With Core One, Prusa's Open Source Hardware Dream Dies

I don't buy Prusa because they are OSH, I buy them because they are great printers. They are an open platform, if not open source. Which is good enough for my needs. If these changes they are making will allow Prusa to keep producing world class devices at reasonable prices, then more power to them.

And yes, I know some people hate Prusa or have had major issues. But they do a lot to move 3D printing forward, rising tide lifts all boats and all that jazz. We want all respectable and reputable 3D printer companies to succeed - because then everyone wins.

At the current price points can you really recommend a Core One over an X1 to someone with a tight budget? Without resorting to arguments about open platforms and the big picture?

Without a doubt. An X1 is 1k USD. This is 1,199 USD.

Truly this is a competitor to the X1E though which costs 2.5k (!!!) with basically the only notable addition being the heated chamber (which the Core 1 comes with for free).

I have multiple Prusa Mark 3s, a Prusa XL and an X1 carbon, and frankly I only use the Prusa XL nowadays (and sometimes the Mark 3s).

Bambu makes a good printer, but it has lots of annoying issues and proprietary annoyances. I also don't like them as a company, but that wouldn't prevent me from buying another if I needed and used it.

In my experience Prusa printers "just work" more often than Bambu printers do.

Compared to a P1P it’s missing a camera.

Compared to the X1C it’s missing a camera, the LiDAR, and carbon rods.

Also, the AMS solution on Bambu printers is much better than the MMU by Prusa.

Built in yes, and that's disappointing to see. Unsure why they aren't just including that at this point. Assuming its like the XL, you can use any camera you can find (phone, rpi, esp) and link it to the printer to get a "first party"

> Compared to the X1C it’s missing a camera, the LiDAR, and carbon rods.

I never use the LiDAR on my X1C. In my opinion is produces worse results then calibrating manually. Agree on the camera.

Regarding carbon rods, I would be surprised if it made any tangible difference to 99.99% of people.

> Also, the AMS solution on Bambu printers is much better than the MMU by Prusa.

Agreed. I never use AMS or MMU. For some its a dealbreaker to not have something as good as AMS. I never print multi material, other than using multiple heads on the XL.