Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Dewalt). This thread is read-only.
Just wondering what the differences are here. I have two of these saws both DC385. One has XRP badges with silver metal parts, and the other has no badges and the parts that are silver on the one are black and bare on the other. Are there any real quality/performance diffferences between these? just odd that they have the same model but look different.
Check stickers. One might be ‘Type 1’ and the other ‘Type 2’ or something like that.
Check the date stamp too. Probably both are the same internals would be my guess.
One is probably the compact version. The XRP has a longer stroke length, the 4 position blade clamp, and that is the majority of the differences.
Same size, has same blade clamp options, same stroke length, both type 2. The XRP is a 2006 model and the black label is 2011. The 2011 has a much better trigger control for variable speed. It can literally go from a snails pace to full speed very gradually with a simple squeeze of the trigger. The 2006 XRP has much less control it seems to just go from low, medium, to high speed. Its dumb but I like the silver accents of the XRP much better, but LOVE the control speed of the 2011 black label one ( I think this saw has the basic look because it was sold as the bare tool in the box option, and not in a combo kit)
The newer one probably has a smaller (Li-Ion battery) base vs the bigger older (Ni-Cad battery) one.
They change style/color for the one packaged with the Li-Ions batteries.
Kinda like what they did with the DCD950/DCD970 drills, same tool but different color.