Bambu Lab A1 mini Review

Bambu Lab certainly has been making a splash in the humble 3D Printing world. Founded in 2020 by a few engineers from DJI (the prominent consumer drone maker). They launched their first product, the undeniably excellent P1P, in 2022, and it ended up being one of Kickstarter's most successful campaigns ever. The A1 mini is a continuation of this impressive lineup, and we're happy to have had the opportunity to put it through its paces.

Performance Comparison

Print Quality

Right off the bat, know that print quality on the A1 mini was good, not great, scoring a 6.5 out of 10, and a bit below average in our full tested lineup. Part of that is because FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers fundamentally can't hold a flame to Resin-based products which are peppered throughout our lineup (further reading here). Another part of it may be that the gantry (the scaffolding that holds/runs the print head) is a little suspect. Nearly every 3D printer out there has two vertical arms supporting the print head; the A1 mini has only one. This is a smaller printer, so the implied instability shouldn't matter much. Indeed, the weak points through this metric weren't really due to excessive wobble.

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In fact, throughout all test prints, the common theme was excellent surface quality. Tests like our XYZ Calibration Cube showed nearly flawless execution, and the test Vase (printed in 'vase mode' - a single-width pass in a continuous spiral), resulted in a pristine, waterproof piece with very consistent wall thickness.

The Z Tower was also great, with only the occasional rounded layer peaking between otherwise sharp corners. The ever-present Benchy printed well with out-of-the-box settings. Our only complaints were some noticeable stepping between layers on the steep front hull overhang and a bit of sagging in the bridging over the windows.

Speaking of which, bridging concerns, especially in the Bridging and Overhand Test, were really the only consistent issues throughout that we noticed. Visible separation started showing at the shortest length of 40mm, and surface quality dramatically dropped above overhangs of 70deg. We should also mention that supports tended to be tough to remove, though surface quality at the removal points was surprisingly decent — this can be dialed in with some fiddling of your slicer software, though.

Ease of Use

The couple of Bambu Lab products that we've tested have strong ease of use scores. First and foremost, we clocked the A1 mini setup out of the box at 11 minutes, though adding the optional AMS system more or less doubles that. This AMS system is essentially a specialty arm set near the unit, which can hold and control up to 4 separate filament rolls for multicolor prints (more on that later). The main unit, gantry and all, arrives in one piece, supposedly pre-squared. All we had to do was cut a few zip ties, remove a guard around the print head, and tighten a few screws. That process was really nice and helps showcase how polished the A1 mini is, despite its compact size.

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A couple of quick hardware notes. The A1 mini comes with a nice LCD touchscreen running an intuitive UI and an onboard time-lapse camera. Honestly, both of these we consider pretty essential inclusions given the price tag on this compact unit. But they did not disappoint. Fluctuation in the bed temperature was a little high at 5°C measured difference around the bed, but we had zero problems with adhesion, so we consider it a non-issue.

On the software side of things, the software/slicer package is called Bambu Studio, and we found it to be a nice balance between 'shut up and get printing' while still offering enough settings to really be able to dial in bed adhesion, supports, and wall thicknesses. In other words — it's user-friendly without overwhelming the use with options. Running prints can be done through a wifi connection directly from Bambu Studio or with a microSD card (for all you old-school print-heads who prefer Cura and load some g-code).

Print Capabilities

Another Metric where the A1 mini shines, though much of the heavy lifting is done by the aforementioned AMS system, is in the cadre of features included with its svelte frame.

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We'll start with the Good: Bambu Lab runs with top-of-the-line build plates. This specific one is a textured, stainless steel plate that pops off the unit and flexes for super easy print removal. The texture gives added surface area, plus a PEI coating, and both help to give exceptional print adhesion. We didn't see a single raised corner or issue in any print.

The onboard camera is really nice to have as well — you can track prints remotely or make time-lapses for any budding social media start out there (though we will note that surface quality tended to drop when making a time-lapse, something that left us scratching our heads a bit). The A1 mini is fairly fast — our Benchy test printed in 44 minutes with standard Bambu Studio settings.

Best of all, though, is the A1 mini's multicolor printing capabilities. Up to 4 colors of filament can be loaded, which opens a world of possibilities to all creative makers. You'll pay for the opportunity to do so, but this feature alone makes the A1 mini a top consideration in our entire tested lineup.

Now, the not-so-good… The A1 mini is mini with a build volume of 180mm x 180mm x 180mm (356 cubic inches), though we should mention that we were able to print to the full advertised X/Y dimensions on the build plate. So, while that's relatively small, you do get the full bang for your buck here, which is not common among other tested printers. Perhaps worse, though, is that Bambu Lab flat out does not recommend using specialty filaments with this printer, mainly because it does not have an enclosure for heat control but also because the AMS control system is prone to breaking more brittle filament types. The hotend is capable of an above-average 300 degrees Celsius, so it's technically capable of such filaments, but user beware (or DIY an enclosure).

Support

Bambu Lab is HQ'd in Shenzhen, but does purportedly have an Austin office. They don't have a phone number to call that we could find, however. Instead, they have a robust and, in our opinions, appropriately helpful level of support videos, FAQs, manuals, etc., available online.

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General support run by an AI can be found here, though there is also a live chat feature. A dedicated support page exists, as well as a dedicated wiki which we personally found to be most helpful; a lot of topics are covered here. For the record, all support and troubleshooting materials are well made, easy to follow, and feature some nice graphic design work. But sometimes, one wants to just talk to a real person.

A standard 1-year warranty (2 in the EU) for the printer and AMS arm is offered, though a lot of exceptions are mentioned, including the extruder head. Otherwise, the A1 mini comes with a 14-day no-questions-asked return policy and a 30-day limited replacement policy (to cover damage in shipment, etc.) Overall, this is about average from what we've seen from other manufacturers in the space.

Should You Buy the Bambu Lab A1 mini?

There's a lot to love about the A1 Mini. This guy is one of our top-rated options for a reason. It's a compact, refined, feature-packed machine designed for anyone interested in breaking into the multicolor printing world. Running and maintaining multicolor prints isn't the easiest task still these days, though, so you will have to, unfortunately, pay for the opportunity to do so (admittedly still less than other options we've seen out there).

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