Milwaukee M18 vs Dewalt 20V

[Michael Hill]

So my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I want to start anew with my cordless power tools. My current set is a Crapsman set I inherited from my dad who decided they were also crap. I've mostly narrowed it down to the Milwaukee M18 brand and the Dewalt 20V* brand after deciding I don't want to take out a loan and sell my left arm to purchase Fein tools (I'll consider Makita and Ryobi, but not seriously).

Since every team is going to have a drill and probably drivers, I thought I'd ask on here what your thoughts were. I'm impressed with the new Dewalt Flex Voltage system (If you're not familiar, they can either series or parallel 60V* and 20V* packs to work with 60V* or 20V* tools...and apparently to get away with shipping by air). Milwaukee has always been a respected tool among contractors and their M18 Fuel stuff looks pretty decent. However, from what I can tell, for the most part, both lines are more or less the same.

* - Dewalt's marketing team decided 18V rounds up to 20V. Both the M18 and 20Vmax battery packs use the same number 18650 cells.