Litheli U4 Drill Review | First 4V Compact Drill in the U.S. – Is It Worth It?

Hi, I'm Mike with House on the Mend. And today we're looking at something a little different. This is the Lightly U4 drill. Now this is a big deal because this is the first time that Lightly has showcased the four volt battery platform with a drill here in the United States. Up until now, if you went on their website, the only thing you would find in America is their vacuum in this battery platform. Now, meanwhile in Asia, they have already had access to this drill. It's been reviewed by fellow YouTubers, but we've never had access to it here in the United States until now. ♪ House on the Mend ♪ Now, if you know me, you know, I love these small compact drill drivers. They're just so versatile around the house. The overwhelming majority of the tasks that you're gonna do with the drill around the house are gonna be these light duty kind of things, hanging pictures, assembling Ikea furniture, small little projects like that. This one has an excellent battery platform, the U4 battery. Not only does it function the drill, but it is chargeable through USB-C. So no cradle that you have to hunt down and put it into. You just charge it in the same way you do most of your other electronic devices. And this little guy can be taken with you and you can charge your phone and other electronic devices through the USB-C port or the USB port. It comes with this nice little case and a assortment of little drill bits here in this handy quick change. It also comes with a few drill bits. So let's see if this little guy delivers. Well, just like the full-size drill, this box was beat up in shipping, but let's see if it did its job. Oh yeah, what a nice little case. So gray, black, and clear case. We get a USB to USB-C cable. We get some bits we'll go over, or some drill bits, and then some regular bits over here. Kind of cool gold color. And then a magnetic bit holder. For these smaller bits here. That's all cool. And then look at this sleek little drill right here. All right, let's pull out the battery as well. Kind of nice case, you know, coming off the hinge there, but that's all right. Let's take a look. Okay, pretty sleek, very lightweight. We're going to get a weight on it in a minute. So this sticker right here says that the screw represents low speed, and the drill bit represents high speed. Interesting. All right, here's our battery, a four-volt battery. That's not one that I've seen before. So some cool things about this U4 battery. Number one, you charge it with USB-C, and then with this cable here, you can plug into it and you can use it to charge other devices if you like. Very cool. I would imagine the output has to be kicked up to the standard five volts. And I'll bet you in this tiny little writing here, it says just that. Now I do see a button right here. Let's hit that. That's going to be our battery life indicator. Let's pop it in the drill here. You would think it would go like this, like a magazine to a handgun, but no, it's square side forward. And there we go. Don't see a way for going backwards. Intuitively, do we have to push this? Yeah, there we go. All right, so it's very flush, but this button is green for forward, red for reverse. Cool, I like that it's tucked away. You know, one of the complaints I had about this Reindeer tools drill was this big old button, when you grab it, immediately kicks it into the safe mode, the lock mode, or all the way into reverse. So much so that whenever I use it, I have to put tape on the side here to keep it in drive mode, and then force the tape out when I want it to reverse, as you see there. But you don't have to do that with this guy. Now, one thing I notice that is the same complaint I had with the full-size drill is that there is no bit storage anywhere. So one bit and go do your work. Whereas this little guy here from Reindeer tools, this Milwaukee, they both have bit storage. Couple other things to point out. This is a 3 1⁄8 inch chuck. So a maximum of 3 1⁄8 of an inch, or 10 millimeters right in there. And this chuck is plastic. So this is definitely gonna be meant for light duty use, but that's all right. I have tons of uses for a light duty drill, and we'll test and see just how much power it has. Also, if you look at this closeup picture from inside the battery well, you can see that it has a speed of zero to 300 RPM. Also, if you're interested, if you lift up this tray in the secret little compartment, you will find the manual. All right, here is our USB-C connector. Let's plug that in on the top of the battery. And I immediately see these lights go red here, and they're just very slowly blinking. All right, after 43 minutes, the battery is fully charged. It is a solid green now. Now, though I've been very pleased with the power this drill has, it's not meant to replace your heavy-duty jobsite drill. This is a precision instrument. So think electrical work. Now, before we test it, let's turn on the breaker. Yes, two yellow means we did a good job. Same with that one, awesome. Light-duty, fascinating. There you go, keep going. Widen the holes. Furniture assembly, everyday DIY tasks, and cabinet installs. This is the kind of drill you grab 80% of the time when you don't need brute force. Now, I did find its limit, and here's that footage. All right, when it comes to pocket hole joinery, I quickly found the limit of this drill. So in high speed, it cut out. Depending on the thickness of the wood, it cuts out in some point along the way. So instead, you have to go to the low speed. But as you can see, that completely slows down your productivity. So you're better off going with the full-size likely here. And even this one isn't the fastest RPM, but as I'll show you here, it's a whole lot better than that at high speed. Now, the cool thing about these smaller battery platforms is you're not just locked into real heavy torque, kind of heavy-duty tools. You can get into these lighter types of tools that don't need as much power or torque, and then you can go out from there and get into a really wide variety. This is a perfect example, Ryobi's TEC4 platform. So this is another four-volt battery platform. This battery works with all of these different tools. So it goes in like this, you press in this little cap, you screw it into place, pretty cumbersome, but then you have a very small light-duty drill. And that same battery can go into this inspection scope, can go into this laser thermal scope that can tell you the temperature of anything. And then you have this multimeter. All these tools work great. So why was this platform really not that successful? Meaning you can't buy these things anymore and they haven't really expanded on it. And that's because like it or not, your platform usually starts with a drill and you announce your presence as a tool company, especially a power tool company, with a drill. If you don't have a drill, then you're like K-wheats. You're like laser levelers and you're multimeters. You're not really a power tool company. So the problem with this platform and why you don't see it anymore is because this tool, their drill, basically the flagship of their platform is laughably weak. Just with finger pressure, I can make this thing almost not functional. And so people shied away from it, laughed it off, didn't take it serious because the drill wasn't strong. That is not the case here. This drill is a lot stronger and more capable than this one, though it is still light-duty. Now let's go over the pros and cons. First, the pros. It is very lightweight, compact. It is incredibly strong compared to the Ryobi 4-volt drills that I've owned in the past that are just laughably weak. The quick response time on the trigger is very useful. So I've had other drills, I have a Milwaukee one in mind where it has a really slow startup period. That's probably great for the longevity of the motor, but it makes for really precise little tightening of, say, Ikea furniture with that kind of particle board in the back. Really nice that you're not stripping out those screws. The battery life was fantastic. In fact, every bit of the testing I've done over the last few weeks that you saw the footage of has been on the first and only charge that I've done. I love that you can charge the battery with just USB-C, not using a cradle, even though I've only had to do it once. Next, the cons, and there are a few. First, this chuck is plastic. Now, for a light-duty drill, that's really not a big deal until you drop it, and then you can break the chuck, and also it can be bent, and so the bit wobbles after a fall. Ask me how I know. Next, there's no bit storage. There's nowhere on the drill to put a bit, and so you can switch back and forth. That is a very handy feature that I usually like to see. They've tried to make up for it with this little quick-change accessory here. The only problem is the magnet inside is very weak, and oftentimes I was finding as I was putting a screw in and a little piece of furniture, the bit would stay with the screw as I pulled away. I don't know why, but it happened a lot. So I wish they would put a magnet on the back that you could pop things on and off of that. That makes it a lot easier. I might even hot glue a little rare-earth magnet to the back. The next thing is there's no clip anywhere on the drill, so you have to put it in a holster or in your pocket, and because this trigger cannot be locked, you have this electronic reverse and forward. There's no center section to lock it out. You run the risk of activating that trigger when you put it into a pocket or when you put it into a holster, so you're left kind of carrying it around or just not having a long bit that can roll up and tear your pants and scratch your leg. Ask me how I know about that from a previous mishap, not with this drill. The next thing would be that there is a very limited battery platform. In fact, right now on the United States website, you won't see anything for this battery platform, but I hope that this drill is popular and that maybe it will inspire them to make a lot more items in this kind of smaller platform because this battery is very powerful, so hopefully, likely, you will have some success and bring us some more tools. Now, if you found this video helpful, will you please give it a thumbs up? It's really helpful to the channel, and also, please consider subscribing. I work really hard to put out good quality tool reviews. I have a whole playlist on tool reviews and then also playlists on other bits of DIY repairs and making cabinets and all that sort of thing that I think you would enjoy. I'm gonna leave a link to Lightly's website so you can keep a lookout for when this tool will be available. They did not supply me with the timeframe, and I just looked before shooting this part of the video, and it's still not on there, but it is a great video that you can go through. They have a ton of stuff with their U20 platform, so their 20-volt platform. They're all fantastic tools. Until next time, thank you for watching. Aw.