is considered the starting position, at this point the bit will not be turned, as you turn it in one direction or the other the bit will follow. The further you twist the screwdriver the faster the bit will be turned. The drill can accept any standard bit, but the unit comes with a flat blade and phillips to get you started. If you are interested to see what is on the inside be sure to checkout the Black and Decker Gyro Screwdriver Teardown.
The drill have a built in LED light that turns on when it is in use, the light also functions as an indication for conditions such as low charge and over heating. There is no charge indication though and it would have been nice to have the LED flash once ever 3 or 4 seconds to indicate that the charge cable is plugged in properly and the unit is charging.
Probably the best news here is the battery, the lithium technology will last on the shelf for months and still be ready for use. I hate grabbing a tool for use just to realize that I need to charge it for many hours before I can use it.
The screwdriver was tested by screwing a drywall screw into plywood, it performed the task but struggled a bit. This shows that the screwdriver has quite a bit of power since this task would normally have been done using a full sized drill. Fastening threaded screws was very easy for the screwdriver and I suspect it could drive these all day long.
The feel of the tool is not bad but could be contoured a bit differently to feel better in my hand. The movement based operation does take some getting used to, for someone who has always used button based tools it doesn’t feel as controllable as the manual style for me. This would probably change with more use though.
For full sized images please see them here.
