No one here is going to like this, but just get the Bambu. I would get the P2S not the X2D, but that’s me.

Yes they are very Apple like, there’s all sorts of community hate, but blah blah blah, it’s still been the only plug and forget printer I’ve ever owned. Thing just sits on my workbench, no fuss no muss, it just belts out flawless prints print after print. I’ve been in this hobby for quite a while now, and I’m done screwing around with these things. If you enjoy that, great please continue, but especially for someone like a family member!? Bambu unless you want to be constantly hand holding the entire time. They really are the McDonalds of 3d printers, for better or worse.

No Bambu or Creality, seriously - get a Centuri Carbon from Elegoo. It's the absolute best option for a newb, the price is incredible for what you get, and they just work. Bambu and Creality are both very hostile toward their users for no reason.

Don't get a Bambu lab, they've been screwing over open source creators with BS license claims. Go with Prusa.

Under no circumstance should you buy a Bambu Lab, that company is god damn awful. They literally refused to admit one of their printer series' (A1) being a fire hazard. Also actively locking people into their ecosystem, breaking workflows in the process.

Snapmaker U1 (cheap but good) or a modern Prusa (high quality and longevity) are good picks.

I personally avoid Bambu like the plage

If you are looking for the same performance and feature set (but not a PR nightmare, and locked eco system) look at Snapmaker U1.

If you wish to not break the bank as much, and just want something more simple and cheaper. I believe Creality still makes decent options.

Prusa is the best, no questions. But they are also the most expensive

Bambu is a double edged sword.

On one hand, their printers are really plug and play. Or, their most recent printers are plug, plug and play (talking about the "security key" they added to the X2/H2 series because of laser). You plug it in, and it works. And it works well. Fast, indeed Apple-style handholding, and generally very few issues when it comes to the higher end models.

The downside is, they're a Chinese company, with the usual Chinese business mindset: anything they take from others is fair game (copyright be damned), anything they do must be super secretive (to the point of breaking A/GPL licensing). They're also not too keen on admitting mistakes.

If you're in the EU or Europe in general, consumer protection laws will protect you from their shittery, most of the time. Otherwise you're SOL.

There's also the moral side of things. Bambu did rip off multiple companies, and recently lost lawsuits against Stratasys (honestly, this lawsuit was 💩 against 💩). They also went after open source devs with fraudulent DMCA takedown requests and C&D's, and have been pretty much Apple level anti-consumer-freedom.

But then again their printers are probably the most beginner-friendly, and the cheapest when it comes to multi-material handling. I mean the H2C, a 330x320x300 volume printer with 7 toolheads is £1900, whereas the closest to this (without AMS, without smart track switching for filaments, etc.) from other manufacturers will set you back 50-70% more (Prusa XL+ with 5 toolheads and no enclosure is £3600, for comparison).

But that's about it, if you want to go off the beaten path, do funky things and hope for open source integration... That won't happen with Bambu that easily. I've made my own changes to e.g. Bambuddy and OrcaSlicer to host the entire print stack "in the cloud" (on my own homelab I have remote access to, so I don't need a computer for full slicer support), but it's a hacky solution that's prone to break any time. Their entire stack is closed source (Bambu Srudio is FOSS because the base, Prusa Slicer and Slic3r, are GPL licensed, but their network plugin that allows direct comms to the printer, isn't), and you're at their mercy for firmware updates, features, bugfixes and whatnot. The X1 series had some custom firmware progress but it's mostly stalled nowadays.

My other main issue with going non-Bambu is that there aren't other companies really that are better AND aren't overpriced AF. Prusa constantly prices their machines 30-50% higher than their real market value, aiming at semi-professionals/businesses instead of consumers (plus they've been going non-FOSS for a while now). Creality, Elegoo, and all the other Chinese brands will have the same issues as Bambu - often even worse because they don't have the capacity for fully custom software thus end up violating GPL even more - so if your main qualm with Bambu is their non-openness, these are out the window too.

Anycubic might be the best choice, but they had their fair share of hardware troubles too - on the other hand, installing open software on their hardware is generally quite straightforward (at least compared to other brands).

And beyond these, you only have the big industrial players that focus on B2B sales and products... which isn't the best choice for home printers.

Ultimately you have the fully open printer options, like Voron. They aren't ready-made, at best you get all the parts in a kit and have to assemble it yourself, at worst you need to buy the individual parts yourself and have the printed parts printed by someone else. Much more work, but you're getting the most flexible printer out of it. If you check some of the hardcore 3D printing demos on Instagram/TikTok, you'll find that most use a Voron base with some heavy modifications to achieve some super funky results. I've seen some of these plastic-punks print things in 6-10 minutes that would take 2-3 hours on a Bambu printer! Plus if you want exotic material support (PEEK for example), you'd need a custom build anyway as Bambu's hotends/chambers only go to a certain temperature.

Like others said, I would avoid Bambu like the plague. It's asking for trouble in the future.

I would also avoid Creality printers as I have had reliability issues with them in the past. I had an Ender 5 that went through mainboards like filament.

I'm currently running a pair of Flashforge Creator 5, one Pro, one not. Both have proven solid and have been running nonstop since I got them in late July.

Of the two I like the Pro a bit better due to it being enclosed. Prints have been more stable with the wide temperature shifts we have right now. Damned easy to use and while setup wasn't quite "plug and print" it wasn't far off. Flashforge as a company isn't really Linux friendly (Statically, probably not an issue for your sister but worth mentioning), but the printers are solid and work with OrcaSlicer without much trouble.

Other than that, Prusa has a solid reputation (except for the INDX varients right now. It has been a rough release. ) and so does Snapmaker.

At the $900 price point, which is the price of the X2D, I'd get a Snapmaker U1. You will need to set it up for her (print heads and tubing need to be installed) but once running it is easy to use, reliable, and 4 seperate heads means it's far faster and less waste than an X2D.

Alternate would be an Anycubic Kobra X for $300. It's multicolor with low purge waste and might be a good starter printer instead of jumping right to high end and then having it sit.

I was very happy with bambu lab as a beginner. It's a good price and it's super easy to use.

As I became an enthusiast, I noticed that bambu is kinda like apple. They hold your hand and don't let go, they want you to use their printer in a way they tell you to and any other way is met with constant friction. I feel like I want something as good, but more open and flexible and diy nowadays.

A friend of mine got some other printer at the same time (i don't remember the company, something new and chinese) and he had way more trouble with it and then bounced off.

But again - for a beginner the Bambu experience is perfect.

I've been 3D printing since about 2014, real early on with early Prusa stuff and the Reprap. I did a few years of resin printing when I was playing 40k during COVID.

I highly recommend the Centauri Carbon/Carbon 2 by Elegoo. As said elsewhere in here, it's just about as easy as 3d printing can get. They send you a video to follow for set up and you can start printing within an hour reasonably with no experience.

Bambu is similarly easy, but Elegoo isn't hostile towards its users in the same way. The Centauri Carbon/2 is best price to performance combined with ease of use that I think is currently for sale.

I got a kit that was not complicated to assemble but it took a fair bit of time so I would say the price for this machine is pretty fair.

No idea about how well that one works, but I guess it comes with guarantee?

Better make sure to have a list of projects first, because while cool to have, you can just order 3d prints, you don't need the machine yourself. Or you can visit hack spaces and ask for a turn on their machine. And it's like... an actual waste of living space if you're not using it. It's actually in the way. Same thing as useless kitchen devices that sit on the counter and collect dust.

Then again, if you want to be nice and give your sister a nice gift, go for it.

Also idk how relevant money is to you, 800€ can buy a nice dinner, nice clothes and a weekend trip to a nearby city. Or like... think about an actually high quality bag or purse that gets used daily. Definitely the price range to discuss it with her and not just show up at her door with a huge box. 😅

I think that depends on you budget. If the Sky is the limit a Bamboo X2D or a Prusa Core 1 are good options.

But if you are going for a lower budget, look for a printer with auto bed leveling and availability of spare parts. Printer nozzle and print bed and considered consumables.

If you find one with a direct drive extruder it’s a winner.

What a wonderful brother!

I guess my answer is yeah, the bambu labs x2d would be excellent for a beginner. What I would say is that most mid-range printers these days are very user-friendly.

I'm sure some people will complain about bamboo labs' behaviour. Especially around the open source licensing business. Which for the record is aggravating. Honestly for someone just entering the space, I don't think it should be a dealer breaker.

I recently purchased a new machine after running my old one for the best part of 10 years. It was crazy how far the technology has come. I went for the snapmaker U1. It offers multicolor printing with a fraction of the waisted material.

To be honest. Until your sister has started doing some printing, it's difficult to separate a lot of printers. She will get a feel for things like,:

what materials she generally prints What size prints she's aiming for The speeds she needs