I feel conflicted. On the one hand, Prusa seems to be a good and reliable brand. On the other hand, it seems overpriced compared to the competitors. Bambu seems to be a no-go but mostly for ethical open source reasons, not for price or quality reasons. At the same time, I’ve seen this article that says Prusa is even falling back on their open source principles. But not sure how up to date that is any more.
If we look beyond Bambu or Prusa, there’s a variety of smaller brands that I have trouble distinguishing. With these other brands, it’s hard to tell whether they’re worth anything or just cheap knockoffs.
If we do consider Prusa, there’s also the question of MK4S vs Core One. The Core One is much more expensive, to the point where it is ridiculously expensive compared to the competitors. The MK4S is slightly cheaper, but it seems like Prusa is focused on the Core One development going forward, so I’d be slightly worried of being “left behind” with the MK4S.
What do you think? Which printer should you get in 2026? Or perhaps there is some upcoming release or something to wait for?
I bought a Prusa MK1 kit back in 2014. It was the right choice at the time. 3D-printing was finickier and you had to know your machine inside out. It’s since been upgraded to mk2.5.
It’s starting to be worn out - bearing are giving up, belts are tied, cables are experiencing metal fatigue. I bought a flashforge ad5x for Christmas. It’s just a lot of printer for the money. The ceramic heater broke, but I got a new on warranty. It’s been quite reliable, and a lot faster than ye olde bedslinger.
Looks like flashforge might be pulling some shenanigans with the firmware, but there is opensource mods to save the day.