as much as I’d like to praise Prusa, it’s just not feasible for me. Whether you’re putting together the upgrade kit or buying the MK4S outright, the assembly process can be quite a headache. It’s an older machine with limited innovation, which is why I decided to sell my MK3 and switch to the A1 Combo and T1Pro. The combination of faster print times and multicolor capabilities has been a game-changer for me.
I bought my MK4 and it was my first MK series Prusa printer and it's still to this day one of the best printers I own and regularly use. Definitely not the fastest or fanciest but works amazing for what it is. Now.... where the heck is my MK4S upgrade kit that I ordered over 2 months ago!
I can completely see its reliability and quality and yep. Here’s another example of a user echoing its longevity! But I personally couldn’t justify the cost of it to myself, (and I’ll repeat for the people reading this reply “TO MYSELF”) but as I’ve said many times. I’m someone who likes a wider variety of modern simple-tech features to play with on a machine, and ease of use above all. I honestly think I’d have a better opinion of this if the MMU was a better design or if the printer had an official camera add-on (simple things) I like my bolt-ons rather than my make-dos. But I appreciate there is an audience out there for the latter.
I would feel bad now when they have just announced the Core One. 😅 Was thinking about switching from MK2 to MK4s, but now I'll just wait for some reviews of the Core One and hopefully I'll decide I don't really need a new printer since even the MK2 I use just occasionally and non-commercially, so it definitely doesn't pay back, ever.
@@mark6302 I'm a Starmix guy myself. Specifically the Eggs! I know that's a more divisive topic than whether Prusa printers are overpriced. But yeah. I have the balls to say it. I like the Haribo Starmix Eggs!
I just purchased my first 3D printer to give to my family for Christmas. I went with A Bambu Lab's P1S as it has an enclosure, is a faster core XY printer, has a good reputation, and cost me only $550(I actually got it with the AMS for $750) on one of their black Friday sales. Now, that I've seen the tape on the box of the MK4S, I'm starting to question my decision.
It's amazing how cheap the bambu printers are! I just hope it's not ccp backed, selling-at-a-loss type of deal like all other amazing chinese products. Just look at dji, they made sexy drones for so cheap that no other company could match them, all thanks to the support of ccp! I do wonder what the guys who started dji are doing today!! Yay!!!!
@taza99 I'm more worried about my own US government than the Chinese. I wish more people realized that the war drums are directed at China and Russia because they are the two most powerful countries in BRICS, making them the greatest threat to the US dollar's status as the world's reserve currency.
I think with Prusa if they don't innovate soon things will fall off. High quality, but being held back by the base design. Bambu has broken the Prusa/Creality lock on tiny incremental progress and moved the ball so far forward it can hardly be seen. Creality is now chasing Bambu along with all the also ran manufacturers. Prusa continues along as they were, but with all the corexy machines out there their market will go away. Shop Nation did a test and then explained why he was switching from Prusa to Bambu on his new machines. 3x the output with high quality and similar durability. But I also agree that Prusa is the standard bearer for quality. Ask IBM how that works out, they managed to lose a market they created to a bunch of cheap copycats, and held their ground over the value of quality just like Prusa does. That didn't end well at all.
I’ve had not had a Prusa but for most users easy of use should be their goal than also have access to the higher end settings that can push to print to the next. Being open source in the end will kill this company on their competitiveness because of the easy that that can copy it.
I've heard the "Prusa must innovate" argument in comparison to Bambu a lot. Bambu did not just spring up from nowhere the x1 series is basically a prepackaged and assembled voron with some (neat) software features. That's not to say Bambu didn't do some cool stuff like the lidar and most importantly the ams. But to say "Bambu changed the game" in a vacuum ignores the years of work from people like prusa, who made their slicer, and voron, who made their motion system (just like Rep Rap made the I3 motion system). Credit where credit is due bambus are fast and smart and the ams made multi color 3d prints available to everyone. Core xy printers are hands down the way to go. They're faster and have a smaller footprint. I'll agree that the I3 design is a little long in the tooth but prusa is still innovative. The nextruder on the mk4 and the xl and the 0.8deg stepper motors is a huge reason the prints look so good. The nextruder is a single gear extruder the reason being that a single gear eliminates play from two gears and delivers higher quality prints and the way they set it up means they don't need a bigger motor to drive the single gear. The XL being a toolchanger is already innovative enough I think E3D was the only other company to ever do it (not counting all the one off hobbyist printers that probably did it 20 years ago) and they are no longer selling that printer. Not to mention the XL's multi section bed. The MMU3 is in my opinion superior to the AMS it's faster and has less waste but has a ginormous footprint. And prusa brought input shaping to marlin firmware.
I used to love my Prusa MK3s and bought a 2nd as it was a workhorse. However when I bought the Bambu P1P it made the Prusa obsolete overnight, and I never use either of them now; too slow for a start. If the Prusa XL was out sooner i'd have bought one, but not now and the MK4 is also too late to market and too expensive. Prusa dropped the ball and now IMHO Bambu are the ones to buy. You can go expensive/faster with Voron and others like that, but Bambu works from the box and no mucking about. Only downside is there is no large format Bambu yet.
As someone that has owned a Prusa Mini+ and a Prusa MK3S+, both with E3D Revo Hotends, they have been hands down my best printers I've touched. Print quality wise. They however are not fast at printing at all. I purchased an Elegoo Neptune 4 pro, and it prints fast. It is cheap, yes, but I have to do maintenance and recalibrate it every few prints when I print high speed prints(unclog the nozzle, tighten the rubber wheels, relevel the bed, tighten the pulleys when they come loose from the stepper motor). Good for learning about 3D printing but just not reliable enough. I just got a Bambu Labs A1 with the AMS Lite system last week. $450 right now. Multicolor 3D printing. Great software. Great hardware. No calibration(does it itself). For starters, it prints 3 times as fast as my prusa printers with the same exact quality. Of course, the reason they are so much cheaper is because of the whole made in China thing. Which Prusa will never be able to compete with, or anyone for that matter. I wish that Prusa was able to be cheaper, but wishing that will never change that. They are not hurting business wise, and they still have people buying their printers like hot cakes. Also, the Prusa XL will be the next standard that the printing industry will need to make cheaper. The multiple print heads make it so you waste virtually no filament on swaps. However, at that price tag, it just isn't going to appeal to the majority of people who dive into the world of 3D printing. I have pretty well decided that if I scale up the amount of printers I have, I will alternate between getting Bambu labs primarily and the few and far between Prusa printers that I can justify. My opinion may change over time about Bambu labs printers, but as much as I hear about them, they seem to last quite a while.
When it comes to the slicer, many other companies in fact _base_ their slicer off of Prusa Slicer I don't even have a Prusa, and I still use Prusa Slicer, it's just a really solid slicer
@@Wang_Thunder SuperSlicer forked off Prusa Slicer in 2018. PrusaSlicer forked off Slic3r in 2016, right about the time the final release of Slic3r was published, which was v 1.3.0, and why the first release of Slic3r Prusa Edition was 1.31.2. The beauty of open source is this whole history is public on Github. Except the part where Bambu tried to copy PrusaSlicer without publishing their initial work, and had to be called out in it.
@@Wang_Thunder Close... PrusaSlicer is a fork of Slic3r. Early versions of what is now PrusaSlicer were actually called Slic3rPE (Prusa Edition). They fully switched to the PrusaSlicer name once they had converted the source code from the original programming language (Perl) to the current one (C++). SuperSlicer is a fork of PrusaSlicer by supermerill. While SuperSlicer has a bunch of novel features (some of which have made it back into PrusaSlicer), it tends to lag behind the PrusaSlicer feature set. Prusa still credits the original Slic3r in the PrusaSlicer manual.
I bought my first 3d printer, a Prusa MK2.5S, that I assembled myself, less than six months later, the MK3 went on sale with a discount for MK2.5 recent owners, so I took it, and I sold my 2.5S to a friend. My MK3 was also a KIT printer. witch was upgraded later to a MK3S+. A wonderful experience. At that time, my son had about 8 or 9 years old, some time later, Prusa started to sell also the Mini, I wasn't fully sure, several reviews later, I bought it, they send me the Mini+. Also in kit form. My kid (less than 10 years old) assembled probably 95% of that printer. And the printer worked exceptionally since its first print. Later I taught him how to unclog it, and even maintain the extruder. I love Prusa brand for the experience. And at that time, the price (for me) was about right. Right now, I already had those experiences (so my kid), I'm considering the next steps, I would like probably an enclosed printer, with possibility to print more exotic materials. I'm not printing for money, so I wouldn't make 10.000 hours on it, a Bambu Labs, or the Qidi Plus4 are looking right for me, for even less than the Prusa kit, and already enclosed. So, I still love Prusa brand, they do really great products with the best quality, but, at this time, I think others brands are offering me what I'm looking for. PS: I already sold all our Prusa Printers, and as long as I know, all of them are printing quite right, so no Prusa printer was left behind.
I just moved from a prusa mk3 to the bambu lab a1 and man - that thing is something else. It’s almost a third of the price of the prusa but it feels like 10 years ahead. So easy and intelligent… I’m stunned
@@FauxHammer You started off well, but I think you ended up trying to please everyone just a bit too much for my taste. Truth be told, the A1 is superior in almost every measurable way, including build quality and looks (which are subjective, of course, but I doubt many would prefer the look of the Prusa) - all for around ONE QUARTER OF THE PRICE. I repeat: at the moment, you can get almost four A1s (not minis!) for the price of one MK4S, which is worse. That’s just insanity.
@@jayreed289Sorry. But objectively, you must see that it’s a better deal for easier to use more feature rich machines. And more people will take ease of use over incremental difference in FDM print quality…
My Prusa came as a kit ! .. only that was worth it, hours of fun building (I love lego's and puzzles) ! [that and the gummy bears] .. once calibrated, it works like a charm, and keeps working for years, no questions asked. First thing I did: print sare parts for my printer (never had to use one).
We got one of these mk4s’s at work recently, and my boss had me set it up with the mmu3 and enclosure. It was such a cool experience that I splurged on one myself (just the mk4s kit) without knowing a darn thing about the 3D printer market. Watching videos like this, I’ve come to find out it’s expensive relative to the rest of the field, but honestly I’m ok with it. I’m excited to get my hands on the thing when it comes in.
As an engineer who started printing to make prototype parts I honestly never thought channels like yours existed. Its a new perspective. Resin perfection, colors, and making no functional things is not my life and I almost clicked off during the changing spools gripe, but the rest the video i loved. I use them because i can bring strong materials, not for color. The prusa is a workhorse and thats what i need it for. Click print and have it just work. Also, $30 a kg is bad? Better check out protopasta. I would review a roll if i where you! There is nothing like it. When you need quality you pay for it is my mantra.
I have to say that the Elegoo PLA is pretty damn good, and at just over £8 per kg if you buy in bulk, it's exceptional value. I've not seen any difference in quality of print between the Elegoo stuff and other brands - in fact I'd say its bed adhesion is slightly better than Bambu filament, and it's £4 - 5 per kg cheaper. Also the Elegoo TPU is pretty good - it does exhibit a bit of stringing (show me a brand of TPU that doesn't!), but nothing that interferes with a print, just needs a bit of post processing to make it perfect. I have a Bambu P1S. I seriously considered the Prusa Mk4S, but when even the kit version is £300 more expensive that the base P1S, and more than £100 more expensive than the P1S/AMS combo, I just couldn't justify paying the extra
One thing I'm getting from a ton of these comments are that people are making them from the perspective of having or used an mk3. While the mk4 does look similar, it doesn't share much with the mk3 (which is 7 years old at this point). This printer is definitely up to 2024 standards. It's the best i3 (bed slinger) 3d printer ever made. Obviously core xy is the next generation, and is overall the better design for new and future printers. Can't wait until PRUSA makes a single core xy machine.
@@BeefIngot because they don't. This is why Chinese companies succeed, BL developed a supply chain, which allowed them to weather the recall saga, and allows for cheap parts and accessories ordered through their website. Prusa just lets you EAT the shipping fees
Thank you for this review! That was quite the love letter to prusa ❤ As a bambu user myself (well... the budget..🤷🏻♂️) I can totally understand the points you made.
I own two Prusas, a Mk3s+ and MK4, both assembled from kits. I print design, art and functional mostly, working my way up to doing it professionally, and they're perfect for what I do. They are also reliable and easy to field-maintain. I plan on using these machines for years, as well as adding additional ones based on my needs, and if I'm going to run a farm, I want machines that I can rely on, from a company I can rely on.
My MK3S is a workhorse that prints at a phenomenal quality, THATS why people love them. "It just works" is one of the greatest compliments you can give a technical company these days in the age of ship-it-we-will-fix-it-later business culture. Unfortunately I do agree that they need to innovate or they will likely go out of business which will be a sad day for the 3D printing community. They really raised the bar for the entire industry. Having used a X1C for work I can say its really awesome to get parts so fast out of a printer, but it does not feel as solid as a Prusa and the reliability and user experience just are not as good. Everyone has a trusty go-to tool in their garage and that's what a Prusa is. It just works.
Very timely video. I just finally pulled the trigger on my first printer (Bambu) and a truly stupid amount of filament (Black Friday Sale!!) after doing months and months of research on this stuff. I kept running into people who loved the Prusa printers, but couldn't really justify the price other than saying, "They're just great!" This video answered the question more completely for me and I thank you for that. The user experience, depth of support, ease of use, and reliability is what made me choose Bambu. I didn't want a printer that I had to constantly fix, tune, or mess with just to get it to print. I just wanted to print stuff. Arguably, Prusa seems to have the same thing...a great user experience, depth of support, ease of use, and reliability...okay, and maybe a slightly better/older pedigree than Bambu...but comparing as close to apples-to-apples as you can get between these two, the numbers just don't favor Prusa. If they were asking half that money, I'd be interested enough to look. But $1200 for a 210mm bed-slinger? I can't get there. If you told me it printed FDM in resin quality, I'd be first in line. But it doesn't. I completely understand why people love their Prusa machines now. I'm hoping to love my Bambu A1/AMS-Lite just as much. Thanks again for this one. Really great points all the way through. That black and orange is pretty tasty, though, isn't it?
I get it. I do have a Prusa MK4, bought it immediately when it came out and have upgraded it with housing, MMU3 and now to the MK4S since then. My first 3d printer was an Ender 2 Pro and then an Ender 3 S1. I learnt a lot about 3D printing by tinkering with those machines, breaking and fixing them repeatedly and I wouldn't have had it any other way. At some point I just wanted something reliable. It was exactly at the time Bambu hit the market and I considered my options for months. In the end I decided to support Prusa because I knew I would be able to upgrade the machine and get all the parts to repair it if needed. The support is excellent. After about a year my bed levelling didn't work anymore. I figured out what machine part broke on my machine and the support sent me the 50€ part, no questions asked. The online manual was all I needed to put the hotend apart and together again. And what's so fascinating: Everything just works. I couldn't believe the first time the MMU3 just worked after I had printed the parts and put it together from scratch.
@@comentator4481... You do understand that ich have the MK4s already, right? And that I like having easy access to spare parts, support and upgrades? My experiences with creality were horrible when something broke. And repairing my Bambu A1 Mini was a horrible experience although I like the little guy.
I had the same Bambu/Prusa quandry. (Nothing against Bambu, not a shill, just made the choice based on MY preferences here.) The S tier support and absolutely unique upgrade kits sealed the deal for me - not having to buy a whole new printer when they release an XL2 is just huge for me.
Clearly has the best build extruder on the market. That lovely plantery gearbox all metal, no plastic cogs like bamboo. The components are of far higher build quality. Have you seen a teardown of the A1 its cheap as you can get. Look at the print beds heaters, the a1 like a cheap chinese house heater. prusa is their own built custom heater system thats so clean. You do pay more for one of these machines but they will live longer, breakdown less, you can only really appreciate it when you build a kit model. I run a print farm, mostly vorons, i have also owned a bamboo x1. It had faulty bearings in its liner rail. the rails was like a 6 hour job to replace. The voron and prusa are like four screws lol. If you want long term reliability, easy repairs if something gos wrong, and a machine designed specifically to be a easy workhorse for a print farm, you wont find a better machine. you dont want to loose 6 hours fixing something when you should be earning money instead. Thier designed in two totally different ways. Thier almost a Elon musk thing, the best part is no part. In a print farm you don't want an enclosed machine that's harder to access components unless it's necessary. If 80 percent are printing pla and petg it's better to have a open simple high quality machine that simply works. For the jobs that need an enclosed machine well you have a few of those. Thier designed for totally different use cases, prusa is designed for a business case use.
First, Bambu gears tend to last about 6000 hours. Then you can replace them for $30 whether they are worn out or not. Second, I doubt you had a Bambu since you spelled their name wrong. Third, you can buy 3.8 Bambus for the price of one Prusa - so even if the Prusa does last longer, it doesn't matter. Fourth - all Chinese print farms are moving to Bambu.
@@rsilvers129 I doubt you ever built a boring from scratch, I have 14 of them. Thier higher quality, sturdier and you can get help to issued in seconds from true geniuses on the siboor voron forum. Thier open source, infinetly upgradeable. My voron already taken over tech in the bamboo. Like the inductive bed leveling. Bamboo I consider a game console, voron the hand built pc version. Yes bamboo great, but the pc voron will always be ahead as new tech comes out. You never need a new voron ever. I have had bamboos. And I refuse to use them in my print farm now. Useless support, bad wattentee parts. The machines are Chinese mass produced for the lowest pos cost. The bed heaters are basically the same out of a old kettle lol. Moulded plastic annoying to repair, cust support rubbish. I'm sorry Thier great value for home users, but Thier really just disposable if in a print farm. Your not going to bother paying someone hours to repair one. It cost more than the machine. Which is why prusa and vorons make sense.
The nice thing about having a lot of 3d printed parts is when you start adding your own stuff with 3d printing, it doesn't look out of place. I have mine in their original enclosure with the MMU3 and all 5 spools inside the enclosure and only the buffer on top of it which required a lot of self printed parts and you cannot distinguish it from factory parts. Just from the looks and when you just want a printer on a budget that works of the box, the Prusa isn't the printer for you. It did well over 1000 print hours with minimal problems and I'm happy with it. I'm from Europe, like to support European companies and I'm in the fortunate position that not every Euro spent will hurt me. Still, I like to see Prusa catching up with more affordable Core-XY designs. They have to do something to compete with BambuLab, Sovol, Creality and all of the others. Their high reputation won't last forever.
For me it centers around the price / build volume. I'm not going to spend $1100.00 (US) for a Prusa bed slinger. For the price, you can almost get an X1C without the AMS or you can get three A1's, one with an AMS Lite. Build Quality and Print quality are really good on the A1. Hell, print quality (after some fiddling and adding my own accelerometer) is as good on my Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro (just keep the rods greased). But the point is, the print quality can be as good or better with a well built printer, and you can do it at 1/4 the price! Brand loyalty is one thing, but a brand that takes your money and gives you back less for your money than its competitors isn't doing you any favors either.
Qidi Q1 Pro, is similar build volume, enclosed, active heater, can print high grade filaments, it's less than half than that Prusa, and as you said, with a bit adjustment/fiddling, you can get great print quality on most modern printers
@@17ronin And whilst I also agree with that argument. I also see that for the time my others last me. Even if this does last 3 times longer. both technologies will be arguably obsolete by the time either eventually dies anyway. So, it;s a tricky one.
@@FauxHammer True dat ... Prusa does have the benefit of upgrades if you want new features, though admittedly the last one from 3s+ to 3.9 mostly didn't make sense financially. I guess a lot of it depends on how fast new "killer" features come to market.
Love the video. IMHO it is the old 'what is the definition of best' question. What is best for me, may not be what it is for you. Best in one area usually means worst (or at least less good) in the flip side of that. And I think Prusa printers embody that. As you rightfully state, they appear to be pretty bulletproof, solid workhorses, high quality, etc, etc. But.... You pay for that privilege, and you have to concede a few other aspects in return (speed is an example, and if you're a bit of a tinkerer like me, it is less 'tinkerfriendly' than say a Voron). But does that mean a Voron is better? That entirely depends on your definition of best... And agreeing with your opinion: I VERY highly respect Prusa for their printers. But I am not in the market for their products. For now. Who knows what will change in the future :)
Prusa slicer is the absolute best slicer. I've tried them all and I always go back to Prusa slicer. Your review and comments are much appreciated. I agree with your conclusions.
@@petermikus2363 It may be what you started with. I started back on Slic3rPE (which became PrusaSlicer) and know the work flow that it is second nature to me, and I know exactly where to find the features that I want. I never could get into Cura. I've looked at Orca Slicer once and got lost (yeah, based on PrusaSlicer, but the UI is completely organized differently). I stick with PrusaSlicer because that is what is comfortable to me, and I get the new features that Prusa adds to it usually by the time they start putting out Release Candidates (I usually skip the alpha and beta releases unless there is a specific new feature that I want). I suspect you are probably similar, but with a different slicer. As you said... "Ehh guess its just a matter of preference."
@@petermikus2363 I bet. Tried to switch from Prusa Slicer to Orca and I failed. It needs time to get used to the UI and for worse, with the provided profiles it prints way slower. Tried importing the profiles and this gave horrible results. I need a lot of time to tune profiles and get used to it.
I love that you can save and restore your entire settings. That makes working as a team so easy because you can always restore your exact setting without anyone having fiddled it.
Thank you for making this video! I find it crucial for new hobbyists to see where 3D printing is being developed and understand (or even respect) how and why the industry has developed to where it is now. So much of the technology market is based on proprietary technology and limiting accessibility to that technology for as long and as much as possible. When a company goes against the grain, it should be lauded and held up as aspirational for other, less-principled players. It's important to have different types of companies operating in any given industry for it to develop dynamically. By buying a Prusa you're contributing to the open source project and the ongoing development of 3D printing as a whole.
For me the value is that if you have a machine that is build on printed parts (I manufactured my latest upgrage parts by myself) and if you have build it from kit you have machine, instructions and knowledge for a long lifecycle investment that can be repaired and maintained.
I bought a MK2s quite a few years ago, I loved it. I was able to justify the cost by telling myself I was purchasing the worlds most premium gummy bears that came with a free 3d printer :D
I hate to be a 'fan boy', but as a long-time Prusa owner that builds from kits (MK2 -> MK2/S , then MK3 -> MK3/S and now MK4 -> MK4/S) the one thing I know when I buy a Prusa is that I'm never going to be locked out of future updates, and that I will probably be able to easily 'update' my printer over time to make it better. This plus the more 'open' nature of the design (both software and hardware) makes me much happier with the company. As opposed to other companies which take open source designs (CoreXY designs from the community -> Bambu Labs X1C) and turn them into closed ecosystem products. I know if you haven't followed 3D printing you might not understand this, but everything 'new' in the Chinese printers has been pulled from various open source hobby projects, not invented by those Chinese companies. They are just benefitting from the work of others, but not giving back to the 3D printing community.
Don;t apologise for being a fanboy of anything. If you enjoy it and you aren't hurting anyone else and you are happy with what you got. Then stay happy with it!
Thank you for writing this comment. I really hope that people understand this. The danger is that when open source becomes untenable and if the more innovation-minded companies die out, the industry falls pray to greater and greater corporate consolidation and higher prices for less consumer value. For example Blender has been absolutely crucial in changing the 3D modeling industry. Without it, the dominance of the larger companies would be absolute and they would gate-keep more and more artists with higher and higher prices.
Excellent overview. Really enjoyed watching this and welcome to the party. I always love seeing new user experience and feedback and I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard "Ok I kind of get it now" 😂 Is it perfect? No, no printer is. Is it incrementally working towards tangible real world performance improvements? Yes, I think so. Is it giving you an affordable path to unlock your investment and continue to improve? Again, I think so. I hope you continue to see that the more time you spend in the ecosystem. 👏
The reason i love my Prusas is the reliability to where i can hit print and not worry about it. Plus i think ive had to work on both of them maybe once or twice in the last year and half. And that was a probability a nozzle change. Yes price is a big thing, but you get a workhorse of a machine that just doesnt stop.
My MK3S is 2 years old, it chewed through 7300 meters of filament: PETG, PLA and TPU mostly. 77 days of printing time. I have not done ANY maintenance to it except tightening bed heater contacts a month ago and wiping the dust now and then. Okay, maybe put a lube once or twice. And it still just works. Why I'd not choose bamboo? I don't like the company that takes so much from Open Source community and makes it's products proprietary. Oh, and the fact that China uses Uyghur people as slaves.
Another great video Ross. Honest and transparent. I feel this way army bamboo m. Cost allot at least to me $1500. However I pewss the print button and it works. I spent almost 4 years trying to get my ender 3 to work. Now I can print 3d stuff.
There seem to be a lot of comments disappointed with Prusa here. I started with Prusa and then moved to Bambu. Let me tell you when the X1c is running its great but 2 years down the line i'm having to fit a new bed at less then 800 hrs print time. Bambu support is useless, you wont get answers and it takes them approx 2 days to reply. You wont find this out from you tubers as many of them have non disclosure agreements. Is the little Prusa still churning out good prints - yes, Does it produce strong prints - yes! has it broken - no! Do they have good customer service - yes! Do they pay their workers well - Yes! Do they do anything for the community - Yes! I cannot say the same for Bambu. Is the printer fast - yes! Only when if it's working though! All in all just do your research before you buy into any system and remember quality is remembered long after price is forgotten!
I think one of the biggest reasons as to why they print their own parts is to show that it is possible, and if something breaks there is a chance you can just print the part yourself.
Lol, you better print your spares while it works 😅 I know what you mean, I've been there before as well. Printing a broken piece with a semi-functional printer, hoping it turns out well enough for you to replace the broken one, so you can print the good one. Then, print a set of all parts that can break. Nice memories!
What's the point of a dozen printed body components that can be ordered or printed from the nearest 3D studio if the most critical are the electronic components and motors. If your xBuddy or LoveBoard breaks, you have no alternative. Even a trivial breakdown of a thermistor or heating element nullifies the whole idea of printed components.
I think Prusa no longer offers a competitive entry in the hobbyist market, but still offers excellent entries for the professional/industrial market. I wish them the best -- and if they ever (somehow) return to the hobbyist market, I'll happily consider them.
@@FrIoSrHy I would consider myself a Prosumer (90% of what I 3Dprint is for my business). I own a Prusa MINI (with 2.5k printing hours) I bought before Bambulab was a thing. I need to buy another printer in the coming months, and I honestly fail to see why I should buy an MK4. My MINI has had a fair amount of problems (specially after reaching 1k hours) and while Prusa support has been fast and friendly, they have mostly failed to solve my problems and I have had to buy almost an entire hot end to just start replacing parts until I found the culprit. It is not designed to print that many hours. It is not designed to replace the nozzle often, it is not designed to change filament types often. All this things can and will cause you trouble with this printer. They are still selling it for 2.5 times the cost of a Bambulab A1 mini that is a considerably better machine. They designed a whole new bowden extruder and hotend to avoid putting the motor on the hotend so it would be lighter and faster with the cantilever design. The Bambulab A1 Mini has a direct drive that's way more reliable, can print flexible filaments and is considerably faster. Sorry, their prices are just not reasonable, not for a hobbyist and not for a small business.
I have an XL but, embarrassingly, haven't used it to print tabletop terrain yet. I've even got a few blood bowl pitches to print! Would love to see that angle included in the Prusa XL video you're doing -the print volume is surely ideal for terrain. The build volume combined with the print quality is really a unique combo (and that's before we look at the multi-toolhead/material aspect - printing PLA with PETG supports or vice versa is a game changer). It had a bumpy start, but they've improved it drastically (print quality, noise reduction, new features) with firmware updates. It's absolutely not for everyone at that price, a little bit weird in some ways (especially the optional enclosure), but years after release (and after years of delays too)... there's still nothing else out there even remotely like it.
Thanks for answering this question Ross. I see the comments of folks who clearly are supporters of Prusa, but even they appear to acknowledge that the price point against a lack of innovation is starting to sour. It's for each person to consider the value of such a purchase and in the end, something is really only worth the price people are willing to pay for it.
Another good reasons for 3D printed parts is, when the model files are publicly available (as they are with Prusa printers), you can print your own spare OR upgrade parts. Or design new parts based on them. Another major reason for the higher price that you didn't mention - it's not Made in China :) As for "using the best parts", I've got the same expression, but was shocked to find they used 1.8 degree stepper motors quite late, before finally switching to more precise 0.9 degree motors. And they definitely have been in the FDM printing business for a long time. VERY long time. My "Prusa" printer was originally bought in 2013 (I bought it half-built from the previous owner). Changed almost everything except main board, frame, screw rods and linear rods (but still have that one single original 3D printed part left). For a long time, that basic printer design was the norm. Some manufacturers maybe changed frame material / type, but that was it. So it is / was very well known. Eventually many other manufaacturers have started switching to different designs (or same design "inside a fancier box"), but Prusa has stayed much the same. For good or for bad. And honestly, I think keeping it that way is a good idea. Design a new printer, that's different, for different market segment. Although it definitely feels that XL is designed pretty much for the same segment :)
Thanks man, I have been so nervous about this all day, but with the feedback coming in from both sides supporting these views. I am pretty made up right now and so proud of this work.!
After having enjoyed a Prusa MK3S (upgraded from a MK2 when it first came out), I've upgraded to a SOVOL SV08 for as much as an upgrade to an MK4 would cost. A Prusa XL is probably the best thing out there with its tool changing system, but I couldn't justify it given how infrequently I print. My MJ3S will be going to friend with a little boy who wants to do 3D printing.
I do respect Prusa, I dream of one day to have one. It would be a perfect platform for my design and prints with tabletop gaming because of the details and quality of the prints.
@ I am disabled with limited income. I can’t afford their printers. My focus is to launch my digital store to design and print tabletop terrain and eventually miniatures. Once I can establish income. I will be buying their brand. I no longer have the time to tinker and modify printers. I need to be productive. I am unemployable due to my disability. So my only chance of getting out of being on disability support is to reinvent myself. After long search and learning about CAD, 3D Sculpting and 3D printing I found a way. I can earn a passive income by selling digital files and make my design when my health permits it. It’s a scary balance as I generate income I will lose support. So I have to make sure I have a solid base of product to make that leap. I took a gamble on a Bambu X1C. It’s about the same price, but if anything goes wrong is cheaper to fix. I know I will make it, but until then I’m walking on a tight rope.
@ sorry…didn’t answer your question. The open source and their history with print quality. I know enough now about 3D printers that I could easily build my own. So if anything goes wrong it’s easy for me fix. There is not a lot to fix on them since they are true work horses with proven track record. They are just not attainable for me at this juncture.
When buying Prusa, you are a looking for a 3D hobby, not a device, that simply prints 3d objects and does everything you need ( as Bambulab does). I never bought Prusa, because I dont see myself investing so much money into a product, that has 3d printed parts. Also, it is not a beautiful product design in any way, compared to other brands. I got the fact, that Prusa has been a major player in 3D printing world, but they are starting to look "oldschool" in nowadays world of consumer electronics. So this is why I got Bambulab X1C and never looked back. Prusa wins a love of 3d printing nerds, while Bambulab wins both - 3d printing geeks and simple people, who just want to print some parts for their project.
I bought the Prusa MK3S+ (kit version ) in 2021 and it's performed flawlessly since I got it. I got this printer mainly because the company I worked for at that time (an Alphabet medical device firm) had a small print farm of a dozen Prusa's (all of this same model MK3S+) which were used to make medical device prototypes. I saw over two years how these printers were running close to 24 hours a day during the work week and required little maintenance so that was proof to me they were reliable. If I was going to buy a new printer today, I would definitely take a close look at some of the higher end Bambu models .
Bought an assembled Prusa MK3S+ in 2022, and had nothing but problems with print quality and consistency. Replaced the hotend and thermistor 3 times and still was throwing errors, and I'm a handy person.... Upgraded to an A1..... it's 5x the speed, 1/4 the price, and MUCH more reliable. The software is about a DECADE ahed of Prusa.... which uses the same type of firmware in the first printer I built in 2012... it's night and day.
@@Stevieboy7 Your experience is the exception to the rule. I know several Prusa owners and have never heard about reliability problems from them. Also, many commercial print farms have used Prusa's and post on You Tube with no mention of poor reliability.
You got a newer model where most of the printed parts are PC-CF so they look high quality. Imagine paying for a MK4S a year or more ago that looked half as good. The $5k Prusa XL I got from early 2024 is filled with PETG parts that look they were printed on a $79 Amazon knock off of a knock off. But looks are secondary, the PETG parts are known to creep over time and cause feeding issues in the print heads of the XL so that's a functional failure (again, $5k all in). And if you decide to pony up the $800ish (import, shipping, tax) for the enclosure, not another whole printer, then a couple dozen PETG parts need to be swapped out to accommodate the chamber temps. Because of the ability to swap between 5 print heads, it can be considered worth the above hassles, but print quality is still sub Bambu. Other than the 2-5 heads, does Prusa have anything else that other manufactures haven't had for a while or currently are introducing? The K2 has a very similar build volume to the XL, has an enclosure, 2 cameras, multi-color / multi-type filament (albeit a less efficient purge style) and several other features that the Prusa doesn't have and the price difference is $5k vs $1500.
I'm glad that even though you didn't like everything about it that you still found things that impressed you. I'm very interested to see what you think about the XL, I like it a lot and while the price is VERY high the tool head approach is very nice.
Similar to many comments, I'm someone who moved from a Prusa (MK3S+) to a Bambu Lab A1. And F**K THAT. There's no way Prusa can justifies it price, and it's not just about the machine, which is NOT a consumer product unlike the A1 in that you can just fire and forget. Another issue is distribution chain, you can't get anything directly from Prusa without exhorbitant shipping fees. If you do not have a local Prusa distributor or able to get stuff shipped to you cheaply, stay away. If you want your hobby to be 3D *printers*, get an Ender or build your own Voron. If you want your hobby to be 3D *printing*, get a Bambu Lan
I agree with your conclusion. Although there are fantastic options at much lower prices, I am willing to pay the premium for a Prusa because of their ethos. I also absolutely love that they use 3D printed components because they showcase that well designed 3d printed parts are as good or better than alternatives. One thing you notice as you assemble the kit is that a lot of the parts are very well thought out with complex geometries that would have been prohibitive to manufacturer any other way.
I like Prusa's ethos, but I often suggest people shop around if they aren't as tinker-oriented as I am. A friend who just wants to print fun miniatures or models is probably better off with a Bambu or similar. My MK3 has given me no trouble ever, and I've upgraded it to an MK4S recently. For now, Prusa has earned more trust from me than most other manufacturers. I'm open to changing that stance, so I check in on other printers from time to time. Won't really need another printer any time soon though!
Prusa needs to face the current reality: if they don’t innovate soon, things will decline. I’m currently using Bambu’s A1 and FLSUN’s T1pro. I was previously a loyal Prusa user, but brand loyalty only goes so far. The value I get from other brands for the same investment is the main reason I switched.
Prusa already faced current reality and is nearly done implementing it. None of which has anything to do with ever selling someone like yourself a printer. They know where their sales are and they know they aren't in trouble. There is no profit in chasing the market served by Chinese printer companies. Chasing European and North American government and education sales, which is exactly what the moves they've made is very profitable. Their competition is companies like Lulzbot which as you know makes Prusa the cheap option, as well as Ultimaker, etc. They do have some competition in the education space from Bambu. Traditionally even schools rarely have a say in which companies they are allowed to purchase from. But the government contractors I move a single Stratasys they never use and a rack of Prusas they use daily. They can't buy Bambu etc, ever, period. Then you will notice most of their machine development has been aimed at the commercial market. They don't need to sell to individuals, many of their previous customers. Hell they can probably comfortably coast a decade the entire time people saying that they are in danger. Their competition already has.
I have the MK4S and needed a part due to a misalignment when I installed the fan, they sent me the .STL file and I just printed it. Saved the time, money and shipping. Their support rocks!
@ read my comment again and then ask yourself if you still want to post your question. If I was installing the fan, would it not make sense that I bought the kit?
Hey, I am Prusa user! :D Jokes aside: I mostly agree, but wouldn't call Prusa techie-oriented. I got my MK4 as complete n00b, had it up and running in 30 minutes and never looked back. (Yes, I didn't build it from scratch, and I am not ashamed. Not everybody is a tinkerer.) For me it's actually a great entry-level printer. It just works and isn't too fussy, fiddly nor finicky. So if anybody has the money, I wouldn't think twice. It's really no rocket science. ;)
You would have same experience if you bought A1/A1 combo for, 350-500€/$. Same experience, same possibilities etc. And you have multi-material/multi color 3d printer from point 1
I really loved Prusa for a long time, however, I also realized that for many, many years they completely ignored the landscape. I mean for god sakes the MK4 didnt even release with input shaping. If they want the quality price they have to also produce a superior product. I am sorry but even creality is beating them... a company that has been renowned for their entry level kmart type printers. Meanwhile, where is Prusa? I am in these slicers and I still dont see multi-layer for infill (something creality has had for like 5 years), I also only see bed slingers that have an abysmal z height. Their flagship is 3k and its not even an enclosed machine. The printers have no lighting, and they havnt really innovated all that much in a long time. I want to get excited about them but I look at a Prusa Mk4S and the price of a X1C and they are the same price... how does that make sense.
I bought the MK4 for a few reasons. Reliability, Quality, Support, Repairability longevity And you really have to value Non-Chinese manufacturing. Also I bought the kit, I like kits and the build is fun if you like that sort of thing. All those factors make the price worth it to me.
Yep! And don't forget privacy (Looking at you Bambu Labs). Ordering my kit later this month. Hoping to score free shipping or filament on Black Friday.
@@rawbeartoe_AK Yeah, I totally forgot security. You can completely air gap this machine and still use it's full capabilities. You can even do software updates via usb sticks alone. If you have sensitive information on your network (home or business) this may be the only safe printer for you.
Great video! It’s a genuinely good and honest review that actually covers all perspectives! My experience is that Prusas are solid printers from a pure hardware point and the Mk4S speeds are actually quite competitive. The main problem is that their overall product/user design is kinda rubbish. Especially with the MMU3, while speedwise maybe superior, the user experience is infinitely worse than an AMS. Especially the amount of fiddling required and inability to keep your filament in an enclosed drybox are really a big drawback in my experience using the system. I was really excited to use my MMU3, but it’s honestly been the best argument for me to buy a Bambu printer
The MMU3 itself is a really solid bit of kit, works fast and produces far less waste. But I agree on the janky spool holders and buffer box. I don't print much multicolor, mostly inlays, but it's nice to have a few often-used filaments ready to go. And after a few days I gave up on the Prusa solution for feeding the MMU3. I printed 5 Filamentalist self-rewinding spools: just add some pretty standard hardware (plus a weird one-way bearing) and you're good to go. Make sure you print the "rear loading" version; these are super easy to load even when sitting in a dry box. You got room to push the filament into the tube and into the MMU3 with the spool sitting on the holder. I now have 4 filaments in a dry box ready to go, with a 5th spool holder outside the box for when I need other filament.
When I opened Bambu A1 box I was amazed by the finish of the product. Nice and well fitting injection moulded plastic parts and machined metal parts. Setup is easy and no unnecessary functions in the menu. Print and go. It prints quite well and cost less than 300 Euro. The Prusa may print better but looks DIY. I like form and function. Cheap, badly looking 3D printed parts in a so called high end product that looks like it was made in 1983? No thanks.
> Cheap, badly looking 3D printed parts in a so called high end product Ignoring everything else, I prefer the Prusa optics over the "Apple-smooth-looking" look of Bambu Lab printers. So people *do* have different design tastes.
You only can get other printers with the same quality for half the price, because all of them are from China, while Prusa refuses to outsource and mainly still does everything in their headquarters in Prague, which I find very admirable too. Besides that, I'd add to the list of positives: Their documentation is excellent and extensive, which is the backbone of every professional company. They have detailed guides for pretty much everything, including every kind of material. On top of that, I still get firmware updates with detailed descriptions of the changes for my Prusa i3 Mk3, which is now six years old and still kicking.
Yes, when looking for my first printer my first decision was nothing from China simply because Chinese people are slaves under unspeakable tyranny. Supporting China in any manner would cost me far more than any amount of money.
I use a MK3S from work, I think this assessment is pretty spot on. They're very solid machines with lots of support available, but if you just want to get printing on a reasonable budget it's pretty hard to recommend over a Bambu A1 even though the Prusa may be the better investment in the long run, especially if you're not in mainland Europe.
Seems like a very good tinkerers printer if you can afford the thing lol. Also good that it had good upgradability. Also little update on my time with my bambu lab A1, Been loving the thing since I took it out the box. I just love that to just load filament, press print and have a pretty flawless, finished print a few hours later.
I just can not see the value of a paying $1000 to print PLA, and PETG slowly. Prusa is the printer we wanted a few years ago, now it just feels like the printer for elitist that want to brag about owning one.
Long time prusa owner 5+ years Upgraded my mk3 to mk3s and it's bullet proof. I've had a few others but my #1 priority is reliability. Prusa wins that, hands down. Just wish they did a 400x400. I'll be buying a MK4 once i make some more room in the workshop.
Paying over 500$ for a small bedslinger is plain stupid. Achieving same quality with any other modern printer is easy - use the same slooooow speed. Other big issue is that basically its just ant an PLA/TPU printer. Yes you can print PETG with it at the warm day and if its nots tall part or you dont care about layer adhesion. Its kind of sad that MK4 is basically MK2 with some upgrades. There has been no real innovation from Prusa a loooong time. I remember the times when everybody did copy Prusa´s design .......
I use my Prusa Mini more than any other machine because it just kind of works. I never need to do something like tuning filament profiles, and their printer configs are really good out of the box. Compare that to my FLsun which only came with a 0.4mm profile, and it was garbage. Lots of tuning to get that machine just to be decent.
That's what people say about bambu too... Overall printer quality has improved across the market. Most new printers have mesh bed leveling. They have direct drive extrusion and better designed hotends and nozzles. The one part that still varies a lot is the motion systems of cheap printers and the use of rods or linear rails. Some cheap printers still use a ton of generic extrusions.
My first FDM was an AnyCubic Kobra (original one). Never buy AnyCubic. My printer was defective from the start and they never got me up and running. I then used used the mk3 extensively for work. After my AnyCubic experience, I loved it, full on drank the Prusa coolaid. (always hated that they are 3D printed) Now I have an A1 (because of your review). I'd never go back. In Australia, I can have 4 A1s for the price of a MK4, or 2 A1s for the price of an MK3, and the A1 is better than the MK3 in every way. I won't compare it to the MK4s because I've never used one, but it would have to be 250% better than the A1 for me to even start thinking about it.
Ugh, my main complaint with Prusa is that they pretend like they built everything themselves. They did not create the slicer, they did not create the core designs of a bed slinger. They're standing on the shoulders of giants, but gaslighting us about how they are themselves a giant. Literally dozens of people have contributed hundreds of hours to 3d printing software and hardware without making a penny or taking credit for propping up the industry. Then there's Joseph Prusa who puts his name on the box and his face on the software, and takes credit for the open source software.
But don’t they openly credit the sources of these advancements as part of the open-source ethos? They brought these things together, and credited the creators whilst other companies stood on the shoulders of giants and covertly said nothing about the OG’s? Right?
@@FauxHammer Bambulab credits people just as much as Prusa does though, but Prusa gets a standing ovation for not actually even being fully open source while Bambulabs can't make any misstep lest it be amplified. I reckon this is what they're talking about. Prusa has a weird supernatural aura around them to some people to the point you'd be lead to believe they saved the very concept of 3d printing.
@@BeefIngotbut they didn’t though. That’s what I have learned in this. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still here saying I’d but a Bambu over this. But let’s be honest about the history. From what I’ve been told, They only started saying “based on Prusa Slicer” after a lot of pressure. But still yeah. As I said in the video. I can still get a more feature rich printer for less than half the price with good enough quality (as I show Bambu prints on the screen)
Upgrade policy is pure BS, it will cost me 740 euro (plus shipping) to upgrade my MK3S to MK4S, I mean, WTF?, for 100 I can just have 2 printers. Also now I'm aware that selling point of overhang was misleading, it was a bug in bambu studio and orca slicer. Monday I've received my X1C, and putting an end of an era of paying overpriced hardware just for the open source ethos.
I think the biggest reason you see people fanboy over Prusa is Reliability. At this point they aren't the fastest or most innovative but They are the printer that never stops working. I've had a MK3s for almost 6 years now and I have over a year of Printing hours on it with almost zero maintenance. I would like to upgrade to something faster and high tech, but my printer is still producing high quality prints even if it's a little slower.
Prusa is not fully open and I actually am quite annoyed they get their cake and to eat it. The XL isn't open, the Mk4 doesn't include a full step file, etc etc. They also do misleading marketing frequently (not worse than some brands but more than other high end brands). Also, their big problem in my opinion is that they design in such a way that requires so much manual labour vs more automated more mass manufactured techniques. People talk about labour costs but Chinese wages are only ~25% lower (based on official stats from each respective government from 2023) so that can't account for the price difference.
@Gepstra The loopholes that apply there to do with small packages getting funded by various governments isn't related. While yes their government can be friendly to their businesses, there are many ways that's true for various businesses. For example, Bambulab has no direct connection with their government.
@@Gepstra That's an idea yes, but what I've found the more I look into it, it's more like there are a minority of favoured companies and industries (like Ev manufacturing) and it's not quite the "everything is subsidised to high hell" that people think. it's not just them, but I believe Sovol, Qidi and others simply exist as normal companies. For sure once again, they do have systems which lift all boats (make life easier for corporations) but so do all sensible countries to some degree. I picked Bambulab just because they're the commonly brought up example and I'm kinda irritated that people will make up anything to avoid calling Prusa on what they need to be called on, which in my opinion is their underbaked releases, half hearted/misleading opensource efforts and overly manual labour intensive design choices resulting in expensive to manufacture machines.
I hope people don't buy Prusa because it is value for money. Prusa is made in the EU and prices, I am pretty sure, won't go down. If you want Prusa to shift production to China, then what is the point of purchasing a Prusa? Another reason I bought a Prusa is I want to support a compay that is supportive of the open source community and one that does not forget its roots. But I understand that the counter argument could be that I am drink too much of their coolaid and companies will say whatever you want to listen to take your money. But as of right now, their actions seem supportive of their vision.
I've been with Prusa for years ... BUT I also have a K1Max and a GKTwo, I only use the prusa if it's a smaller detailed part or something the k1Max just can't handle (and there's a fair bit the K1/Bambu struggle with at quality). I mainly use FDM for things like board games inserts and organisers (and that's about it) the GKTwo for minis. It has its place but I've not felt the need to go MK4 YET. I probably will but as its been with my previous i3's / Prusa's it will be a kit. Partly to save money but also because it means I understand EXACTLY what goes where and how it works (and how its changed from my original RepRap) Building it has so many pluses. But ... and its a big but ... I'm now only using it for FDM stuff that I'm not happy with on the K1 max (and its a LOT slower - that's the one thing that MAY send me to the MK4 - just not yet) so I'm in no rush and and the price is around 200 Euromore than I paid for my MK3 (although some of that was offset for the S+ upgrade kit) - ( *could* just get the upgrade which brings the cost down a lot - but I'd prefer to get a full kit and pass on the 3s+ to my local makerspace (which I'd did with the previous 2 Prusas and my BQ Hephestus and H2)
New subscriber here, just wanted to bring up often conversations I have with people who are interested in 3D printing and ask why I have Prusa over Bambu. I simply like to bring the argument that Bambu Labs are user friendly and are plug n play printers. Whereas Prusa is more customizable and require more hands on experience for the printer. To dumb it down, I always mention that Bambu is like Apple phones, while Prusa is like Android, more specifically Samsung. Apple is straight forward and work for people who want simplicity. Samsung does the same, yet the Android aspect of it offers customizations, rooting softwares, jailbreaking, ect. that aren't usually offered features to any stock iPhone. Same thing with Prusa, I can mod the living shit out of it if I really wanted to, and with the community backing it, there are so many unofficial upgrades that make life so much simpler when it comes to printing. Guess it's similar with PC builds, you can get a pre-built or just build your own rig. Just putting this out there, I do plan on getting a Bambu Lab P1P, yet with the intention of modding it to my own personal wants. So more than likely it would be a used one, I'm a tinkierer, so naturally I like to play around with dissecting tech and modifying it. I have five Prusas, my first two are the Mini + and my 2nd is the MK3S+, both were kits bought directly from Prusa. The other three are MK3S+ that I bought used/broken and I fixed them up myself to get into a working printing state for a fraction of the price. I did upgrade my first MK3S+ to the MK3.5 and I absolutely love it. I plan on upgrading the other printers indefinitely, and since the used ones were bought at a fraction of the price, the upgrade prices don't look too unattractive from my perspective.
Prusa printers up to the MK4 are a representation of a philosophy, a school of thought, and a kind of cult. They look like a DIY product because that's what they are at their core, they've been built that way forever, with printers printing parts for other printers, exactly as it should be if you want to stay true to the philosophy of Prusa and the early 3D printer assemblers. They may seem cheap (and they are not) or expensive, but let's not forget that 95% of them are built in Europe and not in China. It is true that Bambulab is a formidable opponent for them and their products are better and faster. But they are soulless if you will. Prusa still embodies the pure spirit that was behind amateur 3D printing and they have remained true to themselves. You only have to watch a few video tours of their headquarters to see how they have evolved while staying true to their roots.
I believe they work well, but its 2024 and I dont want my printer look like diy kit from 2010, I want it to not only work almost as appliance, but also look like an appliance. And I hate how company owner sticks his name and face everywhere - for example branding their filament "prusament" or placing his photo in the user manual...
Its not only that but the fact that you can get 3d printer with same characteristics for 50% of price of prusa printers. Prusa was relevant in beginning of 3d printing but they are slowly becoming non relevant, releasing unfinished 3d printers for 2x/3x price of 3d printers from concurrency which are releasing full working 3d printers with all features which they mentioned. They are presenting printers with input shaping etc, keeping the price, releases and sells that same printer and says "it can have input shaping in future"...
I'm supporting a European manufacturer, who pushed the tech forward for a decade, providing a printer which makes dead-reliable accurate prints without fuss. Not having to fight the machine or the software is hugely valuable to me.
@@Kay0Bot Bambu Lab is a Chinese company. I didn't say anything about the rest not applying to other brands as well. However, when I bought my Prusa, Bambu had not yet hit the market, when I upgraded Bambu had not been thoroughly tested. So I chose Prusa. Would I do it again? I don't know, I'm not buying a printer now. As far as whether Bambu Lab pays their workers a fair wage, and behaves fairly in the market? I don't know. I trust Prusa is.
Printed parts are genius in a way - Prusa basically made stress testing of printers profitable. Think about it, they need to stress test whole printers and also need to produce parts. Ideally with ability to quickly change design and stress test it again. Boom, two birds with one stone!
Pre-Bambu A1, Prusa had its place in the market for those who didn't feel like tinkering much with their printers. Post-Bambu A1 ... there's VERY little to warrant charging 3 times as much for a printer which doesn't even have multi colour options. Also, who wants their 3D printers to look nice? Well, I got three people to buy a Bambu A1 because they were not only impressed by its speed, they also loved how it looked so modern & nice so it wasn't an eye sore in a public area.
@@petermikus2363 Oh yeah, I remember that - wasn't it terrible though? I haven't kept up with its releases but the MMU1 & MMU2 got pretty bad reviews IIRC.
That's pretty much where I'm at. When I was getting ready to retire my ender 3 pro, I was dead set on getting a prusa. But a quick look around and I found out about bambu, and the A1 and A1 mini. I bought a mini and was so impressed with the fit, finish and print quality I now have my mini with an MAS litw, three A1s, and my wife has a mini and an A1 with AMS lite. Amazing printers.
@@NWGR I bought the A1 Mini at first as well, then bought the A1 shortly after and run the AMS on the A1. The A1 Mini is great for smaller single colour prints (which is like 90% of what I print) but what I love about the AMS is how easy it is to swap filaments. Even with the machine turned off you can just swap everything around. I do hope they release a larger one soon though - 256x256mm is quite nice but a lot of stuff barely fits.
I have literally met Joseph Prusa and told him straight to his face that I can't afford his printers and if I could, I'd probably not be buying his but all in good fun - he is a great guy but they clearly do not care about affordability.
Let's be real here. If we're talking about filament printers, it's basically down to Bamboo X1 Carbon or Prusa Mk4s. The Bamboo is $1000 without an MMU. The Prusa is... $1032. Bamboo's MMU is $200, and Prusa's is $382. So the Prusa MMU is overpriced, right? Multicolor prints take about HALF THE TIME on a Prusa as they do on a Bamboo, AND with less wasted filament. For normal prints, they're about the same on speed for real-world prints (Prusa's benchy is impressive, but the single-walled trickery isn't representative of real world printing). Other than that, the Bamboo comes pre-enclosed, which is a legitimate upgrade for the 100 or so people on the planet who regularly print in ABS. So Prusa cost comparable and performance comparable to it's closest competitor but with a more performant and more expensive MMU. All that, and I can buy all the parts for a prusa from their store. They sell upgrade kits. Their printer's CAD FILES are open source. Their software is open source. Their support staff ISN'T AN INDIAN CALL CENTER. Call me a "prusa fan" if you want, but I'll spend the extra $32 (Gosh, so overpriced!) to support Prusa (and, by extension, Bamboo's) continued innovation.
I think your views are about right. I do love the idea of prusa, the support the attention to detail the openness and so on but i think the i3 has just had its day (i also love its made in the EU and they control almost all there supply chain now). They need an enclosed Core XY or better yet a moving gantry CoreXY (think voron 2.4). I hope that the prusa XL is a preview of where the mainline prusa is going. I know for that support and the company ethos i would be happy to give up my X1C in a heartbeat, assuming it had a more modern multi material system. Its just too dam convenient to just have all the spools in a magic box that makes them work, and i hardly do any multi colour or multi material. To borrow a line from the old top gear when Clarkson is comparing the M3 to the i8. " There must have been a moment in history when everyone had typewriters (an i3), and typewriters had been around for years and they where brilliant and then someone came along with a laptop". That is how i see the old bed slingers vs the more modern offerings mainly from bambu.
If Sovol, Creality and Anycubic are Toyotas and Nissans, and Bambulab is the new BYD - then PRUSA is a Bentley. Coach built, love of detail, well thought out and you pay for that.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
as much as I’d like to praise Prusa, it’s just not feasible for me. Whether you’re putting together the upgrade kit or buying the MK4S outright, the assembly process can be quite a headache. It’s an older machine with limited innovation, which is why I decided to sell my MK3 and switch to the A1 Combo and T1Pro. The combination of faster print times and multicolor capabilities has been a game-changer for me.
I bought my MK4 and it was my first MK series Prusa printer and it's still to this day one of the best printers I own and regularly use. Definitely not the fastest or fanciest but works amazing for what it is. Now.... where the heck is my MK4S upgrade kit that I ordered over 2 months ago!
I can completely see its reliability and quality and yep. Here’s another example of a user echoing its longevity!
But I personally couldn’t justify the cost of it to myself, (and I’ll repeat for the people reading this reply “TO MYSELF”) but as I’ve said many times. I’m someone who likes a wider variety of modern simple-tech features to play with on a machine, and ease of use above all.
I honestly think I’d have a better opinion of this if the MMU was a better design or if the printer had an official camera add-on (simple things)
I like my bolt-ons rather than my make-dos. But I appreciate there is an audience out there for the latter.
Don't show this comment to Elegoo lol
@@EJTechandDIY lol
I would feel bad now when they have just announced the Core One. 😅 Was thinking about switching from MK2 to MK4s, but now I'll just wait for some reviews of the Core One and hopefully I'll decide I don't really need a new printer since even the MK2 I use just occasionally and non-commercially, so it definitely doesn't pay back, ever.
@ yeah! I’ll be honest, that’s impressed me greatly! I’ll 100% be getting that upgrade Kit!!!
17:26 A long standing joke in the Prusa community is you buy very expensive Haribo gummy bears from Prusa and get a free printer in the deal.
haribo gummies are the best in the world :0
@@mark6302 false
Ffs, that was gonna be my end joke too but I took it out so it didn’t cover the members scroll
@@Nemshire what's better then I must know :0
@@mark6302 I'm a Starmix guy myself. Specifically the Eggs! I know that's a more divisive topic than whether Prusa printers are overpriced. But yeah. I have the balls to say it. I like the Haribo Starmix Eggs!
I just purchased my first 3D printer to give to my family for Christmas. I went with A Bambu Lab's P1S as it has an enclosure, is a faster core XY printer, has a good reputation, and cost me only $550(I actually got it with the AMS for $750) on one of their black Friday sales. Now, that I've seen the tape on the box of the MK4S, I'm starting to question my decision.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Best comment I've ever read! Thankyou for understanding a joke!
@@FauxHammer I just ordered one of those gummed tape machines. Had to have it after seeing how impressive the tape was.
It's amazing how cheap the bambu printers are! I just hope it's not ccp backed, selling-at-a-loss type of deal like all other amazing chinese products. Just look at dji, they made sexy drones for so cheap that no other company could match them, all thanks to the support of ccp! I do wonder what the guys who started dji are doing today!! Yay!!!!
@taza99 I'm more worried about my own US government than the Chinese. I wish more people realized that the war drums are directed at China and Russia because they are the two most powerful countries in BRICS, making them the greatest threat to the US dollar's status as the world's reserve currency.
Stupid bloody comment. If you could wake up tomorrow as a citizen of USA, Russia, or China...you're not changing your passport@Noneofyourbusiness2000
As an Australian, I feel vindicated at just how often shipping costs are called out for once🤣🤣
Then gets a shady email from DHL asking for $250 when it arrives in the country
It's not just shipping that costs. Everything has an inflated price, even if you take into account the exchange rate. I think it's extortion.
I think with Prusa if they don't innovate soon things will fall off. High quality, but being held back by the base design. Bambu has broken the Prusa/Creality lock on tiny incremental progress and moved the ball so far forward it can hardly be seen. Creality is now chasing Bambu along with all the also ran manufacturers. Prusa continues along as they were, but with all the corexy machines out there their market will go away. Shop Nation did a test and then explained why he was switching from Prusa to Bambu on his new machines. 3x the output with high quality and similar durability. But I also agree that Prusa is the standard bearer for quality. Ask IBM how that works out, they managed to lose a market they created to a bunch of cheap copycats, and held their ground over the value of quality just like Prusa does. That didn't end well at all.
I’ve had not had a Prusa but for most users easy of use should be their goal than also have access to the higher end settings that can push to print to the next. Being open source in the end will kill this company on their competitiveness because of the easy that that can copy it.
Get the impression they’re trying to live on their reputation
Absolutely spot on.
That was two years ago. It is too late at this point.
I've heard the "Prusa must innovate" argument in comparison to Bambu a lot. Bambu did not just spring up from nowhere the x1 series is basically a prepackaged and assembled voron with some (neat) software features. That's not to say Bambu didn't do some cool stuff like the lidar and most importantly the ams. But to say "Bambu changed the game" in a vacuum ignores the years of work from people like prusa, who made their slicer, and voron, who made their motion system (just like Rep Rap made the I3 motion system). Credit where credit is due bambus are fast and smart and the ams made multi color 3d prints available to everyone. Core xy printers are hands down the way to go. They're faster and have a smaller footprint.
I'll agree that the I3 design is a little long in the tooth but prusa is still innovative. The nextruder on the mk4 and the xl and the 0.8deg stepper motors is a huge reason the prints look so good. The nextruder is a single gear extruder the reason being that a single gear eliminates play from two gears and delivers higher quality prints and the way they set it up means they don't need a bigger motor to drive the single gear. The XL being a toolchanger is already innovative enough I think E3D was the only other company to ever do it (not counting all the one off hobbyist printers that probably did it 20 years ago) and they are no longer selling that printer. Not to mention the XL's multi section bed. The MMU3 is in my opinion superior to the AMS it's faster and has less waste but has a ginormous footprint. And prusa brought input shaping to marlin firmware.
I used to love my Prusa MK3s and bought a 2nd as it was a workhorse. However when I bought the Bambu P1P it made the Prusa obsolete overnight, and I never use either of them now; too slow for a start.
If the Prusa XL was out sooner i'd have bought one, but not now and the MK4 is also too late to market and too expensive.
Prusa dropped the ball and now IMHO Bambu are the ones to buy. You can go expensive/faster with Voron and others like that, but Bambu works from the box and no mucking about. Only downside is there is no large format Bambu yet.
As someone that has owned a Prusa Mini+ and a Prusa MK3S+, both with E3D Revo Hotends, they have been hands down my best printers I've touched. Print quality wise. They however are not fast at printing at all.
I purchased an Elegoo Neptune 4 pro, and it prints fast. It is cheap, yes, but I have to do maintenance and recalibrate it every few prints when I print high speed prints(unclog the nozzle, tighten the rubber wheels, relevel the bed, tighten the pulleys when they come loose from the stepper motor). Good for learning about 3D printing but just not reliable enough.
I just got a Bambu Labs A1 with the AMS Lite system last week. $450 right now. Multicolor 3D printing. Great software. Great hardware. No calibration(does it itself). For starters, it prints 3 times as fast as my prusa printers with the same exact quality. Of course, the reason they are so much cheaper is because of the whole made in China thing. Which Prusa will never be able to compete with, or anyone for that matter.
I wish that Prusa was able to be cheaper, but wishing that will never change that. They are not hurting business wise, and they still have people buying their printers like hot cakes. Also, the Prusa XL will be the next standard that the printing industry will need to make cheaper. The multiple print heads make it so you waste virtually no filament on swaps. However, at that price tag, it just isn't going to appeal to the majority of people who dive into the world of 3D printing.
I have pretty well decided that if I scale up the amount of printers I have, I will alternate between getting Bambu labs primarily and the few and far between Prusa printers that I can justify. My opinion may change over time about Bambu labs printers, but as much as I hear about them, they seem to last quite a while.
should've bought a bambu lab :D
Before shipping
@@JhustineProvido He did. He mentions it. Nothing like unrestrained fandom.
Good use of the Bane quote!
it was almost the title of the video, but it was far too long. I'm proud of that line!
When it comes to the slicer, many other companies in fact _base_ their slicer off of Prusa Slicer
I don't even have a Prusa, and I still use Prusa Slicer, it's just a really solid slicer
Prusaslicer isn't original software either. They forked superslicer.
@@Wang_Thunder I'm aware. Prusa is heavily modified, and makes significant improvements to the slicer its based on
Orca is better for me, even I have prusa
@@Wang_Thunder SuperSlicer forked off Prusa Slicer in 2018. PrusaSlicer forked off Slic3r in 2016, right about the time the final release of Slic3r was published, which was v 1.3.0, and why the first release of Slic3r Prusa Edition was 1.31.2. The beauty of open source is this whole history is public on Github. Except the part where Bambu tried to copy PrusaSlicer without publishing their initial work, and had to be called out in it.
@@Wang_Thunder Close... PrusaSlicer is a fork of Slic3r. Early versions of what is now PrusaSlicer were actually called Slic3rPE (Prusa Edition). They fully switched to the PrusaSlicer name once they had converted the source code from the original programming language (Perl) to the current one (C++). SuperSlicer is a fork of PrusaSlicer by supermerill. While SuperSlicer has a bunch of novel features (some of which have made it back into PrusaSlicer), it tends to lag behind the PrusaSlicer feature set. Prusa still credits the original Slic3r in the PrusaSlicer manual.
I bought my first 3d printer, a Prusa MK2.5S, that I assembled myself, less than six months later, the MK3 went on sale with a discount for MK2.5 recent owners, so I took it, and I sold my 2.5S to a friend. My MK3 was also a KIT printer. witch was upgraded later to a MK3S+. A wonderful experience.
At that time, my son had about 8 or 9 years old, some time later, Prusa started to sell also the Mini, I wasn't fully sure, several reviews later, I bought it, they send me the Mini+. Also in kit form.
My kid (less than 10 years old) assembled probably 95% of that printer. And the printer worked exceptionally since its first print.
Later I taught him how to unclog it, and even maintain the extruder.
I love Prusa brand for the experience. And at that time, the price (for me) was about right.
Right now, I already had those experiences (so my kid), I'm considering the next steps, I would like probably an enclosed printer, with possibility to print more exotic materials.
I'm not printing for money, so I wouldn't make 10.000 hours on it, a Bambu Labs, or the Qidi Plus4 are looking right for me, for even less than the Prusa kit, and already enclosed.
So, I still love Prusa brand, they do really great products with the best quality, but, at this time, I think others brands are offering me what I'm looking for.
PS: I already sold all our Prusa Printers, and as long as I know, all of them are printing quite right, so no Prusa printer was left behind.
I just moved from a prusa mk3 to the bambu lab a1 and man - that thing is something else. It’s almost a third of the price of the prusa but it feels like 10 years ahead. So easy and intelligent… I’m stunned
I can completely understand that. And it’s exactly the call I’d make too!
@@FauxHammer You started off well, but I think you ended up trying to please everyone just a bit too much for my taste. Truth be told, the A1 is superior in almost every measurable way, including build quality and looks (which are subjective, of course, but I doubt many would prefer the look of the Prusa) - all for around ONE QUARTER OF THE PRICE. I repeat: at the moment, you can get almost four A1s (not minis!) for the price of one MK4S, which is worse. That’s just insanity.
@@dnlzyummm. Respectfully. You’re saying the same things I said in the video…
@@FauxHammer Bambu Fan boys 😂
@@jayreed289Sorry. But objectively, you must see that it’s a better deal for easier to use more feature rich machines.
And more people will take ease of use over incremental difference in FDM print quality…
My Prusa came as a kit ! .. only that was worth it, hours of fun building (I love lego's and puzzles) ! [that and the gummy bears] .. once calibrated, it works like a charm, and keeps working for years, no questions asked. First thing I did: print sare parts for my printer (never had to use one).
All the entries from TH-cam were counted in the giveaway, and you happened to be the winner of the giveaway, to text check notification bell
@@Faux_Hammer .. dunno what to say .. never won anything before .. except: 'Thank you' ! (What do you give away exactly ?)
"... Plus shipping." Truer words have never been said.
It was so weird hearing about shipping and overseas support for me, since I live in same country as Prusa. Like wait, overseas is other way! :D
We got one of these mk4s’s at work recently, and my boss had me set it up with the mmu3 and enclosure. It was such a cool experience that I splurged on one myself (just the mk4s kit) without knowing a darn thing about the 3D printer market. Watching videos like this, I’ve come to find out it’s expensive relative to the rest of the field, but honestly I’m ok with it. I’m excited to get my hands on the thing when it comes in.
As an engineer who started printing to make prototype parts I honestly never thought channels like yours existed. Its a new perspective. Resin perfection, colors, and making no functional things is not my life and I almost clicked off during the changing spools gripe, but the rest the video i loved. I use them because i can bring strong materials, not for color. The prusa is a workhorse and thats what i need it for. Click print and have it just work. Also, $30 a kg is bad? Better check out protopasta. I would review a roll if i where you! There is nothing like it. When you need quality you pay for it is my mantra.
I have to say that the Elegoo PLA is pretty damn good, and at just over £8 per kg if you buy in bulk, it's exceptional value. I've not seen any difference in quality of print between the Elegoo stuff and other brands - in fact I'd say its bed adhesion is slightly better than Bambu filament, and it's £4 - 5 per kg cheaper.
Also the Elegoo TPU is pretty good - it does exhibit a bit of stringing (show me a brand of TPU that doesn't!), but nothing that interferes with a print, just needs a bit of post processing to make it perfect.
I have a Bambu P1S. I seriously considered the Prusa Mk4S, but when even the kit version is £300 more expensive that the base P1S, and more than £100 more expensive than the P1S/AMS combo, I just couldn't justify paying the extra
One thing I'm getting from a ton of these comments are that people are making them from the perspective of having or used an mk3. While the mk4 does look similar, it doesn't share much with the mk3 (which is 7 years old at this point).
This printer is definitely up to 2024 standards. It's the best i3 (bed slinger) 3d printer ever made.
Obviously core xy is the next generation, and is overall the better design for new and future printers. Can't wait until PRUSA makes a single core xy machine.
How can it be up to 2024 standards when it doesn't even have a camera and the MMU seems home made?
I've loved the running gag of "Before Shipping" being read the same way, with the same b roll each time. It made me smile.
I'm glad! I love it when people get the joke.
@@SethHenderson Truly their shipping can get insane.
Like they have no warehouse forwarders at all.
@@BeefIngot because they don't. This is why Chinese companies succeed, BL developed a supply chain, which allowed them to weather the recall saga, and allows for cheap parts and accessories ordered through their website. Prusa just lets you EAT the shipping fees
Thank you for this review!
That was quite the love letter to prusa ❤
As a bambu user myself (well... the budget..🤷🏻♂️) I can totally understand the points you made.
I own two Prusas, a Mk3s+ and MK4, both assembled from kits. I print design, art and functional mostly, working my way up to doing it professionally, and they're perfect for what I do. They are also reliable and easy to field-maintain. I plan on using these machines for years, as well as adding additional ones based on my needs, and if I'm going to run a farm, I want machines that I can rely on, from a company I can rely on.
I really appreciate all of the thought and care you put into each video. Thanks from Minnesota, USA!
My MK3S is a workhorse that prints at a phenomenal quality, THATS why people love them. "It just works" is one of the greatest compliments you can give a technical company these days in the age of ship-it-we-will-fix-it-later business culture. Unfortunately I do agree that they need to innovate or they will likely go out of business which will be a sad day for the 3D printing community. They really raised the bar for the entire industry.
Having used a X1C for work I can say its really awesome to get parts so fast out of a printer, but it does not feel as solid as a Prusa and the reliability and user experience just are not as good.
Everyone has a trusty go-to tool in their garage and that's what a Prusa is. It just works.
Very timely video. I just finally pulled the trigger on my first printer (Bambu) and a truly stupid amount of filament (Black Friday Sale!!) after doing months and months of research on this stuff. I kept running into people who loved the Prusa printers, but couldn't really justify the price other than saying, "They're just great!" This video answered the question more completely for me and I thank you for that. The user experience, depth of support, ease of use, and reliability is what made me choose Bambu. I didn't want a printer that I had to constantly fix, tune, or mess with just to get it to print. I just wanted to print stuff.
Arguably, Prusa seems to have the same thing...a great user experience, depth of support, ease of use, and reliability...okay, and maybe a slightly better/older pedigree than Bambu...but comparing as close to apples-to-apples as you can get between these two, the numbers just don't favor Prusa. If they were asking half that money, I'd be interested enough to look. But $1200 for a 210mm bed-slinger? I can't get there. If you told me it printed FDM in resin quality, I'd be first in line. But it doesn't.
I completely understand why people love their Prusa machines now. I'm hoping to love my Bambu A1/AMS-Lite just as much.
Thanks again for this one. Really great points all the way through. That black and orange is pretty tasty, though, isn't it?
Before shipping
Honestly, Bambu is just a better printer anyway
I also got a bambu for black friday
I get it. I do have a Prusa MK4, bought it immediately when it came out and have upgraded it with housing, MMU3 and now to the MK4S since then.
My first 3d printer was an Ender 2 Pro and then an Ender 3 S1. I learnt a lot about 3D printing by tinkering with those machines, breaking and fixing them repeatedly and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
At some point I just wanted something reliable. It was exactly at the time Bambu hit the market and I considered my options for months. In the end I decided to support Prusa because I knew I would be able to upgrade the machine and get all the parts to repair it if needed.
The support is excellent. After about a year my bed levelling didn't work anymore. I figured out what machine part broke on my machine and the support sent me the 50€ part, no questions asked. The online manual was all I needed to put the hotend apart and together again.
And what's so fascinating: Everything just works. I couldn't believe the first time the MMU3 just worked after I had printed the parts and put it together from scratch.
Are you me? 😁
@@comentator4481... You do understand that ich have the MK4s already, right? And that I like having easy access to spare parts, support and upgrades?
My experiences with creality were horrible when something broke.
And repairing my Bambu A1 Mini was a horrible experience although I like the little guy.
I had the same Bambu/Prusa quandry. (Nothing against Bambu, not a shill, just made the choice based on MY preferences here.) The S tier support and absolutely unique upgrade kits sealed the deal for me - not having to buy a whole new printer when they release an XL2 is just huge for me.
Clearly has the best build extruder on the market. That lovely plantery gearbox all metal, no plastic cogs like bamboo. The components are of far higher build quality. Have you seen a teardown of the A1 its cheap as you can get. Look at the print beds heaters, the a1 like a cheap chinese house heater. prusa is their own built custom heater system thats so clean. You do pay more for one of these machines but they will live longer, breakdown less, you can only really appreciate it when you build a kit model. I run a print farm, mostly vorons, i have also owned a bamboo x1. It had faulty bearings in its liner rail. the rails was like a 6 hour job to replace. The voron and prusa are like four screws lol. If you want long term reliability, easy repairs if something gos wrong, and a machine designed specifically to be a easy workhorse for a print farm, you wont find a better machine. you dont want to loose 6 hours fixing something when you should be earning money instead. Thier designed in two totally different ways. Thier almost a Elon musk thing, the best part is no part. In a print farm you don't want an enclosed machine that's harder to access components unless it's necessary. If 80 percent are printing pla and petg it's better to have a open simple high quality machine that simply works. For the jobs that need an enclosed machine well you have a few of those. Thier designed for totally different use cases, prusa is designed for a business case use.
On the other hand, the Bambu A1 prints faster and higher quality...
First, Bambu gears tend to last about 6000 hours. Then you can replace them for $30 whether they are worn out or not. Second, I doubt you had a Bambu since you spelled their name wrong. Third, you can buy 3.8 Bambus for the price of one Prusa - so even if the Prusa does last longer, it doesn't matter. Fourth - all Chinese print farms are moving to Bambu.
@@rsilvers129 I doubt you ever built a boring from scratch, I have 14 of them. Thier higher quality, sturdier and you can get help to issued in seconds from true geniuses on the siboor voron forum. Thier open source, infinetly upgradeable. My voron already taken over tech in the bamboo. Like the inductive bed leveling. Bamboo I consider a game console, voron the hand built pc version. Yes bamboo great, but the pc voron will always be ahead as new tech comes out. You never need a new voron ever. I have had bamboos. And I refuse to use them in my print farm now. Useless support, bad wattentee parts. The machines are Chinese mass produced for the lowest pos cost. The bed heaters are basically the same out of a old kettle lol. Moulded plastic annoying to repair, cust support rubbish. I'm sorry Thier great value for home users, but Thier really just disposable if in a print farm. Your not going to bother paying someone hours to repair one. It cost more than the machine. Which is why prusa and vorons make sense.
I got a1 and Prusa mk3s, prusa prints better quality prints. @overcaffeinatedengineering
The nice thing about having a lot of 3d printed parts is when you start adding your own stuff with 3d printing, it doesn't look out of place. I have mine in their original enclosure with the MMU3 and all 5 spools inside the enclosure and only the buffer on top of it which required a lot of self printed parts and you cannot distinguish it from factory parts.
Just from the looks and when you just want a printer on a budget that works of the box, the Prusa isn't the printer for you. It did well over 1000 print hours with minimal problems and I'm happy with it. I'm from Europe, like to support European companies and I'm in the fortunate position that not every Euro spent will hurt me. Still, I like to see Prusa catching up with more affordable Core-XY designs. They have to do something to compete with BambuLab, Sovol, Creality and all of the others. Their high reputation won't last forever.
For me it centers around the price / build volume. I'm not going to spend $1100.00 (US) for a Prusa bed slinger. For the price, you can almost get an X1C without the AMS or you can get three A1's, one with an AMS Lite. Build Quality and Print quality are really good on the A1. Hell, print quality (after some fiddling and adding my own accelerometer) is as good on my Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro (just keep the rods greased). But the point is, the print quality can be as good or better with a well built printer, and you can do it at 1/4 the price! Brand loyalty is one thing, but a brand that takes your money and gives you back less for your money than its competitors isn't doing you any favors either.
Completely agree, do I get better print quality here, yeah. Is it so much better that I should pay 3x as much whilst having fewer features… no
Qidi Q1 Pro, is similar build volume, enclosed, active heater, can print high grade filaments, it's less than half than that Prusa, and as you said, with a bit adjustment/fiddling, you can get great print quality on most modern printers
The question is will those printers last the same as a Prusa or will Prusa last you 3 times longer
@@17ronin And whilst I also agree with that argument. I also see that for the time my others last me. Even if this does last 3 times longer. both technologies will be arguably obsolete by the time either eventually dies anyway.
So, it;s a tricky one.
@@FauxHammer True dat ... Prusa does have the benefit of upgrades if you want new features, though admittedly the last one from 3s+ to 3.9 mostly didn't make sense financially. I guess a lot of it depends on how fast new "killer" features come to market.
Love the video. IMHO it is the old 'what is the definition of best' question. What is best for me, may not be what it is for you. Best in one area usually means worst (or at least less good) in the flip side of that. And I think Prusa printers embody that. As you rightfully state, they appear to be pretty bulletproof, solid workhorses, high quality, etc, etc. But.... You pay for that privilege, and you have to concede a few other aspects in return (speed is an example, and if you're a bit of a tinkerer like me, it is less 'tinkerfriendly' than say a Voron). But does that mean a Voron is better? That entirely depends on your definition of best... And agreeing with your opinion: I VERY highly respect Prusa for their printers. But I am not in the market for their products. For now. Who knows what will change in the future :)
Prusa slicer is the absolute best slicer. I've tried them all and I always go back to Prusa slicer. Your review and comments are much appreciated. I agree with your conclusions.
Interesting, i on the other hand absolutely hate it, the UI everything. Ehh guess its just a matter of preference.
orca slicer >>>>>>>>>>>>
@@petermikus2363 It may be what you started with. I started back on Slic3rPE (which became PrusaSlicer) and know the work flow that it is second nature to me, and I know exactly where to find the features that I want. I never could get into Cura. I've looked at Orca Slicer once and got lost (yeah, based on PrusaSlicer, but the UI is completely organized differently). I stick with PrusaSlicer because that is what is comfortable to me, and I get the new features that Prusa adds to it usually by the time they start putting out Release Candidates (I usually skip the alpha and beta releases unless there is a specific new feature that I want).
I suspect you are probably similar, but with a different slicer. As you said... "Ehh guess its just a matter of preference."
@@petermikus2363 I bet. Tried to switch from Prusa Slicer to Orca and I failed. It needs time to get used to the UI and for worse, with the provided profiles it prints way slower. Tried importing the profiles and this gave horrible results. I need a lot of time to tune profiles and get used to it.
I love that you can save and restore your entire settings. That makes working as a team so easy because you can always restore your exact setting without anyone having fiddled it.
Thank you for making this video! I find it crucial for new hobbyists to see where 3D printing is being developed and understand (or even respect) how and why the industry has developed to where it is now. So much of the technology market is based on proprietary technology and limiting accessibility to that technology for as long and as much as possible. When a company goes against the grain, it should be lauded and held up as aspirational for other, less-principled players. It's important to have different types of companies operating in any given industry for it to develop dynamically. By buying a Prusa you're contributing to the open source project and the ongoing development of 3D printing as a whole.
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For me the value is that if you have a machine that is build on printed parts (I manufactured my latest upgrage parts by myself) and if you have build it from kit you have machine, instructions and knowledge for a long lifecycle investment that can be repaired and maintained.
I bought a MK2s quite a few years ago, I loved it. I was able to justify the cost by telling myself I was purchasing the worlds most premium gummy bears that came with a free 3d printer :D
I hate to be a 'fan boy', but as a long-time Prusa owner that builds from kits (MK2 -> MK2/S , then MK3 -> MK3/S and now MK4 -> MK4/S) the one thing I know when I buy a Prusa is that I'm never going to be locked out of future updates, and that I will probably be able to easily 'update' my printer over time to make it better. This plus the more 'open' nature of the design (both software and hardware) makes me much happier with the company. As opposed to other companies which take open source designs (CoreXY designs from the community -> Bambu Labs X1C) and turn them into closed ecosystem products. I know if you haven't followed 3D printing you might not understand this, but everything 'new' in the Chinese printers has been pulled from various open source hobby projects, not invented by those Chinese companies. They are just benefitting from the work of others, but not giving back to the 3D printing community.
Don;t apologise for being a fanboy of anything. If you enjoy it and you aren't hurting anyone else and you are happy with what you got. Then stay happy with it!
Thank you for writing this comment. I really hope that people understand this. The danger is that when open source becomes untenable and if the more innovation-minded companies die out, the industry falls pray to greater and greater corporate consolidation and higher prices for less consumer value. For example Blender has been absolutely crucial in changing the 3D modeling industry. Without it, the dominance of the larger companies would be absolute and they would gate-keep more and more artists with higher and higher prices.
Great honest video! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the XL.
Excellent overview. Really enjoyed watching this and welcome to the party. I always love seeing new user experience and feedback and I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard "Ok I kind of get it now" 😂
Is it perfect? No, no printer is. Is it incrementally working towards tangible real world performance improvements? Yes, I think so. Is it giving you an affordable path to unlock your investment and continue to improve? Again, I think so. I hope you continue to see that the more time you spend in the ecosystem. 👏
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The reason i love my Prusas is the reliability to where i can hit print and not worry about it. Plus i think ive had to work on both of them maybe once or twice in the last year and half. And that was a probability a nozzle change. Yes price is a big thing, but you get a workhorse of a machine that just doesnt stop.
My MK3S is 2 years old, it chewed through 7300 meters of filament: PETG, PLA and TPU mostly. 77 days of printing time.
I have not done ANY maintenance to it except tightening bed heater contacts a month ago and wiping the dust now and then. Okay, maybe put a lube once or twice.
And it still just works.
Why I'd not choose bamboo? I don't like the company that takes so much from Open Source community and makes it's products proprietary. Oh, and the fact that China uses Uyghur people as slaves.
Another great video Ross. Honest and transparent. I feel this way army bamboo m. Cost allot at least to me $1500. However I pewss the print button and it works. I spent almost 4 years trying to get my ender 3 to work. Now I can print 3d stuff.
There seem to be a lot of comments disappointed with Prusa here. I started with Prusa and then moved to Bambu. Let me tell you when the X1c is running its great but 2 years down the line i'm having to fit a new bed at less then 800 hrs print time. Bambu support is useless, you wont get answers and it takes them approx 2 days to reply. You wont find this out from you tubers as many of them have non disclosure agreements. Is the little Prusa still churning out good prints - yes, Does it produce strong prints - yes! has it broken - no! Do they have good customer service - yes! Do they pay their workers well - Yes! Do they do anything for the community - Yes! I cannot say the same for Bambu. Is the printer fast - yes! Only when if it's working though! All in all just do your research before you buy into any system and remember quality is remembered long after price is forgotten!
I think one of the biggest reasons as to why they print their own parts is to show that it is possible, and if something breaks there is a chance you can just print the part yourself.
Lol, you better print your spares while it works 😅 I know what you mean, I've been there before as well. Printing a broken piece with a semi-functional printer, hoping it turns out well enough for you to replace the broken one, so you can print the good one. Then, print a set of all parts that can break. Nice memories!
What's the point of a dozen printed body components that can be ordered or printed from the nearest 3D studio if the most critical are the electronic components and motors. If your xBuddy or LoveBoard breaks, you have no alternative. Even a trivial breakdown of a thermistor or heating element nullifies the whole idea of printed components.
I think Prusa no longer offers a competitive entry in the hobbyist market, but still offers excellent entries for the professional/industrial market. I wish them the best -- and if they ever (somehow) return to the hobbyist market, I'll happily consider them.
Before shipping
This is my take also. A hobbyist can get a great deal more for a great deal less these days over Prusa. It makes a lot more sense for a business.
Even for industrial use prusa mostly isn't something
Prusa Pro is their industry brand then they have prusa regular for prosumers and print farms.
@@FrIoSrHy I would consider myself a Prosumer (90% of what I 3Dprint is for my business). I own a Prusa MINI (with 2.5k printing hours) I bought before Bambulab was a thing. I need to buy another printer in the coming months, and I honestly fail to see why I should buy an MK4. My MINI has had a fair amount of problems (specially after reaching 1k hours) and while Prusa support has been fast and friendly, they have mostly failed to solve my problems and I have had to buy almost an entire hot end to just start replacing parts until I found the culprit. It is not designed to print that many hours. It is not designed to replace the nozzle often, it is not designed to change filament types often. All this things can and will cause you trouble with this printer. They are still selling it for 2.5 times the cost of a Bambulab A1 mini that is a considerably better machine.
They designed a whole new bowden extruder and hotend to avoid putting the motor on the hotend so it would be lighter and faster with the cantilever design. The Bambulab A1 Mini has a direct drive that's way more reliable, can print flexible filaments and is considerably faster. Sorry, their prices are just not reasonable, not for a hobbyist and not for a small business.
I have an XL but, embarrassingly, haven't used it to print tabletop terrain yet. I've even got a few blood bowl pitches to print! Would love to see that angle included in the Prusa XL video you're doing -the print volume is surely ideal for terrain.
The build volume combined with the print quality is really a unique combo (and that's before we look at the multi-toolhead/material aspect - printing PLA with PETG supports or vice versa is a game changer). It had a bumpy start, but they've improved it drastically (print quality, noise reduction, new features) with firmware updates. It's absolutely not for everyone at that price, a little bit weird in some ways (especially the optional enclosure), but years after release (and after years of delays too)... there's still nothing else out there even remotely like it.
Thanks for answering this question Ross. I see the comments of folks who clearly are supporters of Prusa, but even they appear to acknowledge that the price point against a lack of innovation is starting to sour. It's for each person to consider the value of such a purchase and in the end, something is really only worth the price people are willing to pay for it.
Another good reasons for 3D printed parts is, when the model files are publicly available (as they are with Prusa printers), you can print your own spare OR upgrade parts. Or design new parts based on them.
Another major reason for the higher price that you didn't mention - it's not Made in China :)
As for "using the best parts", I've got the same expression, but was shocked to find they used 1.8 degree stepper motors quite late, before finally switching to more precise 0.9 degree motors.
And they definitely have been in the FDM printing business for a long time. VERY long time. My "Prusa" printer was originally bought in 2013 (I bought it half-built from the previous owner). Changed almost everything except main board, frame, screw rods and linear rods (but still have that one single original 3D printed part left).
For a long time, that basic printer design was the norm. Some manufacturers maybe changed frame material / type, but that was it. So it is / was very well known.
Eventually many other manufaacturers have started switching to different designs (or same design "inside a fancier box"), but Prusa has stayed much the same. For good or for bad.
And honestly, I think keeping it that way is a good idea. Design a new printer, that's different, for different market segment.
Although it definitely feels that XL is designed pretty much for the same segment :)
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Superb review. Quite likely your best one.
Thanks man, I have been so nervous about this all day, but with the feedback coming in from both sides supporting these views. I am pretty made up right now and so proud of this work.!
Very open minded and fair review. That's why I love his channel.
The commitment to the shipping bit had me giggling each time and i LOLed loud enough to scare my cat at the bane bit
After having enjoyed a Prusa MK3S (upgraded from a MK2 when it first came out), I've upgraded to a SOVOL SV08 for as much as an upgrade to an MK4 would cost. A Prusa XL is probably the best thing out there with its tool changing system, but I couldn't justify it given how infrequently I print. My MJ3S will be going to friend with a little boy who wants to do 3D printing.
I do respect Prusa, I dream of one day to have one. It would be a perfect platform for my design and prints with tabletop gaming because of the details and quality of the prints.
What is it that’s pushing you toward them over every other brand?
@ I am disabled with limited income. I can’t afford their printers. My focus is to launch my digital store to design and print tabletop terrain and eventually miniatures. Once I can establish income. I will be buying their brand. I no longer have the time to tinker and modify printers. I need to be productive. I am unemployable due to my disability. So my only chance of getting out of being on disability support is to reinvent myself. After long search and learning about CAD, 3D Sculpting and 3D printing I found a way. I can earn a passive income by selling digital files and make my design when my health permits it. It’s a scary balance as I generate income I will lose support. So I have to make sure I have a solid base of product to make that leap. I took a gamble on a Bambu X1C. It’s about the same price, but if anything goes wrong is cheaper to fix. I know I will make it, but until then I’m walking on a tight rope.
@ sorry…didn’t answer your question. The open source and their history with print quality. I know enough now about 3D printers that I could easily build my own. So if anything goes wrong it’s easy for me fix. There is not a lot to fix on them since they are true work horses with proven track record. They are just not attainable for me at this juncture.
When buying Prusa, you are a looking for a 3D hobby, not a device, that simply prints 3d objects and does everything you need ( as Bambulab does). I never bought Prusa, because I dont see myself investing so much money into a product, that has 3d printed parts. Also, it is not a beautiful product design in any way, compared to other brands. I got the fact, that Prusa has been a major player in 3D printing world, but they are starting to look "oldschool" in nowadays world of consumer electronics. So this is why I got Bambulab X1C and never looked back. Prusa wins a love of 3d printing nerds, while Bambulab wins both - 3d printing geeks and simple people, who just want to print some parts for their project.
for 3D hobby, you build a Voron kit and become certified armature robotics engineer
I bought the Prusa MK3S+ (kit version ) in 2021 and it's performed flawlessly since I got it. I got this printer mainly because the company I worked for at that time (an Alphabet medical device firm) had a small print farm of a dozen Prusa's (all of this same model MK3S+) which were used to make medical device prototypes. I saw over two years how these printers were running close to 24 hours a day during the work week and required little maintenance so that was proof to me they were reliable.
If I was going to buy a new printer today, I would definitely take a close look at some of the higher end Bambu models .
Bought an assembled Prusa MK3S+ in 2022, and had nothing but problems with print quality and consistency. Replaced the hotend and thermistor 3 times and still was throwing errors, and I'm a handy person....
Upgraded to an A1..... it's 5x the speed, 1/4 the price, and MUCH more reliable. The software is about a DECADE ahed of Prusa.... which uses the same type of firmware in the first printer I built in 2012... it's night and day.
@@Stevieboy7 Your experience is the exception to the rule. I know several Prusa owners and have never heard about reliability problems from them. Also, many commercial print farms have used Prusa's and post on You Tube with no mention of poor reliability.
You got a newer model where most of the printed parts are PC-CF so they look high quality. Imagine paying for a MK4S a year or more ago that looked half as good. The $5k Prusa XL I got from early 2024 is filled with PETG parts that look they were printed on a $79 Amazon knock off of a knock off. But looks are secondary, the PETG parts are known to creep over time and cause feeding issues in the print heads of the XL so that's a functional failure (again, $5k all in). And if you decide to pony up the $800ish (import, shipping, tax) for the enclosure, not another whole printer, then a couple dozen PETG parts need to be swapped out to accommodate the chamber temps. Because of the ability to swap between 5 print heads, it can be considered worth the above hassles, but print quality is still sub Bambu. Other than the 2-5 heads, does Prusa have anything else that other manufactures haven't had for a while or currently are introducing? The K2 has a very similar build volume to the XL, has an enclosure, 2 cameras, multi-color / multi-type filament (albeit a less efficient purge style) and several other features that the Prusa doesn't have and the price difference is $5k vs $1500.
Hands down the best opening line in any of your videos 🤣🤣
I'm glad that even though you didn't like everything about it that you still found things that impressed you. I'm very interested to see what you think about the XL, I like it a lot and while the price is VERY high the tool head approach is very nice.
Do the Lamborghini next! Basterds! They still go with the old design on 4 wheels.
Similar to many comments, I'm someone who moved from a Prusa (MK3S+) to a Bambu Lab A1. And F**K THAT. There's no way Prusa can justifies it price, and it's not just about the machine, which is NOT a consumer product unlike the A1 in that you can just fire and forget. Another issue is distribution chain, you can't get anything directly from Prusa without exhorbitant shipping fees. If you do not have a local Prusa distributor or able to get stuff shipped to you cheaply, stay away.
If you want your hobby to be 3D *printers*, get an Ender or build your own Voron. If you want your hobby to be 3D *printing*, get a Bambu Lan
I agree with your conclusion. Although there are fantastic options at much lower prices, I am willing to pay the premium for a Prusa because of their ethos.
I also absolutely love that they use 3D printed components because they showcase that well designed 3d printed parts are as good or better than alternatives. One thing you notice as you assemble the kit is that a lot of the parts are very well thought out with complex geometries that would have been prohibitive to manufacturer any other way.
I like Prusa's ethos, but I often suggest people shop around if they aren't as tinker-oriented as I am. A friend who just wants to print fun miniatures or models is probably better off with a Bambu or similar.
My MK3 has given me no trouble ever, and I've upgraded it to an MK4S recently. For now, Prusa has earned more trust from me than most other manufacturers. I'm open to changing that stance, so I check in on other printers from time to time. Won't really need another printer any time soon though!
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Prusa needs to face the current reality: if they don’t innovate soon, things will decline. I’m currently using Bambu’s A1 and FLSUN’s T1pro. I was previously a loyal Prusa user, but brand loyalty only goes so far. The value I get from other brands for the same investment is the main reason I switched.
Prusa already faced current reality and is nearly done implementing it. None of which has anything to do with ever selling someone like yourself a printer. They know where their sales are and they know they aren't in trouble. There is no profit in chasing the market served by Chinese printer companies. Chasing European and North American government and education sales, which is exactly what the moves they've made is very profitable. Their competition is companies like Lulzbot which as you know makes Prusa the cheap option, as well as Ultimaker, etc. They do have some competition in the education space from Bambu. Traditionally even schools rarely have a say in which companies they are allowed to purchase from. But the government contractors I move a single Stratasys they never use and a rack of Prusas they use daily. They can't buy Bambu etc, ever, period. Then you will notice most of their machine development has been aimed at the commercial market. They don't need to sell to individuals, many of their previous customers. Hell they can probably comfortably coast a decade the entire time people saying that they are in danger. Their competition already has.
Good review. I for once feel like I was not bamboozled.
All the entries from TH-cam were counted in the giveaway, and you happened to be the winner of the giveaway, to text check notification bell.
I have the MK4S and needed a part due to a misalignment when I installed the fan, they sent me the .STL file and I just printed it. Saved the time, money and shipping. Their support rocks!
So you are telling us you spent over a grand on a defective product they made you fix by your self and with your own material.....
@ read my comment again and then ask yourself if you still want to post your question. If I was installing the fan, would it not make sense that I bought the kit?
people making the point that their support is great: the fact support was needed is not a good look for prusa
Hey, I am Prusa user! :D
Jokes aside: I mostly agree, but wouldn't call Prusa techie-oriented. I got my MK4 as complete n00b, had it up and running in 30 minutes and never looked back. (Yes, I didn't build it from scratch, and I am not ashamed. Not everybody is a tinkerer.) For me it's actually a great entry-level printer. It just works and isn't too fussy, fiddly nor finicky. So if anybody has the money, I wouldn't think twice. It's really no rocket science. ;)
You would have same experience if you bought A1/A1 combo for, 350-500€/$. Same experience, same possibilities etc. And you have multi-material/multi color 3d printer from point 1
"It is an investment"
They got him boys.
I really loved Prusa for a long time, however, I also realized that for many, many years they completely ignored the landscape. I mean for god sakes the MK4 didnt even release with input shaping. If they want the quality price they have to also produce a superior product. I am sorry but even creality is beating them... a company that has been renowned for their entry level kmart type printers. Meanwhile, where is Prusa? I am in these slicers and I still dont see multi-layer for infill (something creality has had for like 5 years), I also only see bed slingers that have an abysmal z height. Their flagship is 3k and its not even an enclosed machine. The printers have no lighting, and they havnt really innovated all that much in a long time. I want to get excited about them but I look at a Prusa Mk4S and the price of a X1C and they are the same price... how does that make sense.
I bought the MK4 for a few reasons.
Reliability, Quality, Support, Repairability longevity
And you really have to value Non-Chinese manufacturing.
Also I bought the kit, I like kits and the build is fun if you like that sort of thing.
All those factors make the price worth it to me.
HAHAHHA. no
Yep! And don't forget privacy (Looking at you Bambu Labs). Ordering my kit later this month. Hoping to score free shipping or filament on Black Friday.
@@rawbeartoe_AK Yeah, I totally forgot security. You can completely air gap this machine and still use it's full capabilities. You can even do software updates via usb sticks alone. If you have sensitive information on your network (home or business) this may be the only safe printer for you.
@jamesgates1074 You can do that with Bambu too.
Jesus Prusa fanboys are tedious.
@jamesgates1074 I'm sure Bambu want to make millions with your self designed coffee pod adapter.
Great video! It’s a genuinely good and honest review that actually covers all perspectives! My experience is that Prusas are solid printers from a pure hardware point and the Mk4S speeds are actually quite competitive. The main problem is that their overall product/user design is kinda rubbish. Especially with the MMU3, while speedwise maybe superior, the user experience is infinitely worse than an AMS. Especially the amount of fiddling required and inability to keep your filament in an enclosed drybox are really a big drawback in my experience using the system. I was really excited to use my MMU3, but it’s honestly been the best argument for me to buy a Bambu printer
The MMU3 itself is a really solid bit of kit, works fast and produces far less waste. But I agree on the janky spool holders and buffer box. I don't print much multicolor, mostly inlays, but it's nice to have a few often-used filaments ready to go. And after a few days I gave up on the Prusa solution for feeding the MMU3. I printed 5 Filamentalist self-rewinding spools: just add some pretty standard hardware (plus a weird one-way bearing) and you're good to go. Make sure you print the "rear loading" version; these are super easy to load even when sitting in a dry box. You got room to push the filament into the tube and into the MMU3 with the spool sitting on the holder. I now have 4 filaments in a dry box ready to go, with a 5th spool holder outside the box for when I need other filament.
youtubers getting free stuff is worse than cancer
I've lost loved ones due to Cancer. So please go fuck yourself hard... I work my fucking ass off to do this!
I started out many years ago with the very first prusa mendel models but I now have a creality k1 max and I will never go back to bedslingers 😅
When I opened Bambu A1 box I was amazed by the finish of the product. Nice and well fitting injection moulded plastic parts and machined metal parts. Setup is easy and no unnecessary functions in the menu. Print and go. It prints quite well and cost less than 300 Euro. The Prusa may print better but looks DIY. I like form and function. Cheap, badly looking 3D printed parts in a so called high end product that looks like it was made in 1983? No thanks.
> Cheap, badly looking 3D printed parts in a so called high end product
Ignoring everything else, I prefer the Prusa optics over the "Apple-smooth-looking" look of Bambu Lab printers. So people *do* have different design tastes.
A1 is the first printer that looks like a commercial product
You only can get other printers with the same quality for half the price, because all of them are from China, while Prusa refuses to outsource and mainly still does everything in their headquarters in Prague, which I find very admirable too.
Besides that, I'd add to the list of positives: Their documentation is excellent and extensive, which is the backbone of every professional company. They have detailed guides for pretty much everything, including every kind of material. On top of that, I still get firmware updates with detailed descriptions of the changes for my Prusa i3 Mk3, which is now six years old and still kicking.
Yes, when looking for my first printer my first decision was nothing from China simply because Chinese people are slaves under unspeakable tyranny. Supporting China in any manner would cost me far more than any amount of money.
I use a MK3S from work, I think this assessment is pretty spot on. They're very solid machines with lots of support available, but if you just want to get printing on a reasonable budget it's pretty hard to recommend over a Bambu A1 even though the Prusa may be the better investment in the long run, especially if you're not in mainland Europe.
And if you support Uyghur's forced labour, right?
Seems like a very good tinkerers printer if you can afford the thing lol. Also good that it had good upgradability. Also little update on my time with my bambu lab A1, Been loving the thing since I took it out the box. I just love that to just load filament, press print and have a pretty flawless, finished print a few hours later.
Exactly. It's been transformative.
It has. A friend had an old ender 3 for a while and it was a finicky thing to set up every time. The A1 just saves him so much time
I just can not see the value of a paying $1000 to print PLA, and PETG slowly. Prusa is the printer we wanted a few years ago, now it just feels like the printer for elitist that want to brag about owning one.
Great looking quality prints!
Long time prusa owner 5+ years Upgraded my mk3 to mk3s and it's bullet proof. I've had a few others but my #1 priority is reliability. Prusa wins that, hands down. Just wish they did a 400x400. I'll be buying a MK4 once i make some more room in the workshop.
I upgraded my mk3s+ to a mk4 and am extremely happy. The quality of life improvements in the mk4 are so nice.
Paying over 500$ for a small bedslinger is plain stupid. Achieving same quality with any other modern printer is easy - use the same slooooow speed.
Other big issue is that basically its just ant an PLA/TPU printer. Yes you can print PETG with it at the warm day and if its nots tall part or you dont care about layer adhesion.
Its kind of sad that MK4 is basically MK2 with some upgrades. There has been no real innovation from Prusa a loooong time.
I remember the times when everybody did copy Prusa´s design .......
I use my Prusa Mini more than any other machine because it just kind of works. I never need to do something like tuning filament profiles, and their printer configs are really good out of the box. Compare that to my FLsun which only came with a 0.4mm profile, and it was garbage. Lots of tuning to get that machine just to be decent.
That's what people say about bambu too...
Overall printer quality has improved across the market.
Most new printers have mesh bed leveling. They have direct drive extrusion and better designed hotends and nozzles.
The one part that still varies a lot is the motion systems of cheap printers and the use of rods or linear rails. Some cheap printers still use a ton of generic extrusions.
My first FDM was an AnyCubic Kobra (original one). Never buy AnyCubic. My printer was defective from the start and they never got me up and running.
I then used used the mk3 extensively for work. After my AnyCubic experience, I loved it, full on drank the Prusa coolaid. (always hated that they are 3D printed)
Now I have an A1 (because of your review). I'd never go back. In Australia, I can have 4 A1s for the price of a MK4, or 2 A1s for the price of an MK3, and the A1 is better than the MK3 in every way. I won't compare it to the MK4s because I've never used one, but it would have to be 250% better than the A1 for me to even start thinking about it.
All the entries from TH-cam were counted in the giveaway, and you happened to be the winner of the giveaway, to text check notification bell
Ugh, my main complaint with Prusa is that they pretend like they built everything themselves. They did not create the slicer, they did not create the core designs of a bed slinger. They're standing on the shoulders of giants, but gaslighting us about how they are themselves a giant. Literally dozens of people have contributed hundreds of hours to 3d printing software and hardware without making a penny or taking credit for propping up the industry. Then there's Joseph Prusa who puts his name on the box and his face on the software, and takes credit for the open source software.
But don’t they openly credit the sources of these advancements as part of the open-source ethos?
They brought these things together, and credited the creators whilst other companies stood on the shoulders of giants and covertly said nothing about the OG’s?
Right?
@@FauxHammer Bambulab credits people just as much as Prusa does though, but Prusa gets a standing ovation for not actually even being fully open source while Bambulabs can't make any misstep lest it be amplified. I reckon this is what they're talking about.
Prusa has a weird supernatural aura around them to some people to the point you'd be lead to believe they saved the very concept of 3d printing.
@@BeefIngotbut they didn’t though. That’s what I have learned in this. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still here saying I’d but a Bambu over this. But let’s be honest about the history. From what I’ve been told, They only started saying “based on Prusa Slicer” after a lot of pressure.
But still yeah. As I said in the video. I can still get a more feature rich printer for less than half the price with good enough quality (as I show Bambu prints on the screen)
Upgrade policy is pure BS, it will cost me 740 euro (plus shipping) to upgrade my MK3S to MK4S, I mean, WTF?, for 100 I can just have 2 printers. Also now I'm aware that selling point of overhang was misleading, it was a bug in bambu studio and orca slicer. Monday I've received my X1C, and putting an end of an era of paying overpriced hardware just for the open source ethos.
That prints so nice! I started recently with 3d printing a friend of mine had a broken ender 3 v1 with i fixed, it's great fun :)
I think the biggest reason you see people fanboy over Prusa is Reliability. At this point they aren't the fastest or most innovative but They are the printer that never stops working. I've had a MK3s for almost 6 years now and I have over a year of Printing hours on it with almost zero maintenance. I would like to upgrade to something faster and high tech, but my printer is still producing high quality prints even if it's a little slower.
Prusa is not fully open and I actually am quite annoyed they get their cake and to eat it.
The XL isn't open, the Mk4 doesn't include a full step file, etc etc.
They also do misleading marketing frequently (not worse than some brands but more than other high end brands).
Also, their big problem in my opinion is that they design in such a way that requires so much manual labour vs more automated more mass manufactured techniques.
People talk about labour costs but Chinese wages are only ~25% lower (based on official stats from each respective government from 2023) so that can't account for the price difference.
How do you think we get "free shipping" on €10 orders on Aliexpress etc, it's not about labour alone.
@Gepstra The loopholes that apply there to do with small packages getting funded by various governments isn't related.
While yes their government can be friendly to their businesses, there are many ways that's true for various businesses. For example, Bambulab has no direct connection with their government.
@@BeefIngot Ah yes of course, they are the exception.
@@Gepstra That's an idea yes, but what I've found the more I look into it, it's more like there are a minority of favoured companies and industries (like Ev manufacturing) and it's not quite the "everything is subsidised to high hell" that people think. it's not just them, but I believe Sovol, Qidi and others simply exist as normal companies.
For sure once again, they do have systems which lift all boats (make life easier for corporations) but so do all sensible countries to some degree.
I picked Bambulab just because they're the commonly brought up example and I'm kinda irritated that people will make up anything to avoid calling Prusa on what they need to be called on, which in my opinion is their underbaked releases, half hearted/misleading opensource efforts and overly manual labour intensive design choices resulting in expensive to manufacture machines.
@@BeefIngot "Prusa is not fully open source, I'll pick Bambulab instead"
My God.
I made that decision today and bought an A1 combo in the sale even though I have a MK3 S.
I hope people don't buy Prusa because it is value for money. Prusa is made in the EU and prices, I am pretty sure, won't go down. If you want Prusa to shift production to China, then what is the point of purchasing a Prusa? Another reason I bought a Prusa is I want to support a compay that is supportive of the open source community and one that does not forget its roots. But I understand that the counter argument could be that I am drink too much of their coolaid and companies will say whatever you want to listen to take your money. But as of right now, their actions seem supportive of their vision.
Yep. Buy whatever you want. I try to buy products that are made by employees with good jobs, and lives.
Agreed and if you want to support that and that is your choice and you have the capital to back that up. I support you in your decision.
We can say it´s a FDM printer for Hipsters.
😂
I've been with Prusa for years ... BUT I also have a K1Max and a GKTwo, I only use the prusa if it's a smaller detailed part or something the k1Max just can't handle (and there's a fair bit the K1/Bambu struggle with at quality). I mainly use FDM for things like board games inserts and organisers (and that's about it) the GKTwo for minis. It has its place but I've not felt the need to go MK4 YET. I probably will but as its been with my previous i3's / Prusa's it will be a kit.
Partly to save money but also because it means I understand EXACTLY what goes where and how it works (and how its changed from my original RepRap) Building it has so many pluses.
But ... and its a big but ... I'm now only using it for FDM stuff that I'm not happy with on the K1 max (and its a LOT slower - that's the one thing that MAY send me to the MK4 - just not yet) so I'm in no rush and and the price is around 200 Euromore than I paid for my MK3 (although some of that was offset for the S+ upgrade kit) - ( *could* just get the upgrade which brings the cost down a lot - but I'd prefer to get a full kit and pass on the 3s+ to my local makerspace (which I'd did with the previous 2 Prusas and my BQ Hephestus and H2)
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New subscriber here, just wanted to bring up often conversations I have with people who are interested in 3D printing and ask why I have Prusa over Bambu.
I simply like to bring the argument that Bambu Labs are user friendly and are plug n play printers.
Whereas Prusa is more customizable and require more hands on experience for the printer.
To dumb it down, I always mention that Bambu is like Apple phones, while Prusa is like Android, more specifically Samsung.
Apple is straight forward and work for people who want simplicity. Samsung does the same, yet the Android aspect of it offers customizations, rooting softwares, jailbreaking, ect. that aren't usually offered features to any stock iPhone.
Same thing with Prusa, I can mod the living shit out of it if I really wanted to, and with the community backing it, there are so many unofficial upgrades that make life so much simpler when it comes to printing.
Guess it's similar with PC builds, you can get a pre-built or just build your own rig.
Just putting this out there, I do plan on getting a Bambu Lab P1P, yet with the intention of modding it to my own personal wants. So more than likely it would be a used one, I'm a tinkierer, so naturally I like to play around with dissecting tech and modifying it.
I have five Prusas, my first two are the Mini + and my 2nd is the MK3S+, both were kits bought directly from Prusa. The other three are MK3S+ that I bought used/broken and I fixed them up myself to get into a working printing state for a fraction of the price.
I did upgrade my first MK3S+ to the MK3.5 and I absolutely love it. I plan on upgrading the other printers indefinitely, and since the used ones were bought at a fraction of the price, the upgrade prices don't look too unattractive from my perspective.
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Prusa printers up to the MK4 are a representation of a philosophy, a school of thought, and a kind of cult. They look like a DIY product because that's what they are at their core, they've been built that way forever, with printers printing parts for other printers, exactly as it should be if you want to stay true to the philosophy of Prusa and the early 3D printer assemblers. They may seem cheap (and they are not) or expensive, but let's not forget that 95% of them are built in Europe and not in China. It is true that Bambulab is a formidable opponent for them and their products are better and faster. But they are soulless if you will. Prusa still embodies the pure spirit that was behind amateur 3D printing and they have remained true to themselves. You only have to watch a few video tours of their headquarters to see how they have evolved while staying true to their roots.
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I believe they work well, but its 2024 and I dont want my printer look like diy kit from 2010, I want it to not only work almost as appliance, but also look like an appliance.
And I hate how company owner sticks his name and face everywhere - for example branding their filament "prusament" or placing his photo in the user manual...
100%
Its not only that but the fact that you can get 3d printer with same characteristics for 50% of price of prusa printers. Prusa was relevant in beginning of 3d printing but they are slowly becoming non relevant, releasing unfinished 3d printers for 2x/3x price of 3d printers from concurrency which are releasing full working 3d printers with all features which they mentioned. They are presenting printers with input shaping etc, keeping the price, releases and sells that same printer and says "it can have input shaping in future"...
I'm supporting a European manufacturer, who pushed the tech forward for a decade, providing a printer which makes dead-reliable accurate prints without fuss. Not having to fight the machine or the software is hugely valuable to me.
Everything you said about prusa applies to bambu. That's why so many jump to bambu
Except the supporting a european business that pays workers fairly and sources as many components as they can from within europe.
@@Kay0Bot Bambu Lab is a Chinese company. I didn't say anything about the rest not applying to other brands as well. However, when I bought my Prusa, Bambu had not yet hit the market, when I upgraded Bambu had not been thoroughly tested. So I chose Prusa. Would I do it again? I don't know, I'm not buying a printer now.
As far as whether Bambu Lab pays their workers a fair wage, and behaves fairly in the market? I don't know. I trust Prusa is.
Ahh I get it now... didnt want to be overly critical as you are waiting for your free XL ;) very clever.
Except…I already had the XL before this
@@FauxHammer Be interested to see your review then. It seems some people love it some people hate it. Quite an expensive beast that one.
@ I’ll save you waiting. I do not love it…
Printed parts are genius in a way - Prusa basically made stress testing of printers profitable. Think about it, they need to stress test whole printers and also need to produce parts. Ideally with ability to quickly change design and stress test it again. Boom, two birds with one stone!
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Pre-Bambu A1, Prusa had its place in the market for those who didn't feel like tinkering much with their printers.
Post-Bambu A1 ... there's VERY little to warrant charging 3 times as much for a printer which doesn't even have multi colour options.
Also, who wants their 3D printers to look nice? Well, I got three people to buy a Bambu A1 because they were not only impressed by its speed, they also loved how it looked so modern & nice so it wasn't an eye sore in a public area.
The Prusa has a multicolor option the MMU which is an addon very much like the AMS for bambu
@@petermikus2363when or if it actually works 😂
@@petermikus2363 Oh yeah, I remember that - wasn't it terrible though? I haven't kept up with its releases but the MMU1 & MMU2 got pretty bad reviews IIRC.
That's pretty much where I'm at. When I was getting ready to retire my ender 3 pro, I was dead set on getting a prusa. But a quick look around and I found out about bambu, and the A1 and A1 mini. I bought a mini and was so impressed with the fit, finish and print quality I now have my mini with an MAS litw, three A1s, and my wife has a mini and an A1 with AMS lite. Amazing printers.
@@NWGR I bought the A1 Mini at first as well, then bought the A1 shortly after and run the AMS on the A1. The A1 Mini is great for smaller single colour prints (which is like 90% of what I print) but what I love about the AMS is how easy it is to swap filaments. Even with the machine turned off you can just swap everything around. I do hope they release a larger one soon though - 256x256mm is quite nice but a lot of stuff barely fits.
I have literally met Joseph Prusa and told him straight to his face that I can't afford his printers and if I could, I'd probably not be buying his but all in good fun - he is a great guy but they clearly do not care about affordability.
the bane bit hits
Let's be real here. If we're talking about filament printers, it's basically down to Bamboo X1 Carbon or Prusa Mk4s. The Bamboo is $1000 without an MMU. The Prusa is... $1032. Bamboo's MMU is $200, and Prusa's is $382. So the Prusa MMU is overpriced, right? Multicolor prints take about HALF THE TIME on a Prusa as they do on a Bamboo, AND with less wasted filament.
For normal prints, they're about the same on speed for real-world prints (Prusa's benchy is impressive, but the single-walled trickery isn't representative of real world printing). Other than that, the Bamboo comes pre-enclosed, which is a legitimate upgrade for the 100 or so people on the planet who regularly print in ABS.
So Prusa cost comparable and performance comparable to it's closest competitor but with a more performant and more expensive MMU. All that, and I can buy all the parts for a prusa from their store. They sell upgrade kits. Their printer's CAD FILES are open source. Their software is open source. Their support staff ISN'T AN INDIAN CALL CENTER.
Call me a "prusa fan" if you want, but I'll spend the extra $32 (Gosh, so overpriced!) to support Prusa (and, by extension, Bamboo's) continued innovation.
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I gave up my Prusa for the Bambu and never looked back
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I think your views are about right. I do love the idea of prusa, the support the attention to detail the openness and so on but i think the i3 has just had its day (i also love its made in the EU and they control almost all there supply chain now).
They need an enclosed Core XY or better yet a moving gantry CoreXY (think voron 2.4). I hope that the prusa XL is a preview of where the mainline prusa is going. I know for that support and the company ethos i would be happy to give up my X1C in a heartbeat, assuming it had a more modern multi material system. Its just too dam convenient to just have all the spools in a magic box that makes them work, and i hardly do any multi colour or multi material.
To borrow a line from the old top gear when Clarkson is comparing the M3 to the i8. " There must have been a moment in history when everyone had typewriters (an i3), and typewriters had been around for years and they where brilliant and then someone came along with a laptop". That is how i see the old bed slingers vs the more modern offerings mainly from bambu.
If Sovol, Creality and Anycubic are Toyotas and Nissans, and Bambulab is the new BYD - then PRUSA is a Bentley. Coach built, love of detail, well thought out and you pay for that.
It’s becoming a cliche now. Prusa is becoming the BlackBerry of 3D printers. Good and very reliable device, but left in the dust by the iPhone.
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