I guess it depends on what your expectations are, what you plan on doing with the tools.
I have a set of Ryobi cordless I've had for years. They aren't the most powerful, and the batteries will need recharged if they don't get used for a week or so, but for what I need them for they worked fine.
I rented a crappy house cheap, the landlord wasn't going to do any repairs, nor had he in years. I was able to keep it from collapsing and pretty much functional for several years with my trusty bucket of tools and the set of Ryobi stuff.
If you want to cut anything with the saw, get a thin decent quality blade and you can cut a few 2x4's (like 3 - 5) before you need to change the battery, for example.
I wouldn't try driving 3/8" lag screws with the drill, but for basic drilling or drywall screws it works fine.
They have come out with better batteries since I bought mine, so the performance is probably better now.
In any case, between the cheap rent and not buying crazy expensive tools I didn't really need I was able to buy my own house, and now I can replace the Ryobi with better if I want and not sweat it.
If you are trying to get a job in the construction industry, or do that kind of work for a living on the other hand, you are better off buying the higher end tools.
The Ryobi aren't going to hold up to that kind of use for long most likely and you will end up buying the tools twice when you can least afford to.
