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The Best 3D Printers for 2021

Whether for personal, professional, or educational use, 3D printers are more
a6ordable than ever. Check out what you need to know about the technology to get
started printing, along with the top-performing models in our formal testing.

By Tony Ho(man

June 17, 2021, 12:18 a.m.

The Best Printers for 2021 The Best Cheap 3D Printers for 2021

TOP PICKS

BEST FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS, CLASSROOMS

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 EDITORS' CHOICE

Dremel DigiLab 3D45 3D Printer

The Dremel DigiLab 3D45 is featured-packed, prints accurately, and comes loaded with
powerful software, making it one of the best 3D printers we've tested.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS, SHORT-RUN MANUFACTURERS, JEWELERS, OTHER

PROFESSIONALS
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 EDITORS' CHOICE

Formlabs Form 2
The Form 2 offers magnificent print quality, a good selection of resins, and an improved
user experience over the previous generation of Formlabs 3D printers.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR PRODUCT DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS, HOBBYISTS

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 EDITORS' CHOICE

MakerBot Replicator+
The MakerBot Replicator+ 3D printer is a marked upgrade over its predecessor, offering
better speed, a larger build area, and workflow solutions for professionals.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR HOBBYISTS, MAKERS

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 EDITORS' CHOICE

Original Prusa i3 MK3S

The preassembled version of the Original Prusa i3 MK3S is a cinch to get up and running, is
easy to operate, and has a good slicing program. It produced consistently beautiful prints in
our testing, with no misprints.

Read Original Prusa i3 MK3S Review

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR BEST FOR MAKERS, HANDY NEWBIES

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 EDITORS' CHOICE

Original Prusa Mini

It requires assembly and calibration care (plus shipping from the Czech Republic), but the
Original Prusa Mini is a compact, open-frame 3D printer that consistently produces superb-
quality output for a great price.

Read Original Prusa Mini Review

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR PROFESSIONALS PRINTING LARGE OBJECTS

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 EDITORS' CHOICE

Ultimaker S5 3D Printer
The Ultimaker S5's dual extruders, good print quality, large build volume, and easy setup
and operation make it worthy of our Editors' Choice as a professional-grade filament-based
3D printer.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR CLASSROOMS

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 Dremel DigiLab 3D40 Flex 3D Printer
Dremel's easy-to-use DigiLab 3D40 Flex 3D Printer has user-friendly software, good output
quality, and a wide mix of connectivity options. It's a fine choice for classroom use.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR HOBBYISTS, CLASSROOMS, COMMUNITY CENTERS

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 LulzBot Mini 2
The LulzBot Mini 2 is easy to use and works with a variety of filament types. It's a good
choice for schools and hobbyists, and anyone willing to invest in a powerful and versatile 3D
printer.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR CONSUMERS, HOBBYISTS

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 XYZprinting da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix
The XYZprinting da Vinci Jr. 2.0 Mix is great choice for a low-price consumer 3D printer,
especially if you want to print in two colors.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR CONSUMERS

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 Flashforge Finder 3D Printer
The Flashforge Finder 3D Printer is moderately priced and offers good print quality, but it
proved tricky to get up and running in our tests.

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR 3D PRINTING NEWBIES

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 Polaroid PlaySmart 3D Printer
The Polaroid PlaySmart 3D Printer is a compact, stylish 3D printer with above-par overall
print quality, but, alas, a tiny build area for the money.

Read Polaroid PlaySmart 3D Printer Review Review

PROS & CONS

BEST FOR CASUAL EXPERIMENTERS

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 WobbleWorks 3Doodler Create+ Leather Edition
The WobbleWorks 3Doodler Create+ Leather Edition is a 3D pen with a touch of style, and
the ability to draw with several materials, including wood-based filaments.

Read WobbleWorks 3Doodler Create+ Leather Edition Review

PROS & CONS

Barely a decade ago, 3D printers were hulking, expensive machines reserved for
factories and well-heeled corporations. They were all but unknown outside the small
circles of professionals who built and used them. But thanks largely to
the RepRap open-source 3D printing movement, these amazing devices have become
viable and affordable products for use by designers, engineers, hobbyists, schools,
and even curious consumers.

If you're in the market for one, it's important to know how 3D printers differ from one
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 another so you can choose the right model. They come in a variety of styles, and may
be optimized for a particular audience or kind of printing. Preparing to take the
plunge? Here's what you need to consider.

What Do You Want to Print?

Tied into the matter of what you want to print is a more fundamental question: Why do
you want to print in 3D? Are you a consumer interested in printing toys and/or
household items? A trendsetter who enjoys showing the latest gadgetry to your
friends? An educator seeking to install a 3D printer in a classroom, library, or
community center? A hobbyist or DIYer who likes to experiment with new projects and
technologies? A designer, engineer, or architect who needs to create prototypes or
models of new products, parts, or structures? An artist who seeks to explore the
creative potential of fabricating 3D objects? Or a manufacturer, looking to print plastic
items in relatively short runs?
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 Your optimal 3D printer depends on how you plan to use it. Consumers and schools
will want a model that's easy to set up and use, doesn't require much maintenance,
and has reasonably good print quality. Hobbyists and artists may want special
features, such as the ability to print objects with more than one color, or to use
multiple filament types. Designers and other professionals will want outstanding print
quality. Shops involved in short-run manufacturing will want a large build area to print
multiple objects at once. Individuals or businesses wanting to show off the wonders of
3D printing to friends or clients will want a handsome yet reliable machine.
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 For this guide, we will focus on 3D printers in the sub-$4,000 range, targeted at
consumers, hobbyists, schools, product designers, and other professionals, such as
engineers and architects. The vast majority of printers in this range build 3D objects
out of successive layers of molten plastic, a technique known as fused filament
fabrication (FFF). It is also frequently called Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM),
although that term is trademarked by Stratasys, Inc. (Although they are not strictly 3D
printers, we also include 3D pens—in which the "ink" is molten plastic and the user
applies it by drawing freehand or using a stencil—in this roundup.) A few 3D printers
use stereolithography—the first 3D printing technique to be developed—in which
ultraviolet (UV) lasers trace a pattern on a photosensitive liquid resin, hardening the
resin to form the object.

What Size Objects Do You Want to Print?

Make sure that a 3D printer's build area is large enough for the kind of objects that
you intend to print with it. The build area is the size, in three dimensions, of the
largest object that can be printed with a given printer (at least in theory—it may be
somewhat less if the build platform is not exactly level, for example). Typical 3D
printers have build areas between 6 and 9 inches square, but they can range from a
few inches up to more than 2 feet on a side, and a few are actually square. In our
reviews, we provide the build area in inches, in height, width, and depth (HWD).

What Materials Do You Want to Print With?

Most lower-priced 3D printers use the FFF technique, in which plastic filament,
available in spools, is melted and extruded, and then solidifies to form the object. The
two most common types of filament by far are acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
and polylactic acid (PLA). Each has slightly different properties. For example, ABS
melts at a higher temperature than PLA and is more flexible, but it emits fumes when
melted that many users find unpleasant, and it needs a heated print bed. PLA prints
look smooth, but they tend to be on the brittle side.
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 Other materials used in FFF printing include, but are not limited to, high-impact
polystyrene (HIPS), wood, bronze, and copper composite filaments, UV-luminescent
filaments, nylon, Tritan polyester, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene terephthalate
(PETT), polycarbonate, conductive PLA and ABS, plasticized copolyamide
thermoplastic elastomer (PCTPE), and PC-ABS. Each material has a different melt
point, so use of these exotic filaments is limited to printers designed for them, or ones
with software that lets users control the extruder temperature.
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 Filament comes in two diameters—1.85mm and 3mm—with most models using the
smaller-diameter filament. Filament is sold in spools, generally 1kg (2.2 pounds), and
sells for between $20 and $50 per kilogram for ABS and PLA. Although many 3D
printers will accept generic spools, some companies' 3D printers use proprietary
spools or cartridges. These often contain an RFID chip that allows a printer to identify
the filament type and properties, but this only works for that manufacturer's
compatible printers. Make sure that the filament is the right diameter for your printer,
and that the spool is the right size. In many cases, you can buy or make (even 3D
print) a spool holder that will fit various spool sizes. (For much more on 3D printing
filaments, check out our filament explainer.)

Stereolithography printers can print at high resolutions and eschew filament in favor
of photosensitive (UV-curable) liquid resin, which is sold in bottles. Only a limited
color palette is available: mainly clear, white, gray, black, or gold. Working with liquid
resin and isopropyl alcohol, which is used in the finishing process for
stereolithography prints, can be messy and odiferous.

How High of a Resolution Do You Need?

A 3D printer extrudes successive thin layers of molten plastic in accordance with
instructions coded in the file for the object being printed. For 3D printing, resolution
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 equals layer height. Resolution is measured in microns, with a micron being 0.001mm,
and the lower the number, the higher the resolution. That's because the thinner each
layer is, the more layers are needed to print any given object, and the finer the detail
that can be captured. Note, however, that increasing the resolution is sort of like
increasing a digital camera's megapixel count: Although a higher resolution often
helps, it doesn't guarantee good print quality.

Nearly all 3D printers being sold today can print at a resolution of 200 microns—which
should produce decent-quality prints—or better, and many can print at 100 microns,
which generally delivers good-quality prints. A few can print at higher resolutions still,
as fine as 20 microns, but you may have to go beyond the preset resolutions and into
custom settings to enable resolutions finer than 100 microns.

Higher resolution comes at a price, as you'll usually pay a premium for printers with
resolutions higher than 100 microns. Another downside of increasing the resolution is
that it can add to print times. Halving the resolution will roughly double the time it
takes to print a given object. But for professionals who require the highest quality in
the objects they print, the extra time may be worth it.

The field of 3D printing for consumers and hobbyists is still in its infancy. The
technology has been evolving at a rapid rate, making these products ever more viable
and affordable. We can't wait to see what improvements the coming years bring.
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 Do You Want to Print in Multiple Colors?
Some 3D printers with multiple extruders can print objects in two or more colors.
Most are dual-extruder models, with each extruder being fed a different color of
filament. One caveat is that they can only print multicolored objects from files that
have been designed for multicolor printing, with a separate file for each color, so the
areas of different colors fit together like (three-dimensional) jigsaw puzzle pieces.

What Surface Should You Build On?

The importance of the build platform (the surface on which you are printing) may not
be apparent to 3D printing newbies, but it can prove critical in practice. A good
platform will let an object adhere to it while printing, but it should allow for easy
removal when the printing is done. The most common configuration is a heated glass
platform covered with blue painter's tape or a similar surface. Objects stick to the
tape reasonably well, and they are easy to remove when completed. Heating the
platform can prevent the bottom corners of objects from curling upward, which is a
common issue, especially when printing with ABS.

With some build platforms, you apply glue (from a glue stick) to the surface, to give
the object something on which to adhere. This is workable, as long as the object can
easily be removed after printing. (In some cases, you have to soak both platform and
object in warm water for the object to come loose.)
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 A few 3D printers use a sheet of perforated board with tiny holes that fill with hot
plastic during printing. The trouble with this method is that although it will hold an
object solidly in place during printing, the object may not easily come loose afterward.
Using a thumbtack or an awl to push the plugs of hardened plastic out of the
perforations to free the object and/or clean the board is a time-consuming process,
and can damage the board.

If the build platform becomes tilted, it can impede printing, particularly of larger
objects. Many 3D printers offer instructions on how to level the build platform, or
provide a calibration routine in which the extruder moves to different points on the
platform to ensure that the points are all at the same height. A growing number of 3D
printers automatically level the build platform.

Setting the extruder at the proper height above the build platform when commencing
a print job is also important for many printers. Such "Z-axis calibration" is usually
performed manually, by lowering the extruder until it's so close to the build platform
that a sheet of paper placed between extruder and platform can move horizontally
with slight resistance. A few printers automatically perform this calibration.

Do You Need a Closed Frame?

Closed-frame 3D printers have an enclosed structure with a door, walls, and a lid or
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 hood. Open-frame models provide easy visibility of print jobs in progress, and easy
access to the print bed and extruder. A closed-frame model is safer, keeping kids and
pets (and adults) from accidentally touching the hot extruder. And it also means
quieter operation, reducing fan noise and possible odor, especially when printing with
ABS, which can exude a burnt-plastic smell.

How Do You Want to Connect to the Printer?

With most 3D printers, you initiate the printing from a computer via a USB connection.
Some printers add their own internal memory, which is an advantage because they
can keep a print job in memory and continue printing even if the USB cable is
disconnected or the computer is shut down. A few offer wireless connectivity, either
via 802.11 Wi-Fi or a direct, peer-to-peer link. A downside of wireless is that, because
3D printing files can be up to 10MB in size, it can take much longer to transfer them.
Another connection method that we have seen is Ethernet, for sharing a printer on a
local network.

Many 3D printers have SD (or microSD) card slots from which you can load and print
3D object files using the printer's controls and display, while others have ports for
USB thumb drives. The advantage of printing directly from media is that you don't
need a computer. The downside is that they add an extra step, in transferring the files
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 to your card. Typically, wireless, SD card, or USB thumb-drive connectivity is offered
in addition to the basic USB cable, although a few models offer one or more of those
options.

What Software Do You Need?

Today's 3D printers come with a suite of software on a disk or as a download.
It's Windows-compatible, and in many cases can work with macOS and Linux as well.
Not long ago, 3D printing software consisted of several parts, including a printing
program that controlled the motion of the extruder, a "healing" program to optimize
the file to be printed, a slicer to prepare the layers to be printed at the proper
resolution, and the Python programming language.

These components were derived from the RepRap open-source tradition, which was
what spurred the development of low-cost 3D printers. Today, manufacturers of 3D
printers have integrated these programs into seamless, user-friendly packages, many
of them building on the Cura open-source platform to support their printers. Some 3D
printers also allow you to use separate component programs, if you prefer.

So, Which 3D Printer Should I Buy?

Below are the best 3D printers that we've reviewed recently. They cover a wide range
in price, features, and printing methods, but they all represent quality. For more
information on what 3D printing is, and how it works, our 3D-printing primer is a good
place to start. And be sure to check out our roundup of the best overall printers.

MORE INSIDE PCMAG.COM

The Best Printers for 2021

The Best Cheap 3D Printers for 2021

About Tony Hoffman

:
 As Analyst for printers, scanners, and projectors, Tony Hoffman tests and r
eviews these products and provides news coverage for these categories. T

ony has worked at PC Magazine since 2004, first as a Staff Editor, then as Reviews

Editor, and more recently as Managing Editor for the printers, scanners, and project

ors team.

In addition to editing, Tony has written articles on digital photography and reviews o

f digital cameras, PCs, and iPhone apps

Prior to joining the PCMag team, Tony worked for 17 years in magazine and journal

production at Springer-Verlag New York. As a freelance writer, he’s written articles

for Grolier’s Encylopedia, Health, Equities, and other publications. He won …

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