Tacklife MLR02 Lase Rangefinder informal review. Is this bargain basement rangefinder worth the money?

[Bradka13]

I just bought a bargain basement rangefinder that appears to have all the features I need.  I picked up a Tacklife MLR02 laser rangefinder online for $50.  It advertises 900 yard range (why anyone would need 900 yard range in a golf rangefinder is another question all together) and 6X magnification.  It is USB-C rechargeable and claims 30,000 measurements per charge.

Unboxing   

The Tacklife Rangefinder came in a simple box.  Packaged with the rangefinder was a manual, USB-C cable, and a nice looking clamshell case. 

For this review, I will be comparing the Tacklife rangefinder to my Bushnell Tour v3.  The Tacklife is a bit smaller and more lightweight than the Bushnell.  I hope this allows it to hang onto the golf cart posts a little better than the Bushnell as that has a tendency to come off when rough terrain is encountered.

 

The Tacklife is rechargeable, which I take as positive as long as the charge lasts anywhere near to 30,000 measurements promised.  This is one reason I am considering replacing the my current rangefinder as the Bushnell's battery needs replacing about once a year at $8 a pop.  Worse than the cost, is the rangefinder going dead with no warning.  Of course, it seems to always happen on hole #2 leaving me to go “old school” searching for distances on sprinkler heads and stepping off my distances for the rest of the round. If I wanted to walk around all day on the course, I wouldn’t rent a cart!  The other reason I am looking at swapping out the Bushnell is the lack of slope compensation.  I would have loved to have just gone with a newer Bushnell or another well-known brand with the slope feature, but I have had three children get married in the past two years and that is just not in the budget at this time!

I like the feel of the Tacklife rangefinder in my hand and the power and mode buttons are located on the top of the unit.  The position of the buttons presented me with the first issue I had with the Tacklife rangefinder.  I use a strap-on magnet to hold my rangefinder to my cart post and the strap from my Bushnell would cover the mode button so I needed to get a new strap for it. 

The display of the Tacklife is clear and is a fair amount busier than my Bushnell.  This makes sense due to the lack of slope compensation on the Bushnell. I couldn’t figure out how to take a picture of the actual display so here is a picture of the manual showing the different display modes.

One final thing I noticed the focus ring on the tacklife (See the side by side top view).  The Bushnell does not have a focus ring and is it is always just in focus.  This makes me wonder why it is needed and hope being out of focus does not become a problem.

Round #1 Test

For my comparison test, I shot every pin with both my trusted Bushnell and the Tacklife.  Initial results were encouraging but not conclusive.  Almost every pin measured within 3 yards of each other with the two rangefinders which was the encouraging part.  There were about 3 times that they did not agree and were off by 15-20 yards on the first try.  Each time I was able to get the Tacklife to agree with the Bushnell but it took a couple tries to do so.  So, I was unsure if it was operator error on my parts or a case of “you get what you pay for” with the new.  The slope compensation seemed accurate but I have no way to directly compare this as the Bushnell does not have this feature.  I will post more results after additional sideby side testing.

I will post additional results after additional on course testing...stay tuned.

 

[Bradka13]

Round #2 Test

Again, I shot every pin with both my trusted Bushnell and the Tacklife.  I did discover something this round that leads me to believe the issues from last round were more user error than actual bad readings from the device.  I discovered there is a Flag Lock mode which will always return the closest object in the viewfinder.  I'm not sure why you ever want to not get the yardage from the closest object but evidently, if you are not on this setting, you don't always get the distance to the pin.  I discovered this when I got a reading on the Tacklife that was quite different from the Bushnell.  I noticed that the Flag Lock mode had somehow gotten switched off and I was getting the trees behind the green.  When I changed the mode back, the two rangefinders were again very close.  The readings between the two rangefinders were even closer together this round than the first.  I had one that was off by 5 yards but almost every other one was within 3.  As long as I am checking to make sure the setting is still on, I am getting more confident in the accuracy of the Tacklife.  I will give it one more round before I post my final conclusions.  

[Bradka13]

Final Results

I have a couple more rounds under my belt, and it is definitely looking like the issues I had in round 1 of the Tacklife and the Bushnell were operator error.  As long as I made sure that the pinlock icon was on in the viewfinder, the readings were right on compared to the Bushnell.  I was not able to test the slope compensation feature's accuracy as my Bushnell does not have that feature.  The numbers I got seemed reasonable so I have no reason to believe they would not be just as accurate as the straight-line distance measurement.

I will be keeping the Tacklife rangefinder as my primary laser rangefinder and would definitely recommend it to anyone in the market for one.  This is especially true for anyone on a budget...buy this one versus the "big-boys" in the market and buy a new wedge with the money you save!

[vincentevans]

Appreciate the thorough review on the Tacklife MLR02! Your detailed comparison and hands-on testing really highlight its value proposition, especially considering its price point. The insights on its performance, particularly around accuracy and the flag lock feature, are incredibly helpful for anyone on the fence about this budget-friendly option.

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Edited February 26 by vincentevans