04-03-2025
Anycubic S1 Combo Review: We Finally Have a Bambu Lab P1S Competitor
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Over the last year we have seen a lot of 3D printers trying to replicate the success that Bambu Lab has had with its color system. The P1P combo" target="_self (followed up by the P1S combo) are still some of the best 3D printers" target="_self you can buy, and until now, there was very little in the way of competition. The combination of color system, speed and quality seemed like a pipe dream for most manufacturers. That's all changed in early 2025, with several companies finally taking a stab at the color combo.
Anycubic has been making budget 3D printers for a long time so it makes sense for them to try and compete with Bambu Lab in the color system space. Its first foray, the Anycubic Kobra 3 was a fine attempt, but the S1 combo is the company's direct competitor to the Bambu Lab P1S, and it is surprisingly good. Good enough to hold its own in a space long dominated by one company.
Like the P1S, the Anycubic S1 is a core XY 3D printer. Core XY differs from many printers in that the print bed moves up and down, and the print nozzles stay on the same plane. This creates a much more stable platform for the print and reduces the chance of vibration issues. Core XY works very well with a color system because it is often enclosed and allows you to stack the color system (called the ACE on Anycubic machines) on top of the machine to reduce the footprint without introducing major movement issues. The S1 has a plastic door and lid, rather than the glass from the P1S, and while it does make it slightly louder, it also makes the entire machine lighter, so it's a trade-off. I was worried that the lack of glass would make the S1 feel cheap, but it doesn't make as much difference as I had thought.
What does make a difference is the large LCD panel on the S1. My chief complaint about the P1P/P1S has always been that the display is difficult to navigate and feels very cheap. At 4.3 inches, the LCD on the S1 is large and easy to navigate, which makes adjusting parameters on the fly much easier. It's far more similar to the LCD on the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon (a more expensive machine) than the P1S' tiny 1 inch by 3 inch display. The S1 also uses USB thumb drives as its storage of choice rather than the MicroSD cards used by the P1S. I much prefer that as they are easier to load and unload and they are easier to transport. The S1 does have its own internal memory as well, so when you transfer via WiFi, it keeps a copy stored on the machine, making it easier to reprint if you are making batch copies.
The quality of the Anycubic S1 is surprisingly good. Well, maybe surprisingly isn't the right word. Most modern 3D printers are significantly better than they were even 3 years ago, but the S1 is in a price bracket that can fall prey to poor tuning. The machine doesn't seem to have any mechanical issues that could cause bad prints, and my test print showed significant improvements over the Kobra 3, Anycubic's other color system 3D printer. The test print had significantly better towers and dimensional accuracy --something that a core XY printer is very good at -- and shows the cooling is working the way it should.
I printed models in PLA, TPU, ABS, and PETG and all of them printed well. The enclosure means that even hot materials like ABS can print well, though I recommend taking the lid off to print PLA. The interior can get a little warm, and it just prints better at cooler temperatures. The best models seemed to come from PLA and PETG in terms of quality, and I had some issues getting the TPU through into the nozzle due to the flexibility and length of the PTFE tube. Aside from that, the S1 performed admirably.
Color systems are on the rise and Anycubic's take is likely to give us a good idea of what the budget market systems are going to be like. The ACE unit itself is fine. There is nothing to distinguish it from other color systems as it doesn't have a heated chamber or anything like that, but it works as it is supposed to. I'm a little concerned that the entrances to the material feeds will grind down over time as they are in a fixed position, but they do look like a replaceable part, which is good.
The color prints themselves are excellent. You can see from the cheerful pilot and the purge tower behind it there there was very little in the way of bleeding, and that the purge tower is clean along the margins. That means the "poop chute" and nozzle cleaner are doing what they are designed for, which is unusual for a lot of these Bambu Lab clones. Honestly, even the P1S can struggle with this, so seeing Anycubic work to get this right is a welcome change.
The Anycubic S1 has the same issue as with any color system, the waste. The amount of printer poop -- the colloquial term for printer waste -- that the S1 produces is very similar to that of the P1S. Though I think I could reduce it if I spent a little more time with the software, which creates challenges of its own. The Anycubic slicer is based on several others, including Bambu Slicer, Orca Slicer and Prusa Slicer. Unfortunately, it seems to have removed some of the more helpful settings, like the one that allows me to adjust the purge levels on the printer. Those settings are important if you want to reduce your printer's waste without creating color bleed issues. The Anycubic slicer is certainly better than its last version, but it still has a way to go to make itself as simple to use as its competitors.
This is one of the biggest issues with even the best budget 3D printers" target="_self. These days, 3D printers often come with apps which are usually subpar (like their slicers tend to be). The S1 uses the same app as the Kobra 3, which is, frankly, awful. It is loaded with ads and just feels like an afterthought in a way that the Bambu app and now the Prusa app don't. It feels like it's trying to sell you something, and that's just not what I need from a 3D printing app. It needs to monitor my machines and help me printer quicker or better, but the app struggles to do that effectively.
Overall, my experience with the S1 from Anycubic is positive. For $400 for the standalone machine and $600 for the color system combo, it stands up to the P1S in almost every way, and beats it on price. The P1S with color system sells for around $700 and, from what I can see, doesn't offer anything more than the Anycubic.
Only the software reduces the overall experience of using the Anycubic S1, though I find the better LCD on the printer makes up for some of that shortfall. Software issues aside, the S1 is a sturdy entry into the Core XY with color system pantheon and can be considered one of the best in its price bracket.
