3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Hi vs Original Prusa MK4S
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 Original Prusa MK4S comparisons
| Property | Creality HiBEDSLINGER | Original Prusa MK4SBEDSLINGER |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | Prusa Research |
| 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] | Original Prusa MK4S (Prusa Research, Prague). Sold as "Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer" and "Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer kit"[2][3] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | Announced and available to order on 12 August 2024, the date of Prusa's launch blog post, with assembled printers, kits and an MK4S/MMU3 bundle in stock at announcement[4] |
| 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[5] | $925.00 assembled, $657.40 as a kit, on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026. Bundles: $1,171.11 with MMU3, $1,185.65 with the Enclosure, $1,438.33 with both[3][2] |
| 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 MK4S is a revision of the MK4, not a new platform: Prusa sold a $99 upgrade kit that gives an MK4 all of the MK4S features (360-degree turbine part cooling, high-flow CHT nozzle, firmware and profile changes). Watch the published nozzle ceiling: Prusa's MK4 announcement table says 300 C, while the MK4S product page says 290 C. Related family members are the MK3.5 and MK3.9 upgrades of the MK3S+, which are not the same machine. With the MMU3 the standard (non-high-flow) nozzle is the recommended one[4][6][2] |
| Market position: superseded? successor announced? | Not documented | Still sold in Aug 2026 as the entry point to the Nextruder line, positioned below the enclosed CORE One+ (Gen 2). Prusa also sells an MK4S-to-CORE One+ (Gen 2) conversion kit[3][2] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 260 x 260 x 300 mm[1] | 250 x 210 x 220 mm (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 409 x 392 x 477 mm (Tom's Hardware measurement of the printer's footprint)[7] | 500 x 550 x 400 mm (X x Y x Z), stated without the spool holder[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 11.58 kg (Tom's Hardware measurement)[7] | 7 kg (without spool)[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Full metal body with frame parts die-cast from aluminium alloy[1] | Aluminium extrusions and frame. Prusa's MK4 announcement records that the cut-aluminium frame of the MK3S+ was replaced by a die-cast aluminium frame for the MK4 platform, which the MK4S inherits[2][6] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Open frame. The Original Prusa Enclosure is a separate add-on and raises the achievable chamber temperature to 45 C; there is no active chamber heating[2] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Not documented | Cartesian bed-slinger - Prusa's own comparison table gives "Cartesian" for the MK4S against "CoreXY" for the CORE One and CORE One L[8] |
| Stepper motors (frame size, step angle, brand if known) | Not documented | 0.9 degree X and Y stepper motors, which Prusa states are used to prevent vertical fine artefacts[2] |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Not documented | Trinamic 2130. The MK4 announcement is more specific: TMC2130-LA drivers on the xBuddy board[2][6] |
| 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] | Nextruder, direct drive, E3D V6 compatible with an adapter; Nextruder planetary gear system with a 10:1 gearbox ratio; aluminium heatsink and all-metal filament path[2] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | Not documented | 10:1 planetary gearbox in the Nextruder[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | 0.4 mm high-flow hardened steel "unicorn" quick-swap nozzle[7] | Quick-swap Prusa nozzle system with an all-metal filament path; the MK4S ships with the high-flow Prusa brass CHT 0.4 mm nozzle. Standard (non-CHT) Prusa nozzles remain usable and are the recommended choice with the MMU3[2][4] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C maximum nozzle temperature (Tom's Hardware)[7] | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature on the MK4S product page (Prusa's MK4 announcement table gave 300 C for the MK4)[2][6] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | Not documented | 120 C max heatbed temperature (manufacturer figure)[2] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Two-sided epoxy-resin flexible build plate, heated[7] | Magnetic heatbed with removable double-sided PEI spring-steel sheets; smooth PEI sheet supplied[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] | Load-cell sensor in the toolhead - the nozzle itself is the probe. First-layer calibration and mesh bed levelling over the print area only are fully automatic, with no Live Adjust Z step[2][6] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[7] | Filament sensor fitted as standard; on the MK4 platform this is a built-in Hall sensor that also drives automatic filament loading[2][6] |
| 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 |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Not documented | High-performance turbine part-cooling fan with a 360-degree air-delivery duct - the headline change from the MK4, derived from work on Prusa's HT90 industrial machine. Fan RPM is monitored in firmware[2][4] |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | Custom 32-bit xBuddy board with an STM32 MCU, designed, manufactured and tested in-house, plus a custom extruder breakout board for fans and thermistors[2][6] |
| PSU (brand, wattage, rail voltage) | Not documented | 240 W PSU custom-made by Delta with hardware power-panic support[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Not documented | Power consumption 80 W on PLA settings, 120 W on ABS settings (manufacturer figures)[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[9][10] | 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[11][2] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.2-inch touchscreen, pre-assembled and foldable to shrink the footprint[1] | 3.5-inch 65k-colour graphic screen with touch control[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] | On-device colour UI with G-code preview and one-click printing; remote control and firmware updates through Prusa Connect and the Prusa mobile app[2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, LAN, cloud and app[7] | Ethernet, Wi-Fi via the ESP module delivered with the printer, USB drive for print files, plus an NFC receiver used to hand over Wi-Fi credentials from the phone app[2][8][4] |
| Calibration Routines & QoL | ||
| Assembly level & time from unbox to first print | 95% pre-assembled[1] | Sold both assembled (plug-and-print after a 10-minute self-test) and as an assembly kit[4] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PLA and PETG (Tom's Hardware's materials line for the Hi Combo)[7] | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB; ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA only when using the Original Prusa Enclosure with the filtration add-on[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[9][10] | The xBuddy platform carries hardware overcurrent protection that disconnects heater and heatbed power when total current exceeds 15 A, and the firmware is open-source and auditable. Prusa also shipped Thermal Model protection to the earlier MK3 line[6][11] |
| Certifications (UL/ETL/CE/FCC — verify, don't assume) | Not documented | Prusa states the MK4S is the first consumer 3D printer to receive UL GREENGUARD certification[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] | 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[13][2] |
| Spare parts availability & pricing (nozzle, hotend, plate, board, belts) | Not documented | Prusa cites a perfect 30/30 print-quality score from TechRadar and a CNET "Best Printer for Quality" title; these are quoted on Prusa's own page and were not verified against the original reviews here[2] |
| 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[7] | 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[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 Hi Combo product page creality.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa blog - The Original Prusa MK4S is Here! (published 12 August 2024) blog.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Creality US store - Creality Hi Combo 3D Printer product page (live prices for the variants) store.creality.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
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Hi Combo review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.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
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) 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
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc