A few days ago, my 8-year-old Ender V2 finally gave up. It’s been showing its age for the past couple of years. Typically, prints that take around 8 hours on a modern 3D printer would take me closer to 24 hours—and what really sucks is that my printer isn’t very consistent. I’ve had prints fail literally at the very last stages of printing.
That said, this is a fixable issue, so I don’t think I’ll be getting rid of my Ender V2 anytime soon. I just need to replace the extruder, and I think she can be brought back to life.
Anyways, the new shiny printer I picked up is the Bambu Lab P1S (yes… I know they’ve been involved in some controversy lately). It was $400 off, and it was a complete no-brainer for me to grab it and run.
The one I have is the P1S with the AMS combo. I managed to snag it for $600, which I thought was a pretty solid deal. Could this be one of those “sales” that lasts forever just to make you think it’s actually discounted? Maybe? I didn’t check. What I do know is that I was desperate for a new 3D printer.
Maybe it’s just because my point of comparison is an 8-year-old machine, but man – the build quality of this thing is amazing. Everything feels well thought out and nicely packaged. I still remember when I first got my Ender V2 – it took me an entire day to assemble and calibrate it.
Not the P1S though. All I had to do was unbox it, connect a few cables, unscrew some parts, scan a QR code, and… that was it.
Seriously – that was it. I didn’t have to touch anything. I just let the machine calibrate itself, which is usually the biggest headache in 3D printing. It takes me ages to get the Ender V2 properly leveled just to start a print.
The application Bambu provides is also really nice. Being able to check the status of my prints directly from my phone is super convenient. It removes the annoying part of having to walk from my office down to the garage just to see if a print failed.
Now when it comes to speed—again, this might just be my fossil-era 3D printer brain talking – but this thing is Max Verstappen turbo fast. The speed doesn’t just improve rapid prototyping; it also means I don’t have to split my designs into smaller sections out of fear that a long print will fail halfway through.
The AMS is an absolute game changer for me. I can already imagine endless possibilities for multi-color prints, and even expanding further since the AMS can be daisy-chained to support more filaments. I mean, I can’t even print more than one color on my old printer.
That said, it’s not actually the multi-color printing that made me love the AMS – it’s the convenience and future potential. Not having to constantly unload and reload filament is a huge time saver.
If there’s anything I can complain about with the P1S, it would be two things: first, the camera, and second, the controversy Bambu Lab is currently involved in.
Yes, the camera isn’t a core component of a 3D printer, but I honestly expected it to run at more than one frame per second. Watching the live feed feels kind of sad. I haven’t checked yet whether this is a connection issue or a hardware limitation, but either way, it’s disappointing.
The second issue is the open-source controversy. I’m a huge supporter of open-source systems, and Bambu Lab represents almost the antithesis of what I believe in. Recently, they announced a shift from a more open approach to a closed-source model. To some extent, this is understandable – it can be a way to protect intellectual property and maintain a competitive edge.
However, what they’re actually doing is preventing users from using third-party slicers under the justification of “security.” In my opinion, this is a highly anti-consumer move. Rather than genuinely protecting users, it limits choice and locks customers into a single, company-controlled workflow. For many enthusiasts and professionals, the ability to choose the tools that best fit their needs is a core part of the 3D printing experience.
I’m a control freak – I want to make decisions about my own tech. I bought this thing. Why can’t I do stupid stuff with the product I paid full price for? The blanket excuse of “security” just doesn’t make sense to me.
Most people will end up using Bambu Studio because it comes with the printer and it’s the official option. But the bigger issue is that, as a society, we’ve become way too compliant when companies make decisions for us. Look at RAM prices. Look at BMW charging monthly subscriptions for features that already exist in the car. Look at GPU pricing. Even the price of matcha skyrocketing due to a nonexistent matcha shortage.
Anyways… I still think it’s a great printer though.