Bambu Labs has announced a teaser for an upcoming 3D printer and it seems that 3D printing fans played detective and learned the name and some details ahead of the announcement on December 14th. The Bambu Lab A1 is an i3-style “bed slinger” design with a similar hot end to its counterpart, the Bambu Lab A1 Mini.
With the announcement scheduled for next week, we’re not sure when the printer will be available for sale or even just pre-order. The only information we have for publication so far is a picture of the printer with the caption “Big Brother is coming for the holidays…”. The date is confirmed to be December 14, 2023 with a specific time of 9 a.m. EST. Bambu Lab has already started sending units to manufacturers for testing and early review.
“Big” news! Stay tuned for December 14th.https://t.co/TyCmACSjgt pic.twitter.com/tkCmVY6QzZ7. December 2023
We came across a few manufacturers online that have gotten their hands on the new Bambu Lab A1, including Uncle Jessy and Nathan Builds Robots. Unfortunately, they are under a non-disclosure agreement and can’t share many details about the new printer. You can take a look at the packaging of the Bambu Lab A1 combo set, which includes both the printer and the Automatic Material System (AMS), which supports printing in multiple colors and materials.
Looking at the leaked image, we can see that the hot end appears to be identical to the A1 Mini. The additional Z-axis on the gantry provides additional stability and we hope your prints will be a little faster. The A1 Mini is already a fast printer, thanks largely to Klipper firmware and input shaping. The A1 will most likely have the same features.
(Image credit: Bambu Lab)
There are few details about the new Bambu Lab A1, but the same cannot be said for the A1 Mini. We published our review of the Bambu Lab A1 Mini in October this year and overall we were very impressed with its performance. Despite being a bed spinner, it was able to achieve remarkably high speeds, rivaling some of Bambu Lab’s Core XY printers. Our biggest criticism was the lack of build volume, which is alleviated by the release of the Bambu Lab A1.
We don’t know how much the new printer will cost, but Nathan from Nathan Builds Robots estimates it will cost about $100 more than the A1 Mini. The base model A1 Mini costs $299 (excluding AMS), which would potentially make the A1 cost $399. We will announce more information about the price once it is officially confirmed.
You can currently pre-order the Bambu Lab A1 Mini if build volume isn’t a big issue for you. If you want to stick with A1, follow Bambu Lab and check back on December 14th to see what it has to offer.