3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Hi vs ELEGOO Neptune 3 Pro
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 Neptune 3 Pro comparisons
| Property | Creality HiBEDSLINGER | ELEGOO Neptune 3 ProBEDSLINGER |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | ELEGOO |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | BEDSLINGER |
| 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 Neptune 3 Pro[2] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | Listed on the ELEGOO US store from 11 November 2022 (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] | $259.99 on us.elegoo.com, Aug 2026, with the compare-at price also $259.99 - notably more than the newer and far faster Neptune 4 at $219[3][5] |
| 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] | The last Neptune 3 still listed; the 3 Plus and 3 Max are gone from the store's Neptune section. Do not read Neptune 4 figures onto it: the 3 Pro runs Marlin, not Klipper, tops out at 180 mm/s rather than 500, uses a 36-point mesh rather than 121-point, and its nozzle stops at 260 C rather than 300 C. Its machine size, 475 x 445 x 515 mm, is identical to the Neptune 4's, so body dimensions will not tell them apart[2][6][7] |
| Market position: superseded? successor announced? | Not documented | Superseded by the Neptune 4 series and, in ELEGOO's current marketing, by the Centauri line[7] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 260 x 260 x 300 mm[1] | 225 x 225 x 280 mm; printing platform 235 x 235 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)[8] | 475 x 445 x 515 mm - the same body as the Neptune 4. ELEGOO's maximum size for machine activity is 475 x 580 x 725 mm[2][6] |
| Net weight (kg) | 11.58 kg (Tom's Hardware measurement)[8] | 8.1 kg net, 10.15 kg gross[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Full metal body with frame parts die-cast from aluminium alloy[1] | CNC-machined aluminium extrusion frame (Neptune family)[6] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Open frame, no enclosure[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Not documented | Cartesian i3 bed-slinger[2] |
| Z-axis: leadscrew count & type, sync mechanism, anti-backlash | Not documented | Two lead screws[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] | 30-180 mm/s, with 60 mm/s given by ELEGOO as the recommended speed - a pre-Klipper machine, and the slowest in this file apart from the OrangeStorm Giga[2] |
| Recommended/typical print speed | Not documented | 60 mm/s recommended printing speed (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | 12000 mm/s2 max acceleration (manufacturer claim)[1] | Not documented |
| 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 2 fans[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | 0.4 mm high-flow hardened steel "unicorn" quick-swap nozzle[8] | Brass 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)[8] | 260 C claimed max nozzle temperature - 40 C below the Neptune 4 series[2][6] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | Not documented | 100 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[8] | PEI spring steel sheet[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] | 36-point auto-levelling (the Neptune 4 family moved to 121 points)[2][9] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[8] | Filament run-out sensor 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 | ||
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | 300 W rated power, 24 V output[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[10][11] | Marlin - ELEGOO names the system "Marlin" for the Neptune 3 Pro, against "Klipper" for the whole Neptune 4 family[2][9] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch touchscreen, pre-assembled and foldable to shrink the footprint[1] | 4.3-inch colour capacitive touch screen[2] |
| 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 capacitive touch UI; ElegooSlicer recommended, Orca and Cura supported[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, LAN, cloud and app[8] | TF (microSD) card and USB cable only - no LAN and no Wi-Fi[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)[8] | PLA, TPU, PETG, ABS, ASA - no Nylon, unlike the Neptune 4 family[2][6] |
| 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[10][11] | Not documented |
| Noise & Power Consumption | ||
| Noise: claimed dB and independently measured dB (distance/method) | Not documented | Operating sound published as 48 dB or less - a manufacturer figure with no distance or method stated[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 32 minutes 33 seconds under Speed Boat Rules in ordinary grey PLA - independently measured by Tom's Hardware[8] | 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[8] | 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 compare-products page, which embeds the full per-model specification JSON for every Neptune, Centauri and OrangeStorm machine us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO Neptune 3 Pro 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 Neptune 4 Shopify product JSON (variant prices and store publish date) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO Neptune 4 product page (Specification table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- ELEGOO US store 3D printers collection (current line-up, Aug 2026) 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
- ELEGOO Neptune 4 Plus product page (full specification table) us.elegoo.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- 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