Printer comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 KE vs Prusa CORE One L+
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 Prusa CORE One L+ comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 KEBEDSLINGER | Prusa CORE One L+COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | Prusa Research |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Creality Ender-3 V3 KE[1] | Prusa CORE One L+[2] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | The CORE One L+ refresh was announced on 13 August 2026 and went on sale immediately, with the first assembled units shipping at once; it adds GT1.5 belts and an integrated nozzle wiper to the CORE One L[3] |
| 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[4][1] | $1,850.93 on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026; $1,925.00 with the Advanced Filtration bundle. Prusa's own comparison text on the CORE One+ page quotes "from $1,799", which does not match the live e-shop price[5][6] |
| 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][7][8][9] | Larger sibling of the CORE One+ (Gen 2): 300 x 300 x 330 mm against 250 x 220 x 270 mm, 60 C chamber against 55 C, 21.9 kg against 22.5 kg (the L is the lighter of the two despite being larger). A CORE One L to CORE One L+ upgrade kit exists, so "CORE One L" and "CORE One L+" are different revisions. A Critical Infrastructure Edition is also listed[2][6][5] |
| 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[7] | 300 x 300 x 330 mm, which Prusa states as 29.7 litres[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 433 x 366 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware)[7] | 469 x 521 x 635 mm[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.8 kg[7] | 21.9 kg (48.3 lb)[2] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Fully enclosed with a chamber door-open sensor and an active convection heated chamber up to 60 C; advanced filtration is an optional add-on[2] |
| Passive chamber temperature reached (if enclosed; measured values preferred) | Not documented | Active convection chamber heating, maximum 60 C (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Cartesian bed-slinger with a linear rail on X[1] | CoreXY - stated in Prusa's CORE One+ comparison table[6] |
| 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 |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Not documented | Trinamic drivers on the custom xBuddy mainboard (Prusa's CORE One L+ specification says "custom 32-bit xBuddy mainboard with STM32 processor & Trinamic drivers"; it does not give the driver part number)[2] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 500 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab)[1] | Not documented |
| Vibration Compensation / Input Shaping | ||
| Input shaping supported? Implementation (Klipper IS / Marlin ZV / proprietary) | Not documented | Input Shaper and Phase Stepping with an integrated accelerometer[2] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Direct-drive extruder paired with the ceramic-heated high-flow hotend[1] | Nextruder direct drive with a 10:1 planetary gear system; all-metal hotend with an aluminium heatsink and a tool-free quick-swap nozzle system[2] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | Not documented | 10:1 planetary gearbox[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] | Tool-free quick-swap nozzle system; Prusa brass high-flow CHT 0.4 mm pre-mounted plus an abrasive-resistant 0.4 mm nozzle in the box[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] | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature. The optional HT hotend that raises this to 400 C was announced for September 2026 availability, so it is not a shipping specification as of Aug 2026[2][3] |
| 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 | 120 C max heatbed temperature[2] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | PEI-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[7] | Magnetic heatbed with removable dual-sided PEI spring-steel sheets; a satin powder-coated sheet is supplied[2] |
| 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] | High-precision load-cell sensor - fully automatic first-layer calibration and mesh bed levelling restricted to the print area[2] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[7] | Two filament sensors, plus a chamber door-open sensor and five Semitec thermistors[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 | Custom 32-bit xBuddy mainboard with an STM32 processor[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | Standby 16 W, preheating about 630 W, average printing about 90 W on PLA and about 215 W on ASA (manufacturer figures)[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][10][11] | 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[12][13] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 4.3-inch touchscreen[7] | 3.5-inch 65k-colour touch screen (CORE One family)[6] |
| 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] | On-device touch UI with Prusa Connect and Prusa mobile app remote control[6] |
| 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[7][1] | Ethernet, NFC receiver and Wi-Fi through a physically removable module, which Prusa offers for high-security offline installations[2] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | Hyper PLA, PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU (95A) and ASA[1] | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB, and with Advanced Filtration also ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA[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[10][11][1] | Open-source firmware on the xBuddy platform, which carries hardware overcurrent protection cutting heater and heatbed power above 15 A[14][12] |
| 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[15] | 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[16][13] |
| 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[7] | 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[7] | 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
- Prusa CORE One L+ product page (CORE One L+ Technical Specifications) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- 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
- Creality US store - Ender-3 V3 KE 3D Printer product page (live price) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.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
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.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
- Creality US store - K1 3D Printer product page (live price, warranty and returns banner) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc