I researched about the best 3D printers for the past few days because I need one for my home projects and hobbies. I read reviews on Tom’s Hardware, PCMag, and All3DP, and they are marking these two as the best options:
However, I am having trouble deciding which one would best suit my needs and need your expert advice. I plan to print small models, prototypes, and functional parts, so I need something reliable, easy to use, and capable of producing high-quality prints with minimal setup.
So which one should I buy? Any recommendation or personal experience with these will be appreciated.
Both of those printers are more than 2 years old and have been surpassed by newer printers.
Keep in mind that Bambu Labs does not support the open source community they stole from and it is rumored that they are moving to a closed ecosystem (think subscription service like HP printers). They have been pushing updates to some of their printers that prohibit you from using 3rd party software and you have to work through their cloud service to be able to print.
Any 3D printer should be able to print prototypes and functional parts. The key to printing small models is more in the nozzle than the printer itself: most small to mid-size printers on the market come with a 0.4 mm nozzle standard and have 0.2 mm nozzles available as after market add-ons.
Both flash forge and Bambu make good units. I don’t have much experience with Flashforge. I own a pair of Bambu . I have no issues they make really good prints easily. The P1S is a good machine and has full filtration the P2S its successor vents out. I don’t get why they did that but they did.
They look to be opening the walled garden supporting offline printing and the AMS2 pro is better at dealing with odd spools, unlike the ams. I am not sure I would worry too much.
There is something to be said for open source, if that is important Prusa. almost every printer is a copy of the first commercial Prusa’s as are creality, bambu , orca, Snapmaker, slicer a copy of prusaslicer. Before everyone says it is the same as Slic3r the last release was in 2018. It is loosely based on it most of the development is prusa now.
in open source land the MK4 or core one. The MK4 is open so it likely should have enclosure and filtration.
I see prusa just released an open source RFID. Lets hope it gets adopted… lol That is the issues with Bambu , Creality, snap maker and ??? issues with closed source they can lock to one filament. They have not but could.
IMO I would go P1S or P2S they just work. they will look after you.
And Bambu Studio, Orca and Creality Print are based on Prusa. They really are almost the same slicer. If one gets a new feature they all jump on the band wagon.