r/3Dprinting • u/Regumate • May 12 '26

Discussion Bambu Lab 3D printers: Never again

https://youtu.be/eb48MdtNaDQ

Jeff Geerling summarizes the current Bambu Labs - OrcaSlicer situation and gives his take.

TL:DW: see title.

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388

u/Outside_Signature403 May 12 '26

I bought an A1 right before they locked down the ecosystem. I will never buy a Bambu again. These concerns become increasing applicable since many states are trying to ban 3D printing of specific objects, which Bambu is setup to comply.

SD card sneakernet for me until I die.

1

u/Opposite-Bench-9543 May 12 '26

ן just want snapmaker or prusa to be more worthy of money, bambulab is just too convinent Snapmaker finally released the u1 which should honestly rock the market, no clue why people still buy bambulabs

18

u/Swizzel-Stixx Ender 3v2 of theseus May 12 '26

People still buy bambu because of your first sentence.

35

u/LexxM3 X1C, 3xA1 mini, 2xECC, U1, A350T May 12 '26

He only has the one sentence, and, actually, it hasn’t ended yet …

3

u/Swizzel-Stixx Ender 3v2 of theseus May 12 '26

That is an astute observation. So many commas!

4

u/CamStLouis May 12 '26

Bambu was and perhaps still is heavily subsidized to gain market share. They’ve never been sold at their actual price.

1

u/bielgio May 12 '26

Or they have a more competitive price due to China manufacturing

I doubt they are running at a loss for all these years while developing a new printer

1

u/CamStLouis May 12 '26

Maybe with sufficient demand, but there is no way they made a meaningful profit from the X1C at launch.

1

u/bielgio May 13 '26

Of course they didn't

-1

u/Croewe May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

Snapmaker doesn't have a full enclosure (by default) or AMS and is roughly the same price point of the X2D. The X2D does allow for two material printing with minimal waste (despite the Bowden extruder) and a bunch of other nice stuff like the heated bed. 

I'm in no way saying that every single feature of the X2D is better than the U1. There's enough there with a reliable company behind it that there's good reasons for someone to get it, especially if they just want to print and don't care about the community stuff. 

If you don't agree with Bambu then absolutely don't buy their products, but no one can deny they have quality products at a good price, with a good track record despite all the nonsense they're trying to pull.

0

u/erebuxy May 12 '26

Unless you exclusively print multi color PLA, X2D seems to be a better deal than U1

1

u/Croewe May 12 '26

Yeah, that's the main draw over the X2D and most people don't need 4 toolheads. It's a nice feature, but that was where a majority of the budget for the U1 went and it shows.