Joseph Prusa just answered the challenge that Bambu put to him, starting with the Bambu X1 Carbon Kickstarter back in 2022. I was getting a little worried that their answer was the Prusa XL, which despite being a premiere product, is not really something on the level of an X1C+AMS for ease of use. Their new Prusa CORE One on the other hand, will check a lot of the boxes for both home users and businesses. Though it also appears to lack some of the quality of life features that the Bambu printers are well known for.
Starting with the positives, the CORE One has active chamber control for printing some difficult materials, though I don't think it has an additional heater for the chamber (I have not read about that at least). This probably means that there is a vent fan which attempts to hold the chamber temp in a range, but the heating is likely provided by the waste heat from the bed and hot end. There is also a reasonably large print volume of 250×220×270 mm. That is not as large as the 256×256×256 mm volume of the X1 and P1 Bambu printers, but plenty large for a mid-size printer. It may be a bit small for doing full size cosplay helmets, but other than that, the volume seems like a big positive in my opinion. The Prusa lacks a cutter as well, so does not take the hit from having a small bite out of the front left corner of the build plate (as the X1 and P1 printers do). The CORE One has a reasonably svelte footprint of 415x444x555mm (for comparison to the X1C's x,y,z footprint is 389×389×457mm), and the door can be mounted to open from either side. The footprint incorporates a spool holder in the side, which could give some additional benefit, depending on how the printer is oriented. The MK4S features are carried over to the CORE One, which is both a smart and typically Prusa thing to do. That also leads to probably the biggest positive for the CORE One, which is that they will offer a conversion kit to upgrade a MK4S to the CORE One! If the pricing on the conversion kit offers a reasonable discount to the CORE One kit, it will be 'uge.
Prusa also took square aim at the biggest hangup for some users (or potential users) of Bambu printers, which is the perception of security. Regardless of what you think of the security of Bambu Printers, they are very proprietary, with opaque firmware and encrypted communications back to the mothership. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for that though, and most people would not want even the innocuous printer data sent in the clear. So for home users, I feel the issue is largely overblown. For business users however, especially ones that have special use cases or an IT department that must approve anything that touches their networks, the question of security is paramount. For it's part, Bambu launched the X1E, which is basically an X1C with an ethernet port (and some other upgrades). However Bambu's X1E may not be enough to assuage some users, and the premium is quite steep (around $2500 as I recall), which makes space for the CORE One.
So what does the CORE One offer to these security conscious users? Primarily, it has an ethernet port standard (as well as Wi-Fi), and allows for sneakernet firmware upgrades over USB, when a printer must be isolated from the network. You can of course run a Bambu printer in LAN Mode, and they have opened up offline firmware updates over USB for the X1C too (though I have not tried that out on mine). Still though, I think it is a positive for Prusa that they will be introducing their printer with those capabilities baked in, which will check some boxes for business customers.
Prusa is also well known for being supportive of open source, though for the CORE One it's complicated. But it should offer more customization (aka "hackability") out of the box, than the Bambu offerings. That could be very useful if doing something like automating a print farm, or adding some special processes to the printer for off the wall applications. And with the possibility of a big chunk of the existing MK4S user base converting over to the CORE One eventually, the possibilities of community mods for the printer is also pretty good too.
So What's not to like? Well for one, the Prusa multi-material unit (MMU) runs another $300-360, and lacks an enclosure or spool rewinders like the AMS. The MMU3 is also just as limited in being truly multi-material as the Bambu AMS, since with both the Bambu printers and the Prusa CORE One, there is only one extruder (unlike the Prusa XL with the optional, additional print heads). Maybe Prusa will address the lack of a material enclosure with something new and innovative, but for now, my humble opinion is that the AMS is difficult to beat for a plug and play answer to multi-color printing. I also feel that Prusa missed an opportunity to make an effective air filtration system for their new printer. I'm sure that there will be 3rd party solutions, but an effective, integrated system to manage air quality would be a leg up over the Bambu printers, and other premium printers on the market. And finally, the price for the printer volume is very close to the Bambu offerings, which is both good and bad. It's good that the CORE One is a reasonably sized printer with competitive features. But the not so good is that the Prusa CORE One seems closer on key features to something between a P1S and an X1E (or X1C for regular consumers). Yet if compared to the P1S (on the lower end) on price alone, the CORE One is quite a bit more expensive.
I think, or maybe hope, that there is enough room for the Prusa CORE One and the Bambu P1/X1 printers to peacefully co-exist, since both companies are innovators which have really advanced the tech in consumer 3D printing. It seems to me at least, that Prusa is not targeting the same customers as Bambu, which are the folks that are buying a first or maybe second printer, and just want a frictionless experience from unboxing to printing. That should be no surprise though, since Prusa knows who it's customers are. They are people who have enough experience with 3D printing to understand the ins and outs of basic calibration and printer maintenance, and the scar tissue to understand the value of a quality product. They are also users who may value a more open platform which they can maintain with many (though definitely not all) off the shelf parts if needed. That Prusa is offering an upgrade path for current MK4S owners, and a kit version of the CORE One as an option, should underline that point. There is going to be overlap for commercial and educational users though, where Bambu and Prusa can fight it out. That overlap is probably also what focused Stratasys like the Eye of Sauron on Bambu, so hopefully Prusa can continue to fly below the radar, and not get swept up in a similar ugly drama.
Opening up a new front with Bambu, before Bambu releases it's next big thing in early 2025, is a smart move for Prusa. Even if they won't directly compete with whatever Bambu releases next, it seems likely Bambu will incorporate lessons from the X1C and X1E into their new product, in order to appeal to commercial and educational users (which the CORE One also targets). I'm happy to see that Prusa has finally answered the challenge from Bambu's X1/P1 series in their own unique way, and the CORE One looks like the perfect "Prusa" Printer to do it.
Starting with the positives, the CORE One has active chamber control for printing some difficult materials, though I don't think it has an additional heater for the chamber (I have not read about that at least). This probably means that there is a vent fan which attempts to hold the chamber temp in a range, but the heating is likely provided by the waste heat from the bed and hot end. There is also a reasonably large print volume of 250×220×270 mm. That is not as large as the 256×256×256 mm volume of the X1 and P1 Bambu printers, but plenty large for a mid-size printer. It may be a bit small for doing full size cosplay helmets, but other than that, the volume seems like a big positive in my opinion. The Prusa lacks a cutter as well, so does not take the hit from having a small bite out of the front left corner of the build plate (as the X1 and P1 printers do). The CORE One has a reasonably svelte footprint of 415x444x555mm (for comparison to the X1C's x,y,z footprint is 389×389×457mm), and the door can be mounted to open from either side. The footprint incorporates a spool holder in the side, which could give some additional benefit, depending on how the printer is oriented. The MK4S features are carried over to the CORE One, which is both a smart and typically Prusa thing to do. That also leads to probably the biggest positive for the CORE One, which is that they will offer a conversion kit to upgrade a MK4S to the CORE One! If the pricing on the conversion kit offers a reasonable discount to the CORE One kit, it will be 'uge.
Prusa also took square aim at the biggest hangup for some users (or potential users) of Bambu printers, which is the perception of security. Regardless of what you think of the security of Bambu Printers, they are very proprietary, with opaque firmware and encrypted communications back to the mothership. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for that though, and most people would not want even the innocuous printer data sent in the clear. So for home users, I feel the issue is largely overblown. For business users however, especially ones that have special use cases or an IT department that must approve anything that touches their networks, the question of security is paramount. For it's part, Bambu launched the X1E, which is basically an X1C with an ethernet port (and some other upgrades). However Bambu's X1E may not be enough to assuage some users, and the premium is quite steep (around $2500 as I recall), which makes space for the CORE One.
So what does the CORE One offer to these security conscious users? Primarily, it has an ethernet port standard (as well as Wi-Fi), and allows for sneakernet firmware upgrades over USB, when a printer must be isolated from the network. You can of course run a Bambu printer in LAN Mode, and they have opened up offline firmware updates over USB for the X1C too (though I have not tried that out on mine). Still though, I think it is a positive for Prusa that they will be introducing their printer with those capabilities baked in, which will check some boxes for business customers.
Prusa is also well known for being supportive of open source, though for the CORE One it's complicated. But it should offer more customization (aka "hackability") out of the box, than the Bambu offerings. That could be very useful if doing something like automating a print farm, or adding some special processes to the printer for off the wall applications. And with the possibility of a big chunk of the existing MK4S user base converting over to the CORE One eventually, the possibilities of community mods for the printer is also pretty good too.
So What's not to like? Well for one, the Prusa multi-material unit (MMU) runs another $300-360, and lacks an enclosure or spool rewinders like the AMS. The MMU3 is also just as limited in being truly multi-material as the Bambu AMS, since with both the Bambu printers and the Prusa CORE One, there is only one extruder (unlike the Prusa XL with the optional, additional print heads). Maybe Prusa will address the lack of a material enclosure with something new and innovative, but for now, my humble opinion is that the AMS is difficult to beat for a plug and play answer to multi-color printing. I also feel that Prusa missed an opportunity to make an effective air filtration system for their new printer. I'm sure that there will be 3rd party solutions, but an effective, integrated system to manage air quality would be a leg up over the Bambu printers, and other premium printers on the market. And finally, the price for the printer volume is very close to the Bambu offerings, which is both good and bad. It's good that the CORE One is a reasonably sized printer with competitive features. But the not so good is that the Prusa CORE One seems closer on key features to something between a P1S and an X1E (or X1C for regular consumers). Yet if compared to the P1S (on the lower end) on price alone, the CORE One is quite a bit more expensive.
I think, or maybe hope, that there is enough room for the Prusa CORE One and the Bambu P1/X1 printers to peacefully co-exist, since both companies are innovators which have really advanced the tech in consumer 3D printing. It seems to me at least, that Prusa is not targeting the same customers as Bambu, which are the folks that are buying a first or maybe second printer, and just want a frictionless experience from unboxing to printing. That should be no surprise though, since Prusa knows who it's customers are. They are people who have enough experience with 3D printing to understand the ins and outs of basic calibration and printer maintenance, and the scar tissue to understand the value of a quality product. They are also users who may value a more open platform which they can maintain with many (though definitely not all) off the shelf parts if needed. That Prusa is offering an upgrade path for current MK4S owners, and a kit version of the CORE One as an option, should underline that point. There is going to be overlap for commercial and educational users though, where Bambu and Prusa can fight it out. That overlap is probably also what focused Stratasys like the Eye of Sauron on Bambu, so hopefully Prusa can continue to fly below the radar, and not get swept up in a similar ugly drama.
Opening up a new front with Bambu, before Bambu releases it's next big thing in early 2025, is a smart move for Prusa. Even if they won't directly compete with whatever Bambu releases next, it seems likely Bambu will incorporate lessons from the X1C and X1E into their new product, in order to appeal to commercial and educational users (which the CORE One also targets). I'm happy to see that Prusa has finally answered the challenge from Bambu's X1/P1 series in their own unique way, and the CORE One looks like the perfect "Prusa" Printer to do it.
RSS Feed
