Today I helped someone break dow an old couch and got to use a tiny handheld chainsaw they had bought for the task. I didn’t have any idea that something like that existed. They are useful and adorable and I want one myself. Just posting this for anyone else who hasn’t made the discovery, but would like to.
(I realize that all chainsaws are technically handheld chainsaws.)
Do NOT snuggle your adorable chainsaw! Seriously, with all the electric saws that are coming out, people are treating them like toys. They will send you to the hospital pretty much as quickly as a gas saw.
My husband just got one and he loves it.
It was the best tool for limbing a lot of smaller pine/fir. The limbs were mostly small and dead, just persisting and ugly. It made the forest look dark and unappealing. After a few hours with the little guy (8" bar, one handed, 80$) it was feeling like a park. I also took down a few 2"-3" trees that I could push over with my top hand as I’m cutting on the base.
As someone who has spent a lot of time on a saw. It didn’t feel that dangerous. It doesn’t spin super fast. It spools down quickly when you lay off the trigger. It didn’t seem to want to kick back at all. The light weight allows you to keep it farther from the body. You don’t tire and need to rest it. You don’t cut with the tip. Safer then an angle grinder???
That’s damning with faint praise… Yes, way less chain inertia and speed, but still a spinning unprotected (mostly) chain. And when you step up to the Makita/Dewalt models they are the equivalent to an arborist saw, yet because they’re quiet and don’t need to be started, they get treated like toys.
I am going to warn you now. The battery has a very high failure rate. Mine worked great, loved it, but after the first usage the battery refuses to recharge. And since it was a 90 day warranty from the date it was delivered, my only option was to buy another $30 potentially POS battery. I didn’t do it.
Years back, we had clean-up day at my church, and one man showed up with a tool that was basically a slightly oversized electric knife. He preferred it over an axe or a hatchet.
I tend to agree. Chainsaws, being loud, heavy, and generally ornery, require you to pay attention. Electric just whizzing along quietly…I had a free one and never used it for some of the reasons you mentioned.
What I would like however, is an electric STARTER for my saws.
Non starting chainsaws…grrrrrr. I get worn out and havnt done the work yet.
I have a 6" mini chainsaw and a 12". Around the farm they make taking limbs down so easy. My 6" came with two batteries and has worked flawlessly and was very cheap. For saplings too big for loppers, they’re great, and for my holly trees growing out of control I was able to clear them down to stumps, where they’re now sprouting back.
StG
I saw one of these tiny chainsaw attachment for a drill at a flea market a few weeks ago. It looks super flimsy and I’m pretty sure I’d hurt myself with one. $15, cheap!
I bought a Black & Decker “alligator lopper” a few years back. Battery-powered, and the chainsaw blade is completely covered by a guard until you open it to cut. It cuts things up to about 2" in diameter fairly easily. Even with the guards, I strive to be very careful when using it.
Great tool for circumcisions.
Ouch 
This looks highly delicious if a person can maintain a mindful state. Want!
Have used ours quite a bit - basically prunes everything thicker than your secateurs can handle.
If you go slowly and gently round even a fairly thick trunk (say, five or six inch diameter), it can still cut enough to allow that tree to be toppled.
No battery issues to report (the brand is Stihl) and lasts for long enough to get plenty done.
I have the Milwaukee version
I use it all the time, even when I should probably get out the gas saw (I too hate starting that thing, and mine never really runs right until its completely warmed up. So that makes even small jobs something I don’t want to do.
Quality companies you don’t need to worry about. It’s the Chinese companies like the OP linked to because there are a dozen companies that rebrand the same saw with the same battery issues.
Looks good for personal defense, too. Pull that puppy out of your tote bag and rev it a few times, and your molester will beat a hasty retreat! 
But no good in a bear fight.
Nope! I can’t even bear the thought of such an encounter. 
“Isn’t that just like a w**, brings a tiny chain saw to a bear fight”
*pulls out a bear*