3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Prusa CORE One L+ vs QIDI X-Smart 3
Compare hardware, build volume, printing specifications, dated prices and sources.
2 selected · all documented properties
Open these two in the interactive comparisonMore Prusa CORE One L+ comparisonsMore QIDI X-Smart 3 comparisons
| Property | Prusa CORE One L+COREXY | QIDI X-Smart 3COREXY |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Prusa Research | QIDI |
| Class | COREXY | COREXY |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Prusa CORE One L+[1] | QIDI X-Smart 3, listed in QIDI navigation as X-Smart3[2][3] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | The CORE One L+ refresh was announced on 13 August 2026 and went on sale immediately, with the first assembled units shipping at once; it adds GT1.5 belts and an integrated nozzle wiper to the CORE One L[4] | Not published by QIDI on the pages checked (Aug 2026)[2][3] |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | $1,850.93 on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026; $1,925.00 with the Advanced Filtration bundle. Prusa's own comparison text on the CORE One+ page quotes "from $1,799", which does not match the live e-shop price[5][6] | $399 on QIDI's official US page, which routes purchases to its AliExpress and Amazon stores; checked Aug 2026[3] |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | Larger sibling of the CORE One+ (Gen 2): 300 x 300 x 330 mm against 250 x 220 x 270 mm, 60 C chamber against 55 C, 21.9 kg against 22.5 kg (the L is the lighter of the two despite being larger). A CORE One L to CORE One L+ upgrade kit exists, so "CORE One L" and "CORE One L+" are different revisions. A Critical Infrastructure Edition is also listed[1][6][5] | Entry model of the 3-series. Unlike the X-Plus 3 and X-Max 3 it has no heated chamber, a 300 °C rather than 350 °C hotend, a brass rather than copper-alloy/hardened-steel nozzle head, and no Ethernet. It shares the Cortex-A53 board with them, so control-board specs must not be read as shared print specs[2][7][8] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 300 x 300 x 330 mm, which Prusa states as 29.7 litres[1] | 175 x 180 x 170 mm advertised[2][3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 469 x 521 x 635 mm[1] | 370 x 362 x 397 mm[2] |
| Net weight (kg) | 21.9 kg (48.3 lb)[1] | 10.5 kg[2] |
| Frame construction & material | Not documented | QIDI publishes no frame-material breakdown for this model[2] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Fully enclosed with a chamber door-open sensor and an active convection heated chamber up to 60 C; advanced filtration is an optional add-on[1] | No heated chamber. 3DJake's table records "Heated chamber: No"; QIDI does not describe an enclosure for this model[2] |
| Passive chamber temperature reached (if enclosed; measured values preferred) | Active convection chamber heating, maximum 60 C (manufacturer figure)[1] | Not documented |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | CoreXY - stated in Prusa's CORE One+ comparison table[6] | CoreXY[2][3] |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Trinamic drivers on the custom xBuddy mainboard (Prusa's CORE One L+ specification says "custom 32-bit xBuddy mainboard with STM32 processor & Trinamic drivers"; it does not give the driver part number)[1] | Not documented |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max print speed (claimed, mm/s) | Not documented | <=500 mm/s (manufacturer claim)[2][3] |
| Max acceleration (claimed, mm/s²) | Not documented | 20,000 mm/s2 (manufacturer claim)[3] |
| Max volumetric flow claimed (mm³/s) | Not documented | 30 mm3/s extruder flow (manufacturer claim)[2][3] |
| Vibration Compensation / Input Shaping | ||
| Input shaping supported? Implementation (Klipper IS / Marlin ZV / proprietary) | Input Shaper and Phase Stepping with an integrated accelerometer[1] | Not documented |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Nextruder direct drive with a 10:1 planetary gear system; all-metal hotend with an aluminium heatsink and a tool-free quick-swap nozzle system[1] | Direct-drive extruder, single, 1.75 mm filament[2][3] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | 10:1 planetary gearbox[1] | Not documented |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Tool-free quick-swap nozzle system; Prusa brass high-flow CHT 0.4 mm pre-mounted plus an abrasive-resistant 0.4 mm nozzle in the box[1] | Brass nozzle head. 0.4 mm stock, 0.2/0.6/0.8 mm optional[2][3] |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature. The optional HT hotend that raises this to 400 C was announced for September 2026 availability, so it is not a shipping specification as of Aug 2026[1][4] | <=300 °C claimed[2][3] |
| Stock nozzle material (brass / hardened steel / plated copper / composite tip) | Not documented | Brass[2] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | 120 C max heatbed temperature[1] | <=120 °C claimed[2][3] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Magnetic heatbed with removable dual-sided PEI spring-steel sheets; a satin powder-coated sheet is supplied[1] | Double-sided flexible magnetic RF plate[2] |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | High-precision load-cell sensor - fully automatic first-layer calibration and mesh bed levelling restricted to the print area[1] | 16-point automatic bed levelling per QIDI's US page; probe technology not named[3] |
| Mesh grid size (probe point count — firmware evidence) | Not documented | 16 points (QIDI's US page). Not verified against firmware[3] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Two filament sensors, plus a chamber door-open sensor and five Semitec thermistors[1] | Filament detection fitted; type and location not published[2] |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Custom 32-bit xBuddy mainboard with an STM32 processor[1] | Not documented |
| Host computer (SoC, RAM, storage) if firmware runs on embedded Linux | Not documented | Cortex-A53 64-bit at 1.5 GHz, 1 GB DDR3, 8 GB eMMC[2] |
| Input voltage (110/220 V, switch or auto) | Not documented | 100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz[2] |
| Total rated power draw | Standby 16 W, preheating about 630 W, average printing about 90 W on PLA and about 215 W on ASA (manufacturer figures)[1] | 350 W rated[2] |
| Firmware & Openness | ||
| Firmware base & current version (Klipper fork / Marlin fork / proprietary) | 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[9][10] | Klipper[3] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.5-inch 65k-colour touch screen (CORE One family)[6] | 4.3-inch touchscreen[3] |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | On-device touch UI with Prusa Connect and Prusa mobile app remote control[6] | Not documented |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | Ethernet, NFC receiver and Wi-Fi through a physically removable module, which Prusa offers for high-security offline installations[1] | Wi-Fi and USB. No Ethernet listed for this model[2][3] |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB, and with Advanced Filtration also ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA[1] | Not documented |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | Open-source firmware on the xBuddy platform, which carries hardware overcurrent protection cutting heater and heatbed power above 15 A[11][9] | Not documented |
| Reliability, Support & Ecosystem | ||
| Warranty length & support reputation (evidence, not vibes) | 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[12][10] | 1-year coverage (QIDI standard store terms)[13] |
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
- Prusa CORE One L+ product page (CORE One L+ Technical Specifications) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI Tech X-Smart 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI X-Smart 3 official US page qidiusa.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
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI Tech X-Plus 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- QIDI Tech X-Max 3 technical data table 3djake.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.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
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc
- QIDI Max4 product page (US store) us.qidi3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor