If you asked me to recommend an \u201ceasy\u201d consumer 3D printer, I\u2019d warn you first: despite countless innovations, you still can\u2019t quite hit a button to reliably photocopy a 3D model. Buying a 3D printer is buying an entire hobby, one where \u2014 if you\u2019re a lazy bum like me \u2014 many attempts will turn into worthless gobs of plastic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But if you persisted, I\u2019d tell you my one clear choice for lazy bums: the Bambu P1P.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What, a printer from the company that recalled its newest model<\/a> and whose earlier ones once went rogue<\/a>? Yep \u2014 because not only did Bambu handle those incidents with rapid apologies, investigations, transparency, and even refunds, the $599 Bambu P1P<\/a> is also absolutely the easiest, most reliable 3D printer I\u2019ve used. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n It makes my stalwart old Ender 3 Pro look like a hunk of junk. It makes its closest competition, the $559 Creality K1C<\/a>, feel like an inferior clone. I\u2019ve spent months testing them side by side, and I\u2019d personally pick the Bambu every time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong: the K1C is the better choice for some tinkerers since its full enclosure, bed, and extra fan let you print higher temperature plastics like ABS as well as ones reinforced with glass or carbon fibers. (Bambu sells the $699 P1S<\/a> for that.) And I did <\/em>successfully use both the P1P and a pair of Creality K1 printers to produce dozens of objects over the past year, including pegboard mounts, figurines for my kids, and these badass unofficial Nerf blasters:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With either of these printers and a little knowledge of what\u2019s easily 3D-printable, I can (sometimes<\/a>) send an entire plate full of parts to these printers and expect them to all turn out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But if you want fewer software and filament headaches, I would absolutely point you to Bambu. And I\u2019d recommend you steer clear of the original Creality K1 entirely \u2014 I spent months struggling with issues that were instantly fixed when I swapped for the newer K1C model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n