Printer comparison
Creality Hi 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 Hi comparisonsMore ELEGOO Centauri 2 comparisons
| Property | Creality HiBEDSLINGER | ELEGOO Centauri 2COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | ELEGOO |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Creality Hi, sold as the "Creality Hi Combo" with one CFS unit[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) | The Creality US store Hi Combo page lists three variant prices - $299.00, $399.00 and $539.00 - on the same page, Aug 2026; the lowest is recorded here and the combo includes one CFS unit[4] | $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) | Sold as a combo bundled with one CFS multi-material unit; up to four CFS units can be stacked for 16 colours, and the extra three are bought separately. Three price variants exist on the store page, so a single "Creality Hi" price is ambiguous[1] | 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][5] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 260 x 260 x 300 mm[1] | 256 x 256 x 256 mm; printing platform 260 x 260 mm[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 409 x 392 x 477 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the printer's footprint)[6] | 398 x 404 x 490 mm for the bare Centauri 2 (the Combo is 500 x 480 x 586 mm)[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 11.58 kg (Tom's Hardware measurement)[6] | 13.7 kg net, 17.5 kg gross (bare machine; the Combo is 15.5 kg net, 19 kg gross)[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Full metal body with frame parts die-cast from aluminium alloy[1] | 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) | Not documented | CoreXY with dual 4260 stepper motors driving X and Y independently[2] |
| Z-axis: leadscrew count & type, sync mechanism, anti-backlash | Not documented | 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) | 500 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim)[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) | 12000 mm/s2 max acceleration (manufacturer claim)[1] | 20000 mm/s2 maximum acceleration; default acceleration 10000 mm/s2[2] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Modular direct-drive extruder, which Creality markets as clog-free and designed for repairability[1] | Dual-gear direct extruder with one fan[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | 0.4 mm high-flow hardened steel "unicorn" quick-swap nozzle[6] | Brass-hardened steel nozzle, 0.4 mm, titanium-alloy heat break[2] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C maximum nozzle temperature (Tom's Hardware)[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][5] |
| 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 | Two-sided epoxy-resin flexible build plate, heated[6] | 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) | Auto levelling, plus automatic filament load and unload[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[6] | Filament run-out sensor, clog detection, auto filament unloading, fan self-check, part-cooling-fan drop detection and power-loss recovery[2] |
| Multi-material/multi-color capability or official upgrade path | Pairs with up to four CFS units for up to 16 colours; the combo ships with one CFS. Multi-material also enables snap-away support material[1] | 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) | Klipper-derived firmware - Creality publishes the source as CrealityOfficial/Hi_Klipper on GitHub, GPL-3.0, last pushed March 2026[7][8] | ELEGOO OS; ElegooSlicer recommended, Orca and Cura supported[2] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch touchscreen, pre-assembled and foldable to shrink the footprint[1] | 5-inch colour capacitive touch screen - larger than the 4.3-inch panel on the Centauri Carbon[2][5] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | Touch UI with input shaping, alarm sounds and auto filament identification via the built-in RFID reader (needs Creality RFID filament)[1] | Colour touch UI; input formats STL, OBJ, 3MF and STEP[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, LAN, cloud and app[6] | 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 | 95% pre-assembled[1] | Not documented |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PLA and PETG (Tom's Hardware's materials line for the Hi Combo)[6] | 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] |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | Not verified directly. Creality publishes CrealityOfficial/Hi_Klipper (GPL-3.0) for this model; upstream Klipper ships the verify_heater thermal-runaway check, but the stock configuration was not checked here[7][8] | 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[9] | 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[10] |
| Independently Measured Performance | ||
| Benchmark print times (source + settings) | Benchy in 32 minutes 33 seconds under Speed Boat Rules in ordinary grey PLA - independently measured by Tom's Hardware[6] | Not documented |
| Review scores from major outlets (list outlet + score + date) | Tom's Hardware rating 3.5 out of 5 in the page's structured data - the lowest score of any Creality machine recorded here[6] | 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 Hi Combo 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 - Creality Hi Combo 3D Printer product page (live prices for the variants) store.creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO Centauri Carbon product page (full specification table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Hi Combo review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- GitHub API - CrealityOfficial/Hi_Klipper repository metadata (GPL-3.0, last push Mar 2026) 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