[rcarmo]

I've been tracking the Bambu printers ever since the crowdfunding days, and the overall feature set is impressive. Like I wrote the other day* Prusa is in trouble here. As much as I appreciate them (being in the EU myself and owning an old Prusa clone), they are not competitive feature-wise (although the XL mostly holds its own against the X1 series as a workhorse printer if you buy it with multiple toolheads).

The A1 Mini is a better deal than the Prusa Mini if you need to print with support materials (never mind color, that's just a gimmick) or if you want to make sure it will keep going as spools run out, although mechanically the AMS lite looks rather fragile and takes up a _lot_ of space.

In a year's time smaller manufacturers like Kingroon are quite likely to be able to copy a lot of the quality of life improvements (and I would love to see some of those noise reduction features and improved auto-tuning come to Klipper, which I'm running on both my printers).

Until then, though, Bambu is ahead--although I have a feeling my next printer will be a Voron because I really like the idea of not relying on a manufacturer for maintenance (but that's just me).

* https://taoofmac.com/space/links/2023/09/20/2233

[antirez]

Here you are assuming that the A1 will be able to print, like the Prusa Mini, for years no-stop without issues and with little servicing needed. That's, IMHO, to be seen.

[rcarmo]

I wasn't comparing them support-wise -- Prusa has a better track record by dint of being older, but regardless of support and maintenance I would pick the Prusa if it cost the same and had the same software feature set because there are more spare parts around and I can build one from a kit if needed.

As much as I like the idea of the 3D printer market evolving towards appliances, I will always pick an appliance I can maintain myself - which is why I got a KP3S Pro last year: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/09/16/2000

[antirez]

Totally get your point. I'm not just concerned with support itself, but durability. I had experiences of printing for 24H for a couple of years, and Minis can do that with minor servicing (from time to time the nozzle requires to be changed, the PTFE tube inside the hotend, too. In one of the Minis the thermistor stopped working. Easy tasks, and if you have 3/4 printers you just remove one from the line for a couple of days). Now, the A1 looks solid, but there is to see if it is solid and if the printing speed it is tuned for will not ruin the parts soon, if printing a lot.