Bosch’s 12V Max cordless screwdriver is very good at driving screws to repeatable depths.
Do you need it? No.
Should you consider it? Sure.
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Impact drivers are great for driving in longer fasteners. But a traditional drill with adjustable torque clutch still can’t be beat for lighter and repeatable fastening tasks.
Bosch’s 12V Max cordless screwdriver – their “Pocket Driver” – is like a cordless drill, but with a quick-change 1/4″ hex chuck. It’s a great complement to any cordless drill or impact driver.
Sale Price: $80.10 for the 2-battery kit
This Bosch 12V cordless screwdriver and impact driver is also worth considering. It’s similar to the Pocket Driver kit, but also gives you an impact driver for just $9 more.
Sale Price: $89 for the 2-battery kit
The brushed motor Pocket Driver is a bit long in the tooth, but perfectly functional. If you want a more compact tool with greater power efficiency, you’ll want to step up to this brushless model.
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You also get higher capacity batteries; this kit comes with 2Ah batteries, while it looks like the brushed motor kits come with 1.5Ah batteries.
Sale Price: $109 for the 2-battery kit
The Bosch 12V Max brushless FlexiClick tool is similar to the Pocket Driver, but with a modular design where you can swap out the different tool heads.
At the least, it’s a cordless drill with the standard 3-jaw chuck, or cordless screwdriver with the quick-change chuck attachment. The offset and right angle heads will also help you out when working in tight spaces.
This kit comes with the FlexiClick set, plus a Starlock-equipped brushless oscillating multi-tool.
Sale Price: $149 for the kit
These aren’t the most powerful cordless screwdrivers on the market, but they’re good.
Every year I check for cordless screwdriver deals, as it’s a hugely underrated category. There are too few deals this year, but luckily Bosch came through again.
If you can only buy one cordless driving tool, make it an 18V drill. If you can have two, make it an impact driver if you mainly work with longer or larger screws, or one of these cordless Pocket Drivers – or similar – if you work with smaller fasteners and wood screws.
Steve L
I have had the $89 2 Tools w battery kit (PS21 and PS41) for a long time. I think they are still the smallest lightest cordless drill & driver you can buy. Good solid tools which get used a lot. I have this kit and the Dewalt 996/887 kit for high torque. That covers everything for me.
MoogleMan3
I’d skip the ps21 alone and go for the ps21/41 kit for the extra $9. Sell off the bits not needed.
I used to have the newer brushless model and loved how it handled and it had good enough torque, but on of the two I had, both had a really nasty yellow light. Not a “warm” light, but literally it looks like it was pee yellow. I’m not sure if recent production runs fixed that, but it was really bad.
Nathan
The flex click setup buy itself for 70 dollars would be a hell of a sale kit.
If I didn’t already have the DeWalt driver and an omt. I’d buy that double kit right now. And I don’t actually like starlock.
LarryB
The single driver has the 2ah batteries and I suspect the ps21/ps41 kit does too but I can’t confirm on Amazon. I’ve had the drill/driver kit for years and it was my go to set until I got the multi-head flex click. These are great tools.
gregs
i just bought the two driver kit and it did come with 2Ah batteries.
Geinsbelt
Unrelated:
I keep seeing ads from Lowe’s saying they’re selling SK X-frame wrenches…
Stuart
Yes – https://toolguyd.com/sk-tools-lowes-stores-2023/
Steven+B
I don’t like Bosch all that much, but the driver is definitely an underrated tool.
My DeWalt 12v driver is one of my most used tools. It works great for furniture as well as woodworking, even most heavy-duty tasks.
It can’t drive 3/8″ lag bolts, but nearly anything short of that, even self-tapping into undrilled wood, it handles just fine. The torque control is huge and has saved a few projects for me.
One of the best features is that it’s a lot lighter and more compact than an impact driver, so you can get it into more places and it’s a lot more accurate because your hand will shake less, especially when on a ladder driving overhead.
Pretty much anything you drive by hand, can be driven more accurately (unless you can keep your hand perfectly perpendicular while turning a screwdriver, which I’ve never been able to) with one of these.
fred
Amazon seems to have several other Bosch items listed as special deals:
This 12V bare tool sander looks like a good price at $69:
https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-GEX12V-5N-Brushless-Random-Sander/dp/B09FYMG5MR
Don+Julio
A bit of a tangent:
I was chatting with a Bosch rep the other day by a 12v display. He said that newer Dremel tools could accept the Bosch 12v batteries, straight up. Anyone familiar with this?
I’ve seen video of Bosch 12v batteries working with
3D printed adapters in a Dremel, but not right out of the box.
Frank D
I will look up the dremel I bought tomorrow, but yes, there was at least one that came out maybe 1-2 years ago, perhaps more now.
Stuart
I was only able to test this with the 20V Max tool, and found that only the Bosch 18650-based compact batteries would work with the Dremel tool.
AC
This is my most used tool. I’ve yet to find anything else with the low speed trigger control the Bosch has. It can run much slower than Milwaukee and is great for delicate work and electrical. The clutch is perfect.
What may surprise many is I prefer the brushed motor to the brushless version. The start up torque delivery is much smoother.
In terms of longevity, mine’s been going for 10 years of so without issue. Power is surprising and I’m not afraid to over work it.
Ken
I use my older Bosch brushless PS22 pocket driver constantly. One of the great features of the Bosch drivers is that the lowest RPM that the variable trigger outputs is truly slow. This allows you to carefully advance very small fasteners. That feature, along with the great clutch and minuscule size/weight, means that I very rarely use an actual screwdriver.
Mitchell Lynn Bonnett
I have two tool drawers of Bosch 12V tools, with and without brushes. Their battery chargers are in the top of the cabinet, usually with 4-5 charging at a time.
They are usually my first choice for tasks – exceptions being tasks requiring huge amounts of corded power like drilling through 21 inches of rebar reinforced concrete or 6×6 hardwood posts (tasks led to Milwaukee professional tools – several hundred bucks each – that I researched on this site before purchase.
If I break one of the Bosch 12V tools it is not as large a loss as an M18 nor am I as concerned if a neighbor or relative does not return one, or my wife leaves one of “her” Bosch 12-volt tools (usually a driver) in a drawer, forgets about it, and then “acquires” another one of mine – claiming it was hers to begin with until I find hers. So, in a sense, Bosch inadvertently promotes marital bliss.
My only issues with the line are (1) the utter worthlessness of the auto vacuum that I bought on a whim to “complete” the collection (worst battery powered vacuum I have seen in over 50 years or work) and (2) that I have a growing collection of dead batteries that won’t charge (three out of perhaps two dozen batteries). Since they may be very old (well over a decade), I’m not that concerned.
Well done Bosch.