The laser line looks good from more than a few feet (about 3 degrees from the plane). The bubble levels are decent, except for being a bit uneven, but you have to tilt the device on its side to use them, which is pretty unbalanced on a tripod. After removing the measuring tape, the device became significantly lighter and did not tip over as easily on a tripod. I would recommend the manufacturer to remove the tape measure and redesign the bubble levels to be used when the unit is held upright. An easier solution would be to add tripod mounting points on one or both sides (if only on one side, place it on the side opposite the power button). I have both tripod and non-tripod versions - both render the planes useless for drawing a laser line on a wall if you can't mount the device to the wall.