Monday, October 2, 2023

Gerber Armbar Drive Review - First impressions of the driver multi-tool

I have been a fan of multi-tools for a while now and up to this point I have mostly used Victorinox Swiss Army knives. Recently I was in the market for a new multi-tool that would have a good phillips head screw driver and a knife. After doing lots of research I decided to try out the Gerber Armbar Drive.

My first impression was that it was a bit smaller than expected but it is similar in size compared to Victorinox knives like the Super Tinker. The problem though is that the tools don't fill the shape well and because of this, it makes it hard to handle. For example when you open up the screw driver, that part leaves a big hollow space in the handle where it use to be so you don't have much to hold on to. 

I found the tools themselves to be hard to open. Maybe I got spoiled by Vicotorinox, but these tools on the Gerber are really stuck in there and when you open one, it tends to pull out some of the other tools next to it. 

The scissors I don't really like because of the design. When you open it, it is not ready to go, you have to flip one of the sides 180 degrees to get it into place. This extra step might not seem like a lot, but when you just want to get to a tool quick you don't want to have to worry about extra steps just to open it. 

The pry tool I found to be hard to open. They say it functions as a hammer too, but this thing is so light, I don't expect it would work too well at hammering. 

The knife is ok. I like that it is able to lock. In terms of size it is about as big as the handle itself which seems a little too big for the handle. 

Overall I wanted to like this multi-tool and was hoping to use it as my daily carry for screw driver and knife, but after trying it out, I am disappointed and I don't expect to use it much unfortunately.