Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ 3D printer
Verdict
PROS
- Excellent print quality
- Foolproof (setup & in use)
- Smart, thoughtful touches throughout
CONS
- Selecting print jobs is laggy
- Not very quiet
- Pricey
Prusa Research’s latest is still a superior desktop 3D printing experience – attention to detail and technical finesse are its defining characteristics. Using the company’s filaments and filament profiles with the MK3S+ is magnificently foolproof, and the print quality from default quality profiles is invariably impressive.
With that said, experiencing it alongside the dizzying array of printing experiences available today highlights some of the ways that the MK3S+ feels a little dated. This is most noticeable when compared to some of the whizzy-quick touchscreen interfaces some printers now carry, and that loading print jobs from the SD card can hang and lag – there is, fleetingly, the sense that it’s running near the limits of some of its hardware.
Ultimately though, the Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ remains our go-to desktop 3D printer as the MK3S before it. Operating within the bounds of Prusa Research’s slicer and materials, if you can think it, it’s going to be pretty easy to print it. And even playing outside of the company’s ecosystem of materials and settings, we trust this printer to do it better and with less effort on our part than the others.
The Tech
A progeny of RepRap – an open, collaborative project to develop 3D printers capable of making more 3D printers (Replicating Rapid-prototyper) – the Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ is the latest in a long line stemming from Josef Prusa’s early contributions to the project. We’re several iterations later now, and a 600+ strong workforce in an enormous nine-story factory are two marked differences between the earliest basement-built Original Prusa printers and today’s MK3S+.
As with all past Original Prusa machines, the new i3 MK3S+ is open source, a principle the company diligently sticks to with all board diagrams, parts lists, designs, and code online for all to freely access. This marks Prusa Research apart a little as one of a few open source trailblazers in 3D printing. The RepRap project was founded on this community-driven design and iteration, and users of the machine today still feed fixes and improvements back to the company.
Despite the easily-copied source material resulting in clones undercutting the genuine article, Prusa Research thrives. Some 9,000+ printers shipped every month in 2020, even with a global pandemic disrupting supply chains and the company’s pivot to produce emergency PPE.
WHAT'S NEW
The new printer is, mostly, the same as the MK3S it replaces. Nothing major about the design, features, abilities, UI, complimentary Haribo, or experience using it has changed.
Headlining the few things that have changed is the new SuperPINDA bed leveling probe, alongside small design nips and tucks to the X- and Y- axes, how the print head handles flexible filaments, and the print-cooling blower fan mount, among others.
OPTIONS
The Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ is available either as a kit or factory assembled. Going hands-on and assembling the kit yourself keeps the price of the printer down at $749.
Those just getting acquainted with 3D printing could do a lot worse than the kit version of the printer, which typically gives an excellent, easy-to-follow introduction to the inner workings of a filament 3D printer.
Alternatively, Prusa Research offers a fully assembled machine that comes ready-to-run once you’ve snipped away the zip-ties that secure everything during transit. This convenience comes at a price, though, with the assembled printer tickling a grand at $999.
Our review is based on a factory assembled MK3S+, shipped with the typical spool of third-party-made, Prusa-approved PLA, plus requested samples of PVB – a new Prusa Research-developed alternative to PLA – and the company’s also-new tough PC filaments.
Also in the box is the typical assortment of Prusa Research goodies, including the tools to maintain the printer, spare nuts and bolts, stickers, candy, plus directions for printing and assembling an almost-entirely 3D printable Land Rover that uses the aforementioned spares. A nice gesture, layered with the kind of attention to detail prevalent all over the printer and ecosystem the company has built for it.
Even the assembled version of the printer ships with a novella about the 3D printer, its myriad features, menu options, 3D printing in general – more or less all you’d need to get started if you had no connection to the internet to look stuff up for yourself. It’s the polar opposite of the kind of experience you get with even the most popular budget alternatives, which thrive on communities coalescing behind their innate affordability – Prusa Research gives you all the knowledge itself and has the community.
