DeWalt Impact Driver Comparison: DCF845 XR vs DCF840 vs DCF887

Introduction

DeWalt has released plenty of new impact drivers over the years, including the DCF840 and the DCF850, but none of them carried the XR designation that made the DCF887 such a fixture on job sites. The DCF845 changes that. It is the newest XR impact driver, and the obvious question is whether it is a genuine evolution or simply a re-badged DCF840 with a couple of extra speed settings.

We put all three head to head to find out where each one makes sense.

The New Contender: DeWalt DCF845 XR

On paper, the DCF845 is supposed to be slightly more powerful than the DCF840, offering a few more IPM, a few more RPM, and more torque. In hand, the difference is visible: side by side, the DCF845 motor housing is noticeably larger. Where the DCF840 measures about 1.98 inches across, the DCF845 comes in at just over 2.11 inches.

Bigger housing usually means a bigger motor, and the gear housing and hammer-and-anvil mechanism on the DCF845 also look substantially more robust. The tool ships with a belt clip and an instruction manual, and it appears designed to take advantage of the pouch lithium cells inside DeWalt’s PowerStack batteries.

The Familiar Workhorse: DeWalt DCF840

The DCF840 remains the lighter and slightly more compact option, weighing 2 pounds 9.8 ounces with a PowerStack battery attached. Its motor housing is narrower, which matters if you spend long days with the tool in hand and every ounce counts.

For buyers who drive large volumes of smaller fasteners and value a compact, light tool with just enough power, the DCF840 is still a very sensible pick.

The Long-Serving Legend: DeWalt DCF887

The DCF887 is the XR impact driver many professionals have run for years. It has an established reputation, though it is also the older design: a long-used DCF887 unit in our comparison developed a trigger stall issue over time. It predates the newer technologies DeWalt has built into the 840 and 845, and it has never had a direct XR replacement until now.

What Sets the DCF845 Apart

The headline feature is the three-speed switch, but the behavior on speed one is the real surprise. Driving 1-5/8-inch drywall screws on speed one produced a repeatable pattern: an initial spin, a brief pause, and then a precise finish that left the fastener perfectly flush, every single time. It behaves almost like a dedicated tightening mode, as if the tool assesses the required RPM and torque for each fastener before driving it home.

That level of software sophistication suggests there is far more technology inside this impact driver than the spec sheet admits, and it explains why the XR badge is back.

Bit retention is handled by a single ball bearing placed in the corner of the collet rather than the flat, and the quick-insert chuck makes bit swaps fast and fussy-free.

Driving Performance Under Load

On speed two the DCF845 is seriously powerful, which is where many DeWalt users say they live for most fasteners. Three-inch drywall screws drive in with ease, and larger wood fasteners are handled confidently.

The biggest challenge we threw at it was quarter-inch lag fasteners five inches long. Speed one predictably achieved little, and speed two got most of the way before needing more, but speed three delivered the difference and finished the job. The tool feels good in the hand, stays compact and light for its class, and the power is there when you demand it.

Weight and Everyday Handling

With a PowerStack battery attached, the DCF845 weighs 2 pounds 11.4 ounces against 2 pounds 9.8 ounces for the DCF840. Both are tremendously compact, but the DCF845 carries about an extra ounce and a half in exchange for its additional power and features.

For anyone on a tool eight to twelve hours a day, day after day, that trade-off is worth asking about. In a direct side-by-side driving test, however, the two tools produced almost exactly the same result on the same fastener, so the real question is whether you need the extra speed settings and the tightening-style behavior of the DCF845 at all.

Buying Advice

If you want the most capable version of this platform, with three speeds, the tightening-style mode on speed one, and a more robust drive mechanism ready for PowerStack batteries, the DCF845 is the one to get. If you drive mostly smaller fasteners and want the lightest, most compact option, the DCF840 still makes a lot of sense and remains a strong value. The DCF887 only really makes sense if you find it at a meaningful discount and accept that it is the older platform.

Conclusion

The DCF845 XR is not just a re-badged DCF840. It has a larger motor housing, a more robust gear and hammer mechanism, and genuinely new software behavior that makes everyday fastening more precise. Whether that extra capability is worth the slight weight penalty depends on how you work, but the XR line clearly has a proper successor again.