3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 KE vs QIDI X-Smart 3
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 QIDI X-Smart 3 comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 KEBEDSLINGER | QIDI X-Smart 3COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | QIDI |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Creality Ender-3 V3 KE[1] | QIDI X-Smart 3, listed in QIDI navigation as X-Smart3[2][3] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | Not published by QIDI on the pages checked (Aug 2026)[2][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] | $399 on QIDI's official US page, which routes purchases to its AliExpress and Amazon stores; checked Aug 2026[3] |
| 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][5][6][7] | Entry model of the 3-series. Unlike the X-Plus 3 and X-Max 3 it has no heated chamber, a 300 °C rather than 350 °C hotend, a brass rather than copper-alloy/hardened-steel nozzle head, and no Ethernet. It shares the Cortex-A53 board with them, so control-board specs must not be read as shared print specs[2][8][9] |
| 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[5] | 175 x 180 x 170 mm advertised[2][3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 433 x 366 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware)[5] | 370 x 362 x 397 mm[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.8 kg[5] | 10.5 kg[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Not documented | QIDI publishes no frame-material breakdown for this model[2] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | No heated chamber. 3DJake's table records "Heated chamber: No"; QIDI does not describe an enclosure for this model[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Cartesian bed-slinger with a linear rail on X[1] | CoreXY[2][3] |
| 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 |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 500 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab)[1] | <=500 mm/s (manufacturer claim)[2][3] |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | Not documented | 20,000 mm/s2 (manufacturer claim)[3] |
| Max volumetric flow claimed (mm³/s) | Not documented | 30 mm3/s extruder flow (manufacturer claim)[2][3] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Direct-drive extruder paired with the ceramic-heated high-flow hotend[1] | Direct-drive extruder, single, 1.75 mm filament[2][3] |
| 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 nozzle head. 0.4 mm stock, 0.2/0.6/0.8 mm optional[2][3] |
| 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] | <=300 °C claimed[2][3] |
| Heater cartridge power (W) | 60 W ceramic heater cartridge (manufacturer figure)[1] | Not documented |
| Stock nozzle material (brass / hardened steel / plated copper / composite tip) | Not documented | Brass[2] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | Not documented | <=120 °C claimed[2][3] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | PEI-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[5] | Double-sided flexible magnetic RF plate[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] | 16-point automatic bed levelling per QIDI's US page; probe technology not named[3] |
| Mesh grid size (probe point count — firmware evidence) | Not documented | 16 points (QIDI's US page). Not verified against firmware[3] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[5] | Filament detection fitted; type and location not published[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 | ||
| Host computer (SoC, RAM, storage) if firmware runs on embedded Linux | Not documented | Cortex-A53 64-bit at 1.5 GHz, 1 GB DDR3, 8 GB eMMC[2] |
| Input voltage (110/220 V, switch or auto) | Not documented | 100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | 350 W 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][10][11] | Klipper[3] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 4.3-inch touchscreen[5] | 4.3-inch touchscreen[3] |
| 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] | Not documented |
| 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[5][1] | Wi-Fi and USB. No Ethernet listed for this model[2][3] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | Hyper PLA, PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU (95A) and ASA[1] | Not documented |
| 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] | 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[12] | 1-year coverage (QIDI standard store terms)[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[5] | 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[5] | 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
- QIDI Tech X-Smart 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI X-Smart 3 official US page qidiusa.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
- QIDI Tech X-Plus 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI Tech X-Max 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- 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
- QIDI Max4 product page (US store) us.qidi3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor