I am a little late to answer but here it is. I bought one. I almost did not, but I'm glad I did. First off, I am heavily invested in Milwaukee M18 tools. If it weren't for that, I would have kept walking. When I first read reviews on it, the recurring theme was that it threw chains a lot. I was torn between heeding those warnings and thinking the reviewers were new to chainsaws and did not understand re doing tension after the first times using the saw. I had also read decent reviews on other makes. I had almost decided not to get one when I read that someone had replaced the bar and chain with an Oregon and "fixed" it.
I bought one and decided to first try it unmodified. It threw chains, very often. It sucked. I bought the Oregon kit and it was instantly better. It has become my grab and go saw for trail maintenance. Very little fuss and you are good to go.
The saw cuts well. It will not keep up with my homeowner Stihl Farmboss, but it limbs and bucks well through ash and oak. I am more likely to thermally overload the battery than to bog the motor to a stop (within reason). For felling larger than 9 inch, I go for the gasser. While reading about
Home Depot's return policy, I noticed several reviews mentioning that these saws are battery eaters – I speculate they mean that because of the fast high-amperage draw, and some propensity to draw down "too deeply," it can damage batteries. I can envision this being true because unlike my other Milwaukee tools which give you cues the battery is about to die, this saw gives little warning and the battery is done.
I do like the saw as I said, it is my grab and go saw. It has its place but I don't trust it enough during felling and it is comparatively flimsy if you get into situations where with a more robust saw you just pull it out and rethink.
If I did not have so much already into Milwaukee, I'd look elsewhere. Hope I confused you enough!
