In the age of 3D printing, quality has always been the most important factor. Achieving good quality prints always came at the price of speed, but that was OK because a 14-hour print was still better than the days it would take and the expense it would cost to get something made in a factory.
With the advent of new, fast 3D printers though, we can cut that 14-hour print time to seven hours or less, saving you time and money, and letting your creative juices flow at a much higher rate. If you already own several of the current best 3D printers you may not want to upgrade to a faster printer just yet, and that’s OK. But, if you’re on the lookout for a printer that offers excellent quality and can blow you away with its speed, we have the goods right here.
What’s the best fast 3D printer?
Balancing that sweet spot between affordability and usability, the P1S from BambuLab is currently the best fast 3D printer to buy. It isn’t the pinnacle of fast printers on the market — that would be its big brother the X1C — but it is significantly cheaper, making it a better value proposition than the X1C.
Fast 3D printers are still relatively new, so this list will update on a regular basis from here on out. Keep your eye out as we add new printers when the testing is finished.
Best fast 3D printers
The P1S is an updated version of our previous best 3D printer winner, the P1P. Each of the updates to the machine — plastic side panels, glass top and door, camera, part fan and LED light — help raise the P1S to be our No. 1 pick.
While not as fast as the P1P or the X1C, the Kobra 2 is around the same speed as the AnkerMake M5. It will happily produce prints at 250 millimeters per second, though the best quality seems to be hovering around 150mm/s in my testing. It also comes with a filament runout sensor and bed leveling, which works extremely well.
The P1P from Bambu Lab is currently one of the very best 3D printers you can buy. Priced at $699, it isn’t the cheapest printer, but it is incredibly fast and the print quality is consistently excellent. While the P1P is bare-bones on the outside, it does come with a host of advanced features like auto bed leveling, filament runout sensors and power-loss detection. It even has a camera that creates time-lapse videos for social media.