Mistake: Prusa i3 MK4 kit is US$799, not US$1099 as shown. $1099 gets you a fully assembled machine. My apologies for the error! I also said AnkerMaker instead of AnkerMake a few times but I don't think anyone will mind that too much.
Since they are nearly the same price, I would opt for a Prusa any day over Anker, they just have the much better track record in terms of customer service and reliablity. Sure, they don't have AI monitoring to detect failed prints, but prints on Prusa rarely ever fail, so it is unnecessary imho. Prusa > Anker anytime!
This misses the point that the p1p doesn't target new users or low effort users the same way. Also it be nice to go a single video on a $600 to $800 printer without Bambu cheerleaders saying to "just buy a P1P" and consider there are reasons for people to want a different printer.
The ankermake just dropped the ankermake m5c compact version half price than original ankermake m5 that's going to be the new printer to beat ankermake m5 is 1099.99 cnd originally that means it should be 549.99$
@@rossfisher323 Considering Linus just got called out for his routine comfort with poor judgement, bad takes and willingness to tank a company based on bad information because he's a stubborn mule, you might want to look into that a little more. Look up "the Internet was working about eufy". Push aside all the grand standing he loves to do, at the end of the day they issues is that they used AWS for encrypted push notification thumbnails. So no it's not 100% offline like Eufy said, they were in the wrong for that, but it's hardly the CCP style invasion of privacy he wants you to believe he's saving you from.
The "upside down" packaging is not a bug, it is a feature - the idea is that you are supposed to open the top, flip the open box on a table, like an omelet, then "lift off" the cardboard for the big reveal.
Agreed! That's pretty much the standard way to open a large unit box. I am very, very surprised with TT's level of technical understanding that this was a first-time lesson.
Your reviews rival those of some tech journalists. Consice, complete and transparent with the knowledge and experience to back up your verdict. Thank you for the wisdom you give to the 3d printing community, it is much appreciated!
Hey Michael, when you first introduced your "Review Policy", I felt like this was overdone, unnessecary and a bit cringe. Like precisely administering the common obvious. Today, wenn I see other Content Creators beating around the bush, claiming they are non-influenced influencers, I often think: Why don't they just adopt a Review Policy like Michael of TechingTech? It makes things as clear and transparent as you can, no need for lengthy explainations, no long-windedly wordings about no money not changing no hands, no review before review, etc. You just say "in accordance with my Review Policy", and you're done. Your videos are always top-notch, but with this idea you were and still are way ahead of the crowd. I like!
Thank you. It was unscrupulous vendors who forced my hand on writing that. I'm not sure if you were a viewer when I crossed paths with a litigious laser conman. I've found more and more over time that it's worth the investment in time to create resources/documents like that. Far easier to do it properly once and refer people to it than repeat myself.
Thanks for your excellent review. To answer your quiestion: For 700-800 dollar/euro I expect more from a printer than a polished Ender 3 Pro. Which it still is.
I think it's quite a bit too expensive - the Bambu Lab P1P prints faster and possibly nicer, is better suited for upgrading it yourself (e.g. with a case) and costs less.
I feel features wise this is fair in being a bit more expensive. Has a camera from standard and the appearance is a bit more refined, but that won't matter to everyone.
@@TeachingTech The camera comes included with the P1P for free since April 3rd (still 0.5fps and no AI, but enough to check on your print and do timelapses)
@@PaulShapiro Bambu Lab advertises 500mm/s as "Max Speed of Tool Head" ... But that's misleading - only travel moves can be that fast, it's not actually laying down filament at that rate.
I have the M5 and your review is spot on. The Anker Slicer is indeed the worst part of using this printer. Unless it's something very simple I use Orca Slicer, which has an Anker profile, and export. I wish my P1P had the control pad of the Anker!
Same for me and with the new Ankermgmt utitility you can now print wirelessly direct from Orca. I had to clean my plate once with dish soap and water, now everything sticks perfectly.
Thank you for providing your transparent feedback regarding our slicer. We are developing a new slicing software based on prusa. Stay tuned! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake team
Thanks for an honest "between the lines" review. There's literally nothing in this printer to pay for: basic kinematics, basic bed, basic extruder, broken slicer, broken camera, broken USB port. And, my favorite, Y belt placed as a conveyor for trash.
I think the value comes in the hand holding for those new to 3D printers. It's the type of machine someone who has no experience can buy and expect to have reasonable success with. Those customers won't know a thing about kinematics, etc and won't care either.
@@TeachingTechAgreed. For people new and not willing for fork out double or tripple the money for something more complicated that they might not get on with or get much use out of. I have the M5C to try the whole thing out. I'm enjoying it but it still very new to me. I'm not sure I'll use it enough to justify getting a pricier one.
As a total newbie have the ankermaker for 2 weeks and been using it without many problems on my own designs for camera parts (also help smallrig over the last 6 years). I am sure it will get its issues but as a new user it kind of does what they say print out of the box. Having fun probably because i don't have a 10 year 'view' on how things where or are in the DIY space that build their own.
Thank you for being part of our community and we're thrilled to hear that you've been enjoying printing with your M5! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake team
I think we really, really discuss not just a wave of the hand intellectual property concerns but also privacy concerns. Yes, Anker get a checkbox approval for printing locally with a USB, but at the cost of spaghetti detection. What people do not know is that this feature, across all the brands, is based on open source project, YOLO v3 (You Only Look Once). The Spaghetti Detective (TSD) plugin, now called Obico, is both a paid for service and can be installed and used locally, because of it being Open Source. So to me, the future of 3d printing needs to talk about the relationship of privacy going hand in hand with Open Source.
this will be the "bose" of entry level 3D printers. great for people with more money than time and dont wanna deal with much hassle and tuning. for $800 id rather have a V400 but thats just me. theres a market for this printer
If anyone wants one of these at a discount, I bought it a Kickstarter prices. I am too in love w my Bambu (despite its flaws) to even turn it on. I've only printed maybe 3 models on it, but it is a solid machine.
Great review Michael, as usual although i would like if you maybe review outside the printer as well, like the spare parts also teardown of the machine
CoreXY is the future for speed. Not sure why Anker decided to compete with the dated and overpriced Prusa considering recent advancements in printing. Its nice but not $800 nice.
I don't think it was packed upside down by accident. Once you open the box you just flip it upside down and lift the box off. No need to awkwardly dig around while holding the box as you try to pull parts out I've had many things packed this way, indulging a few high end TV'S. Made unpacking dead easy.
The side of the box I opened was designed to open easily, so I'm pretty sure I got that right. Couldn't see any text instructions on the box telling me to do it the other way either.
Having some experience in hardware setups for robotic vision systems, for the "AI" error detection to really be viable there needs to be multiple cameras at different angles and a well tuned lighting system to filter out ambient light along with getting depth perception to calculate real-world units. Basically, a 3D scanner system that maps out a point-cloud. For that to work in real-time while printing would probably require a beefier processor, or a co-processor just for the vision algorithm computing. With all that being said, I give them props for introducing this idea even though it's not implemented well enough to really do much.
As always, a well presented review Michael, thanks. The whole taking open source ip and putting it behind a patent wall really burns my biscuits! It’s the reason I will have nothing to do with anything Bambu, Creality, Anycubic and several others.
QIDI was so bad about exploiting open source that they used open source stepper motor driver boards but soldered the header pins on the opposite side of the board to reverse the pinout for the sole purpose of selling me their proprietary replacement parts, which they discontinued a year later when they came out with a new 3D printer and orphaned the $3000 worth of proprietary printers I bought from them. That's evil.
Great review.....Best one on the M5 by far! Its a very interesting printer. Two camera Ai would be nice. Extra 3/4 view would help for manual print check.
Its a bit of a fail that there are settings that can't be changed on the device but need the app to change... Hopefully that will be corrected in a future firmware update. I also wonder how long Anker will support this device, since 3D printers are not their core business, hopefully if this device is a success they will continue to support it and models that follow.
I've thoroughly enjoyed using the one that I have at work, it's definitely some much easier to setup in comparison to the Ender 3. The slicer is fairly terrible, but workable. The only printing issues I've run into is when I'm printing 5 or more objects at once, but a quick adjust to Zhop helped. I like it, but just ordered the Neptune 4 Pro for myself yesterday and I'm looking to see how it stacks up to the M5 for half the price
How have you found the Neptune Pro? i was planning to buy it but never got around to. do you think the additional 400ish$ worth? from what ive seen from the AnkerMake M5 its not worth it.
Wow, that looks nice. My ender 3 has definitely been punishing any mistake I make and I am getting burnt out on doing more troubleshooting than printing.
i feel this in my soul. i can only recommend stepping away for a full day at least. that works for me especially when i notice ive spent 2+ hours trying to fix something right after 4 successful prints. frustration is exhausting so it just gets worse the longer you have to poke at it. just a thought.
I feel you. I can make my Ender3 make incredible stuff but around once a month I'll hit a wall and most likely need to waste a couple of days on troubleshooting / repairs or even waiting on a replacement part.
Sorry But the price for this kind of performance is not acceptable. For this price you can afford more reliable Bambulab P1P but it goes better: I bought Anycubic Kobra2 for $300... I got this printer Yesterday and I keep Feeding it with some random models with speed of 150 - 250mms. none of them failed and it have steel rods on X&Y axis which makes the bed and the printhead more stable than V-rolls. Sure you Don't have AI camera but you wont need it when Your printer works right. Sorry but in my opinion is AnkerMake way to overpriced and this look don't help me if the results are... like they are. Of Course: I have Kobra2 just two days but even when: if something break, its Open source design and all parts are pretty cheap available like everywhere. When I saw Ankermake i was vey sceptic about this printer. With your results you just prove me right. This is an bad "allrounder" that wanted to do everything but can nearly nothing.
The thing is that in my experience aside from bed levelling, even ender 3 models "just work" fine out of the box. The real challenge comes months or years of use later once the parts start to get worn and misalligned. While this machine looks really good, unless it stays overwhelmingly more reliable than other printers, it doesn't really provide much more than any current model with the same functions integrated (rout sensor and self levelling). I'd be really interested a followup video after numerous of hours printed in a couple months.
Aside from the auto bed level it also prints significantly faster then an ender 3, it helps a lot when you are doing rapid prototyping the speed will allow you to make a lot of iterations a day where with an ender 3 you may only get a couple. This being said ive had my printer since october last year and ive run probably 50kg of filament through it and i havent had to replace anything other then a few brass nozzles since ive used a lot of glow in the dark filament. Ive got a ruby tipped nozzle for it now though! so hopefully wont even have to replace that unless i need a different size!
Our goal is to ensure we're there to support you and your M5 during your entire printing journey. Not only do we provide a straightforward warranty that is processed in the most hassle-free way possible but we will also gladly repair or replace your product if we identify, through inspection or testing, that your product fails to function properly due to manufacturing error, workmanship, or any other such causes aside from collision, water damage, or unauthorized disassembly of the product. Our customer support team is always available to assist and help answer any questions as well! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake Team
We appreciate your feedback and have forwarded this to our team as we're always looking to improve our product. And we are developing new slicing software based on prusa. Stay tuned! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake Team
the p1p and the m5 are fairly close now, i know one is cheaper and a corexy but the anker printer is all die-cast aluminum and has significantly better polish than the p1p not to mention how much easier maintenance is on a bedslinger vs a corexy design.
Wow I just tested my ankermake at .2 on fast setting and omg results are amazing! If you can dial this thing in it's possible to be the fastest on the market they are just not advertising it
This printer has caught my attention because of the print speed. I have 2 older printers and being able to print at 500mm/s would be nuts. I'm not a fan of open design printers though. Too finicky.
Liked the idea of it just works. I have considered this one but as you pointed out the fans are jut to loud, a deal breaker at this point!!!! Thanks for sharing 😮
I thought I had done something wrong but the part that is obviously meant to be opened was on the top, and there were no written instructions telling me to flip anything.
There are really only 3 players in the game now - Voron, Creality k1, Bambu Lab... bed slingers and no encloser for double the price just make no sense. Not to mention how user friendly are Creality K1 and Bambu Lab are. Voron is for the hardcore tinkerrers.
Qidi Tech now also has some CoreXY offerings (at least the mechanical parts look like a Bambu clone) with Klipper. I don't know if these models are any good, but at least Qidi is known to have reasonable support (unlike all the others mentioned).
I think as a new user once you see the toolkit they give you its not maintenance free and i do feel its a little on the edge if that is 'ok' its kind of like a bicycle i guess when you have a nice one you have to decide if you or someone else maintains it but you know it has to be done. Weirdly on bicycles they also don't make it THAT clear its part of ownership my current bicycle takes about $400 to maintain each year or about 1/20 of its price.
Excellent review. 'For people who just want to print things' - well, you have demonstrated that it really depends on what they 'just' want to print. Personally I prefer my Ender 3, well looked after and in a custom enclosure, to this thing. My Ender 3 isn't dependent on having a smartphone or web connection or whatever. Too much dependency on 'smarts' is not smart, in my opinion.
Not to defend the ender 3, but aside from bed levelling, it also just works out of the box. The real problem with the enders is how often they need to be maintained to keep printing nice. Now since this anker machine is no exception to the same physical forces that make the enders get misalligned, the real "just works" test would be appropreate after months of printing head to head with other printers. To see if the anker stays more reliable than others. Because as we've seen in the video, it requres more fiddling with the slicer to "just work" and other than that it works just as much as any other printer with self levelling (which is almost all on the market at this point)
it's a bit hard to critise the software as it clearly stated it was beta...it's good that they have a simple and expert mode to help new people to start printing quicker...i'm sure they will start to add more helpful features but the key thing was to have the essential stuff first as for the AI error detection - they need more than one camera angle because it in your test case the error was being blocked by the chimney stack which had printed ok...had this print also had a camera on the other side it would have been able to see the error sooner
I have not been able to load TPU in this thing at all. I might check in there though to make sure there's not a piece of filament blocking like yours had. That could be. I've had mine for about a week now and I am really liking it. But yeah I said the same thing about that camera angle I said it is crap! I like to monitor the camera when I'm away from home just to see that everything is still working and that hasn't stopped for some reason but other than that I had to turn all that other stuff off because it would go off all the time and stop the print for nothing! And I had to go in there and redo it if I was away from home I wouldn't have been able to do that at all. That was so annoying I had to turn it off but I like at least being able to pull up the camera and make sure it's still going. And I can see if The printed thing has fallen off or something. My biggest shoe right now is trying to get TPU in there. It will not go through and I don't want to have to take it apart like you did but...
i think the printbeds scene being backlit made it harder for the detector to work. if you cover the window with a curtain i think it would have a better change of detecting errors/spaghetti
I would like to throw a hint or help; Filament temperature. When bending filament till it breaks. Will that tell what temperature to set for that filament? Bending a filament and it breaks right away. Set to high temp, Bends and touches it's self set to low temperature! Thoughts?
that head looks quite heavy, even for a bedslinger where that doesn't count as much. Also I'm sad because it uses Marlin instead of Klipper. I know it can be klipperified, but that would cost extra money, time and not so beginner-friendly. Other than that, the hardver is promising, and I hope they sort out the softver issues.
the 'similarities' to the ender 3 is what put me off of this printer. With enough mods (and basically putting the price around the same or maybe slightly cheaper on the E3 side) you can get all the bells and whistles the M5 has.... which as a E3 owner.. means it really isn't 'for me'. not saying it isn't a fantastic printer, just that... for that price I expect a least a bit more, such as volume to print in, or enclosure, or to get off of the horrible bed slinger design, as going faster is possible - but this M5 will have just as much, if not more, problems as any other bed slinger when dealing with that sort of thing. another thing i didn't understand is the camera angle, and of course... things like belt tension needs... seems more trouble that it's worth. I DO like the idea of USB-C to reduce wire to hotend though, makes things less cluttery and easier to manage. 1 robust cable seems like a better option than a handful of thin, easily broken cables.
For me the key point is that you are comfortable enough to mod and fettle your Ender until it purrs. I think this is aimed at people who aren't interested in that.
I'm glad the industry is moving forward, the P1P/X1C's really forced the hands of other manufacturers. That said, it's clear many in the industry are still a decent amount behind those two and will need to really step up their game to catch up. Can't wait to see what else is on the horizon.
Other good printers of the same size were available for 270USD or less on Black Friday and some might still around that price. I don't think the extra cost of this one is worth it. You could get another one or two very cheap Ender 3 for the price difference.
Customer Support is pretty useless as I have just received to the UK my M5 with the 3 month accessory pack and instead of getting 2 rolls each of white,grey and black I received 4 rolls of white and 2 of grey. Support say that is what I ordered, but the pack and machine on the website doesn't have an option of choice only 2 rolls of each. My other problem is that the app v1.0.9 and the machine firmware being V3.0.23-3.0.46 is still only showing 1 test model in the internal memory, Support are telling me that I have an old version of the app (the app is from their website) I am unable to find a newer version. I cancelled a Prusa mk4 as they would not give me an accurate lead time and it appears that they are still having component supply issues. I now wonder if I made a mistake with the M5, however the printer seems to be very good and extremely well built. Especially as it is priced at £1006 with the accessories and I still got £250 off because of a spin the wheel discount code made it only £756 which included the 6kgs of filament, a PEI bed sheet, 10 nozzles, a Hotend Kit and 5 Silicone covers.
I have to say, the Eufy privacy thing was a bit overblown. Not that they couldn't have done better but people also made a way bigger deal out of it than was warranted.
Looks sleek but it's still an expensive bed slinger, probably aimed to be sold at supermarkets or microcenters to people who want to, but have no understanding of 3D printing, and they will get equally frustrated at the 1st failed print as with a cheaper printer. For this price I would buy a P1P or a K1.
Off topic to this video, but I’m looking for Aussie reviews of filament brands for 3D printers, have you done any? I’m about to order the Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus and am trying to find out which brand of PLA to go for.
Hmmm I think the elegoo neptune 4 pro is going to be a budget killer ($300). It is top loaded, direct drive and has metal horizontal rollers and better UX.
Sort the bed adhesion, different bed material needed perhaps, do something with the AI that appears pretty useless and a better slicer and perhaps I would buy it but think that at this price point there are better options.
would this be a good begginer printer? I am between this and the Qidi Xplus 3. I am planning on printing things like night vision housings and airsoft gun parts
Great review as usual! I just wonder why you dont consider Ultimaker S5 as a next gen printer? Suppose it suits your requirement of 'next gen'. It would be great to compare it as well
The camera dolly section shows a comparison between fast and normal speeds. Larger objects will have a greater difference in duration as they won't be limited by acceleration.
I own one and miss an updated slicer and better support for upgrade parts on their site. Like an extra Steel Nozzle the lack which was not advertised of course. In contrast to the shiny promising M6 Multicolor extension, where we only recently learned that it will be produced Sep-Oct this year in a number of 5000 units at first. If this works out of the box like the M5, I will finally say I am glad I bought it, until then I have a nagging feeling a Bamboo might have been the better buy, The M5 is damn loud, and the bed slinging causes lots of vibrations through my desk. I am tempted to put it on a heavy stone plate with shock absorption feet =)
So I bought this, assembled and now I don't know why a full bag of 2x16 screws are no we're to be fixed. I just can't understand where they are supposed to be fixed. Tried to print after several times of bed leveling, the printer prints in air. Item sliced and leveled to lie on bed with Anker slicer. Frustrating.
True, but you are doing the work to mod it because your are knowledgeable and experienced wit these things. This is aimed at people who just want something working 'out of the box'.
In this review he said its not the best quality final prints he has tested, does anyone know what is the best quality result he has tested? (FDM only, not resin, speed not too important too me purely quality for smallish parts) Thanks in advance.
The camera on mine points out the window, so worst case scenario is they capture washed out images of the sky. Because of the idle fan noise I won't have this turned on unless printing with it.
They never did anything wrong and never lied, certain RUclips channels spread misinformation about that without understanding (ltt for instance...) Its a shame because their hardware and support is very solid for the price.
@@SirDragonClaw sorry I think you are sniffing the wrong glue or something. It is well documented by many sources, it you care to believe the sources, of what has transpired. However, if you are comfortable with a company that has a Blaise attitude to peoples data and handling the events afterwards good for you each to their own.
It could be the best printer in the world, printing a benchy in 20 seconds while making me a coffee at the same time - the fact that it is from Anker instantly makes it a hard no for me. I used to be quite an Anker fanboy, but that completely changed after the Eufy debacle.
I believe today we have a lot of options for the low budget 3d printing scene, which is great. However, in my opinion, when you get to the $700-1000 price range there is only a few options: - if you don't mind the bed slinger, and care about open source and reliability, go Prusa. - if you don't mind closed source and want good fast prints, go Bambu labs. - if you want the best of both worlds, and have a lot of time on your hands, go Voron I see no reason to justify buying this Anker printer
I own a AnkerMake M5 and a Bambu Lab P1P. Bambu beats it every time. The Anker is a good printer, I got a open box for $350. I believe this is more of a fair price.
Used to be fan of Anker. Not anymore since the whole Eufy privacy debacle. Companies with shady practices shouldn't be endorsed. This one is a hard pass anyway as it's basically an i3 style printer with some body panels doing nothing that a Prusa MK3/4 + Octoprint can't. Yes it is less setup but at that price the Bambulab P1P and the Creality K1 made this product obsolete.
Mistake: Prusa i3 MK4 kit is US$799, not US$1099 as shown. $1099 gets you a fully assembled machine. My apologies for the error!
I also said AnkerMaker instead of AnkerMake a few times but I don't think anyone will mind that too much.
Since they are nearly the same price, I would opt for a Prusa any day over Anker, they just have the much better track record in terms of customer service and reliablity. Sure, they don't have AI monitoring to detect failed prints, but prints on Prusa rarely ever fail, so it is unnecessary imho. Prusa > Anker anytime!
@@NochSoEinKaddiFan And for $799, the Bambu P1P is really really hard to beat.
For the price point, might as well stick with a P1P that also... just works.
This misses the point that the p1p doesn't target new users or low effort users the same way. Also it be nice to go a single video on a $600 to $800 printer without Bambu cheerleaders saying to "just buy a P1P" and consider there are reasons for people to want a different printer.
@@dannonyogurt98thank you
The ankermake just dropped the ankermake m5c compact version half price than original ankermake m5 that's going to be the new printer to beat ankermake m5 is 1099.99 cnd originally that means it should be 549.99$
And doesn't yet have shady business practices and lies like Anker did with Eufy
@@rossfisher323 Considering Linus just got called out for his routine comfort with poor judgement, bad takes and willingness to tank a company based on bad information because he's a stubborn mule, you might want to look into that a little more. Look up "the Internet was working about eufy". Push aside all the grand standing he loves to do, at the end of the day they issues is that they used AWS for encrypted push notification thumbnails. So no it's not 100% offline like Eufy said, they were in the wrong for that, but it's hardly the CCP style invasion of privacy he wants you to believe he's saving you from.
The "upside down" packaging is not a bug, it is a feature - the idea is that you are supposed to open the top, flip the open box on a table, like an omelet, then "lift off" the cardboard for the big reveal.
Agreed! That's pretty much the standard way to open a large unit box. I am very, very surprised with TT's level of technical understanding that this was a first-time lesson.
Your reviews rival those of some tech journalists. Consice, complete and transparent with the knowledge and experience to back up your verdict. Thank you for the wisdom you give to the 3d printing community, it is much appreciated!
Hey Michael, when you first introduced your "Review Policy", I felt like this was overdone, unnessecary and a bit cringe. Like precisely administering the common obvious.
Today, wenn I see other Content Creators beating around the bush, claiming they are non-influenced influencers, I often think: Why don't they just adopt a Review Policy like Michael of TechingTech? It makes things as clear and transparent as you can, no need for lengthy explainations, no long-windedly wordings about no money not changing no hands, no review before review, etc. You just say "in accordance with my Review Policy", and you're done.
Your videos are always top-notch, but with this idea you were and still are way ahead of the crowd. I like!
Thank you. It was unscrupulous vendors who forced my hand on writing that. I'm not sure if you were a viewer when I crossed paths with a litigious laser conman. I've found more and more over time that it's worth the investment in time to create resources/documents like that. Far easier to do it properly once and refer people to it than repeat myself.
The Prusa Mk4 is $1099 ASSEMBLED and the kit version is $799, same as AnkerMake
Thanks for pointing that out. I've pinned a comment with the correction.
Thanks for your excellent review.
To answer your quiestion: For 700-800 dollar/euro I expect more from a printer than a polished Ender 3 Pro. Which it still is.
Actually it's not it is significantly better in the user experience (hardware side) but it also prints significantly faster at 500mm/s
Upside down box *sounds like* how we unbox computers - dump the box out on the floor and presto the computers we were unboxing were right-side up ;)
I think it's quite a bit too expensive - the Bambu Lab P1P prints faster and possibly nicer, is better suited for upgrading it yourself (e.g. with a case) and costs less.
I feel features wise this is fair in being a bit more expensive. Has a camera from standard and the appearance is a bit more refined, but that won't matter to everyone.
@@TeachingTech The camera comes included with the P1P for free since April 3rd (still 0.5fps and no AI, but enough to check on your print and do timelapses)
Thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that.
Bambu will do 500 mm/s? That’s what Ankermake has started advertising
@@PaulShapiro Bambu Lab advertises 500mm/s as "Max Speed of Tool Head" ... But that's misleading - only travel moves can be that fast, it's not actually laying down filament at that rate.
I have the M5 and your review is spot on. The Anker Slicer is indeed the worst part of using this printer. Unless it's something very simple I use Orca Slicer, which has an Anker profile, and export. I wish my P1P had the control pad of the Anker!
Same for me and with the new Ankermgmt utitility you can now print wirelessly direct from Orca. I had to clean my plate once with dish soap and water, now everything sticks perfectly.
Thank you for providing your transparent feedback regarding our slicer. We are developing a new slicing software based on prusa. Stay tuned! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake team
@@AnkerMakeBrandTeamis this going to be a free update for existing owners?
Thanks for an honest "between the lines" review.
There's literally nothing in this printer to pay for: basic kinematics, basic bed, basic extruder, broken slicer, broken camera, broken USB port.
And, my favorite, Y belt placed as a conveyor for trash.
I think the value comes in the hand holding for those new to 3D printers. It's the type of machine someone who has no experience can buy and expect to have reasonable success with. Those customers won't know a thing about kinematics, etc and won't care either.
@@TeachingTechAgreed. For people new and not willing for fork out double or tripple the money for something more complicated that they might not get on with or get much use out of. I have the M5C to try the whole thing out. I'm enjoying it but it still very new to me. I'm not sure I'll use it enough to justify getting a pricier one.
As a total newbie have the ankermaker for 2 weeks and been using it without many problems on my own designs for camera parts (also help smallrig over the last 6 years). I am sure it will get its issues but as a new user it kind of does what they say print out of the box. Having fun probably because i don't have a 10 year 'view' on how things where or are in the DIY space that build their own.
Thank you for being part of our community and we're thrilled to hear that you've been enjoying printing with your M5! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake team
I think we really, really discuss not just a wave of the hand intellectual property concerns but also privacy concerns. Yes, Anker get a checkbox approval for printing locally with a USB, but at the cost of spaghetti detection. What people do not know is that this feature, across all the brands, is based on open source project, YOLO v3 (You Only Look Once). The Spaghetti Detective (TSD) plugin, now called Obico, is both a paid for service and can be installed and used locally, because of it being Open Source.
So to me, the future of 3d printing needs to talk about the relationship of privacy going hand in hand with Open Source.
this will be the "bose" of entry level 3D printers. great for people with more money than time and dont wanna deal with much hassle and tuning. for $800 id rather have a V400 but thats just me. theres a market for this printer
If anyone wants one of these at a discount, I bought it a Kickstarter prices. I am too in love w my Bambu (despite its flaws) to even turn it on. I've only printed maybe 3 models on it, but it is a solid machine.
You can print a disappearing clips now?!
The printer makes them, but the family makes them disappear.
Great review Michael, as usual although i would like if you maybe review outside the printer as well, like the spare parts also teardown of the machine
And the fact that it's built like a tank out of a slab of aluminium
CoreXY is the future for speed. Not sure why Anker decided to compete with the dated and overpriced Prusa considering recent advancements in printing. Its nice but not $800 nice.
I don't think it was packed upside down by accident. Once you open the box you just flip it upside down and lift the box off. No need to awkwardly dig around while holding the box as you try to pull parts out I've had many things packed this way, indulging a few high end TV'S. Made unpacking dead easy.
I bought a M5 and mine was packed the other way. (Though mine was a kickstarter, early model)
@@thespencerowen Hey I might be wrong . Then again Matthew yours was pack wrong. lol I think what most important is that they are packed well.
The side of the box I opened was designed to open easily, so I'm pretty sure I got that right. Couldn't see any text instructions on the box telling me to do it the other way either.
Having some experience in hardware setups for robotic vision systems, for the "AI" error detection to really be viable there needs to be multiple cameras at different angles and a well tuned lighting system to filter out ambient light along with getting depth perception to calculate real-world units. Basically, a 3D scanner system that maps out a point-cloud. For that to work in real-time while printing would probably require a beefier processor, or a co-processor just for the vision algorithm computing. With all that being said, I give them props for introducing this idea even though it's not implemented well enough to really do much.
As always, a well presented review Michael, thanks. The whole taking open source ip and putting it behind a patent wall really burns my biscuits! It’s the reason I will have nothing to do with anything Bambu, Creality, Anycubic and several others.
QIDI was so bad about exploiting open source that they used open source stepper motor driver boards but soldered the header pins on the opposite side of the board to reverse the pinout for the sole purpose of selling me their proprietary replacement parts, which they discontinued a year later when they came out with a new 3D printer and orphaned the $3000 worth of proprietary printers I bought from them. That's evil.
Great review.....Best one on the M5 by far!
Its a very interesting printer.
Two camera Ai would be nice.
Extra 3/4 view would help for manual print check.
Good points
Seams as a good product
Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us 🙂
Good review. The M5 had been on my radar for purchase but I don't want another bedslinger.
Its a bit of a fail that there are settings that can't be changed on the device but need the app to change... Hopefully that will be corrected in a future firmware update. I also wonder how long Anker will support this device, since 3D printers are not their core business, hopefully if this device is a success they will continue to support it and models that follow.
I've thoroughly enjoyed using the one that I have at work, it's definitely some much easier to setup in comparison to the Ender 3. The slicer is fairly terrible, but workable. The only printing issues I've run into is when I'm printing 5 or more objects at once, but a quick adjust to Zhop helped. I like it, but just ordered the Neptune 4 Pro for myself yesterday and I'm looking to see how it stacks up to the M5 for half the price
My ender 3S pro just works
How have you found the Neptune Pro? i was planning to buy it but never got around to. do you think the additional 400ish$ worth? from what ive seen from the AnkerMake M5 its not worth it.
Wow, that looks nice. My ender 3 has definitely been punishing any mistake I make and I am getting burnt out on doing more troubleshooting than printing.
agreed on that.. Most likely will be upgrading to this.
i feel this in my soul. i can only recommend stepping away for a full day at least. that works for me especially when i notice ive spent 2+ hours trying to fix something right after 4 successful prints. frustration is exhausting so it just gets worse the longer you have to poke at it. just a thought.
I feel you. I can make my Ender3 make incredible stuff but around once a month I'll hit a wall and most likely need to waste a couple of days on troubleshooting / repairs or even waiting on a replacement part.
It's the same price as the kit version of the Prusa MK4, cheaper than the assembled version.
Honest mistake, I've pinned a comment with the correction.
"It's the first" 0:51 Did you forget about Polaroid? They made the Playsmart and another model 3d printer which was way before this one.
Sorry But the price for this kind of performance is not acceptable. For this price you can afford more reliable Bambulab P1P but it goes better:
I bought Anycubic Kobra2 for $300... I got this printer Yesterday and I keep Feeding it with some random models with speed of 150 - 250mms. none of them failed and it have steel rods on X&Y axis which makes the bed and the printhead more stable than V-rolls. Sure you Don't have AI camera but you wont need it when Your printer works right. Sorry but in my opinion is AnkerMake way to overpriced and this look don't help me if the results are... like they are. Of Course: I have Kobra2 just two days but even when: if something break, its Open source design and all parts are pretty cheap available like everywhere. When I saw Ankermake i was vey sceptic about this printer. With your results you just prove me right. This is an bad "allrounder" that wanted to do everything but can nearly nothing.
The thing is that in my experience aside from bed levelling, even ender 3 models "just work" fine out of the box. The real challenge comes months or years of use later once the parts start to get worn and misalligned. While this machine looks really good, unless it stays overwhelmingly more reliable than other printers, it doesn't really provide much more than any current model with the same functions integrated (rout sensor and self levelling).
I'd be really interested a followup video after numerous of hours printed in a couple months.
Aside from the auto bed level it also prints significantly faster then an ender 3, it helps a lot when you are doing rapid prototyping the speed will allow you to make a lot of iterations a day where with an ender 3 you may only get a couple. This being said ive had my printer since october last year and ive run probably 50kg of filament through it and i havent had to replace anything other then a few brass nozzles since ive used a lot of glow in the dark filament. Ive got a ruby tipped nozzle for it now though! so hopefully wont even have to replace that unless i need a different size!
Our goal is to ensure we're there to support you and your M5 during your entire printing journey. Not only do we provide a straightforward warranty that is processed in the most hassle-free way possible but we will also gladly repair or replace your product if we identify, through inspection or testing, that your product fails to function properly due to manufacturing error, workmanship, or any other such causes aside from collision, water damage, or unauthorized disassembly of the product. Our customer support team is always available to assist and help answer any questions as well! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake Team
Haha yeah AnkerMake Slicer is horrible but thankfully the machine is pretty rock solid! Great video man
We appreciate your feedback and have forwarded this to our team as we're always looking to improve our product. And we are developing new slicing software based on prusa. Stay tuned! Thank you! - Kiki Chen from the AnkerMake Team
The market moved so quick. Something that would have been a good buy seems outdated now that the P1P is on the market.
the p1p and the m5 are fairly close now, i know one is cheaper and a corexy but the anker printer is all die-cast aluminum and has significantly better polish than the p1p not to mention how much easier maintenance is on a bedslinger vs a corexy design.
Wow I just tested my ankermake at .2 on fast setting and omg results are amazing! If you can dial this thing in it's possible to be the fastest on the market they are just not advertising it
i see teaching tech, i watch, like and comment.
This printer has caught my attention because of the print speed. I have 2 older printers and being able to print at 500mm/s would be nuts. I'm not a fan of open design printers though. Too finicky.
wont ever hit 500 mm/s on this machine, set print speed does not mean it actually ever hits those speeds
For what it's worth I have done about 80 prints on mine and so far have had zero failures (only in pla and petg though)
Hype is real as I watch the video!
Liked the idea of it just works. I have considered this one but as you pointed out the fans are jut to loud, a deal breaker at this point!!!! Thanks for sharing 😮
Flip the open box over for ease of unpacking. A lot of companies do that now. I had a printer last week, it was packed the same way.
I thought I had done something wrong but the part that is obviously meant to be opened was on the top, and there were no written instructions telling me to flip anything.
There are really only 3 players in the game now - Voron, Creality k1, Bambu Lab... bed slingers and no encloser for double the price just make no sense. Not to mention how user friendly are Creality K1 and Bambu Lab are. Voron is for the hardcore tinkerrers.
Qidi Tech now also has some CoreXY offerings (at least the mechanical parts look like a Bambu clone) with Klipper. I don't know if these models are any good, but at least Qidi is known to have reasonable support (unlike all the others mentioned).
V-slot wheels are not maintenance free and therefore a cause of concern for those who want to 'just print'
Some people hate them but I've found over the years the rollers across multiple printers have more or less been set and forget.
I think as a new user once you see the toolkit they give you its not maintenance free and i do feel its a little on the edge if that is 'ok' its kind of like a bicycle i guess when you have a nice one you have to decide if you or someone else maintains it but you know it has to be done. Weirdly on bicycles they also don't make it THAT clear its part of ownership my current bicycle takes about $400 to maintain each year or about 1/20 of its price.
I believe the content of the box is upside down so that you can flip the opened box on to a table and lift up to get the contents out.
Anker is like "hello we are still here and printing fast too".
Excellent review. 'For people who just want to print things' - well, you have demonstrated that it really depends on what they 'just' want to print. Personally I prefer my Ender 3, well looked after and in a custom enclosure, to this thing. My Ender 3 isn't dependent on having a smartphone or web connection or whatever. Too much dependency on 'smarts' is not smart, in my opinion.
Not to defend the ender 3, but aside from bed levelling, it also just works out of the box. The real problem with the enders is how often they need to be maintained to keep printing nice. Now since this anker machine is no exception to the same physical forces that make the enders get misalligned, the real "just works" test would be appropreate after months of printing head to head with other printers. To see if the anker stays more reliable than others.
Because as we've seen in the video, it requres more fiddling with the slicer to "just work" and other than that it works just as much as any other printer with self levelling (which is almost all on the market at this point)
This is the biggest issue. Smart = dumb, and having to register an account and use an app is a deal breaker.
it's a bit hard to critise the software as it clearly stated it was beta...it's good that they have a simple and expert mode to help new people to start printing quicker...i'm sure they will start to add more helpful features but the key thing was to have the essential stuff first
as for the AI error detection - they need more than one camera angle because it in your test case the error was being blocked by the chimney stack which had printed ok...had this print also had a camera on the other side it would have been able to see the error sooner
I have not been able to load TPU in this thing at all. I might check in there though to make sure there's not a piece of filament blocking like yours had. That could be. I've had mine for about a week now and I am really liking it. But yeah I said the same thing about that camera angle I said it is crap! I like to monitor the camera when I'm away from home just to see that everything is still working and that hasn't stopped for some reason but other than that I had to turn all that other stuff off because it would go off all the time and stop the print for nothing! And I had to go in there and redo it if I was away from home I wouldn't have been able to do that at all. That was so annoying I had to turn it off but I like at least being able to pull up the camera and make sure it's still going. And I can see if The printed thing has fallen off or something. My biggest shoe right now is trying to get TPU in there. It will not go through and I don't want to have to take it apart like you did but...
i think the printbeds scene being backlit made it harder for the detector to work. if you cover the window with a curtain i think it would have a better change of detecting errors/spaghetti
I would like to throw a hint or help; Filament temperature. When bending filament till it breaks. Will that tell what temperature to set for that filament? Bending a filament and it breaks right away. Set to high temp, Bends and touches it's self set to low temperature! Thoughts?
sold my M5 for a P1P. best decision i ever made.
that head looks quite heavy, even for a bedslinger where that doesn't count as much. Also I'm sad because it uses Marlin instead of Klipper. I know it can be klipperified, but that would cost extra money, time and not so beginner-friendly. Other than that, the hardver is promising, and I hope they sort out the softver issues.
the 'similarities' to the ender 3 is what put me off of this printer. With enough mods (and basically putting the price around the same or maybe slightly cheaper on the E3 side) you can get all the bells and whistles the M5 has.... which as a E3 owner.. means it really isn't 'for me'. not saying it isn't a fantastic printer, just that... for that price I expect a least a bit more, such as volume to print in, or enclosure, or to get off of the horrible bed slinger design, as going faster is possible - but this M5 will have just as much, if not more, problems as any other bed slinger when dealing with that sort of thing.
another thing i didn't understand is the camera angle, and of course... things like belt tension needs... seems more trouble that it's worth.
I DO like the idea of USB-C to reduce wire to hotend though, makes things less cluttery and easier to manage. 1 robust cable seems like a better option than a handful of thin, easily broken cables.
For me the key point is that you are comfortable enough to mod and fettle your Ender until it purrs. I think this is aimed at people who aren't interested in that.
I would hope, for the price, it would jump through hoops.
I'm glad the industry is moving forward, the P1P/X1C's really forced the hands of other manufacturers.
That said, it's clear many in the industry are still a decent amount behind those two and will need to really step up their game to catch up. Can't wait to see what else is on the horizon.
Does it use a standard nozzle? Looks longer than a standard v6.
Other good printers of the same size were available for 270USD or less on Black Friday and some might still around that price. I don't think the extra cost of this one is worth it. You could get another one or two very cheap Ender 3 for the price difference.
Customer Support is pretty useless as I have just received to the UK my M5 with the 3 month accessory pack and instead of getting 2 rolls each of white,grey and black I received 4 rolls of white and 2 of grey. Support say that is what I ordered, but the pack and machine on the website doesn't have an option of choice only 2 rolls of each.
My other problem is that the app v1.0.9 and the machine firmware being V3.0.23-3.0.46 is still only showing 1 test model in the internal memory, Support are telling me that I have an old version of the app (the app is from their website) I am unable to find a newer version.
I cancelled a Prusa mk4 as they would not give me an accurate lead time and it appears that they are still having component supply issues. I now wonder if I made a mistake with the M5, however the printer seems to be very good and extremely well built. Especially as it is priced at £1006 with the accessories and I still got £250 off because of a spin the wheel discount code made it only £756 which included the 6kgs of filament, a PEI bed sheet, 10 nozzles, a Hotend Kit and 5 Silicone covers.
I have to say, the Eufy privacy thing was a bit overblown. Not that they couldn't have done better but people also made a way bigger deal out of it than was warranted.
Looks sleek but it's still an expensive bed slinger, probably aimed to be sold at supermarkets or microcenters to people who want to, but have no understanding of 3D printing, and they will get equally frustrated at the 1st failed print as with a cheaper printer. For this price I would buy a P1P or a K1.
Off topic to this video, but I’m looking for Aussie reviews of filament brands for 3D printers, have you done any? I’m about to order the Creality Ender 3 S1
Plus and am trying to find out which brand of PLA to go for.
At $700+ price point, I'd buy Prusa MK4 kit over this without thinking too much.
7:28 Auto placement, select model and right click.
Hmmm I think the elegoo neptune 4 pro is going to be a budget killer ($300). It is top loaded, direct drive and has metal horizontal rollers and better UX.
wdym "budget killer"? as in not worth it for 300$? from everything ive seen its great for its price. but yet to test it
Is the automatic bed level actually leveling or are there settings that you need to change?
Sort the bed adhesion, different bed material needed perhaps, do something with the AI that appears pretty useless and a better slicer and perhaps I would buy it but think that at this price point there are better options.
This printer is so cool!
agreed!
As things are, if it can’t print nylon out of the box, I don’t care. $800 and it’s a bed slinger? 😂😂😂 No!
In fairness not that many 3D printers will do Nylon well out of the box.
It's better than literally every other printer for that price by a large margin, and it was trivial to get mine to print nylon.
would this be a good begginer printer? I am between this and the Qidi Xplus 3. I am planning on printing things like night vision housings and airsoft gun parts
Great review as usual! I just wonder why you dont consider Ultimaker S5 as a next gen printer? Suppose it suits your requirement of 'next gen'. It would be great to compare it as well
Simply because I've never used one and I make sure not to judge printers I don't have first hand experience with.
Great review, personally, i will make a voron 2.4
did you run it at 500mm as advertised?
The camera dolly section shows a comparison between fast and normal speeds. Larger objects will have a greater difference in duration as they won't be limited by acceleration.
If I'm required to install an app to use features of the printer, I don't buy that printer
I own one and miss an updated slicer and better support for upgrade parts on their site. Like an extra Steel Nozzle the lack which was not advertised of course. In contrast to the shiny promising M6 Multicolor extension, where we only recently learned that it will be produced Sep-Oct this year in a number of 5000 units at first. If this works out of the box like the M5, I will finally say I am glad I bought it, until then I have a nagging feeling a Bamboo might have been the better buy,
The M5 is damn loud, and the bed slinging causes lots of vibrations through my desk. I am tempted to put it on a heavy stone plate with shock absorption feet =)
Can this be used app only or do you need to slice with pc?
18:35 - Did you try doing a cold-pull with this extruder? Does it require removing the cover if you need to do one?
Ive done a few cold pulls all you gotta do is press the lever on the extruder and give it a solid pull no need to pull anything off.
What printer is that next to the X1C?
These two terms on any product are a deal killer, "APP" & "AI"
100% But it' looks and sounds good to the suckers (beginners) who have no clue what a liability it will be for them.
Do you have to use this with a mobile phone? Can someone use it with a wired connection to their PC?
So I bought this, assembled and now I don't know why a full bag of 2x16 screws are no we're to be fixed. I just can't understand where they are supposed to be fixed.
Tried to print after several times of bed leveling, the printer prints in air. Item sliced and leveled to lie on bed with Anker slicer. Frustrating.
Ender 3 pro + metal hotend + direct drive + bl touch + klipper can cost much less and give better results.
True, but you are doing the work to mod it because your are knowledgeable and experienced wit these things. This is aimed at people who just want something working 'out of the box'.
This printer worth buying
Omg, there is a searchbar for cura?!
An enclosure seems to be of paramount importance. So an printer that is not enclosed would not be my first choice.
In this review he said its not the best quality final prints he has tested, does anyone know what is the best quality result he has tested? (FDM only, not resin, speed not too important too me purely quality for smallish parts) Thanks in advance.
Any pros or cons
no sd slot ?
Can the plastic head melt
Oh and you forgot one thing.
Its built like a tank out of a slab of aluminium.
Can it print metal objects?
No chance anything made by anker will enter my house again, especially when it has a camera
God knows where they will upload it this time
The camera on mine points out the window, so worst case scenario is they capture washed out images of the sky. Because of the idle fan noise I won't have this turned on unless printing with it.
They never did anything wrong and never lied, certain RUclips channels spread misinformation about that without understanding (ltt for instance...)
Its a shame because their hardware and support is very solid for the price.
@@SirDragonClaw sorry I think you are sniffing the wrong glue or something. It is well documented by many sources, it you care to believe the sources, of what has transpired. However, if you are comfortable with a company that has a Blaise attitude to peoples data and handling the events afterwards good for you each to their own.
How does the Wuxn WXR stack up?
Maybe I’ve just been extremely lucky but with my anycubic Kobra I’ve never had a failed print
It could be the best printer in the world, printing a benchy in 20 seconds while making me a coffee at the same time - the fact that it is from Anker instantly makes it a hard no for me. I used to be quite an Anker fanboy, but that completely changed after the Eufy debacle.
Their customer service is where they fall extremely short.
Well known security brand eufy? More like notorious
I believe today we have a lot of options for the low budget 3d printing scene, which is great. However, in my opinion, when you get to the $700-1000 price range there is only a few options:
- if you don't mind the bed slinger, and care about open source and reliability, go Prusa.
- if you don't mind closed source and want good fast prints, go Bambu labs.
- if you want the best of both worlds, and have a lot of time on your hands, go Voron
I see no reason to justify buying this Anker printer
Good review. Decent printer, but I'd never buy one. Core-xy is where it's at these days - especially at those prices.
It STILL seems to be just a modified SnapMaker 2.0
I own a AnkerMake M5 and a Bambu Lab P1P. Bambu beats it every time. The Anker is a good printer, I got a open box for $350. I believe this is more of a fair price.
Used to be fan of Anker. Not anymore since the whole Eufy privacy debacle. Companies with shady practices shouldn't be endorsed. This one is a hard pass anyway as it's basically an i3 style printer with some body panels doing nothing that a Prusa MK3/4 + Octoprint can't. Yes it is less setup but at that price the Bambulab P1P and the Creality K1 made this product obsolete.
yeah i think ill stick with a p1s