3D Printing InfoPrinter comparison
Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) vs Original Prusa i3 MK3S+
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+ (Gen 2) comparisonsMore Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ comparisons
| Property | Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2)COREXY | Original Prusa i3 MK3S+BEDSLINGER |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| Brand | Prusa Research | Prusa Research |
| Class | COREXY | BEDSLINGER |
| Identity & Market | ||
| Manufacturer & exact marketed model name (verify the exact product identity first) | Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2). Prusa's e-shop lists "Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2)" and "Prusa CORE One+ (Gen 2) Assembly kit"[1][2] | Original Prusa i3 MK3S+. The only version still listed in Aug 2026 is the "Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ 10th Anniversary Edition"[3] |
| Release date (announcement and actual shipping) | The CORE One+ (Gen 2) refresh was announced on 13 August 2026, on sale immediately, with the first assembled units shipping at once and kits, upgrade kits and individual parts rolling out over the following weeks. It succeeds the CORE One and CORE One+ on the same platform[4] | Not documented |
| Street price (USD; dated snapshot per entry) | $1,202.78 assembled, $925.00 as an assembly kit, on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026. Bundles run to $1,301.85 with camera and advanced filtration. Prusa's own marketing table on the same page quotes "from $1,299" assembled, which does not match the live e-shop price[2][1] | $1,199.00 assembled, $899.00 as a kit, for the 10th Anniversary Edition on prusa3d.com, Aug 2026. This is above the price the standard MK3S+ sold at, so do not read it as the MK3S+ street price[3] |
| Variants & sibling models — and how to tell them apart (spec-contamination risk) | Three generations share the CORE One name: the original CORE One, the CORE One+, and the CORE One+ (Gen 2), with paid upgrade kits between them (CORE One+ to CORE One+ (Gen 2), and an MK4S to CORE One+ (Gen 2) conversion kit). The specifications recorded here are those published on Prusa's current CORE One+ (Gen 2) page and should not be assumed to hold for a first-generation CORE One. The INDX 4-tool and 8-tool machines are variants of the same product page, and the CORE One L is a larger, separate machine[1][2][5] | Only the 10th Anniversary Edition remains on sale; the standard MK3S+ is gone from Prusa's printer listing. Two official upgrade paths change the machine substantially and are frequently confused with it: MK3.5 (xBuddy board and new LCD, keeps the MK3 extruder) and MK3.9 (adds the Nextruder). A caution on Prusa's own pages: the "Awards & Press Reviews" paragraph about the MK3S is reproduced verbatim on the MINI+ product page, so award text found on a Prusa page does not necessarily belong to the printer on that page[3][6][7][2] |
| Market position: superseded? successor announced? | Current model and Prusa's mainstream enclosed machine, above the MK4S and below the CORE One L+[2] | Superseded by the MK4/MK4S line. Prusa cut MK3S+ prices at the MK4 launch in March 2023 and said it would keep selling the MK3S+ at a lower price and hold spare parts in stock[7][2] |
| Physical & Frame | ||
| Build volume X×Y×Z (mm) — advertised vs actually usable | 250 x 220 x 270 mm (manufacturer figure)[1] | 25 x 21 x 21 cm = 250 x 210 x 210 mm (manufacturer figure)[3] |
| Machine footprint (mm) & clearance needed (cable/spool overhang) | 415 x 444 x 555 mm (X x Y x Z)[1] | 500 x 550 x 400 mm (X x Y x Z), without the spool holder[3] |
| Net weight (kg) | 22.5 kg[1] | 7 kg (without spool)[3] |
| Frame construction & material | All-steel exoskeleton (Prusa's own comparison wording, against "aluminium extrusions and frame" for the MK4S)[8] | Cut aluminium frame - Prusa's MK4 announcement contrasts "the cut aluminum frame we used so far" with the MK4's new die-cast frame[7] |
| Enclosure: open / enclosed; panel material; door/lid | Fully enclosed with a door-open sensor and active chamber temperature control up to 55 C; HEPA/advanced filtration is an optional add-on[1][8] | Open frame; the Original Prusa Enclosure is an optional separate product[7] |
| Passive chamber temperature reached (if enclosed; measured values preferred) | Active chamber heating, maximum 55 C (manufacturer figure)[1] | Not documented |
| Kinematics & Motion Hardware | ||
| Kinematics (bedslinger i3 / CoreXY / other) | CoreXY - stated as such in Prusa's own comparison table against the Cartesian MK4S[1] | Cartesian i3 bed-slinger. Prusa's MK4 announcement notes the MK3S+ Y-axis profiles and heatbed were among the few parts carried into the MK4[7] |
| Stepper motors (frame size, step angle, brand if known) | 0.9 degree X and Y stepper motors[1] | Not documented |
| Stepper drivers (exact model e.g. TMC2209; UART/SPI; sensorless homing?) | Trinamic 2130[1] | Trinamic 2130 drivers at 256 microstepping on the EINSY RAMBo 8-bit board, co-developed with UltiMachine; sensorless homing on X and Y[3] |
| Speed & Acceleration | ||
| Max travel speed | Not documented | "200+ mm/s" max travel speed (manufacturer figure, no measurement basis given)[3] |
| Extruder | ||
| Type (direct drive / bowden) & design name | Nextruder direct drive, E3D V6 compatible with an adapter; planetary gear system with a 10:1 ratio; aluminium heatsink and all-metal hotend[1] | Direct drive with Bondtech gears and an E3D V6 hotend[3] |
| Gear ratio & drive gear material | 10:1 planetary gearbox[1] | Not documented |
| Hotend & Nozzle | ||
| Hotend design (proprietary/standard; quick-swap mechanism?) | Quick-swap nozzle system; high-flow Prusa brass CHT 0.4 mm nozzle supplied. An optional HT hotend raises the ceiling to 400 C[1] | Not documented |
| Max nozzle temp claimed AND firmware max temp limit (both values) | 290 C claimed max nozzle temperature. Prusa's comparison table adds "400 C w/ HT" for the optional HT hotend, which its 13 August 2026 blog post says will only become available in September 2026 - so 400 C is a forthcoming option, not a shipping specification[1][4] | 300 C claimed max nozzle temperature[3] |
| Heated Bed & Surface | ||
| Max bed temp claimed AND firmware limit | 120 C max heatbed temperature[1] | 120 C max heatbed temperature[3] |
| Bed surface (material, texture, coating), single/double-sided | Magnetic heatbed with removable PEI spring-steel sheets; whole-bed heating regardless of object size[1] | Removable magnetic spring-steel sheets in several finishes; heatbed with cold-corner compensation[3] |
| Leveling & Z-Offset | ||
| Auto bed leveling: probe technology (inductive / strain gauge / load cell / touch probe) | Load-cell sensor - fully automatic first-layer calibration with the nozzle as the probe[1] | SuperPINDA inductive probe (Prusa's temperature-drift-free replacement for the original PINDA), driving automatic mesh bed levelling and a self-test routine[3] |
| Filament Handling & Detection | ||
| Filament runout sensor (type, location) | Two filament sensors, plus a door sensor and five Semitec thermistors with fan RPM monitoring[1][8] | IR filament sensor built in, supporting filament auto-loading; the print pauses when filament runs out[3] |
| Multi-material/multi-color capability or official upgrade path | MMU3 for five filaments, or the INDX system for up to eight, both officially supported[1] | Not documented |
| Cooling & Air Handling | ||
| Part-cooling fan(s): count, size, ducting design | High-performance turbine part-cooling fan with 360-degree cooling, the same arrangement as the MK4S[1] | Not documented |
| Electronics & Power | ||
| Mainboard model & MCU (exact chip markings if teardowns exist) | Custom 32-bit xBuddy board with STM32[1] | EINSY RAMBo 8-bit board, co-developed with UltiMachine[3] |
| PSU (brand, wattage, rail voltage) | 240 W PSU with hardware power panic[1] | Not documented |
| Input voltage (110/220 V, switch or auto) | Not documented | Custom Delta PSU with hardware-based power panic[3] |
| Total rated power draw | Power consumption 90 W printing PLA, 110 W printing ABS (manufacturer figures)[1] | Power consumption 80 W on PLA settings, 120 W on ABS settings[3] |
| 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][8] | prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware on GitHub, GPL-3.0, whose README states it is "proudly based on Marlin 1.0.x" and covers the MK3S/MK3/MK2.5S/MK2.5 line; last pushed August 2025. Updated over USB from a PC[10] |
| Connectivity, UI & Camera | ||
| Display: size, type, touch? | 3.5-inch 65k-colour graphic screen with touch control[1] | Not documented |
| On-device UI capabilities (model preview, per-object controls, etc.) | On-device touch UI; remote monitoring and printing through Prusa Connect and the Prusa mobile app; firmware updates from USB, Prusa Connect or the app[1] | Not documented |
| WiFi (band/standard), Ethernet, USB ports, SD/flash-drive | Ethernet and Wi-Fi (NFC receiver plus an optional Wi-Fi module), USB drive for print files[1] | SD card (16 GB card included); Ethernet and Wi-Fi only via an optional Raspberry Pi[3] |
| Camera: built-in / optional? Resolution & framerate (verify — marketing often omits real fps) | Optional in-chamber camera solution (Buddy3D camera bundle listed at $1,237.03 against $1,202.78 for the bare printer)[1][2] | Not documented |
| Materials Support | ||
| Officially supported filament list | PLA, PETG, Flex, PVA, PC, PP, CPE, PVB, and - as advanced materials in the heated chamber - ABS, ASA, HIPS and PA[1] | PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, PC, CPE, PVA/BVOH, PVB, HIPS, PP, Flex, nGen, Nylon, carbon-filled, woodfill and other filled materials[3] |
| Safety | ||
| Thermal runaway protection (verify in firmware source if at all possible) | The xBuddy platform carries hardware overcurrent protection that cuts heater and heatbed power above 15 A, and the firmware is open-source and auditable[7][9] | Prusa shipped Thermal Model protection to the MK3 line as a firmware update shortly before the MK4 launch; the firmware is open-source and auditable[7][10] |
| 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[11][8] | 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[11][8] |
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+ (Gen 2) product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/CORE One L comparison) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Prusa 3D printers category listing with live e-shop prices, Aug 2026 prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ 10th Anniversary Edition product page (Technical Parameters + Full Features List) 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
- Prusa CORE One L+ product page (CORE One L+ Technical Specifications) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- Original Prusa MINI+ Semi-assembled 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + Full Features List, January 2025 Edition) 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
- Original Prusa MK4S 3D Printer product page (Technical Parameters + CORE One+/MK4S/XL comparison table) prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · vendor
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy (firmware for MINI, MK4, XL and CORE One) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- GitHub - prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware (MK3 line, GPL-3.0, based on Marlin 1.0.x) github.com · 2026-08 · doc
- Prusa Knowledge Base - Warranty help.prusa3d.com · 2026-08 · doc