Electric Drills vs Screwdrivers

I wanted to buy a drill, but some friends suggest I buy an electric screwdriver instead. They say you can use an electric screwdriver more than a drill, but I'm still unsure which to buy.

I think a drill would be more useful than an electric screwdriver.

Which would be more useful, if I could only purchase one or the other?

The screwdrivers are designed to work at a much lower RPM which makes them much more controllable. They also have a lot more torque than the drill. I've used both and the difference is night and day. With the high torque of the screwdriver I have often driven screws into wood without pre-drilling at all.

Also the good screwdrivers have torque limiters that let you set the maximum torque--set the cutoff where you want it and when the screw is fully driven the limiter kicks in rather than snapping the head off the screw

Where are you getting the more torque numbers? This high torque screwdriver has 1/5 the torque rating of this drill. Were you thinking of an impact driver instead? Also, almost all electric drills have an adjustable clutch too.

Agreed. I don't think you can buy a cordless drill without an adjustable clutch, and any decent one will have variable speed. I'd also say in my experience, 18 and 24V drills are miles ahead of the 14V ones. A decent cordless drill is a tool every homeowner should have.

Of course the 14.4v unit is more powerful than the 7.2v one. Also, your "drill" appears to have the features of a cordless screwdriver.

It looks like the cordless screwdriver has conquered the cordless drill since the last time I had occasion to be looking at them in the store.