3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Creality Hi vs Original Prusa XL+ Five-Head
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 XL+ Five-Head comparisons
| Property | Creality HiBEDSLINGER | Original Prusa XL+ Five-HeadTOOLCHANGER |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Creality | Prusa Research |
| Class | BEDSLINGER | TOOLCHANGER |
| 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 XL+, Five-Head variant ("Prusa XL+ Five-Head" in the e-shop variant data)[2] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | Not documented | The XL+ refresh was announced on 13 August 2026, on sale immediately in all toolhead configurations, with assembled printers shipping later in August 2026 and upgrade kits for existing XL owners from around the end of August. The original Original Prusa XL predates it[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] | $3,610.18 on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026 (lowest listed price for the Five-Head variant; the 5-toolhead Enclosure bundle starts at $3,925.00)[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] | Top XL+ configuration. Single-Tool $2,128.70, Dual-Head $2,768.52, Five-Head $3,610.18 (Aug 2026); same frame, bed, electronics and build volume in all three. Prusa markets it as the largest active toolchanger on the market and states a silicone-printing toolhead is due in Q4 2026[2][5] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 260 x 260 x 300 mm[1] | 360 x 360 x 360 mm, which Prusa states as 46.7 litres[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] | About 700 x 900 x 720 mm (Prusa's own figure is approximate)[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 11.58 kg (Tom's Hardware measurement)[6] | About 30 kg[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Full metal body with frame parts die-cast from aluminium alloy[1] | Aluminium extrusions and steel sheets (Prusa's comparison table for the XL)[7] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Open frame, no enclosure[1] | Open frame. The Enclosure for Prusa XL+ is an optional add-on; Prusa says the printer is ready for chamber temperatures up to 60 C, that the new better-sealed enclosure reaches around 50 C on the printer's own waste heat, and that 60 C needs an upcoming chamber heater for which no shipping date has been given[2][3] |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | Not documented | CoreXY with 1.5 mm GT belts, Input Shaper and Phase Stepping[2] |
| Belts (type, width, e.g. Gates?) | Not documented | 1.5 mm GT belts[2] |
| 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 |
| Vibration Compensation / Input Shaping | ||
| Input shaping supported? Implementation (Klipper IS / Marlin ZV / proprietary) | Not documented | Input Shaper and Phase Stepping[2] |
| 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; each toolhead carries its own extruder, hotend, nozzle and filament[2] |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | 0.4 mm high-flow hardened steel "unicorn" quick-swap nozzle[6] | Quick-swap nozzles - 0.25 mm for detail, 0.6/0.8 mm for speed, hardened steel for abrasives, high-flow CHT for throughput; toolheads ship with high-flow nozzles[2] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 300 C maximum nozzle temperature (Tom's Hardware)[6] | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature[2] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | Not documented | 120 C max heatbed temperature[2] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Two-sided epoxy-resin flexible build plate, heated[6] | Segmented heatbed of 16 individually controlled tiles across the 360 x 360 mm surface, so only the tiles under the part are powered; removable double-sided satin print 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 - the nozzle is the probe, which Prusa says automatically accounts for nozzle changes, surface textures and thermal expansion and removes manual Z-offsets. Toolhead-to-toolhead alignment on the XL+ uses a separate permanently mounted eddy-current Tool Offset Sensor, replacing the removable mechanical pin used on the original XL[2][3] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Filament run-out sensor fitted[6] | Filament sensors fitted; Prusa's comparison table lists two filament sensors for the XL[7] |
| 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] | Up to five independent toolheads with automatic tool changing; five materials or five nozzle sizes loaded at once, fed from up to five 2 kg spools for multi-day unattended runs. Parked heads stay preheated and power down when unused[2] |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | Not documented | 360-degree part cooling on each toolhead, new on the XL+ and matching the MK4S and CORE One arrangement; Prusa states it delivers more airflow and distributes it more evenly around the nozzle. Additional fans and heatsinks cool the electronics. Fan sizes are not published[2][3] |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Not documented | Custom 32-bit xBuddy electronics with STM32 (Prusa's comparison table for the XL)[7] |
| 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[8][9] | Open-source firmware - Prusa states "Firmware: Open-source; ships with the full current Prusa feature set", and the XL is covered by the prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy source tree[2][10] |
| 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 screen with touch control (Prusa's comparison table for the XL)[7] |
| 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 touch UI; Prusa Connect and the Prusa mobile app are optional - Prusa states the machine is fully offline capable[7][2] |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | USB, LAN, cloud and app[6] | Ethernet, optional Wi-Fi; USB drive for print files. Prusa Connect optional and fully offline operation supported[2][7] |
| 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] | PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, PC, PA (nylon), TPU, PVA, HIPS, PP, CPE, PVB and carbon-fibre composites. Prusa states an open material policy - any brand of 1.75 mm filament, no chips and no subscriptions[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[8][9] | Open-source firmware on the xBuddy platform, which carries hardware overcurrent protection cutting heater and heatbed power above 15 A[11][10] |
| 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][7] |
| 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
- Original Prusa XL+ product page (spec block and variant price data) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa blog - Better Prints, Easier Use: Prusa XL+, CORE One L+ and CORE One+ (Gen 2), Our Big Product Update (published 13 August 2026) 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 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Tom's Hardware - Creality Hi Combo review (spec box and Speed Boat Rules Benchy time) tomshardware.com · 2026-08 · review
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) 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
- 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
- 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