Bambu Lab X1 Carbon with AMS Review

 9.1/10

The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon was the hottest 3D printer released in 2022. In a sea of cartesian style bed slinger 3D printers, it represented a paradigm shift in the FDM 3D printer market. No company before offered a ready to print CoreXY FDM 3D printer at a sub $2,000 price point. Its level of performance, laundry list of quality of life features, and Automated Material System allowed for both multi-material and multi-color 3D printing that only professional machines offered before.

As a result, The X1 Carbon was hailed as the consumer FDM 3D printer to beat by consumers and companies alike. It even caused every consumer FDM 3D manufacturer to respond to Bambu Lab with a X1 Carbon competitor in some form. As of the time of the writing of this review, there are currently only two true competitors to X1 Carbon: Creality’s K1 and Qidi-Tech’s X-Smart 3. Both aimed to undercut the X1 Carbon’s $1,199 price tag while maintaining similar performance. Bambu Lab Has responded with their lower cost variants: P1P and P1S.

The X1 Carbon is one of the best printers we ever tested here in 3DGearZone and will happily recommend it to anyone looking for the complete FDM 3D package that prints well out of the box.

 9.1/10

Manufacturer: Bambu Lab

The Pros

Excellent print quality
Extremely quick often being 3x faster than previous generation FDM 3D printers
Fully assembled out of the box
Great quality of life features with its removable spring steel build plate, automatic bed leveling, flow calibration, wireless connectivity, and touchscreen
Excellent software in the form of Bambu Studio and Bambu Handy
Optional AMS enables multi-color and multi-material 3D printing that is affordable and reliable

The Cons

Paul Chow

Co-Founder & CTO

Published on November 16, 2023

Amazon.com Disclosure: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Bambu Lab took the 3D printing world by storm in 2022 with the release of the X1 Carbon. During this period, the FDM 3D printing market was largely dominated by affordable, standard cartesian FDM 3D printers such as the Creality Ender, Elegoo Neptune 3, and Anycubic Kobra series. These printers can be found for less than $300 at various retailers. At the same time, do-it-yourself CoreXY printers like the Voron 2.4, RatRig 3.1, and VzBot, which featured high speed and high quality printing with full kits available for less than $1,000, were gaining popularity among hobbyists.

However, ready to print CoreXY printers were only in reach of professionals and companies with the majority costing several thousands of dollars.

Bambu Lab created a whole new market segment by creating an affordable, ready-to-print CoreXY printer in the X1 Carbon. This printer represented a huge leap forward in consumer 3D printing with its enclosed metal and tempered glass frame, high speed CoreXY motion system, and bevy of quality of life features that collectively made it one of the most user-friendly printers on the market.

To top things off, all of this was offered at a starting price of $1,199, in stark contrast to many professionally targeted printers that often cost $2,000 or more.

Reaction from the community was swift with glowing praise and hopes that other 3D manufacturers took notes. And true enough, competitors scrambled to respond with their own high speed machines throughout the next year. Anycubic, Elegoo, and Prusa, in particular, updated their current cartesian motion printers with Klipper firmware to keep up with the X1 Carbon’s performance. Meanwhile, Creality and Flashforge have released their own high speed CoreXY machines, such as the Creality K1 and Flashforge 5M.

However, one aspect that some in the community is increasingly being concerned about is how “vertically integrated” Bambu Lab is.

The consumer 3D printer market was built off the backs of open source projects that encouraged sharing and innovation. Bambu Lab has shifted away from this model with its printer hardware and software being closed source. This resulted in consumers being forced to rely on Bambu Labs for repairs, parts, and software updates.

Bambu Lab’s X1 Carbon takes aim directly at the high-end consumer 3D printer, offering on paper both amazing print quality and the ease of use of a 2D printer. However, the big question is, can it truly deliver on this promise? Plus, with rival companies responding with their own high-speed printers and Bambu Lab’s own significantly cheaper P1P, it can certainly make the X1 Carbon’s $1,199 price tag seem like a bad value proposition.

We spent more than six months testing the X1 Carbon with the AMS to really put its hardware and software to the test. In this in-depth review, we will put to rest the question: Is the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon worth all the hype?

Key Features To Look For In A Great 3D Printer

Fully assembled CoreXY machines used to be limited to professional machines that cost several thousands of dollars. However, Bambu Lab created a whole new market segment by marrying the high quality, ready to print professional machines with the affordability of consumer trade machines. As a result, this market segment is sparsely populated with very few examples, such as the Creality K1 and Qidi Tech X Smart 3.

To ensure you select the right FDM 3D printer that suits your needs, it’s important to consider a few key factors before making a purchase.

First and foremost, you should look for print quality, which we rated the Bambulabs X1 Carbon a 9/10 for. This is attributed to its capability to generate extremely top-quality prints with precise extrusion, high degree of dimensional accuracy and proper z-alignment.

Users should also keep in mind the assembly process and overall print experience of the machine they’re buying. We rated the X1 Carbon 10/10 in both ease of use and setup. The machine arrives assembled and ready to print after going through its automated set up process. In fact, preparing prints for the X1 Carbon was one of the highlights of our review experience. Using the Bambu Studio slicer, Bambu Handy app, and its WiFi connection made slicing and sending files to the X1 Carbon a breeze.

Last but not least, replacing parts should be a matter of “when” not “if.” Maintaining the printer and finding replacement parts for the X1 Carbon is a concern, regardless of its performance and ease of use. When the X1 Carbon was first released we were very worried about part availability only being through Bambu Lab direct, resulting in long periods of downtime due to overseas shipping. However, more recently, parts have started becoming more available through local retailers.

91

Overall Score

Learn more about our 3D printer review methodology.

How We Researched This Printer

The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon belongs to the growing medium format box style FDM 3D printer segment. These printers focus on print quality, ease of use, speed, and the ability to be enclosed in order to print temperature sensitive filaments. Bambu Lab has recently upturned this market segment and has gained considerable market share from competitors like Prusa, Creality, and Elegoo. We have put hundreds of hours into testing the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon to make sure you make the right purchasing decision.

To thoroughly assess the capabilities of the X1 Carbon, we subjected it to a large series of demanding test prints, pushing it to its limits and more. Additionally, we extensively scoured the internet to get a gauge of what kind of community this machine has. We have also pitted it against its closest competitors from the likes of Creality and Prusa.

Bambu Lab is a new 3D printing manufacturer established in 2022. However, in little over a year it managed to make a name for itself as one of the FDM 3D printing companies to beat. The X1 Carbon, in particular, is an impressive model, featuring a carbon fiber CoreXY motion system and an array of top-notch hardware like autobed leveling, LIDAR, and a lightweight, high-flow extruder. Its Bambu Studio slicer and Bambu Handy app set a high standard, prompting other 3D printer manufacturers to rethink their strategies.

Bambu Lab X1C Printer Setup

Unboxing and Assembly

The X1 Carbon was delivered in a very large cardboard box. It arrived in a mostly disassembled state, packed flat, similar to the setup of most Cartesian printers. It required two of our own team members to move the packed X1 Carbon to our testing table.

The printer came encased in packing foam and plastic wrap to protect it on its long overseas journey. By the way, some buyers have reported shattered glass panels due to rough handling from shipping companies anyway—but our own purchased unit was fortunately not damaged during transit.

The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon came fully assembled with the exception of the AMS, which needed to be attached to the printer. Bambu Lab provided instructions on how to fully remove the AMS system and packing materials from the X1 carbon. Plus, as the printer is fully assembled from the factory, we only needed to plug in the printer and a couple of cables from the AMS to the machine itself. From there, the X1 Carbon runs through a series of automated calibration tests to ensure everything is operational.

All in all, we spent around 30 minutes to fully unpack, plug in and run the automated calibration tests before the X1 Carbon with the AMS was ready for printing. Most of the time and effort was unwrapping and unpacking the printer as it was extremely well packed. The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon was the easiest and among the quickest printers we’ve ever had the pleasure of unboxing and setting up.

Connecting to the WiFi

While the X1 Carbon is hardly the first 3D printer with WiFi connectivity, it is among one of the easier ones we used.

During the initial set up and calibration, the X1 Carbon prompted us to choose our WiFi network and enter its password on its color touchscreen. Once connected, both the Bambu Handy and Bambu Studio apps had no issues connecting with our X1 Carbon unit. However, it was required for us to create a Bambu Lab account to enable WiFi capabilities. While it is of no issue to use, some users might be put off by this, so we just wanted to let you know.

Of course, the X1 Carbon is able to be used offline via its microSD card reader if needed. However, its mobile app connectivity, remoting monitoring and timelapse capabilities will be unavailable in offline mode.

Print Quality of X1 Carbon

The Bambu Lab includes both input shaping and flow calibration, which, when together, promises great print quality. Coupled with its insane claimed speeds and multi-material system, we are extremely excited to see the prints coming out of the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon.

After all, if Bambu Lab can even come close to its claims, it promises truly next generation performance.

How we tested the machine

We tested the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon in four important areas: its ability to resolve details, dimensional accuracy, z-layer alignment, and print repeatability. For our tests, we used stock 0.2mm layer height and speed settings shipped in Bambu Studio.

We put the X1 Carbon through our usual gauntlet of test models that represent many objects that customers may print. This includes benchmarks such as the common benchy, the calibration cube, and the tall z-banding tower. This is followed by figures and models such as the Mandalorian figure and the low poly Pikachu. We also added an additional multi-color print test to best the AMS and its ability to print in multiple colors. You can find out some of the different kinds of filament we use for our tests and around our office here.

Results

With most modern 3D printers, printing industry benchmarks such as the ubiquitous benchy and calibration cubes should be an easy feat. Thus, we were unsurprised when the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon printed both flawlessly. However, what we were not expecting was how quickly the machine was able to print them.

Prior to 2022, a benchy typically takes 1-1.5 hours to complete for printers, and the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon was able to complete it in under 20 minutes. This represents a three to four times speed increase over the previous generation.

This quality and speed also extended to the printing of the calibration cube, which came out extremely clean and accurate—with sharp corners and no artifacts that could be seen. In fact, the 20mm calibration cubes measured 20.15mm x 20.2mm, making the X1 Carbon one of the more accurate printers we’ve tested with little adjustments.

The Mandalorian figure is typically one of the more impressive prints in our testing suite and the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon did not break a sweat in printing it. All the details were faithfully reproduced and there was a distinct lack of ringing or ghosting on the model despite its incredibly high speed of printing. Its overhangs were clean and corners were pretty sharp, too. We suspect this is because of the massive auxiliary fan mounted on the right side of the printer. This loud fan blows a huge amount of air that quickly cools the molten filament which helps with the fine details.

The tradeoff to the above, however, is that quickly cooled filament potentially has worse inter-layer adhesion, which may result in more fragile prints. However, at the time of writing we have not tested this hypothesis.

Switching from highly detailed to less detailed, we then printed a low polygon count Pikachu. Since its simple geometry can highlight any printing artifacts, this cute model requires a highly tuned extruder to produce the best results. True enough, Bambulab’s default extruder settings were excellent. The test print displayed consistent extrusion and precise layering.

Finally, we tested the X1 Carbon’s z-layer height consistency by printing a 250mm tall tube in vase mode. This test exposes any issues in the z-axis assembly, providing insights into Bambu Lab’s quality control. Our evaluation showed that they have put considerable thought into the design and manufacturing of the z-axis assembly. The tube test print demonstrated no z banding or artifacts associated with z-axis issues.

Multi-material Printing

One of the flagship features of the Bambu Lab’s ecosystem of 3D printers is its optional Automatic Material System – or AMS for short. This additional accessory can manage up to four materials to enable multi-colored or multi-material FDM 3D printing, with four AMS units able to be daisy-chained to control up to 16 filaments. However, our team only purchased a single AMS unit for the purpose of this review.

While several companies have ventured into creating multi-material units, like Prusa’s MMU or Mosaic’s Pallette system, Bambu Lab’s attempt stands out as one of the most refined, dependable, and user-friendly to date. They’ve even managed to integrate their printer hardware, AMS hardware, and slicer software successfully, resulting in an overall intuitive and seamless system.

To test this system out, we used Bambu Studio’s color painting tool to color different sections of a scorpion model. The tool intelligently selected the parts of the model we wanted to color, red, black and white, making the experience pretty easy. However, we did notice that Bambu Studio uses a large amount of computer resources and the app noticeably slowed down the more we used the coloring tool. Users with older computer hardware may find things if they are often coloring different prints.

Our test scorpion model came out great by the way—complete with clean extrusion and no color bleeding between the red, white and black filament.

However, we do want to point out a couple of significant issues with the AMS unit (not limited to the X1 Carbon) that you should be aware of. Firstly, in multi-color 3D printing, a considerable amount of filament is wasted during each color switch. This involves purging the old color and flushing with the new one.

Additionally, a priming tower must be printed to prevent any color bleed. In our test, the scorpion model itself used about 200g of filament, but an additional 100g was used for color purging. Those interested in multi-color prints should always consider the extra filament needed in these purging processes.

The second issue is that color changes take a significant amount of time to complete, often making a print take a magnitude longer to complete.

Finally, many users reported that AMS does not play nice with modern cardboard spools. Cardboard spools vary in size and dimensions, making it hit and miss on the AMS as it relies on rolling the spool of filament to advance or retract it. This has caused many issues with the reliability of the AMS with cardboard spools. Some workarounds we found include printing our spool adapters that help the AMS grip these spools.

These issues are pretty large drawbacks to the AMS unit and, unfortunately, the only system that side steps these issues is Prusa’s Prusa XL toolchanger system. This system utilizes up to five different tool heads to print individual colors. However, this printer costs several thousands of dollars, in contrast to the approximately $1,500 cost of the X1 Carbon with the AMS.

Overall, Bambu Lab’s AMS unit is still a game changer for multi-colored and multi-material printing in the consumer FDM 3D printing space. After all, it’s significantly more affordable and reliable! We are excited around how other 3D printer manufacturers will innovate in this space now that Bambu Lab has opened up this market segment.

Overall Print Experience

Locked Down Software

Bambu Studio is an extremely intuitive and robust piece of software, simplifying the setup and print preparation compared to older software. However, there are valid concerns on the locked down nature of Bambu Studio and its supporting app, Bambu Handy, which only the Bambu series of printers can use.

As a new manufacturer, Bambu Lab’s success seems promising now, but there’s uncertainty regarding the company’s long-term existence. After all, while Bambu Lab is enjoying significant success and we cannot see them folding any time soon, this does not mean in five years it will stay the same.

Additionally, its QOL features are locked behind its cloud integration. Wireless file transfers, camera feeds, and error detection do require users to create a Bambu Lab account to access (in which data is passed through overseas servers). This presents significant security risks for companies that use its 3D printers for sensitive projects.

Finally, we found that Bambu Studio does not play nice with wireless setups that involve multiple access points. Bambu Lab requires its printers to be connected to the same router or access point its host computer is on to send files to its internal memory. While this is not an issue with most home users that have a single router, we’ve personally faced issues connecting in our office, as we had multiple access points. This further cements the X1 Carbon’s target audience to be hobbyists as opposed to commercial users.

Print Speeds

One of the defining features of the new generation of FDM 3D printers is its significantly faster printing speeds. Most 3D printers of 2022 and before had speeds of 50mm/s-100mm/s and, in practice, we found the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon around three to four times faster than most of our older printers. Even compared to our Voron 2.4 (our previous speed king), the X1 Carbon often completes prints 30-50% faster.

However, this is offset by the significantly increased amount of noise generated by the printer. Older printers like the Prusa Mk3S and the Artillery Sidewinder X1 that we reviewed outputted around 40-50db of noise, which made it easy to be in the same room while the printer was in motion. Thanks to its high speed stepper motors and number of large fans, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon easily generated over 60db of noise even with its glass door closed. Many team members did not want to be in the same room as the machine while it was printing.

The noise can be significantly reduced if you selected silent mode in the device menu. However, this does double the printing time.

Experience as a First Time User

From its unboxing to printing, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon has been an absolute joy to use. First time 3D printer hobbyists will be glad to know that this printer is the closest to a true “plug and play” setup the consumer 3D printer market has ever gotten.

Hardware

The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon is an FDM 3D printer with a handsome design, featuring a sturdy metal and tempered glass enclosure. It’s a bit on the larger side, measuring 389mm (l) x 389mm (w) x 457mm (h). However, thanks to its CoreXY motion system, it operates with the bed moving up and down on the z-axis rather than the back-and-forth movement of more affordable cartesian-style machines. This means that while the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon is bigger than its smaller cartesian competitors, it requires less effective desk space when in use.

The X1 Carbon is a relatively heavy 3D printer, weighing in at 14.3kg. In comparison, its close competitor, the Creality K1, is noticeably lighter at 12kg. The X1 Carbon’s extra weight is due to its use of metal and glass components, while the Creality K1 employs acrylic side panels instead of tempered glass.

The X1 Carbon’s heavy weight helps with dampen its vibrations as its printhead moves violently due to its high speed and acceleration. If you’re purchasing this model, make sure you have a sturdy 3D printer table capable of handling its vibrations and weight.

The X1 also sports an average print volume of 256mm (l) x 256mm (w) x 256mm (h). This puts it firmly in the print volume class where the vast majority of Prusa, Creality, Anycubic, Elegoo and all other 3D manufacturers live. By the way, tt should be noted that, in practice, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon has an effective build volume of 250mm (l) x 250mm (w) x 250mm (h) with the last 6mm requiring the user to remove a bit of the internal casing to access.

Overall, the X1 Carbon has an adequate build volume that most users would be happy to live with. However, cosplayers may find the space limited for armor and props.

Still, based on our observations, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon has an extremely professional aesthetic. The metal and glass frame and panels make it a cut above from the low cost cartesian printers on the market and what little wiring is neatly tucked away in a cable chain on the top of the toolhead.

Finally, the X1 Carbon makes use of carbon fiber rods for movement, which is a huge step up from rollers used in the vast majority of other printers. In theory, this improves its reliability and print performance. However, carbon fiber rods tend to wear out over time and only the months will tell how long these would last in a high performance machine like the X1 Carbon.

Overall, the weight, materials, build quality and attention to detail gives the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon an air of premium quality. It’s one of the best looking 3D printers we have reviewed here at 3DGearZone.

Bambu Lab X1C Safety Highlights

Thermal Runaway Protection

One of the biggest concerns of 3D printing is the heater potentially losing control and catching fire. Fortunately, like most modern 3D printers, the Bambu Lab features thermal runaway protection. With it, it is able to constantly monitor its temperature against what the output temperature should be. If the temperatures do not match, the printer shuts down the hotend heater to stop any fire risks.

When it was first released, several reviewers found a glitch in its thermal runaway protection. Apparently, it only activated after three minutes of overheating. This delay had the potential to cause damage to the machine before the heater was shut off. But that’s all in the past—Bambu Lab has long released a firmware update to address the issue and with our later unit, we found that the thermal runaway protection activates as soon as it detects any heater error.

Cable Relief and Cable Management

FDM 3D printers like the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon have multiple moving parts (such as the hot end and heated bed) that need to be connected for power and communication.

Traditionally, 3D printers have bundles of wires that travel from its mainboard to the hotend assembly. However, most of the latest FDM 3D printers feature a breakout board on the hotend to reduce the wire count. This not only looks neater but is also safer because it reduces the risk of wire breakage. Plus, these wires are neatly routed through a cable chain to minimize the chances of snagging and to enhance the overall appearance.

Overall, the X1 Carbon has some of the cleanest and most aesthetically pleasing wiring setups we’ve seen in a consumer 3D printer.

Our team also discovered that the wires connected to the control board and PSU are properly terminated in ferrules and connectors. In the past, several 3D printers used tinned wire ends and hot glued connectors, which were prone to melting and creating a fire risk. Having properly crimped wire ends dramatically reduces fire hazards when operating the X1 Carbon.

Maintenance

Finding Replacement Parts

Replacing parts of a 3D printer is a question of “when” not “if.” We have used the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon for approximately 200 hours and currently have no need to replace any components. However, users who have been using the machine for nearly a year have noted that the carbon fiber rods its toolhead rides on requires replacement due to wear and tear. Fortunately, Bambu Lab has the vast majority of its components available directly from themselves at very reasonable prices.

However, as a newer company, Bambu Lab does not have an established supply chain like its older competitors. As a result, when the X1 Carbon was first released, users had to wait weeks for replacement parts to be shipped overseas.

Fortunately, nearly a year later, some 3D printer retailers have been stocking Bambu Lab components. Matterhackers in the US and Digitmakers in Canada are a few examples of 3D printer retailers that have its components available locally. Still, major competitors like Creality maintain a significant supply chain advantage, with their parts readily available on platforms like Amazon for swift delivery.

Accessing the Control Board

Most modern 3D printers fully enclose its electronics in the bottom of the machine to protect its sensitive components from debris, dust, and fingers. However, as printers have increasingly become larger, accessing the electronics have become significantly more difficult as well.

The newest CoreXY printers, including the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, have moved their control board to the printer’s back for easier access. A few screws hold the rear panel in place and the control board is revealed once the panel has been removed. Bambu Lab definitely deserves praise for providing ample space to maneuver around the board for servicing or replacement.

Features & Upgrades

Automatic Bed Leveling with LIDAR and Touch Sensor

Bambu Lab employs a unique automatic bed leveling technique by using, not one, but two sensors. The machine uses a combination of a touch sensor to probe several points on the print bed and a LIDAR sensor. Bambu Lab claims it is one the most “comprehensive bed leveling routines” in a consumer 3D printer and also offers “first layer failure” detection in which it pauses the print job if it notices that the first layer would result in a failed print. Rest assured that we’ll be testing to see if that works as intended later.

Vibration and Flow Calibration

Printing at high speeds requires active motor compensation to reduce vibrations. Otherwise, print artifacts (like ghosting and ringing) will manifest in prints and lower the overall print quality. Using a technique known as resonance compensation, the X1 Carbon can dramatically reduce the effect of ghosting and ringing from high speed printing.

Additionally, the LIDAR unit on the X1 Carbon can measure how each filament flows out the hotend to ensure a consistent amount of filament is laid over the course of the print. This enhances print quality, as it reduces blobs or gaps in the molten filament.

AI Failure Detection

The X1 Carbon’s onboard camera can monitor print progress and create time lapses for social media sharing. It can also be used to detect when a print becomes detached and results in a print failure. This gives users a chance to stop the print and reduce wasted material from failed 3D prints.

Magnetic Spring Steel Polycarbonate Bed Sheet

First released in 2017 by the Prusa line of printers, the spring steel sheet is a revolutionary 3D printer feature that allows for quick and painless print removal. Bambu Lab has implemented their own version of the spring steel sheet by having a double sided sheet with a “cool” and “engineering” side for different printing materials. It should be noted that it differs from the PEI sheet used by Prusa, as it requires users to use glue or other additives for printing.

WiFi Connectivity with Bambu Studio and Bambu Handy

Bambu Lab has the most well connected and easy to use consumer 3D printer that we have reviewed so far.

One of the most user-friendly features of the whole Bambu Lab ecosystem is its Bambu Studio and Bambu Handy app. The Bambu Studio is a combination of a slicer and printer management platform. The slicer is based on the extremely well regarded Prusa Slicer which boasts great support and print quality. The print management component also allows WiFi management of the X1 Carbon.

Bambu Handy is Bambu Lab’s in-house mobile app which allows for remote handling of Bambu’s line of 3D printers.

Automatic Materials System

The Automatic Materials System is one of the crowning features of the X1 Carbon. This allows the X1 Carbon to seamlessly switch between up to four materials or colors in a single print job, opening up exciting possibilities for multi-material and multi-color printing.

Some of the use cases for multi-material printing is using support material that is incredibly easy to remove to reduce support scarring and make cleanup easier. Another fantastic use is for producing fully colored 3D prints, eliminating the need for post-print painting. However, if users don’t care for multi-material or multi-color prints, they can simply load four spools of filament and have the AMS take care of the rest. It automatically switches to a new spool when one runs out.

We are extremely excited to test this feature as we have never reviewed a printer capable of printing multiple colors or materials.

Community Support

Bambu Lab’s commendable hardware and software—along with its great marketing—has generated an extremely large community in just over a year. Its popularity is already rivaling industry giants like Creality and Prusa. There are many great places on the internet to get tips, tricks and ask questions about the X1 Carbon and all things Bambu Lab:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bambulabofficialusers/
Bambu Lab Forum: https://forum.bambulab.com/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/

Final Verdict

When it was first launched in 2022, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon represented a complete paradigm shift in the consumer FDM 3D printer market. It features compelling hardware, feature rich software and, most importantly, a great user experience that removes the frustration for the vast majority of first time 3D printers. The only other time that this has happened was in 2017 when Prusa introduced the Mk3.

At the hardware level, the X1 Carbon stands out with its pre-assembled CoreXY motion system and a range of user-friendly attributes like LIDAR, a camera, auto bed leveling, removable build sheets, and responsive touchscreen. Meanwhile, on the software front, the Bambu Studio software, Bambu Handy app, and cloud integration make slicing and sending files to the X1 Carbon a simple task.

However, we were concerned with the need for cloud connectivity and lack of commercial support, especially since Bambu Lab has clearly built and marketed this printer for consumers opposed to industrial users. Fortunately, Bambu Lab has announced the coming of X1E, which promises wired LAN printing, enterprise wireless security support, and offline printing to address this need in the commercial/industrial market.

Veterans in the 3D printer space may also be offput with the locked down and closed source nature of the X1 Carbon. While it is possible to use slicers like the community favorite PrusaSlicer or Cura, they currently do not support wireless uploads. Additionally, open source upgrades from E3D, Slice Engineering, or other manufacturers are currently not supported.

Although, throughout testing this product, we never really felt the need to use slicers like PrusaSlicer (in which we love and Bambu Studio is based off of) or replace any of its parts with our favorite upgrades. It’s just that good out of the box. There was absolutely no tickering needed to produce spectacular quality prints at blistering speeds.

For those seeking a high-quality, fast, and hassle-free 3D printing experience in the sub-$1,000 range, the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon would be our top pick. If aiming for a similar experience on a budget, the Bambu Lab P1S offers 90% of the experience at a 60% reduced cost. Finally, for those looking to have a similar X1 Carbon experience with room for customizations and upgrades, the Creality K1 FDM 3D printer is what you want.

Bambu Lab made a name for itself in 2022 and is currently considered the benchmark for all consumer 3D printer manufacturers. It is a well earned title and we hope that it further spurs innovation in the FDM 3D printer space.

Technical Specifications

Build volume: 256mm (l) x 256mm (w) x 256mm (h)
Printer size: 389mm (l) x 389mm (w) x 457mm (h)
Weight: 14.3g
Enclosed print area: Yes
Display: color touchscreen
Drive type: FDM direct drive
Filament capability: PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU, Nylon, Polycarbonate
Connectivity: MicroSD and WiFi
Drivers: Bambu Lab
Build Surface: PC coated spring steel sheet
Heated Bed: Yes
Bed Leveling: Automatic
Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm
Maximum hotend temperature: 300 °C
Maximum movement speed: 600mm per second
Maximum XY accuracy: 0.1mm
Minimum Z height: 0.1mm
Number of extruder(s): 1
Filament diameter: 1.75mm
Supported materials: PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU, Nylon, Polycarbonate
3rd party filament support: Yes
Operating System: Windows, MacOS, Linux
Supported Slicers: CURA, Simplify3D, PrusaSlicer, Bambu Slicer
Supported File Types: STL, OBJ, M3F

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