Short answer
Which 3D printer you should choose depends on two things: which technology you need, and what you actually want to print. Choose FDM for functional parts, prototypes and larger objects. Choose resin for miniatures, figures and jewellery, where surface finish matters more than strength.
Which technology and which printer?
Which 3D printer you should choose depends on two things: which technology you need, and what you actually want to print. This 3D printer guide covers both, and ends with the models we see our customers using most in 2026.
Best of 2026: winners by category
No printer is best for everyone. Below is the winner in each category, based on what the 2026 reviews highlight, and who it actually suits.
The winners in detail
Bambu Lab P2S Combo: best overall. Enclosed, four colours and quiet enough for an office. It handles ABS and ASA straight out of the box, which the open competitors do not. Reviewers describe it as a machine you stop thinking about: it just prints. A good fit if you want to buy one printer and be set for years. The DynaSense servo extruder is a clear step up from the P1S generation, and the AMS 2 Pro has active ventilation that keeps spools dry between prints, so fewer prints fail because of moisture. It can run LAN-only, without the cloud. Several reviews point to heat build-up and ventilation as weak spots. It is not enough for PPS-CF, PPA or PC blends that need a chamber of 60 °C or more, and the ecosystem is closed.
Bambu Lab A1 Mini: best for beginners. The cheapest way to get started. It calibrates itself and gives usable prints on the very first evening. Reviewers report sharp details and few failures from the start, and active noise cancelling makes it noticeably quieter than the competition. A good fit if you want to try 3D printing without a big outlay and stick to PLA and PETG. The real limit is the 180 mm build height. An ordinary water bottle does not fit, so measure your largest planned model before you order. It has no enclosure, which rules out ABS, ASA and fibre-reinforced materials. It also ships with an adhesive mat, while the PEI plates on larger models grip and release better.
Creality Hi Combo: best on a budget. Multicolour printing at roughly half the price of the competition, and 0.03 mm dimensional deviation in testing at 500 mm/s. The price shows in the details: an open frame, more hands-on calibration and wear parts that need replacing. A good fit if you want several colours cheaply and do not mind tinkering. It is an open bed slinger, weaker on tall prints, and cannot print ABS/ASA. The PTFE tube needs replacing every 250 hours in multicolour use, and how it holds up over the long term has not been tested yet.
Bambu Lab H2D: best for technical parts. An active 65 °C chamber and a 350 °C nozzle let it print nylon, PC and fibre-reinforced materials that the others cannot handle. The largest build volume in the comparison, and also by far the most expensive. A good fit if you already know why you need a large format and technical materials. Within Bambu's range it gives the most for the money if you run technical materials, and the firmware is described as stable in 2026 (the early calibration problems have been fixed). Downsides: it wastes filament when you run more than two materials at once, the optional 40 W laser is loud and the 10 W module is slow in thicker material. If you mostly print small everyday parts, it is the wrong buy.
Prusa CORE One+: best for long-term ownership. Open firmware, spare parts for years and support that reviewers mention again and again. Build quality and reliability are at the top of the field. You pay more per unit of build volume than with the competition, and what you get for the money is the ability to repair and rebuild the machine yourself. A good fit if you want to own and maintain your machine. Downsides: the most expensive per unit of build volume (250×220 mm for the same price at which competitors give considerably more), a poor camera, awkward colour changes and no nozzle wiper. If you only print PLA and PETG you get nothing extra, since the chamber heat mainly helps ABS, ASA and nylon.
Snapmaker U1: best for multiple colours. The only printer in the comparison that changes colour by switching toolheads instead of pulling the filament back. With four toolheads a colour change takes 10–12 seconds instead of around 90, and the waste is a prime tower of a few grams instead of a pile of discarded plastic. Tom's Hardware gave it an Editor's Choice, and it was three hours faster than a P1P on the same three-colour print. A good fit if you print a lot in several colours or materials and are tired of the waste. The chamber is half open and the lid costs extra. It launched on Kickstarter, so early units may have teething problems, and the wide feed tubes can cause jams with snapped filament that is hard to spot.
Build volume in perspective
The difference between 180 mm and 350 mm sounds small, but it is not. Volume grows with the cube: A1 Mini 5.8 litres, Prusa Core One 14.9 litres, P2S Combo 16.8 litres, Creality Hi 20.3 litres, H2D 36.4 litres. So the H2D holds just over six times as much as the A1 Mini, but it also costs ten times as much.
Quick picks
First printer, mostly PLA: A1 Mini, if your models fit within 180 mm.
A printer for years to come: P2S Combo, the enclosure opens up ABS and ASA.
Technical materials and large parts: H2D.
Want to own and fix your machine: Prusa Core One.
Lowest budget, happy to tinker: Creality Hi Combo.
FDM or resin? How to choose the technology
Decide which technology you need first, then which printer. FDM and resin solve different problems, and that choice shapes everything else.
FDM – melted filament. A strand of plastic is melted and laid down layer by layer. Large build volumes are common and cheap, 250×250×250 mm and up. Materials: PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, nylon, from decorative pieces to technical parts. Produces functional parts that can take a load. Post-processing: remove the supports, done. Cost: filament from around 100 SEK per kilo.
Resin – SLA, DLP and LCD. Liquid resin is cured by UV light, layer by layer. The level of detail is considerably higher, hence its popularity for miniatures and jewellery. Smaller build volumes; large resin printers are expensive. Often more brittle, and less suited to parts that must take a load. Post-processing: washing in isopropyl alcohol and UV curing are always required. Working environment: resin is an irritant, so gloves and good ventilation are a must.
All three resin technologies cure resin with UV, but the light source differs. SLA uses a laser that traces each layer, precise but slower on large areas. DLP projects the whole layer at once with a projector, which makes the speed independent of how much is in the layer. LCD (also called mSLA) uses an LCD panel as a mask in front of a UV source, the same basic advantage as DLP at a lower price, which is why most consumer resin printers today are LCD-based. Resolution is given as screen resolution: 4K, 8K or higher affects how fine a detail can be reproduced.
Choose FDM if you want to print functional parts, prototypes, brackets or larger objects, and if you want to be able to switch material to suit the job. It is also the easier choice to start with. Choose resin if you mainly make miniatures, figures, jewellery or other small objects where surface finish matters more than strength, and you accept the post-processing. The printers above are FDM models. We sell filament for FDM and so have no first-hand experience of individual resin printers, but the comparison holds whichever brand you end up with.
What should you look for when choosing a 3D printer?
Once the technology is chosen, the rest comes down to what you actually want to print.
Build volume. A bigger build volume always sounds better, but it costs space, money and heat-up time. Measure the largest thing you will realistically print and add a margin. Most hobbyists get by fine with 220×220×250 mm; if you rarely need more, it is cheaper to split the model into parts and glue them together.
Speed. Advertised top speeds of 500 or 1,000 mm/s are rarely reached in practice. What determines real throughput is acceleration, frame stiffness and how quickly the material has time to cool. A stable printer at 300 mm/s often finishes before a shaky one that claims 600.
Heated chamber. If you only need PLA and PETG, an open printer is enough. For ABS or ASA you want an enclosed chamber, otherwise the corners of your parts lift. Our guides to printing ABS and ASA explain why.
Multiple colours. Multicolour systems are impressive but waste filament at every colour change, because the nozzle has to be purged. If you rarely print in several colours, it is a cost without a matching benefit.
Nozzle and abrasive materials. Filaments filled with carbon fibre or glass fibre quickly wear out a standard brass nozzle. If you plan to run them, you need hardened steel, so check that the printer supports it, or that the nozzle can be swapped.
Frequently asked questions about 3D printers
Which 3D printer should I choose as a beginner?
The Bambu Lab A1 Mini is the most common first choice in 2026: it calibrates itself, is quiet and gives good results straight out of the box. The limitations are the 180 mm build volume and the fact that it cannot handle ABS or ASA. If that is enough for your models, it is the cheapest way in.
Do I need an enclosed printer?
Only if you plan to print ABS or ASA. These materials shrink as they cool, and without a warm, draught-free space the corners lift. For PLA, PETG and TPU an open printer does the job, and it costs less.
How much build volume do I need?
Most hobbyists get by with 220 × 220 × 250 mm. Measure the largest thing you will realistically print and add a margin. If you rarely need more, it is cheaper to split the model into parts and glue them together than to buy a bigger machine.
Is 500 mm/s twice as fast as 250 mm/s?
No. The advertised top speed is rarely reached in practice; what determines real throughput is acceleration, frame stiffness and how quickly the material has time to cool. A stable printer at 300 mm/s often finishes before a shaky one that claims 600.
Is multicolour printing worth it?
It depends on how often you use it. The systems purge the nozzle at every colour change, which costs filament, sometimes more than the model itself weighs. If you rarely print in several colours, it is a cost without a matching benefit.
Which filament should I start with?
PLA. It prints at a low temperature, rarely lifts at the corners and is the easiest to get right. Our guide to the best filament for beginners covers the choice, and you will find the full range in the filament shop.
Next step: choose the right filament
After the printer comes the material. It decides whether the part holds up, how it looks and how easy it is to get right.
If you are new to this, start with PLA: it is the easiest to get right and comes in the most colours. If the part will be used day to day, PETG is the next step. Our guide to the best filament for beginners covers the choice, and in the filament shop you will find everything from PLA to technical materials such as nylon and ASA.
Filament in 173+ shades, from 115 SEK
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