I've spent a lot of time studying laser levels. DeWalts are excellent and a better buy than Boschs, which are also excellent. There are other options, like Klein and Makita. However, I wanted a three-tier plane, and it's extremely expensive from these manufacturers. Meanwhile, some popular Chinese laser levels have persistent complaints about weak lasers. Wakeline didn't, so I decided to take a chance and I'm glad I did! This thing is surprisingly bright indoors - it's a regular light cannon, very bright at 30 feet, which is as far indoors as I could go - and outside at 3:30pm on an overcast day I found myself seeing that could line on light material (light brown color) from 30 feet and on dark material (red color outside the house) from about 10 feet. (Obviously this is an unrealistic test because most of the time you use the laser outside at dusk or at night, or with a receiver that I didn't buy. I don't have laser goggles to increase visibility either. .) The controls were simple - I didn't need a guide to get to grips with them (which is good as I haven't found one yet) and I found the self-leveling feature worked great - I thought three degrees would be very thin, but it was accurate when I did it tried, and if you go too far, laser flashes make it easier to correct. I also liked the fact that it comes with two batteries so you can charge one while the other is in use. (You must use a charger to charge the batteries - the USB port can power the device but not charge the battery.) Cons? It doesn't require AA cells, which would be better for the weekend warrior who doesn't want to keep the lithium-ion battery charged - but according to the manufacturer, the lithium-ion battery is a standard battery, so it's easy to replace. replace when it starts to disappear. It doesn't have a rubber protector, just hard plastic - I'd be afraid of dropping it. Yes, and the battery compartment is difficult to open with your finger (it's also very tight in the charger). The screwdriver fits well. What I haven't been able to rate yet is the battery life as I couldn't resist trying it on a partial charge. I'll come back and change my review if there are any issues, and I'll also try it outside at dusk to see how it performs outdoors in real-world conditions (my own uses are mostly indoors). EDIT - I tried it outside and the results were good. On a cloudy day it was visible from about 10 feet on the red surface of the barn. At dusk it was visible at a distance of 156 feet. I've attached several photos, one indoors, one (fence) from 65ft, two (pink school) clear up to 162ft, after that it disappears at a point visible in the zoomed view.