The STIHL MS 250 and the ECHO finished in a two-way tie for best overall, and they got there by opposite routes. The STIHL is the performance saw without qualification: 15,378 RPM at the sprocket, 32 lb of downforce to stall the chain, a 12.01-second test-log average, and 18.09 seconds through dead locust — every one of those a win, most by a wide margin. The ECHO trails in raw output but takes second on both sprocket speed (12,950 RPM) and torque (24 lb), and it is the better-built saw, with the largest bar-oil port, a threaded self-retaining air filter, and spark plug access that does not require pulling the filter first.
The split comes down to what happens before and around the cutting. The STIHL needed nine pulls to fire out of the box and 44.8 lb of peak force on the cord, and it vibrates at 44.8 mm/s. The ECHO starts on the third pull, needs 39.4 lb, and sits at 11.2 mm/s — four times smoother. For felling and bucking volume, the STIHL is worth the aggravation. For a saw that gets picked up often and run for long stretches, the ECHO is the more livable choice at $51 less.
The value pick is the VEVOR, and it is not close. At $96 it took third on the torque dyno at 23 lb and posted a 15.43-second test-log average that landed two hundredths of a second behind the $379 ECHO. Its weak points are honest ones — 104.5 mm/s of vibration, seven pulls to start, a plastic chain cover, and a front-mounted tension screw — but nothing here suggests the $200 to $225 saws are a better buy. In fact they are the group to avoid: the RYOBI and Troy-Bilt cost twice the VEVOR and finished behind it in every cutting test, and the RYOBI's 38cc engine needed 39.64 seconds per pass in locust against the VEVOR's 21.97. Two other picks stand on single strengths: the Husqvarna 440 is the lightest saw at 11.85 lb and the smoothest gas saw at 10.5 mm/s, and the Troy-Bilt is the easiest to start by a wide margin at 21.9 lb of cord force and the quietest gas saw at 112.9 dB. If the work is mostly hardwood, buy torque and ignore displacement — the 52cc VEVOR beat the 46cc and 42cc saws outright, and the 45.4cc STIHL beat everything.