3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Ender-3 V3 SE 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 SE comparisonsMore QIDI X-Smart 3 comparisons
| Property | Creality Ender-3 V3 SEBEDSLINGER | 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 SE[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) | $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] | $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) | 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] | 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][9][10] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 220 x 220 x 250 mm[7] | 175 x 180 x 170 mm advertised[2][3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 349 x 364 x 490 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the machine footprint)[7] | 370 x 362 x 397 mm[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 7.12 kg[7] | 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 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[2][3] |
| 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 |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 250 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim, Creality Lab figure)[1] | <=500 mm/s (manufacturer claim)[2][3] |
| 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] | 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 | 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] | Direct-drive extruder, single, 1.75 mm filament[2][3] |
| 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 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) | 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] | <=300 °C claimed[2][3] |
| 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 | PC-coated spring steel sheet, heated, removable[7] | Double-sided flexible magnetic RF plate[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] | 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[7] | Filament detection fitted; type and location not published[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 | ||
| 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 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][5] | Klipper[3] |
| 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] | 4.3-inch touchscreen[3] |
| 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] | Not documented |
| 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] | Wi-Fi and USB. No Ethernet listed for this model[2][3] |
| 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] | 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[13] | 1-year coverage (QIDI standard store terms)[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[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
- 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 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
- 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-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
- QIDI Max4 product page (US store) us.qidi3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor