3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Bambu Lab A2L vs Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2)
Compare hardware, build volume, printing specifications, dated prices and sources.
2 selected · all documented properties
Open these two in the interactive comparisonMore Bambu Lab A2L comparisonsMore Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) comparisons
| Property | Bambu Lab A2LBEDSLINGER | Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2)COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Bambu Lab | Prusa Research |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Bambu Lab A2L[1] | Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2). Prusa's e-shop lists "Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2)" and "Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) Assembly kit"[2][3] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Pre-orders opened 1 June 2026 (Tom's Hardware spec box); Tom's Hardware review published 27 June 2026[4] | The CORE One+ (Gen 2) refresh was announced on 13 August 2026, on sale immediately, with the first assembled units shipping at once and kits, upgrade kits and individual parts rolling out over the following weeks. It succeeds the CORE One and CORE One+ on the same platform[5] |
| Launch MSRP (USD) | $469 standalone, $569 Combo at launch[4] | Not documented |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | From $469.00 on the Bambu Lab US store, Aug 2026[6] | $1,202.78 assembled, $925.00 as an assembly kit, on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026. Bundles run to $1,301.85 with camera and advanced filtration. Prusa's own marketing table on the same page quotes "from $1,299" assembled, which does not match the live e-shop price[3][2] |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | Standalone and Combo (with AMS lite) SKUs, and an optional cutting/drawing module (blade cutter and pen plotter, 300x300 mm cutting area) that is a separate attachment, not a printer variant. Do not carry A1 or A1 mini figures across: the A2L is a different, much larger machine at 12.8 kg[1][4] | Three generations share the CORE One name: the original CORE One, the CORE One+, and the CORE One+ (Gen 2), with paid upgrade kits between them (CORE One+ to CORE One+ (Gen 2), and an MK4S to CORE One+ (Gen 2) conversion kit). The specifications recorded here are those published on Prusa's current CORE One+ (Gen 2) page and should not be assumed to hold for a first-generation CORE One. The INDX 4-tool and 8-tool machines are variants of the same product page, and the CORE One L is a larger, separate machine[2][3][7] |
| Market position: superseded? successor announced? | Not documented | Current model and Prusa's mainstream enclosed machine, above the MK4S and below the CORE One L+[3] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 330 x 320 x 325 mm (manufacturer figure)[1] | 250 x 220 x 270 mm (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 544 x 529 x 505 mm[1] | 415 x 444 x 555 mm (X x Y x Z)[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 12.8 kg net[1] | 22.5 kg[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Aluminium and steel chassis with a plastic outer frame; Tom's Hardware describes a triangular gantry frame the base drops into[1] | All-steel exoskeleton (Prusa's own comparison wording, against "aluminium extrusions and frame" for the MK4S)[8] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Fully enclosed with a door-open sensor and active chamber temperature control up to 55 C; HEPA/advanced filtration is an optional add-on[2][8] |
| Passive chamber temperature reached (if enclosed; measured values preferred) | Not documented | Active chamber heating, maximum 55 C (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Cartesian bed-slinger - Tom's Hardware's assembly description has the heatbed bolting to a Y-carriage inside the gantry frame[4] | CoreXY - stated as such in Prusa's own comparison table against the Cartesian MK4S[2] |
| Z-axis: leadscrew count & type, sync mechanism, anti-backlash | Not published in the spec sheet; no teardown source found that documents the Z drive[1] | Not documented |
| Stepper motors (frame size, step angle, brand if known) | Not documented | 0.9 degree X and Y stepper motors[2] |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Not documented | Trinamic 2130[2] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 500 mm/s max toolhead speed (manufacturer claim)[1] | Not documented |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | 10 m/s2 = 10000 mm/s2 max toolhead acceleration (manufacturer claim)[1] | Not documented |
| Max volumetric flow claimed (mm³/s) | 28 mm3/s claimed, measured by Bambu on a 150 mm round single-wall model in Bambu PLA Basic at 220 C - note this test uses PLA, unlike the ABS-based figures Bambu quotes for its enclosed machines, so it is not directly comparable[1] | Not documented |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Direct drive with a servo extruder motor and hardened-steel extruder gears; built-in filament cutter[1] | Nextruder direct drive, E3D V6 compatible with an adapter; planetary gear system with a 10:1 ratio; aluminium heatsink and all-metal hotend[2] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | Not documented | 10:1 planetary gearbox[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Stainless-steel nozzle; 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8 mm supported. Bambu's A2L sheet does not state whether the hotend is all-metal[1] | Quick-swap nozzle system; high-flow Prusa brass CHT 0.4 mm nozzle supplied. An optional HT hotend raises the ceiling to 400 C[2] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C claimed max nozzle temperature[1] | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature. Prusa's comparison table adds "400 C w/ HT" for the optional HT hotend, which its 13 August 2026 blog post says will only become available in September 2026 - so 400 C is a forthcoming option, not a shipping specification[2][5] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | 80 C max heatbed temperature[1] | 120 C max heatbed temperature[2] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Textured PEI plate included; Engineering Plate and Cool Plate SuperTack also supported[1] | Magnetic heatbed with removable PEI spring-steel sheets; whole-bed heating regardless of object size[2] |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | Automatic bed levelling with automatic Z: Tom's Hardware confirms the nozzle is used as the probe and the machine can re-check level before each print[4] | Load-cell sensor - fully automatic first-layer calibration with the nozzle as the probe[2] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Yes - run-out sensor, filament odometry, tangle sensor and clumping detection[1] | Two filament sensors, plus a door sensor and five Semitec thermistors with fan RPM monitoring[2][8] |
| Multi-material/multi-color capability or official upgrade path | Not documented | MMU3 for five filaments, or the INDX system for up to eight, both officially supported[2] |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Part-cooling fan and hotend cooling fan, both closed-loop controlled. No auxiliary part-cooling fan and no chamber fan[1] | High-performance turbine part-cooling fan with 360-degree cooling, the same arrangement as the MK4S[2] |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | Custom 32-bit xBuddy board with STM32[2] |
| PSU (brand, wattage, rail voltage) | Not documented | 240 W PSU with hardware power panic[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | Power consumption 90 W printing PLA, 110 W printing ABS (manufacturer figures)[2] |
| Firmware & Openness | ||
| Firmware base & current version (Klipper fork / Marlin fork / proprietary) | Closed-source proprietary firmware - not a Klipper or Marlin derivative, and no printer-firmware source is published. The bambulab GitHub organisation carries 11 repositories (Bambu Studio, wxWidgets/boost/ffmpeg forks, the wiki); none is printer firmware. Updates are delivered over the air via Bambu Studio / Bambu Handy[9] | Open-source Prusa Buddy firmware. The source tree (prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy on GitHub) explicitly covers the Original Prusa MINI/MINI+, MK4, XL and CORE One and was last pushed to in August 2026. Updates are applied from a USB drive, through Prusa Connect or through the Prusa mobile app[10][8] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.5-inch 240x320 touchscreen[1] | 3.5-inch 65k-colour graphic screen with touch control[2] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | Touchscreen plus mobile app and PC app[1] | On-device touch UI; remote monitoring and printing through Prusa Connect and the Prusa mobile app; firmware updates from USB, Prusa Connect or the app[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only (802.11 b/g/n), Bambu-Bus, microSD card. Ethernet not available[1] | Ethernet and Wi-Fi (NFC receiver plus an optional Wi-Fi module), USB drive for print files[2] |
| Camera: built-in / optional? Resolution & framerate (verify — marketing often omits real fps) | Built-in low-frame-rate camera, up to 1080p, timelapse supported[1] | Optional in-chamber camera solution (Buddy3D camera bundle listed at $1,237.03 against $1,202.78 for the bare printer)[2][3] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | Suitable: PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA. PLA-CF and PETG-CF suitable only after fitting a hardened-steel nozzle. ABS, ASA, PA, PC and PET are listed as not recommended on the compare page[1][11] | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB, and - as advanced materials in the heated chamber - ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA[2] |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | Not documented | The xBuddy platform carries hardware overcurrent protection that cuts heater and heatbed power above 15 A, and the firmware is open-source and auditable[12][10] |
| Reliability, Support & Ecosystem | ||
| Warranty length & support reputation (evidence, not vibes) | 2-year limited warranty for consumers in the US, Canada, the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland; 1 year in the rest of the world. Bambu Lab's own policy records the US/Canada term as a 2026 extension from one year to two[13] | 2-year warranty for consumers in the EU, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland; 1 year for EU enterprises and 1 year for the rest of the world, which includes the United States. A printer bought from a reseller or privately carries 1 year from the original delivery date and is handled by the reseller. Prusa advertises 24/7 chat and e-mail support in seven languages[14][8] |
| Independently Measured Performance | ||
| Review scores from major outlets (list outlet + score + date) | Tom's Hardware: Editor's Choice, rating 4.5 out of 5 in the page's structured data (27 June 2026)[4] | Not documented |
Manufacturer claims, independent measurements, packages and test conditions retain their source wording. FDM linear speed and resin vertical speed use different units and are not directly comparable. Unknown values are marked “Not documented”. Prices and source dates remain historical snapshots; check the linked guide for product details. Differences highlight text, not a universal winner.
Sources for this comparison
- Bambu Lab A2L Spec Sheet (PDF) store.bblcdn.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Tom's Hardware - Bambu Lab A2L 3D printer review, 27 June 2026 tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- Prusa blog - Better Prints, Easier Use: Prusa XL+, CORE One L+ and CORE One+ (Gen 2), Our Big Product Update (published 13 August 2026) blog.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Bambu Lab US Store - 3D Printers collection listing (base prices, Aug 2026) us.store.bambulab.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa CORE One L+ product page (CORE One L+ Technical Specifications) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- GitHub - bambulab organisation repository list (11 repos, checked Aug 2026) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Bambu Lab - Compare all 3D printers (A2L / X2D / H2C columns) bambulab.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa blog - Original Prusa MK4 is here (published 29 March 2023), including the MK4 specification table and launch prices blog.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Bambu Lab Warranty Policy bambulab.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc