I just bought this trimmer to replace my Ryobi ONE+ hedge trimmer, which snapped at the handle recently during ordinary use. To be clear, my Ryobi tools have been good to me, and remain great "bang for the buck," in my opinion, and I expecially applaud Ryobi for making its lithium ion kit backward-compatible with its older nicad tools. I have a nice complement of Ryobi stuff, and for my usually light suburban needs, they've been plenty powerful and reliable.However, I've had a little trouble with some of my Ryobi tools under hard use. I know the handle on the trimmer can be repaired, but the unit seemed tired, and I have also killed my pre-ONE+ Ryobi reciprocating saw through admittedly brutal use trimming a lot of bamboo I have growing on the property (hand grip fell to pieces; blade mount consistently jams). I quickly threw the chain on the woefully underpowered Ryobi chainsaw I have in my one serious attempt to use it. On top of that, a few of my ONE+ batteries and a couple of chargers failed after a couple of years. It seemed like the time to consider an upgrade.So I have decided to look into some higher quality pieces for specific uses. I love my smaller 12 V Bosch tools, which seem better made than Ryobi, and frankly may outperform them, but for the few things where I need something more powerful, I'm hoping DeWalt will fill the bill. Their reputation (and pricing) is legendary, and the new Flexvolt line seems like a good idea (high power tools use batteries that will fit lower power tools). So I decided to dip a toe in with the 20 V Max Hedge Trimmer. The monster 40 V trimmer looked like more weight and power than I need for my azalea hedge, and Amazon had as good a price as I saw anywhere. It came last Tuesday.It's a good-looking tool. Heavier than the Ryobi, but well-balanced. The trigger safety, which flips forward from the main trigger and then stays out of the way, seemed a bit fussier at first than the Ryobi's separate side button, but once you get the hang of it, it's more elegant (one button vs. two) and a little easier for one-handing it across the big hedge (you don't need to concentrate on keeping your thumb on another button). It's actually a pretty slick approach. The tolerances on the switch and overall feel are extremely high quality.The 5 amp-hour battery that shipped with the DeWalt trimmer is smaller and lighter than the ONE+ 4 amp-hour batteries I have, which I like. The charger is small and light as well, and apparently can be hung. I like the simple post connection on the Ryobi batteries -- easier to "slap it in," both the tools and charger, but the sliding connection on the DeWalt again feels more precise. And the battery capacity is tremendous. I will try to attach a photo showing the ONE+ 4 amp-hour battery, the DeWalt 5 amp-hour, and the battery that came with the Ryobi trimmer, which is light, but has quite a short run time. The DeWalt battery is much more compact front-to-back, and thinner and lighter than the "big" Ryobi battery. These are critical considerations for lithium-ion tools.The trimmer is a pleasure to use. It whizzed through the thickest bits of my hedges without hesitation. It's light enough to one-hand a bit to stretch over the deep areas. While I was out there, I tried using it to thin out some long-neglected border grass, which it also did easily, and ended up using it to lop off of a bunch of thin-but-tough branches on a dangerously spiky palm by our front walk. I'd say it was probably 45 minutes to an hour's work, on and off. I did everything I could think of, more thoroughly than I ever attempted with the Ryobi, and had two of three "fuel" bars showing on the Dewalt battery when I was done. I know for a fact I would have needed to change any of the Ryobi batteries I have, and the small one that shipped with the trimmer would have been dead in the first 20 minutes. It did get heavy after a while (glad I didn't opt for the heavier Dewalt) but again, I really went to town to put the trimmer through its paces.I really couldn't be more pleased. I highly recommend this trimmer to anyone with typical or even largish hedge trimming needs. While I can imagine a contractor or someone with acreage to care for might want the more powerful version, you'd really need to be getting into some tough or extremely lengthy trim jobs to exceed the capacity of this tool.Having tested the Dewalt waters, now I will consider what other tools I may want from the Dewalt line. I just had to replace the carburetor on my trusty Stihl gas-powered string trimmer, and I'm thinking the 60 V Dewalt might be a good way to get out of doing that again.Five easy stars for a top-notch machine.