The Bambu A1 We Have at Home, or Something More?

Anycubic recently announced and starting taking pre-order deposits for the new Anycubic Kobra X 3D printer. Since then, 3D printing communities have been flooded with “the Bambu Lab A1 we have at home” jokes. And while those should be taken as lighthearted quips they are, it does raise the question: is the Anycubic Kobra X more than just a Bambu Lab A1 clone?

There are some obvious similarities between the Anycubic Kobra X and the Bambu Lab A1, which is why people are making those jokes. The most glaring is the visual resemblance, which is undeniably strong. The two printers also have a similar build volume and multi-material capabilities.

But the Anycubic Kobra X handles multiple materials differently than the Bambu Lab A1 — arguably doing so in a more sensible way. To print with four different materials, the Bambu Lab A1 requires an AMS Lite unit and that adds $100 to the cost. The Anycubic Kobra X does not need that and can handle four filaments all on its own.

The Anycubic Kobra X will cost $259 for early birds who put down a deposit, while the Bambu Lab A1 Combo costs $399. That’s a significant savings.

The Kobra X avoids the need for an external filament swapping system by integrating that capability into the extruder. As an added benefit, that should be much better at handling flexible TPU filament, as it doesn’t need to push the filament far to get it into the hot end.

And for users that want to print with more than four materials, it is possible to expand the Kobra X with ACE 2 Pro units (essentially equivalent to Bambu Lab’s AMS). Anycubic says that the Kobra X will be able to swap between up to 19 different rolls of filament with enough ACE 2 Pro units — though I’m not quite sure how they would need to be arranged.

Anycubic’s previous FDM 3D printer models haven’t been particularly compelling, but the Kobra X seems to have real potential. If you agree enough to pay $10 for the deposit and wait an unspecified amount of time for delivery, this could be a great deal on a great printer.