Worx wu533 cordless circular saw

I wouldn't say I'm much of a builder, but I do believe you can never have too many tools, so I ordered something I didn't have yet: a circular saw. And since I prefer cordless tools, I went for a cordless saw.
As usual, I'll take a look at it, do a little disassembly and testing, and share my conclusions.

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I'll answer the obvious question right away: why this particular saw?
1. I wanted a compact circular saw.
2. I was interested in one-handed models, although I initially looked at saws with a different design.
3. Cordless because it's convenient, though that's a personal preference.
4. WU533 rather than WU535 because I figured the smaller blade would be enough.
5. Worx because I already have their rotary hammer, and now I'll have an extra battery for it too.

The saw cost $129, including shipping to the forwarding service. Shipping from there cost about another $35 (the parcel weighed around 4.2–4.5 kg). For safety, I also had to ask them to take photos. Special thanks to Alexander, who helped me buy it and kept an eye on the whole process.

The same saw is available on AliExpress, but the package there is less attractive and costs $195.


The product page actually has lots of options, and the deal that would have suited me much better was the one in this review, but with two batteries. Unfortunately, the import duty would have been considerably higher. Still, the chance to buy a genuine battery for just $10 (not including shipping) was very tempting.

Anyway, I placed the order as planned and waited a long, long time. I chose the cheapest shipping option, and there was also a delay while the forwarding service double-checked the contents. Eventually, though, I got a notification and picked up a fairly large box from the post office.

There isn't really any extra packaging: they just wrapped the original box in plastic film, but everything looked neat.
It's nice that the manufacturer is clearly targeting a broad market: even the product I bought on Taobao has Russian text on it.


The bottom has details about the package options, specifications, and various other bits and pieces.


The saw comes with a bag. A plastic case would have been more convenient, at least in my opinion, but the bag is perfectly decent too.
There's a cardboard insert inside. I was going to throw it away at first, then realized it also helps when carrying the bag.


The saw comes with various extras. Some are standard, while others are supposedly gifts, so the full package looks like this:
1. Saw
2. Battery
3. Charger
4. Bag
5. Shoulder strap for the bag
6. Saw blade
7. 3 extra blades
8. Guide rail
9. Tape measure
10. Saw manual
11. Charger manual.

I think that's a pretty good package.


1, 2. Manuals for the saw and charger. By the way, I learned from the manual that 8 Ah batteries are available, but it's all in Chinese.
3. The tape measure is clearly one of the cheapest ones, but the guide rail is quite useful. Too bad there's only one, though you can buy a second one separately if you want.
4. A shoulder strap for carrying the bag. I don't really need it; I doubt I'll be taking the bag anywhere.


As promised, there are four blades: one standard blade and three extras. They're 120 mm in diameter, about the size of a CD.
I didn't expect the standard blade to be a Worx, while the “gift” blades were from another manufacturer. It's also interesting that the gift blades are 125 mm in diameter, and their teeth point the other way when viewed from the front.
All the blades are the same thickness, 1.5 mm, and have 24 teeth with carbide tips.


The charger is nothing unusual; it's exactly the same one that came with the rotary hammer. To get inside, you have to remove the hex screws with a center pin. I find it convenient to do that with an ordinary small flathead screwdriver :)


The charger is quite well made, not the kind of junk that comes with cheap Chinese power tools.


There's plenty of components on the underside too, and the circuit board is coated with protective varnish.


The battery should already be familiar to my readers from my review of the drill driver, and it was one of the reasons I chose this particular brand of saw.


The battery's rated capacity is 4 Ah. Of course, I'd have preferred 6 Ah, but that would have cost more. The battery has five LEDs indicating the charge level, but it feels very unusual that they only light up while you hold the button down. I guess I’ve been spoiled by expensive tools.


I took it apart just out of curiosity, although if I’d known it wouldn’t be very convenient to put back together, I wouldn’t have bothered.


Inside is the circuit board, covered in sealant. Without the component markings, you might think there was nothing underneath it.
I also noticed the holes in the battery casing early on, and yes, they go all the way through, so water could easily get inside.
The battery manufacturer is unknown. The previous one had Samsung cells; this one might too, or it might not. There’s no way to tell.


I put it back together and started charging it. Based on the charging time, I’d say the battery was at about 25% charge.


Here it is next to the rotary hammer’s battery. The contact layout looks similar. I connected the battery to the rotary hammer, and it works perfectly :)
But there really is a difference between the batteries, although it basically comes down to capacity and a different type of charge indicator. Even the holes in the casing are there too.


That covers the kit. Now let’s take a look at the saw blade, which is much more interesting.

While unpacking it, I noted that it looked a bit bigger in the photos. In reality, it turned out to be quite compact.


While researching, I found that there are two main types of circular saws: two-handed models, usually with higher power.


And one-handed models, which are usually less powerful and designed for smaller-diameter blades. Some are also made with a support handle for the other hand.


I tried to figure out when a saw has the blade on the right or left relative to the handle, but never got to the bottom of it, since both types are available with either blade position.


I thought a one-handed saw with a small blade on the left would be more convenient for me, and that was one of the reasons I chose this saw.


It’s not too heavy: the saw itself weighs 1690 grams, and the included battery weighs 643 grams, for a total of about 2.3 kg. It’ll be a little heavier with the blade installed.


1. The power button has no speed control. There’s a safety lock to prevent accidental startup: first press the side button, then, without releasing it, press the main button. It has a soft start and stops almost instantly when you release the button.
2. The battery contact pad has three contacts: two power contacts and one signal contact for the battery’s over-discharge protection system.
3, 4. As advertised, the motor is brushless. The nameplate lists the supply voltage, as well as a spindle speed of 6900 rpm, a 120 mm blade, and an M6 mounting thread.


Since this is a circular saw, which is more dangerous to use than an angle grinder, it has a spring-loaded guard to protect your fingers from accidentally reaching the blade. During the inspection, I noticed that both the lower and upper guards are plastic. That’s fine for the lower one, but I expected the upper one to be aluminum.


1. There’s a ruler and a guide-locking screw at the front of the base plate.
2, 3. The saw can be tilted relative to the base plate, with an angle range of 0 to 45 degrees.
4. Intermediate positions are mostly set by eye using the markings, but the zero position can be adjusted with a special screw.


The guide is normally installed at the front, but it can also be installed at the rear. To do that, you’ll also need to move the locking screw. As I mentioned, the guide is sold separately in the store, so you can buy another one and install two guides. I think I’ll do that; it might be more convenient.


Besides the tilt angle, you can also set the cutting depth anywhere from maximum to zero.


By the way, in practice I found that it’s easier to install the blades with the saw fully raised, although I may get used to installing them in the normal position over time.


The locking mechanism consists of a pair of washers and a left-hand-threaded screw, which takes some getting used to. The left-hand thread is used because, unlike an angle grinder, the blade rotates clockwise.


The washers, screw, and wrench. The wrench clips onto the saw body for storage, which is certainly more convenient than leaving it loose in the box.


I happened to discover a work light while testing it. I don’t really need one, but it might come in handy. It’s bright and even shines where it’s supposed to.
The chip-ejection channel in the guard is located above and to the left.


While cutting, chips are directed through the channel and out the side port, but you can’t connect a vacuum cleaner without some kind of adapter—the diameter is very small, around 20–25 mm.
The spindle lock button, needed when installing or removing the blade, is visible below and to the left.


I took a few measurements. On the left is the “branded” 120 mm blade; on the right, the “freebie” 125 mm blade.
You can see that the original blade is installed with its markings visible, while the freebie isn’t. Of course, you should follow the direction of the teeth when installing a blade, so be careful.

By my rough calculations, the cutting depth is 41.5/29 mm with the branded blade and 43/31 mm with the freebie, at 0/45° bevel angles, respectively. The measurements are fairly rough, though.


To access the motor, you only need to remove the rear cover. It doesn’t reveal much, but it can make cleaning out the chips easier.
The motor looks decidedly non-toy-like and takes up almost all the space inside the housing.


I removed a few more screws and took a look inside.


1. The motor control module has a fairly substantial heatsink, clearly made specifically for this saw.
2. I liked the overall build quality. During the inspection, I noticed that even a small detail like the work-light LED is connected via a plug rather than soldered to the circuit board.


I wanted to get to the gearbox, but realized there was a decent chance I’d break something, since it turned out there’s also some kind of spring inside. The gearbox reduces the speed by a factor of 4.5, so with the spindle rated at 6,900 rpm, the motor’s calculated speed is 6,900 × 4.5 = 31,050 rpm. That’s quite plausible for this kind of motor, and even if the manufacturer exaggerated, probably not by much.
I could measure the actual speed, of course, but it’s not very convenient, and I doubt anyone really needs to know.


Yes, I knew a circular saw could kick up a lot of dust, but somehow I didn’t expect this much. I made just a couple of shallow cuts, 50 mm long, yet it looked as if I’d ripped a board lengthwise. At least the jigsaw makes noticeably less dust.


A little later, while tidying up the room where I’d done the “photo shoot,” changed the blades, and so on, I noticed a small fragment.
I took a closer look: a tooth from a blade. My first thought was that it had broken off the “freebie” blade while I was testing it, but the truth was much more interesting: it was a tooth from the “branded” blade, which I hadn’t even used yet...

Honestly, I really didn’t expect that twist. The blade is still usable like this, more or less, but is this really normal?


There’s a video review of this saw on a Chinese website. Not much of it is understandable, of course, but the demonstration of cutting and the overload protection kicking in is very clear. I recommend watching it (at around 3:50, there’s a comparison with a corded saw).




I originally wanted to make the demonstration as a GIF, but figured it wouldn’t tell you much because you wouldn’t hear how the motor’s sound changes under load, so I put together a short video instead.

There were actually four video files. I used two for the demonstration and removed the test attempts. Subjectively, I can say that it cuts through a 50 mm board fairly easily, and when cutting laminate, you hardly feel like you're cutting anything at all.

I could have cut the board faster, and there was some headroom, but I wasn't working at a workbench—just on a couple of stools out on the balcony—so it was naturally very awkward, given the circumstances.


In the test cuts that didn't make it into the video, you can see that the cutting depth still wasn't quite enough for a 50 mm board. If you expect to cut boards like that, get the WU535 saw rather than the WU533.


I included the previous photo not to show the cut, but to give you an idea of how much dust it made. Cleaning the balcony actually took me longer than all my experiments, so a vacuum cleaner would have come in handy.


This is the second stage. I was cutting almost blind because there was a tripod on my left, and really, I just needed to assess the cutting speed. But you can see here that in at least one spot the two cuts came very close together, leaving a layer just a couple of millimeters thick, if that.


The cut viewed from the end. It only occurred to me afterward that I should have tried cutting along the grain. I completely forgot :(


As I mentioned, it cuts laminate with ease. I should also point out that there was practically no vibration while cutting—the balance is excellent.


The cut comes out clean, even though I didn't use masking tape. This particular cut was completely accidental: the board shifted while I was cutting, but even then there was no chipping.
I think you could easily cut laminated particleboard too, and much faster than with a jigsaw—but of course, only straight cuts.


I expect the obvious question is how long the battery lasts. It's hard to say—I can't really test that yet—but after the experiments I showed, the battery indicator was still showing a full charge.

I mentioned the video review above. In it, the guys experimented by cutting a large board into pieces, and then had to get another one. Judging by the video, they were also using a 4 Ah battery.



And now for the conclusions.
The main thing I didn't like was the plastic upper guard. Yes, it reduces the weight a little, but an aluminum one would probably be more durable. I also have reservations about the lack of a vacuum adapter in the box and the suspicious-looking branded blade.
Otherwise, it's a pretty good saw. I expected it to be weaker, but in practice it handles the load quite well. I wouldn't call the grip especially comfortable, but maybe you just need to get used to it. I haven't used a tool like this before, and that may be why it feels that way.
The construction is quite rigid, including the base plate. It could use a second guide rail, and it might be worth buying a track right away too. The only problem is that there's simply nowhere to set it up in an apartment :(

In short, I personally really liked it. It's a bit expensive, of course, but it performs well. You can get a slightly better deal if you buy it with two batteries.