3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Hi vs Formlabs Form 4
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 Formlabs Form 4 comparisons
| Property | Creality HiBEDSLINGER | Formlabs Form 4RESIN |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | Formlabs |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | RESIN |
| 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] | Formlabs Form 4 3D Printer[2][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] | Starting at $2,625.00 at GoEngineer, in stock, checked Aug 2026. Formlabs sells the printer as part of packages (Form 4 Complete Package etc.), so package prices are much higher than the printer-only figure[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] | Three machines share this platform and are constantly conflated. Form 4: 200 x 125 x 210 mm, 50 um pixels, 18.3 kg, 480 W, one resin cartridge, NOT biocompatible. Form 4B: identical hardware but validated for 38 Formlabs materials including 15 biocompatible. Form 4L: 353 x 196 x 350 mm, 46 um pixels, 58.5 kg, 900 W, two cartridges[2] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 260 x 260 x 300 mm[1] | 200 x 125 x 210 mm (Formlabs quotes 5.25 litres)[2][3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 409 x 392 x 477 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the printer's footprint)[5] | 398 x 367 x 554 mm[2][3] |
| Net weight (kg) | 11.58 kg (Tom's Hardware measurement)[5] | 18.3 kg[2][3] |
| Frame construction & material | Full metal body with frame parts die-cast from aluminium alloy[1] | Not documented |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Enclosed cabinet with a hinged UV-blocking cover. Operating temperature 18-28 C[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Not documented | Masked stereolithography (MSLA). Formlabs brands the engine Low Force Display; straight-lift peel[2][3] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | 500 mm/s max printing speed (manufacturer claim)[1] | Not documented |
| 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] | Not documented |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | 0.4 mm high-flow hardened steel "unicorn" quick-swap nozzle[5] | Not documented |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C maximum nozzle temperature (Tom's Hardware)[5] | Not documented |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Two-sided epoxy-resin flexible build plate, heated[5] | Not documented |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | Auto levelling, plus automatic filament load and unload[1] | Not documented |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[5] | Not documented |
| 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 | ||
| Input voltage (110/220 V, switch or auto) | Not documented | 100-240 VAC, 4.8 A, 50/60 Hz, 480 W[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | 480 W[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[6][7] | Proprietary. Print preparation is PreForm; fleet management is Formlabs Dashboard[3] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch touchscreen, pre-assembled and foldable to shrink the footprint[1] | 7-inch interactive touchscreen, 1280 x 800 (control panel — not the masking LCD, see W1)[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] | Not documented |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, LAN, cloud and app[5] | Dual-band Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbit), USB-C 2.0[2][3] |
| 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)[5] | Formlabs resins across rigid, tough, general purpose, flame retardant, silicone, elastic, ceramic and castable families. Biocompatible resins require the Form 4B, not the Form 4[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[6][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[8] | Not documented |
| Independently Measured Performance | ||
| Dimensional accuracy measurements (third-party, with numbers) | Not documented | XY dimensional tolerance +/-0.15% — a manufacturer specification, not an independent measurement[2][3] |
| 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[5] | 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[5] | Not documented |
| Resin & MSLA | ||
| Masking LCD | Not documented | Low Force Display masking LCD with a 50 um pixel size and pre-tuned anti-aliasing. Formlabs does not publish the screen diagonal or pixel count[2][3] |
| Light source | Not documented | Backlight unit with 60 uniform-wavelength high-power LEDs behind collimating lenses, with integrated cooling[2][3] |
| Vertical print speedmm/h | Not documented | Maximum 100 mm/h; average 40 mm/h at a 100 um layer height (manufacturer figures — GoEngineer publishes both, which is unusually explicit about the basis). Formlabs separately claims most prints finish in under 2 hours[3][2] |
| Layer height range | Not documented | 25-200 um per Formlabs' own tech-spec page; GoEngineer's listing for the same machine says 25-300 um. Unresolved[2][3] |
| Resin vat & feeding | Not documented | Single next-generation resin cartridge; Formlabs claims 5-10x faster filling and 63% less waste. Resin tank rated for 75,000+ layers with any Formlabs material. No vat capacity published[2][3] |
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
- Formlabs resin printer technical specifications (Form 4 / 4B / 4L) formlabs.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Formlabs Form 4 3D printer listing store.goengineer.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
- 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