Ganzo G201-H multi tool review

First time I heard about Ganzo multi tools was couple of years ago, I did my research, and was tempted to get myself G201-B(black) but its price was just not attractive enough.

So, time went by, I was still looking at those Ganzo, but couldn't justify spending around 20$ on it when Leatherman Wingman was available for 25-30$ shipped, even though people were saying that Ganzo's are very good for the money.

Gearbest(direct, non-affiliate link to tool in question) had Ganzo G201-H on sale for 14.99$(or so) and at that price it was OK to get, so I bought two, just to make sure Im not sorry that I didnt buy more :D!

First impression was very good, the tool came without original box, insterted into good looking hard sheath with bit driver kit included, very well lubed in what appears to be mineral oil both on tool and on bit kit.

Bit on the heavy side with tool being 271gr and sheath 48.5gr and bit kit 73gr, together they are about 392gr give or take, which is alot.

Inside tools looked slightly "toyish" and thin, serrated knife, for example.

But enough about looks. I carried this tool for around a week to see how it performs in every day carry situations.

Performance of its serrated blade - its crap if you want to cut ropes with it, its really that bad.

This version of Ganzo comes without locking tools or blades, but since my Wingman has also non locking tools(aside from outside accessible knife and scissors that is) I thought that it wont be a problem, plus, all the tools on Ganzo are outside accessible, which seemed great to have!

However, I was disappointed how hard it is to deploy any of its tools yet so easy to have them snapping/closing back in and the fact that they are outisde accessible means that there is nothing between my fingers and tools when they close so risk of injury is pretty high with this one.

Non locking tools on my Wingman are not as easy to fold back in by accident and are accessible only when you open the tool, so basically you get some sort of basic protection when screw driver, for example, decides to fold down and its being stopped by the handles of multi tool and my fingers dont get hurt that easy.

The main tool, of course are pliers and they appear to be strong at first and the handle design makes them much more hand-friendly when applying lots of force, something that Wingman/Sidekick/Rev dont so you cant cut anything thick without gloves, however with Ganzo you can, but I do reccommend to use gloves anyway to prevent minor injury.

Another good point is that pliers are spring loaded, which means that they will stay open all the time, this might not suit everyones needs, but I like this feature in my multi tools.

I tried to cut 4mm thick nail and it worked, I had to press with both of my hands, then open the jaws, check that the nail wasnt in half yet and did another attempt, right at the same place, just finishing the cut and it did, the nail snapped in half. Given that hard wire cutters are dull and not sharp like the ones on more serious pliers, it wasnt surprising that the cutting was done with two attempts.

Nail appears pretty rusty at its head, but its only external, doesnt affect its durability during cutting test, top was if I recall correctly 3mm, bottom 4mm:

Up close:

After cutting the big nail in half the handles gave in and I tried to unscrew handle screws at the plier heads and screw them back in to let the tool readjust the handles back into their previous, wider position. None of my Leathermans suffered such damage to their handles after cutting thick material.

Left the ones in use, right the ones in storage:

However, while trying to do so I managed to strip heads on one side of the handles so handles were readjusted only partly. Perhaps screwdrivers didnt fit perfectly? I expected handles to bend back after I loosened them and they did after single attempt to cut something hard, thus making readjustment after hard use pointless.

Plier tips are rather wide, so no small, precision works with these. Also, pliers dont come with stranded wire cutters so you wont be able to cut stranded wire efficiently, I tried and it only locked the pliers. Also, after cutting that 4mm nail and trying to cut stranded wire they developed some noticeable movement to the left and right. My Wingman came with already noticeable movent to the sides, but nothing to complain about, so this is to be expected from Ganzo when forcing it to do more than what it is intended to. However, during I believe that Ganzo will develope more wear and tear on pliers than Wingman.

Ganzo:

Wingman:

Included sheath, which looks good and quality, is under-engineered and if you carry it on your belt or anywhere else attached by its belt loop, you will lose it, because its thin and seams that hold it to sheath are very thin.

I almost lost mine when walking with it on the belt outdoors on the pear, came to the shore and checked my tool to see that the sheath barely holds onto the belt and the loop is about to tear off!

Solution? Thicker belt loop and durable threads.

Another thing regarding sheath is that its internal pocket, where the bits are stored, is separated from multi tool with thin layer of fabric that gets torn down each time you put the tool back into the sheath, it wears out pretty quickly.

The good part, however, is that Ganzo comes with awl and Ive used to to make a hole in drywall when doing little repairing of ceiling, even despite its inability to safely lock into working position, with steady hands and wise head it was easy job to do :D.

Saw, which other people have complained about due to its oddly-round shaped tip, was also pretty usable on drywall.

Took its philips bit head and used with my cordless drill to attach the plasterboard to the ceiling, it took some beating and its still usable, so its not total crap.

Sheepfoot main blade cuts well, came reasonably sharp and did fine with rope, unlike its serrated counterpart.

Can opener is so-so, just like on Wingman, its there just to have it in case, not nearly as good as those on Victorinox which are really good!

Used scissors out of curiosity to cut regular office paper and they seemed to work well for their size.

There is use for this multi tool, however, its not going to give Wingman or Sidekick or perhaps even Rev run for its money, because its not as well built, not as user friendly and despite the number of bit drivers included, its still pretty limited to what it can do due to lack of thought put into designing this Ganzo tool.

For the money, would I recommed it? Yes, its good for 14.99 or even less(I got refund 1$ per each tool because they came without original box) and you dont have to worry of losing it somewhere or breaking it beyond repair, but dont expect it to perform as good as Leathermans do, I did and I quickly found out that it doesnt.

Is it good gift? Certainly not, especially if you're thinking about gifting to craftsman or someone who knows ones way around tools and DIY stuff.

It certainly is a good loaner or tool to beat up not to worry about it being messed up beyond repair, but nothing more.

I hope this review was useful to some you, thanks for reading :)!

I hope there are no accidental dick pic reflections in my images and pardon my formating and spacing :D!

that was a great and honest review
it seams like you got what you paid for, I am still holding on to my now very old leatherman :slight_smile:
thanks for sharing!

Seems like a dangerous low quality POS.

Great review veer. While buying mine, I knew it would not be great quality for everyday use. I bought it as a tool for the car booth to use in emergencies or while going to the seaside etc. For these 1 off usage, I still think it is a good buy :slight_smile:
I’ve used the can opener - it works but not great as you said. The pliers were good when used and the spring made work easier.
I can see this being a great tool in my car booth!

While I did expect more from it(due to overwhelming amount of positive reviews on Ganzo tools in general) than it could deliver, it will stay in my rotation as backup tool of backup tool, my main being ST300, backup/EDC being Wingman.

Yeah, car tool is what I thought of it as well, now the second unit that I have will be probably placed as reserve at the country side home.

Nice review veer.
Seems like just the right multi-tool for my car glove box.
Don’t know when you’re going to use it, but at least you know it’s in there :bigsmile:

Moved it from review section into main Gear section, to be more easily accessible for those, who might have missed it :D!

Shameless, I know, sorry :D!

Thanks for the review. I have several of the smaller Ganzo M-Ts, and a couple of other no-name ones and one thing I’ve noticed is that the ones I purchased from China (as opposed to my Leatherman, or Gerber ones) all have the spring exposed, and have wondered if that is a potential problem?

Mind you, I haven’t had a spring pop out so far, but just was wondering…

I have had the handles of one of the el-cheapo ones collapse when under pressure. I’ve been able to “repair” it by grinding the cam or whatever it’s called, to give it a better “corner” and it’s holding so far.

After some water treatment Ive noticed that the rust starts creeping into the spring, so that might result in non functioning spring and then just falling out because it breaks.

Nice review.
I was wondering about these multitools also. For now I’ll stick with Ganzo’s folding knives…

Thanks!

Yeah, its easier to make good budget knife that not only looks and feels good but is also very well made, unlike with multi tools.

I have the Ganzo G302H and its great. Locking tools, you can even replace the jaws of the cable cutter. Really heavy quality for the money, well oiled parts. The knife with serrations is more a bread knife, of course you cut a rope with the normal blade. Such a thing from leatherman would be like 100 dollar or so, i got mine for 24.

It all depends on market and whether Ebay has some Leathemans on sale or not.

The Ganzo i bought is a 270g tank with tool bits included, you can even use bits with this multitool. The leathermans in that class are really expensive