Printer comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 SE 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 SE comparisonsMore Prusa CORE One L+ comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 SEBEDSLINGER | 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 SE[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) | $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] | $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) | 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][7][8][9][10] | 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 250 mm[9] | 300 x 300 x 330 mm, which Prusa states as 29.7 litres[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 349 x 364 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the machine footprint)[9] | 469 x 521 x 635 mm[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.12 kg[9] | 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 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 - stated in Prusa's CORE One+ comparison table[6] |
| 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] | 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) | 250 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab figure)[1] | Not documented |
| 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][9] | 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 | 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] | 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?) | 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[9] | 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) | 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[9][8] | 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] |
| 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 | PC-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[9] | 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) | 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] | 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[9] | 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 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)[9] | 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 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[11][12][7] | 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[13][14] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch colour screen with a control knob - not a touchscreen, unlike the KE and V3[9] | 3.5-inch 65k-colour touch screen (CORE One family)[6] |
| 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] | On-device touch UI with Prusa Connect and Prusa mobile app remote control[6] |
| 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[9] | Ethernet, NFC receiver and Wi-Fi through a physically removable module, which Prusa offers for high-security offline installations[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[9] | 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 documented | Open-source firmware on the xBuddy platform, which carries hardware overcurrent protection cutting heater and heatbed power above 15 A[15][13] |
| 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[16] | 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[17][14] |
| 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[9] | 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[9] | 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
- 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 SE 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
- 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
- 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
- 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