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Bosch GLM 120 C Review; Design, Accuracy, And Direct Sunlight Performance

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In the previous posts we’ve covered three laser meters, the ADA Cosmos 150, the Mileseey P7 and the Leica X4, in the is post we’re going to cover the Bosch GLM 120 C, we’ve been using this meter for more than 9 month now in multiple projects, most of the work was outdoors, we’ve worked with it during both bright sunlight and during rain.

In the coming post a complete comparison will be made between all four meters to know which is worth your trust and money, so without further ado let’s dive into the review.

Design

The first aspect we’re going to cover is the Bosch GLM 120 C design, the unit is large yet light, the very large 2.8” display (compared to the other meters) is of good quality and brightness.

The unit is versatile, so it can sustain bumps though it’s worth noting that it doesn’t have thick rubber covering the edges so we don’t know how it’d handle falling from heights. The meter’s pouch is magnetic which makes putting the meter in and out easier, it’s also more durable.  

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Bosch GLM 120 C Range and Outdoor Use

The Bosch GLM 120 C was capable of reaching it’s 120 m range both indoors and outdoors, though it should be noted that if you’re measuring in direct sunlight this range would significantly decrease, we could measure up to 40-60 meters in direct sunlight.

The camera and the zoom features made taking measurements outdoors easy, though it’s worth noting that you might have some difficulty in seeing the display in direct sunlight even at high brightness, and again the zoom won’t be of much use in this specific case.

Bosch GLM 120 C Usability

The Bosch GLSM 120 C was quite easy to use, the unit has two trigger buttons to take the measurements, one just under the display and the other on the side to facilitate taking measurements. Accessing the various functions (indirect measurement, direct vertical, etc.) is easy though not as easy as other meters, the main advantage of the Bosch GLM 150 C is it’s ability to save measurements with photos, which has proven to be useful in multiple occasions.

The major usability drawback of the Bosch GLM 150 C is the viewfinder calibration, which would affect the accuracy, that will be covered later.

If you close and reopen the unit then you’ll have to re-calibrate the viewfinder, you might be wondering would a few mm make a huge difference, well yes. If your work include measuring overhead pipes, cables or steel structure, then you might want the distance between the meter and an overhead pipe and due to a couple of mm error in the viewfinder you might find yourself measuring the distance between the meter and another pipe (above or below the main object of interest) or even another object all together (steel structure, ceiling, etc.).

After our extensive use we’ve found that calibrating the viewfinder wasn’t as easy and it was one of the major drawbacks of the Bosch GLM 120 C.

Bosch GLM 120 C Accuracy

The Bosch GLM 120 C was very accurate from our perspective taking into your consideration that we don’t need measurements to be accurate to the nearest mm, the major drawback was the viewfinder calibration that we’ve discussed previously.

One of the major advantages of the Bosch GLM 120 C is the location of its tripod ¼” female connector (to the left of the upper third of the unit) which would significantly decrease the error (we’ve covered the indirect measurements error in a previous post) while measuring indirect measurements and direct height/vertical measurements.

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Final Thoughts

The Bosch GLM 120 C comes with many advantages over the competition, alas it has some major drawbacks that gives its usability a hit. It’s worth noting that we’ve not used the Bosch app so we can’t cover it in this review; below are the pros and cons of the meter:

Bosch GLM 120 C Pros 

  1. Large Display.
  2. Rechargeable battery.
  3. Saving the measurements with photos; up to 50 measurements.
  4. Tripod connector location.
  5. Magnetic pouch.

Bosch GLM 120 C Cons

  1. Viewfinder calibration.
  2. Display brightness in direct sunlight.
  3. Direct sunlight range.

The Bosch GLM 120 C is a good value laser meter, that you can use both indoors and outdoors, we hope that Bosch would work on the above drawbacks as that would make the Bosch GLM 120 C a serious contender to the Leica X4 and the other competition, it would help both Bosch and us the end customers.

In the following post we’ll compare between all 4 meters we’ve previously covered.