3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 SE vs ELEGOO Centauri 2
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 SE comparisonsMore ELEGOO Centauri 2 comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 SEBEDSLINGER | ELEGOO Centauri 2COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | ELEGOO |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Creality Ender-3 V3 SE[1] | ELEGOO Centauri 2 (page title "Elegoo Centauri 2 | High-Speed CoreXY 3D Printer")[2] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | Listed on the ELEGOO US store from 24 June 2026 (Shopify publish date)[3] |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | $186.00 on store.creality.com, Aug 2026; Creality's own product page shows $199.00 for the same machine on the same day, so the two Creality properties disagree[4][1] | $279.00 on us.elegoo.com, Aug 2026, against a compare-at price of $299.00[3] |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | The cheapest of the Ender-3 V3 family and mechanically the most conservative: it keeps a conventional i3 bed-slinger layout, while the Ender-3 V3 and V3 Plus use CoreXZ and the V3 KE keeps the bed-slinger layout but adds an X-axis linear rail, a 60 W ceramic hotend and Klipper-based Creality OS. Speed ceilings differ sharply - 250 mm/s and 2500 mm/s2 on the SE against 500 mm/s on the KE and 600 mm/s on the V3/V3 Plus. The SE also stops at a 260 C nozzle where the others reach 300 C[1][5][6][7][8] | Sold both bare and as a Centauri 2 Combo. The Combo is the one with multicolour: 4-colour CANVAS printing, RFID filament detection, auto refill and auto tangle detection are all listed Yes for the Combo and dash for the bare machine, and the Combo body measures 500 x 480 x 586 mm and 15.5 kg against 398 x 404 x 490 mm and 13.7 kg. Camera, LED lighting, air filter and the smart exhaust grille are optional expansions on both. Distinct from the Centauri Carbon line, which is enclosed and takes carbon-fibre filament[2][9] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 220 x 220 x 250 mm[7] | 256 x 256 x 256 mm; printing platform 260 x 260 mm[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 349 x 364 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the machine footprint)[7] | 398 x 404 x 490 mm for the bare Centauri 2 (the Combo is 500 x 480 x 586 mm)[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.12 kg[7] | 13.7 kg net, 17.5 kg gross (bare machine; the Combo is 15.5 kg net, 19 kg gross)[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Not documented | Rigid aluminium frame[2] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Not documented |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Cartesian i3 bed-slinger - Creality describes "neat X, Y, Z-axis, smooth T-shaped profiles" with a rigid dual Z-axis and a moving build platform on the Y axis[1] | CoreXY with dual 4260 stepper motors driving X and Y independently[2] |
| Y-axis guide type | Y axis runs on a pair of 8 mm steel linear shafts carrying the build platform[1] | Not documented |
| Z-axis: leadscrew count & type, sync mechanism, anti-backlash | Rigid dual Z-axis, which Creality says reduces Z wobble[1] | Three lead screws with three linear guide rods[2] |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Not documented | "Silent Drive (All Axes)"; no driver part number published[2] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 250 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab figure)[1] | 500 mm/s or less, with 250 mm/s given as the recommended speed[2] |
| Recommended/typical print speed | Not documented | 250 mm/s recommended printing speed (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | 2500 mm/s2 max acceleration (manufacturer claim). Tom's Hardware attributes the modest Benchy time directly to this acceleration cap[1][7] | 20000 mm/s2 maximum acceleration; default acceleration 10000 mm/s2[2] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Creality "Sprite" direct-drive extruder, which Creality says works with PLA, PETG and flexible TPU and had shipped over 500,000 units as of June 2023[1] | Dual-gear direct extruder with one fan[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Direct-drive hotend with a 0.4 mm high-flow nozzle (Tom's Hardware description); Creality does not describe an all-metal path for the SE[7] | Brass-hardened steel nozzle, 0.4 mm, titanium-alloy heat break[2] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 260 C maximum nozzle temperature per Tom's Hardware's spec box - the lowest of the Ender-3 V3 family, where the V3, V3 Plus and KE all reach 300 C[7][6] | 350 C claimed max nozzle temperature - higher than the enclosed Centauri Carbon's 320 C, even though ELEGOO lists ABS, ASA, PET, PETG-CF, PA and PC as not recommended on this machine[2][9] |
| 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 | PC-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[7] | Dual-sided spring steel sheet, textured PEI plus a PLA-specific surface[2] |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | CR Touch inductive/mechanical probe for auto bed levelling plus a separate strain sensor for automatic Z offset - Creality's pitch is no levelling screws and no paper method[1] | 121-point auto-levelling plus partial bed levelling, with full-auto calibration[2] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[7] | Filament run-out sensor, clog detection, auto filament unloading, fan self-check, part-cooling-fan drop detection and power-loss recovery[2] |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Two fans on the printhead: a front-mounted fan onto the hotend heatsink and a second fan in the shroud with twin ducts aimed at the nozzle (Tom's Hardware teardown description)[7] | Not documented |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | "Powerful Self-Developed Motherboard" is all ELEGOO publishes[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | 1100 W at 220 V, 350 W at 110 V rated; 24 V output; 100-240 VAC input[2] |
| Firmware & Openness | ||
| Firmware base & current version (Klipper fork / Marlin fork / proprietary) | Creality publishes an open-source firmware repository for this model, CrealityOfficial/Ender-3V3-SE on GitHub under GPL-3.0 (last pushed July 2024). Unlike the KE, K1 and K2 repositories, it is not described as a Klipper clone, and Creality does not call the SE a Creality OS machine on its product page[10][11][5] | ELEGOO OS; ElegooSlicer recommended, Orca and Cura supported[2] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch colour screen with a control knob - not a touchscreen, unlike the KE and V3[7] | 5-inch colour capacitive touch screen - larger than the 4.3-inch panel on the Centauri Carbon[2][9] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | Knob-driven colour UI using motion graphics to show levelling progress and print parameters; auto filament load/unload from the menu[1] | Colour touch UI; input formats STL, OBJ, 3MF and STEP[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | SD card only - no Wi-Fi and no USB host, in contrast to the Wi-Fi-equipped KE and V3[7] | USB and Wi-Fi[2] |
| Camera: built-in / optional? Resolution & framerate (verify — marketing often omits real fps) | Not documented | No camera as standard - listed as an optional expansion, as are LED lighting and the air filter[2] |
| Calibration Routines & QoL | ||
| Assembly level & time from unbox to first print | Kit-style assembly from a small number of pre-built sections; Creality claims printing within 20 minutes of unboxing[1] | Not documented |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PLA, PETG and TPU (Tom's Hardware); Creality's own copy names PLA, PETG and flexible TPU for the Sprite extruder[7] | Ideal: PLA, PETG, PLA-CF, TPU. Explicitly not recommended: ABS/ABS-CF, ASA/ASA-CF, PET/PET-CF, PETG-CF, PA/PA-CF, PC[2] |
| 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] | 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[13] |
| Independently Measured Performance | ||
| Benchmark print times (source + settings) | Benchy in 41 minutes under Speed Boat Rules (2 walls, 3 top/bottom layers, 10% grid infill, 0.25 mm layer height, 0.5 mm width) in ordinary grey PLA - independently measured by Tom's Hardware, not a manufacturer figure[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 SE 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
- ELEGOO Centauri 2 Shopify product JSON (price and store publish date) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Creality US store - Ender-3 V3 SE 3D Printer product page (live price) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Creality Ender-3 V3 KE product page creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Creality Ender-3 V3 product page (full specification table) creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- 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 KE Review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- ELEGOO Centauri Carbon product page (full specification table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- GitHub API - CrealityOfficial/Ender-3V3-SE repository metadata ("Open source for Ender-3V3 SE", 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