Meh . . .
I’d say 3.5 out of 5 stars is proper. That rounds up to 4. I’ve had my robot for three years now. Makes keeping our 38,000 gal pool clean so much easier and less time consuming. Worth every penny. As for the app, yes, it does seem you have to be within 10 or so feet to the base to connect. But it’s Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi, so that’s expected. I’ve never had issue with connecting. Unfortunately, the only thing the app is good for is if your base is located in a hard to reach place (I have to bend to the ground to get to mine) and to be able to go over an especially dirty spot/area by using the “manual” function and drive the robot there. But it’s tedious. (First world problems?) There could be so much more functionality in the app, but obviously someone didn’t want to put the time or effort into doing the programming for it. E for an excellent toy! D- for functionality. F for effort.