Mid-cycle — watch for announcements before buying
Best for: Professional makers, small studios, and engineers who need dual-material printing — particularly for PVA soluble supports, dual-color engineering parts, or high-throughput production.
Full details →First-generation product — recently released, still early days
Best for: Budget-conscious makers who want built-in 4-color multicolor printing under $400 — primarily for PLA and PETG. Open frame, so not suited for ABS or engineering filaments without the add-on enclosure.
Full details →| Bambu Lab H2S | Flashforge AD5X | |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Professional | Prosumer |
| Motion | CoreXY | CoreXY |
| Build Volume | 350 × 320 × 325 mm | 220 × 220 × 220 mm |
| Max Speed | 600 mm/s | 600 mm/s |
| Multicolor | ✅ 2 slots | ✅ 4 slots |
| Enclosure | ✅ | ❌ |
| Auto Calibration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Open Source | ❌ | ❌ |
| Upgrade Kit | — | — |
| Materials | PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, PA, PA-CF, PC, PETG-CF | PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, PLA-CF, PA-CF, PETG-CF |
| Released | Jun 15, 2025 | Jun 15, 2025 |
| Cycle length | ~270 days | — |
| Cycle advice | Caution | Buy |
| Deals advice | Caution | Caution |
| Next model | H2C (Expected late 2026) | — |
The H2S adds better high-speed cooling and more consistent layer adhesion at 600 mm/s, addressing key H2D pain points.
Dual-nozzle printing eliminates the purge tower required by filament-switching systems — faster prints, less wasted filament.
Print PLA + PVA or ABS + HIPS combinations for complex geometries that would be impossible with a single material.
The AD5X undercuts comparable multicolor setups on price with IFS built directly into the printer — no separate accessory needed.
No cloud dependency or mandatory account. OrcaSlicer is community-standard open-source slicer software — familiar to most experienced makers.
Ships ready for PLA-CF and PETG-CF without requiring a nozzle upgrade — a genuine differentiator at this price point.