Bosch Blaze 135-Foot Laser Measure with Color Display

Bosch recently introduced the Bosch Blaze 135-Foot Laser Measure with Color Display featuring a full-color backlit display for real-time length, length, area, volume, and indirect measuring functions. It includes a display guide that walks the user through each measurement function. The device has a 20-measurement storage capability, addition/subtraction functionality, and a digital bubble vial to provide a visual reference when measuring horizontal distances. Default real-time measuring adjusts as the measure moves toward or away from the target. The squared shape allows the unit to measure in any direction from a flat surface. It’s powered by two AAA batteries for more than 10,000 measurements before replacement and includes a target card, a hand strap, and a pouch.

“The screen is a highlight, but there’s more to the Bosch BLAZE GLM 42 for users in search of a laser measure with 135-foot range at an attractive price. This is a workhorse tool that professionals will come to rely upon. If you’re a carpenter, you need this handy, precise measuring tool. If you’re a real estate agent, you need this easy-to-handle, accurate measuring tool.”
– Stephanie Dahl, Product Manager – Laser Measuring, Robert Bosch Tool Corporation

Our Take

Bosch Blaze 135-Foot Laser Measure with Color Display

Well, now we’re getting fancy. But this isn’t technology for technology’s sake. Laser measures provide a degree of accuracy and convenience that’s hard to replicate with a tape measure, especially because most standard tape measures are 30 feet or less. Sure, you can get 200-foot tapes on a roll, but they’re cumbersome, usually require a couple of people to hold it in place for accuracy, and they sure don’t have a measurement memory. The Bosch Blaze 135-Foot Laser Measure with Color Display is pocket-sized, needs only one user even for the longest distances, and can store 20 measurements.

Utility Tape Measure Don’t Have

But there’s even a bit more to the utility of this device. We can all measure a length accurately when it doesn’t terminate at a wall or corner, but as soon as you bend the tape at those terminations, there’s a degree of inaccuracy that enters the measurement. With the laser’s 1/16-inch accuracy, there’s no stooping over your bent tape saying, “It looks like 7/16…well maybe more like a half inch,” and making a couple cuts to ensure you’re not short. Couple that with real-time measures, a square form that allows you to place the unit in any corner, and a digital level to ensure you’re shooting straight, and you’ve got a bona fide improvement over the tape measure. Heck, you can even measure in very low light whereas you’d need to illuminate the area to do it the standard way.

Where it Fits

The Bosch Blaze 135-Foot Laser Measure with Color Display will compete with a few other laser measures in this mid-range category of price and ability, among them the 150-foot Milwaukee that we recently reviewed. Are Pros clamoring for laser distance measures and throwing away their tape measures in droves? Of course not… as far as we can tell, there will always be a place for the tape measure. But if you find yourself measuring long distances that end in walls or corners and need to store the information, you might want to be laser-focused on laser distance measures.