Pros
- +
Incredibly fast
- +
High-quality prints
- +
Doesn't take up much room
Cons
- -
Can be noisy
- -
Not loads of room for big prints
Recommended reading
Anycubic Kobra 2 review: "Small but mighty"
(Image: © Benjamin Abbott)
Incredibly fast
High-quality prints
Doesn't take up much room
Can be noisy
Not loads of room for big prints
Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Find out more 🎃about our reviews policy.
If I had to describe the Anycubic Kobra 2 in a sentence, I'd say "small but mighty." Despite being unassuming to look at, this𒊎 is a powerhouse that's done nothing but impress from the moment I set off my first print.
Does it take my breath away or do something no-one else has tried before? Not necessarily. But the Anycubic Kobra 2 manages what it sets out to do – provide fast but accurate prints – exceptionally well. So far as filament machines go, it's a contender for our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best 3D printers.
The Anycubic Kobra 2's biggest party trick is its ability to print at 300mm/s. Sure, the recommended level is 200mm/s, but still – that's incredibly nippy. It's also packing automatic leveling with Smart Z-Offset, meanin💜g you don't have to faff about as much with getting it ready to go.
Actually building the printer is just as straightforward. This machine comes partially assemble❀d out of the box, and slots together really easily with minimal effort ♛- it's just a few screws for the uprights, plugging in the connectors, and screwing on the screen. That's it.
There is a key difference to what's come before, thoug🔯h; alongside a🧸 new direct extruder, it also comes with an "upgraded cooling system."
Much like Anycubic's other printers, this is dead simple to opeﷺrate and prints perfectly every time. I literally booted it up, inserted the filament – which was admittedly a nuisance because it didn't feed in nicely at first – and off I went.&nbs𓄧p;
Speed is the Kobra 2's secret sauce. Anycubic says that it's six times faster than standard, and it certainly doesn't hang about. Thanks to that max setting of 300mm/s and a recommended speed of 200mm/s, the Kobra 2 can complete tasks at a furious clip. I found that it was able to breeze through standard Benchy tests in around 30 or so minutes, for example, and larger piece🍌s (such as tabletop scenery) were finished over an hour sooner than they would have been on my old Vyper.
This puts it in the same ballpark as the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Creality Ender-5 S1, an equally nimble machine. Indeed, there isn't much between them from my experience; they're broadly similar in terms of speed and quality. Actually, the best compliment I can give the Kobra 2 is that I didn't notice the difference at all when swapp♏ing between them. (The S1 had been my go-to printer until then.)
Pri🎐nts wouldn't take quite as long on the Kobra 2 as they would with the Ender-5 S1
Anycubic's machine has it beat in a few key areas, though. While the down-and-dirty printing is similar enough that we're splitting hairs, the Kobra 2 doesn't have the bulk of Creality's square frame. In addition, I preferred the design of Anycubic's extruder fan. It feels a little more slick than the Ender-5 S1's mass of black plastic. Oh, and I'd wager that it's ever so slightly more efficient. Prints wouldn'tꦚ take quite as long on the Kobra 2 as t🍸hey would with the Ender-5 S1.
The problem? It's very loud. Few printers are dead silent (the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Anycubic Kobra Go being one of the few I've tried that comes close), but this is significantly noisier than even the big boy S1. It works perfectly well and shouldn't trouble you if you operate it behind closed doors, but I was ta🎉ken by surprise nonetheless.
Fortunately, this is my one and only criticism. Everything else works swimmingly – not least the self-leveling software. Anyone that's read my 3D printer coverage will know that I find this to be the most fr🍒ustrating part of the hobby, but I haven't needed to worry about it once with the Kobra 2. After setting it to auto-level, it's been spot-on ever since.
The majority of us rattle through our day wishing for just a little more time in it, so the speedy Anycubic Kobra 2 comes highly recommended – it gets you the goods a lot faster than most competitors. The quality doesn't suffer too much, either.
This puts it head and shoulders above rival machines, and the self-l🐻eveling tech keeps it there. Want a reliable printer that'll smash through almost any task you throw at it in record time? It doesn't get much better than the Kobra 2.
I spent weeks putting this machine through its paces; I worked on classic tests like the Benc🌟hy boat, more ambitious models for D&D terrain, and wargaming buildings designed for the (tiny) Epic scale. I even ran this alongside the Creality Ender-5 S1 for a direct comparison, not to mention at various settings for a broad overview of the machine's capabilities.
For more details on our process, be sure to check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hardware policy.
Want to get some ideas of what to print next? Check out the monsters and heroes of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best tabletop RPGs.
I've been writing about games in one form or another since📖 2012, and now manage GamesRadar+'s tabletop gaming and toy coverage. You'll find my grubby paws on everything from board game reviews to the latest Lego news.
