I currently run a Voxelab Aquila I got for $120 three years ago. It largely replaced a Monoprice Mini, and the Aquila’s done some surprisingly good work for me, but I may look for something new to put on the ol’ birthday list. I would like a flat bed and some modern QoL improvements built in (he said, side-eyeing the BLTouch clone he never installed), but I’m still looking to play in the shallow-end, price-wise, and anyway Bambu just has “future enshittification” written all over it. I don’t do anything time-sensitive, and I’m not afraid to put the whole thing together, so who are the current leaders in the value space? Recent machines from Creality?
I disagree. It’s the reason why everyone else is scrambling soooo fucking hard to catch up with them. The A1 is absolutely a killer value for a machine. If anyone asks about multicolor, Bambu is the only one I’ve seen that’s as reliable as it needs to be. I cannot recommend anyone else for multicolor.
There are quite literally not any machines out on the market that even come close to Bambu with their multitude of sensors. They’ve got tangle sensors, they’ve got programming that will detect blobs or disconnects of prints from the bed – really - nobody comes close.
I don’t think you understand how enshittification works. It comes in phases. Bambu is still in the early phase of providing value to the consumer to grow marketshare. But it has all the Hallmarks of “we’re going to lock all this shit down once we’ve destroyed the competition, then jack up prices while removing features”. As opposed to virtually every other company that has an open-source ethos.
Been around quite a while, and I understand perfectly how enshittification works. However, this still uses open source technologies at its core, and you’ll always be able to use those things. You can’t enshittify the core feature of this machine, because it’s built into it.
You can enshittify things that your customer doesn’t own - services, and the like.
But you cannot enshittify something you don’t control: The Slicer, etc.
The machine reads gcode, the machine spits out plastic. Reliably. There’s no avenue for making that worse in order to extract money.
Their cloud services, their remote monitoring…all just silly bonuses. None of that shit matters, and none of that is why Bambu is the best right now. What makes them the best is the added sensors on their machine, and the attention they paid to the build, quality, and operation of the machine.
The slicer, is open source - alternatives already exist (Orca Slicer). And enshittification only starts once a platform has matured and fully taken over the market; and even then - doesn’t always happen. It usually happens to US-based publicly traded companies. Which Bambu is not.
What you’re spreading is FUD. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. You have no proof that these things will happen, and you’re pearl clutching like Bambu will be the only ones who do it if/when that happens.
If you want to give up having the literal BEST VALUE, MOST ROBUST machine on the market out of some misplaced fear that doesn’t even have any merit…so be it. Go for it.
Enshittification is for services. Things you don’t own. This is a product that runs without any need to be connected to the internet. It will continue to run exactly like it is, exactly like you bought it. Sure, Bambu’s cloud-connect, and all that garbage? Sure - they could change those things. But that’s not what you buy a Bambu for.
In fact, ALL of the machines being suggested – don’t even have the services which could potentially be worsened in the future! So you’re even giving up a whole set of features, on the chance that one day you may not have them? But are willing to buy a machine without them instead? This is absolutely the most absurd line of thought I’ve ever encountered.
Not only that, but Bambu has been working with these guys: https://github.com/X1Plus/X1Plus – To allow an open source firmware on the X1C. You don’t do that if you’re planning on locking down the platform.
I suppose if a given machine can work in LAN or sneakernet mode, then it’s not THAT bad, but I was referring more to their heavy reliance on Cloud, closed source (possibly in violation of other projects’ licensing), and proprietary parts. If any 3D printer maker is going to start hiding features behind a paywall someday, it’s them.
Or the RFID chips on their spools.
They do quite a lot of things that are fine atm but are gateways to giving them a huge amount of control if they every want to flip that switch - like if they get brought out or their investors start wanting to squeezing them for all they are worth.