3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 KE vs ELEGOO Centauri 2 Combo
Compare hardware, build volume, printing specifications, dated prices and sources.
2 selected · all documented properties
Open these two in the interactive comparisonMore Creality Ender-3 V3 KE comparisonsMore ELEGOO Centauri 2 Combo comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 KEBEDSLINGER | ELEGOO Centauri 2 ComboCOREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | ELEGOO |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Creality Ender-3 V3 KE[1] | ELEGOO Centauri 2 Combo - the Centauri 2 sold with the CANVAS multicolour unit[2] |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | $259.00 on store.creality.com, Aug 2026; Creality's own product page shows $279.00 on the same day[3][1] | Not documented |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | Sits between the SE and the V3 in the Ender-3 V3 family. Against the SE: linear rail on X instead of wheels, 500 mm/s instead of 250, 300 C ceramic hotend instead of 260 C, 4.3-inch touchscreen instead of a 3.2-inch knob screen, Wi-Fi instead of SD-card only. Against the V3: the KE keeps the conventional bed-slinger layout while the V3 is CoreXZ and reaches 600 mm/s. Build volume also differs subtly - 220 x 220 x 240 mm on the KE against 220 x 220 x 250 mm on the SE and V3[1][4][5][6] | Same printer as the bare Centauri 2 for every motion, hotend, bed and electronics figure; what the Combo adds is 4-colour CANVAS printing, RFID filament detection, auto refill and auto tangle detection, and what it costs is bench space - 500 x 480 x 586 mm and 15.5 kg against 398 x 404 x 490 mm and 13.7 kg. Camera, LED lighting and air filter remain optional expansions on both[2] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 220 x 220 x 240 mm - 10 mm shorter than the SE and V3, a difference that is easy to miss[4] | 256 x 256 x 256 mm; printing platform 260 x 260 mm[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 433 x 366 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware)[4] | 500 x 480 x 586 mm with the CANVAS unit fitted[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.8 kg[4] | 15.5 kg net, 19 kg gross[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Not documented | Rigid aluminium frame (Centauri 2 platform)[2] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Not documented |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Cartesian bed-slinger with a linear rail on X[1] | CoreXY with dual 4260 stepper motors[2] |
| X-axis guide type (rods / linear rails / V-wheels; size) | Steel linear rail on the X axis with a ball-bearing carriage; Creality Lab quotes a 0.04 friction coefficient[1] | Not documented |
| Z-axis: leadscrew count & type, sync mechanism, anti-backlash | Not documented | Three lead screws with three linear guide rods[2] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 500 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab)[1] | 500 mm/s or less, recommended 250 mm/s[2] |
| Recommended/typical print speed | Not documented | 250 mm/s recommended printing speed[2] |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | Not documented | 20000 mm/s2 maximum acceleration; default 10000 mm/s2[2] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Direct-drive extruder paired with the ceramic-heated high-flow hotend[1] | Dual-gear direct extruder with one fan[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Hotend with a 60 W ceramic heater, a bi-metal copper/titanium-alloy heatbreak to resist thermal creep, and a copper nozzle[1] | Brass-hardened steel nozzle, 0.4 mm, titanium-alloy heat break[2] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C claimed max nozzle temperature (Creality Lab test at 25 C room temperature)[1] | 350 C claimed max nozzle temperature[2] |
| Heater cartridge power (W) | 60 W ceramic heater cartridge (manufacturer figure)[1] | Not documented |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | Not documented | 110 C max heated bed temperature at 25 C ambient[2] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | PEI-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[4] | Not documented |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | One-tap self-test covering Z offset and auto levelling; Tom's Hardware records automatic levelling with automatic Z as well[1] | 121-point auto-levelling plus partial bed levelling[2] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[4] | Filament run-out sensor, clog detection, auto tangle detection, RFID filament detection, auto refill, auto filament unloading and power-loss recovery[2] |
| Multi-material/multi-color capability or official upgrade path | Not documented | CANVAS four-colour printing with RFID filament identification and automatic refill - the defining difference from the bare Centauri 2[2] |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Two part-cooling fans, one on each side of the printhead, cooling the freshly printed section from both sides[1] | Not documented |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | "Powerful Self-Developed Motherboard"[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | 1100 W at 220 V, 350 W at 110 V rated[2] |
| Firmware & Openness | ||
| Firmware base & current version (Klipper fork / Marlin fork / proprietary) | Creality OS, which Creality states is "Based on the popular Klipper firmware", with open-source files published; the source is on GitHub as CrealityOfficial/Ender-3_V3_KE_Klipper, described as a clone of upstream Klipper, GPL-3.0. Input shaping and motion advance (pressure advance) are exposed as features[1][7][8] | ELEGOO OS; ElegooSlicer recommended[2] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 4.3-inch touchscreen[4] | 5-inch colour capacitive touch screen[2] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | Touch UI with a tab bar, real-time model preview, motion graphics for print parameters and a one-tap self-test[1] | Colour touch UI; STL, OBJ, 3MF and STEP input[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | Wi-Fi and USB; LAN printing and cloud printing through Creality Print on PC or the Creality Cloud app, with multi-printer print-farm management[4][1] | USB and Wi-Fi[2] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | Hyper PLA, PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU (95A) and ASA[1] | Ideal: PLA, PETG, PLA-CF, TPU. Not recommended: ABS/ABS-CF, ASA/ASA-CF, PET/PET-CF, PETG-CF, PA/PA-CF, PC[2] |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | Not verified directly. Creality states the Ender-3 V3 KE runs a Klipper-based Creality OS and publishes CrealityOfficial/Ender-3_V3_KE_Klipper (GPL-3.0) as a clone of upstream Klipper, which ships the verify_heater thermal-runaway check; the stock configuration was not checked here[7][8][1] | Not documented |
| Reliability, Support & Ecosystem | ||
| Warranty length & support reputation (evidence, not vibes) | Creality's US store states "Up to 12-Month Warranty", a 14-day return and refund window and "Lifetime Customer Support" on its printer product pages. The "up to" wording means the term is not uniform across parts[9] | 12 months on brand-new machines and parts, but ELEGOO's own table excludes a long list of parts from that: PEI plate / build plate / nozzle kit / PTFE tube / heater / thermistor / hot end / packaging / manual / tools carry no warranty at all, and the extruder, extruder kit and printhead kit get 6 months. Certified pre-owned machines carry no warranty[10] |
| Independently Measured Performance | ||
| Benchmark print times (source + settings) | Benchy in 19 minutes 48 seconds under Speed Boat Rules in ordinary grey PLA - independently measured by Tom's Hardware[4] | Not documented |
| Review scores from major outlets (list outlet + score + date) | Tom's Hardware rating 4.5 out of 5 in the page's structured data[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
- Creality Ender-3 V3 KE product page creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO Centauri 2 product page (Centauri 2 Combo vs Centauri 2 side-by-side specification table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Creality US store - Ender-3 V3 KE 3D Printer product page (live price) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Ender 3 V3 KE Review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Ender 3 V3 SE Review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Ender 3 V3 Review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- GitHub API - CrealityOfficial/Ender-3_V3_KE_Klipper repository metadata ("clone from https://github.com/Klipper3d/klipper/", GPL-3.0) api.github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- GitHub - CrealityOfficial organisation repositories (per-model firmware sources) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Creality US store - K1 3D Printer product page (live price, warranty and returns banner) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO Refund & Warranty policy (warranty period table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor