BambuLab X1 Carbon REVIEW

BambuLab X1 Carbon REVIEW

The most talked about 3d printer of the year. - aaaaaand I've finally managed to get my hands on it. So excited !!! As  promised I'm about to make a little review, share my thoughts, do some comparisons and the usual geeky stuff we like to do around here.

So far I mostly used Prusa i3mk3s printers for my projects, as well as the Anycubic photon(a resin printer). Prusa’s have been my trustworthy companions for a long time now,  so  I was very eager to see how this one stacks up against them.

I purchased the x1 carbon with AMS ( auto material system) and I was trying my best to approach this honestly and non biased as much as i could, even though i am a Prusa fan. Well, at the end of it all, i’m just gonna say it, i’m a Bambu Lab fan now as well.

There are minor downsides to the machine, but those downsides are something I think we were looking forward to the most, so even though this is an insanely amazing machine, it is not perfect by all means. So let’s start with the downsides first as there are not that many :)

• this thing is loud (not really a downside but thought i’d mention it) - if you print on silent or normal mode, it's ok, but if you go to sport or ludicrous mode - then this thing will shake and produce quite some loud noises. I myself didn’t really find this to be troublesome, and the faster it goes, the louder it is, so you can kind of control that as well. I don’t mind the noise as long as the machine works nice - and that it does

• auto calibration and flow at the start of every print - this process takes lots of time. Yes it can be turned off, so once again, not really a huge downside. Even after turning off auto calibration and flow calibration, the bed leveling and the process to start the print takes about 8 minutes to complete.  Now that might seem like a lot, but the printer is fast , very fast, so these 8 min are nothing really. Few prints in, I don't even notice it any more , and it still gets the print completed faster than any other machine out there :)

• AMS - now this was the biggest disappointment for me as this was what i was looking forward to the most. Multi-color prints waste a lot, and I mean ALLLOOOOOOT of filament and take A LONG time to print.   I see this as a nice gimmick, but I can't see it as a means of doing some real products with it as it would not be cost effective. ( as an example - the 45 mm high Santa from Printables web page, printed in 4 PLA colors took almost 7 hours to complete, and about 20 g of filament needed to print the Santa, while the purge block and filament waste was almost 80 g of filament - now that is waaaaay too much!!).    On the side note- when it comes to how well the AMS works , the guys over at Bambu lab did once again a perfect job - The AMS works amazingly well, the colors are nice, and the prints are beautiful.
  
  However I can not get over the time/waste material produced. I saw some people mentioning you can print multiple same objects so that will reduce the amount wasted, you can tweak some purge settings, but as someone who really wanted some multicolor single prints, i am not overall happy with it and can’t really see myself using it that much for multicolor prints even tho i would really really really love to.   

• I still use the AMS -  having 4 filaments (the ones I use the most) loaded in , so I just switch between them in the software. I was considering removing the AMS and using a single filament only, as I don't see myself using multicolor prints with the current AMS setup, but the 4 filament loaded in / easy access has an appeal to it. Especially since I can choose from 4 materials from a distance (remote app/wifi) without any extra work. . I truly hope the way AMS and multicolor work will change, as I really want multi color prints.

• bambulab cool plate - well, i don’t like using glue - and this one needs glue - not for adhesion, but so you don’t damage the plate bcs it sticks to well. The glue acts as a release agent,  but I've gotten used to it now, so it's not bad. I also ordered the double sided textured PEI print bed, and this one doesn’t need glue, so I'm waiting for it to arrive.   Once again, this isn’t really a big deal, I thought I'd just mention it.  It is also a 256x256x256 m print volume size - I myself am in need of a larger printer, so that is a mini downside for me personally, but the overall print size is great and you can put quite some large objects on to it.

• print quality comparison - THIS IS NOT A DOWNSIDE - buuut i wanted to mention it - this machine prints amazingly well. It's fast, it's amazing, HOWEVER it prints only slightly better than my Prusa i3mk3s (it does print 3x as fast to be fair with a nicer print quality). So that makes me wonder - X1 carbon has all this tech like Lidar, vibration compensation, and so on and on, and the quality is almost the same as on a few years old Prusa machines that don't have all this tech ? Has FDM printing reached the top ? Is there nothing to be improved when it comes to surface finish on the filament printing ?   
  
  IF you don’t care about the print speed and wifi /smart features - and already have a Prusa machine, then there really isn’t that much of a reason to upgrade. You will not experience insanely nicer printers when compared to Prusa i3mks. Are they slightly nicer ? Yes. Are they nicer by a lot ? No - and that’s my honest opinion.

Now the GOOD STUFF - and there is ALLOOOOOOOT of GOOD STUFF !!!!!!

• the print quality once again - The surface finish will have cleaner lines and nicer surface finish overall compared to my Prusa i3mk3s  -and almost 3x as fast for nicer finish, now that’s impressive. Pro tip - on smaller parts turn off “slow printing down for better layer cooling” and add a slower outer layer so its prints with the same speed, the surface quality will be much nicer. If you keep the print sped the same the printed parts will look much nicer overall compared.

The cool thing is, even at insanely fast speeds, the surface quality is amazing, the machine is fast, and does the job very very well. Parts that you would usually print at 0.2, can now go at 0.1 and you’d still be done faster, which was “wow” to me. Ofc if you want/need that kind of thing, and since I mostly print for showcase, printing stuff at higher resolution than the standard 0.2 now seems more of a standard option to me bcs the prints are done much much faster now. I love this machine :D

• first layer inspection - the printer checks your first layer and lets you know if the first layer has been placed down properly. You can then choose to resume or try again - how cool is that ? :D

• the app - mobile and desktop - you can control your printer’s speed, lights, temperature, pause it, stop it, inspect the print , and so on and on. The app is one of the best things about this experience. This now feels like a reliable machine that you can use remotely and the app does the job so well, I'm very impressed with it.

• auto wipe nozzle and poop chute - yes it has an auto wipe nozzle feature, allowing you to fire up the printer even if you’re not in the same room with it to manually clean the nozzle. The extra filament waste is ejected at the back of the print. Love it !

• camera - the machine has a camera built in you can use for lots of stuff - it can detect if you print failed, if there’s filament spaghetti, you can watch your prints in real time, check up on them, you can record timelapse video, you can take photos of your prints from the camera. There are all sorts of detection features, so coming back home to a failed print is close to impossible right now with all those features :)

• the speed - oh the speed :D even in the slicer you’ll notice this thing is FAST. That speed is considered “normal”, you have a “silent” option , sport option and ludicrous speed option - that one is insane !!! I’ve never seen a machine work so fast while still keeping the print surface so nice. You just have to experience it for yourself (attached i have added a video of the ludicrous speed in real time).

• wifi - ever since i got it i didn’t use the SD card (it uses micro SD cards). I just send the print to the printer via my pc or mac  and i love it. The fact that I can be out of the office, and set up and start the print, without having to worry about “clean the nozzle” or anything else, it’s just fantastic. I really love this. Ofc you can use the micro SD card if you like, but you actually NEED it if you wish to record timelapse videos. So it’s a good thing to get one, but wifi mode is top notch.

• full color touch screen display -I am amazed at this - love the full color touch screen display - you can control your printer from it, turn fans on, off, inner lights, load, unload AMS filaments,  and best thing is you also get to see what you are printing. There is the stl preview on every print job with print info that you can set up in the Bambu lab app, so that it looks like a high end professional machine  now. I love it.

• printer lights, doors, activated carbon filter - it has a light on the inside that you can turn on/off, to take a better look at your prints. Love it :D There is a front door with magnets to keep it shut as well, top glass cover that you can choose to have or not have. I keep my on as I have the AMS on top of it, but it's a nice touch. And there is the activated carbon filter for air flow.

• IT’s hot - all metal hardened steel nozzles can reach up to 300 C, and heatbed up to 120 - so pretty much any material you want to print with this, the printer has you covered. In the AMS there is also a filament cutter included that cuts the filament itself so any filament switches should be performed without any problems whatsoever.

• sensors - ALL KINDS OF SENSORS - as far as i know it has lidar, filament runout sensor, door sensor, chamber temperature sensor, rfid reader for filaments, belt tension sensor, filament odometer, chamber camera, ofc hotend and heatbed heat sensors, first layer inspection, spaghetti detection, active vibration compensation. This thing is SMART !

• 3mf in bambu slicer - for the first time I can finally see the benefit of 3mf file formats. Bambulab 3mf will allow you to store not only print settings, colors, materials, but also photos of your projects, instructions, descriptions, all of it.   That being said my next idea is to create a project exported at 3mf that will have all the mystery makers goodies included ( descriptions, links, assembly maps, all of it) - so we can test out how well that will work, and see the upsides and downsides on that, but yeah, 3mf is on the way, i can see this being a future 3d printing standard file format. IF you have a bambu lab, drop me a message, i’ll add you as a beta tester for mystery makers 3mf file formats.

• Bambulab slicer - yes yes, i’m a prusa fan, and prusa slicer is still my #1 - but this is pretty damn close. It’s easy to use, it's very similar to a prusa slicer, i don’t like how it manages the scale, but the rest is ok. It's super easy to set up, and wifi controls for your printer are amazing, as well 3mf integration and the ability to set up multiple print beds and manage your projects much much easier. I love the multiple print beds feature.

• reusable spool holder - this one is self explanatory. The goal with 3d printing for me is always to reduce waste, so i like the reusable spool holder ( that's why the AMS waste amount doesn’t make sense, yes , i’m still in AMS waste pain XD)       
  
  
  
  
  RECAP :  - the printer is amazing, its fast, its reliable, it does everything they say it does, prints are so damn nice. Is it perfect ? Not really, but close. Most filament printer competitors out there should be worried by now as these guys made an amazing machine.     
  
  The AMS works fantastic, but the waste it produces needs to be reduced somehow !  I would also love to see a larger print bed in the future, but in complete honesty - this printer will spoil you. Do not get this printer as your first printer bcs you’ll never know what it means to struggle with your 3d prints :D haha.    

 All jokes aside, this is a fantastic machine and very well recommended, i love it, and yes, I'm a Bambu Lab fan now. It’s living up to its reputation, no doubt this is THE BEST consumer filament 3d printer you can get right now.    

Hope to see more from Bambu Lab in the future, and i’ll go run some more prints now.  

Bambu Lab team - well done !!!!