Creality K1C Review

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Built-in camera
• Well priced
• Impressive print quality

Cons

• Single colour printing only
• Can be very noisy
• Frustrating to change filament

Our Verdict

The Creality K1C is an impressive 3D printer that offers a shallow learning curve for newcomers. It’s reliable, fast and can print a wide variety of filaments out of the box

If you recently bought a Creality K1, then I’d advise you to stop reading this review now as it will only make you sad.

The K1 is only about six months old, but is already being replaced by the K1C. It’s no secret that the K1 had some teething problems and Creality ended up redesigning the hot end, fixing some software issues and open sourcing the software that should have been open source all along.

But instead of just continuing to sell the ‘fixed’ K1, Creality decided to do a complete overhaul and release a completely new model, the K1C.

It might look the same, but beneath the skin there are a raft of upgrades and improvements that make it a better printer. So, apologies to anyone who’s just bought a K1.

Features & design

• New extruder
• New easy-swap hardened nozzle
• AI camera as standard

Let’s start with the C. When rumours of the printer started appearing, some thought it stood for Colour. Would Creality follow Bambu Lab and release a printer like the P1S Combo that can print with up to four colours?

Sadly not. The C actually stands for Carbon, and means there’s an upgraded, hardened steel nozzle that’s designed to maintain a temperature of 300°C.

This is one of the K1C’s big differentiators: it can reliably print abrasive carbon-fibre-infused filaments such as PLA-CF and PETG-CF as well as those that require higher temperatures such as ASA and PC.

Alongside the ‘unicorn’ nozzle, as Creality is calling it, the all-metal direct-drive extruder is stronger than the original K1’s, allowing it to more reliably feed filament into the hotend.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The company says the nozzle is supposed to be quick to swap out, but unless I’m doing it wrong, it’s still much more laborious than the Bambu A1, for example. The hot end is mounted at the rear of the print head, and the cover (containing the fan) isn’t held in place by magnets: you have to undo two screws. You need to remove this in order to remove the silicone shroud that sits over the nozzle. Then you need to unscrew the nozzle using the supplied spanner – hardly the one-handed swap Creality advertises.

The fact is, you’re not likely to want or need to change the nozzle very often anyway, making this all rather moot for most people.

The K1 doesn’t have a camera, but it’s standard on the K1C. It allows you to check on print progress remotely and record timelapses of prints for posterity. It’s called an AI camera because it can detect foreign objects on the build plate or if a print fails part way through and the filament begins to form a load of ‘spaghetti’.

As far as I can tell it’s the same camera from the K1 Max so quality is reasonably decent. It isn’t perfect at the AI stuff, though, and doesn’t always notice and alert you of failed prints. It is pretty good at spotting when you’ve left the previous model on the build plate, forgotten about it and started another print though.

Beyond this, you’d be hard-pushed to spot the changes and improvements. But they are there. Creality says the frame “adopts bigger parts made by integrated die casting. With fewer seams, it looks neat and becomes utterly sturdy”.

Jim Martin / Foundry

It certainly feels sturdy, and there’s now a metal plate on the front edge of the bed, presumably to add further strength. However, the cynic in me sees it as a copy of what Bambu has done with its build plates, even down to slapping the build volume on it: 220x220x250mm. (Pedants will spot – and be irked by – the erroneous ³ at the end.)

Elsewhere, there’s a carbon filter (as the K1 Max has) which helps to keep nasty particles from being blown into your room, large rubber feet which come already attached (to dampen vibrations) and a Bambu-style silicone strip stuck to the rear of the build plate for wiping the nozzle clean.

In terms of assembly, there’s virtually none to do: you get it out of the box, remove a few shipping screws and foam packing, then attach the screen and spool holder, plug in and away you go.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Quite obviously, the K1C is an enclosed printer. The advantage of this design is that high ambient temperatures can be maintained to help keep warping to a minimum when printing with ASA, PC and other materials that warp all too readily.

Despite what Creality says about them being glass, the side panels are still plastic, with only the front door being glass. The lid is plastic too, and needs to be clicked firmly into place to stop it from shifting or even falling off entirely when the chain (which houses the PTFE tube for the filament and wiring for the print head) moves to the far left side.

As with the K1, the PTFE tube is bent at a tight angle into the extruder which can make it difficult or impossible to load filament into the hot end. Filament can also catch in the run-out sensor mounted on the rear of the printer (along with the spool holder).

Jim Martin / Foundry

This means filament changes can be frustrating. If the filament catches on the end of the hot end, the only way to fix it is to remove the lid, pull out the PTFE tube from the extruder and push the filament in manually as straight as possible until it goes in.

Compare this to Bambu’s AMS which automatically loads and unloads filament and it does become a big annoyance when you want to print in a different colour or with a different type of filament.

The 4.3in touchscreen remains the same as on the K1 and K1 Max. Creality has made various improvements in the interface, with one of the most significant being the ability to adjust print speed on the fly. This was a bizarre absence before, but it’s there now (and it works, I’m happy to say).

Jim Martin / Foundry

It’s still more limited than the controls on Creality’s Klipper-based Sonic Pad, giving options of 125%, 75%, and 50%. There’s also Quiet Mode which reduces noise to “as low as” 45dB. The bad news is that “as low as” is the operative phrase: it was never consistently quiet in my testing, with the fans and motors still being louder than you’d want.

At full chat, the K1C is exceptionally noisy – a combination of high-flow fans and high print speeds. It shakes and wobbles like crazy at speeds over 300mm/sec. And while it can technically hit 600mm/sec (Creality even provides a test print to showcase it) it won’t achieve anywhere near this on most prints, and can only do it with tiny layer heights in ‘surface’ mode. The resulting print was mighty impressive considering all the shaking about: the walls looked perfect, with no layers or imperfections visible.

Talking of performance…

Performance

• Fully automatic calibration
• 200-300mm realistic print speeds
• Dimensionally accurate, clean prints

Although different motors are used the K1C offers the same print speeds as the K1. A handy table is included on a sticker inside the printer itself, so you can make the main settings in your slicing software.

Jim Martin / Foundry

What’s weird is that Creality Print doesn’t apply these settings when you tell it what type of filament is loaded. You can select anything, but it always retained the same settings for Creality’s HyperPLA, which is 200mm/sec for walls and 300mm/sec for infill. This could have been because I was given early access to a build of the software that supported the K1C, though.

Surprisingly, even when using these faster speeds for filaments that should be printed slower, the K1C still delivered great results. I printed the speed Benchy (pre-loaded as a test model) in Creality’s silk PLA which was completed in roughly 18 minutes. I repeated the test by slicing a Benchy in Creality Print using the recommended settings, but it was difficult to tell the difference between the two: both were highly impressive.

There’s virtually no stringing, with no wisps of filament hanging between the pillars on the boat, and no noticeable ringing on the hull.

I then printed this tiny hexagon box in PLA, which again showed that retraction is excellent: it was very clean.

Jim Martin / Foundry

To test tolerances, I used the same PLA to print this infinite cube fidget toy. Aside from a couple of slightly stiff hinges, which worked looser over time, it was fully functional right off the build plate.

Jim Martin / Foundry

I also printed a wall mounting bracket for my Ryobi area light using Creality’s wood PLA. The part fitted perfectly, demonstrating that the K1C prints accurately.

I then printed a variety of models using some Bambu PETG-CF and PLA-CF, all of which printed with excellent results.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Bed adhesion was great with all filament types I tried when using the recommended glue stick. You can buy the optional textured PEI plate, but the smooth one worked absolutely fine for me and leaves the bottom of prints similarly smooth.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The only time prints were problematic was when using PC and ASA. As you can see from this hexagon coaster printed in ASA, the corners have warped a little, despite using the recommended temperature settings.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Before each print, calibration takes around 5-6 minutes. This comprises heating the bed to the desired temperature, probing the bed (using strain gauges in the bed) and input shaping, which attempts to counteract vibrations caused when the print head is moving quickly in different directions.

Obviously this adds significantly to the time taken for very small models, but always worth it for large prints that take hours and hours.

Print time and progress are shown on the screen, but you can also see them in Creality Print and the Creality Cloud mobile app. You’re free to use other slicing software, but it’s easiest to use these apps to monitor prints and get alerts if there’s a problem.

It’s a bit annoying that print time doesn’t change when you adjust speed on the fly. When I tried out Quiet Mode, a print that would have taken 2h30 actually took 3h10, but it wasn’t until the print was virtually finished that the time changed. Hopefully Creality can fix this in a firmware update.

Price & availability

The Creality K1C costs $559 / £539 from Creality . That less than the $599 / £579 that the K1 originally cost.

This is good value considering the upgrades, although it’s worth noting that the K1 is now cheaper at $499 / £479, and that should include the updated hot end mentioned earlier.

It certainly undercuts Bambu’s P1S , which doesn’t have a touchscreen even if it does support multi-colour printing via the company’s AMS.

For alternatives, see our roundup of the best 3D printers .

Should I buy the Creality K1C?

The K1C offers decent value for anyone looking for a versatile 3D printer that can handle a wide range of filament types, reliably with quick printing at high quality.

The 220x220x250 build volume isn’t the largest, though, and there’s no word yet on whether Creality will offer an upgraded version of the K1 Max . In many respects, it doesn’t need to as the K1 Max can – technically – already print with carbon-fibre filaments as well as ASA, PC and nylon. You’ll just wear out the nozzle faster if you do print a lot of carbon fibre filament. It already has a carbon filter and a camera.

Jim Martin / Foundry

You should look at the Bambu A1 , though, if you don’t need to print with filaments that need an enclosure. It isn’t any noisier for it, has even more features (such as the ability to detect tangles on the filament spool) and is a good chunk cheaper. Oh, and it’s still cheaper than the K1C even if you opt for the A1 Combo which allows you to print in up to four colours thank to the AMS Mini, which is also very convenient when it comes to auto-changing filaments.

Admittedly, you’d need to buy Bambu’s hardened nozzle to print with carbon fibre, but the A1 can do it just fine, and offers slightly more build volume. It may be a bed slinger, but it’s not much slower than the K1C and it produces top-notch print quality.

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

Recent stories by Jim Martin:

• The best 3D printers 2024
• Bambu A1 review
• Bambu A1: a full-size bed slinger 3D printer

Just a few years ago, 3D printing was a hobby for geeks and nerds. It was difficult, frustrating and slow.

Fast forward to 2024, and that has all changed completely. Now, you can buy – for a very reasonable sum – a printer that works out of the box, doesn’t require hours of tweaking and adjusting and prints large models in hours – not days. Small models can take mere minutes.

Since you’re reading this, you’ve probably made it past the point of wondering what on earth you’d use a 3D printer for, but if not, there are many useful tools and gadgets as well as fun things to print, all of which are available to download free from sites such as Thingiverse and Printables .

Here we’ll explain what to look for in a 3D printer and recommend what you should buy.

First, a brief word on colour: consumer 3D printers are single-nozzle devices which print one colour at a time. If you want to multicolour prints, then Bambu’s P1S Combo and A1 Combo can hold four spools of filament and change colour automatically. Multicolour prints can take a long time, though, and waste filament.

One other thing: until you’ve spent time getting to grips with a 3D modelling app such as Fusion 360 or Tinkercad , you’ll be limited to printing objects that other people have designed. There are lots of them, but if you want something bespoke, you’ll have to create it yourself.

Don’t be put off buying a 3D printer, though. Choose wisely and you’ll be rewarded with a device that can print intricate, articulated models from the off.

We’re focusing mainly on FDM (fused deposition modelling) printers here because these are the most popular type. The other type is a resin 3D printer, such as the Creality Halot One Plus, which works very differently, and are designed for printing small, intricate, solid models.

Best 3D printers 2024

1. Bambu P1S – Best 3D printer for most people

Pros

• Excellent print quality
• Automatic colour changing
• Fast CoreXY motion system

Cons

• Basic non-touchscreen control panel
• Filament wastage can be high in multicolour printing
• No failed print detection

With so many tech products you get what you pay for. This inevitably means the “best” will also be the most expensive. It’s certainly the case here, but just because the P1S is expensive doesn’t mean it isn’t good value.

If you buy the P1S Combo, it will come with an AMS, a unit that sits on top of the printer. It holds four spools of filament and can load and unload them automatically and print in multiple colours without any assistance from you.

With only one nozzle, multicolour prints aren’t exactly fast. But the AMS also takes the pain out of changing filament when you want to print something in a different colour to the previous print.

If you don’t care about multicolour, you can buy the non-Combo version of the P1S for quite a bit less.

Overall, the P1S is a remarkably good printer. It’s really fast thanks to the use of a coreXY system, and as it’s fully enclosed it’s reliable even when printing with ASA, nylon, polycarbonate and other filament types because of the stable internal temperatures. More importantly, print quality is absolutely superb.

If there’s a downside, it’s the rubbish dot-matrix screen which seems very out of place on a printer this expensive. But, there are other ways to control the P1S, such as printing from a PC or phone via Wi-Fi. The Creality K1C is a good alternative if you must have a touchscreen, and it also has a few other features such as failed print detection.

If you just want to print with PLA, PETG and other filament types that don’t require an enclosure, take a look at Bambu’s A1 which is a lot cheaper.

Read our full Bambu P1S Combo review

2. Bambu A1 – Best budget 3D printer

Pros

• Fast, reliable printing
• Fully automatic levelling
• Excellent value

Cons

• Doesn’t support more exotic filament
• AMS Lite adds significantly to the price

In our full review, we call the A1 “the 3D printer you’ve been waiting for”, and with good reason. It’s as close to ‘one click’ printing as you’ll get right now: it adjusts itself automatically for reliable printing and has all the features most people want, at a surprisingly affordable price. Bambu’s desktop and mobile apps are really good, too.

Like Bambu’s more expensive P1S, it can print models up to 256mm³ and you can buy the optional AMS Lite (shown to the right of the A1) for automatic multicolour printing.

The only drawback is that the A1 can’t really print nylon, ABS, ASA and other ‘exotic’ filaments because they require an enclosure. Without one, they tend to warp. The A1 can print carbon-fibre filaments if you buy Bambu’s hardened nozzle, which is very easy to fit.

Print quality, when using supported filament types, is sensational.

Read our full Bambu A1 review

3. Creality K1 Max – Best large 3D printer

Pros

• Fast, reliable printing
• Large build volume
• Fully automatic bed levelling

Cons

• Some features exclusive to Creality’s slicer
• No multi-colour capabilities

Some may say the K1 is just a poor copy of the Bambu P1S, but that does it a disservice when so many 3D printers are basically copies of each other. There are two models, the smaller K1 which is cheaper than the larger K1 Max.

The Max offers a 300x300x300 build volume, something not currently available from Bambu and it has an easy-to-use touchscreen. Bed levelling is fully automatic and it even has a LiDAR system that helps ensure prints are successful and good quality.

There’s built-in Wi-Fi and an ‘AI’ camera that can detect when prints are failing, as well as when you might have accidentally left a model or some tools on the build plate.

As both K1 and K1 Max use coreXY systems, they’re just as fast as the Bambu and although quality isn’t quite up to the P1S’s level, it’s still very good.

Read our full Creality K1 Max review

4. Elegoo Neptune 4 – Best cheap 3D printer

Pros

• Fast printing
• Automatic bed levelling
• Intuitive touchscreen controller

Cons

• No Wi-Fi
• More expensive in UK than US
• Elegoo’s slicer isn’t the best

The Neptune 4 offers everything most people are looking for in a first 3D printer. It’s easy to set up, has auto bed levelling, a colour touchscreen and is pretty fast to boot.

That’s already a lot for the low price, so it’s not too surprising it doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Unlike some of the budget models here, it competes with the coreXY printers for speed thanks to an upgraded print head with much improved cooling over the Neptune 3.

It’s a shame that like the Ender 3 S1 Pro levelling isn’t completely automatic, but once you’ve adjusted the knobs, subsequent levelling is automatic.

Print quality is very good at the default 300mm speed, but it’s a good idea to use an alternative to Elegoo’s slicer which caused us quite a few headaches when prints failed.

Read our full Elegoo Neptune 4 review

5. Creality K1C – Best for exotic filaments

Pros

• Can print carbon fibre filaments out of the box
• Can print ASA, nylon, ABS as well as PLA and PETG
• Built in camera

Cons

• Single colour printing only
• Can be very noisy
• Frustrating to change filament

The K1C can print models up to 220x220x250mm, and comes almost fully assembled. It’s fully automatic, which means there’s no need to make any manual adjustments: it prints reliably from the word go.

Effectively, it’s an upgrade of Creality’s K1 and has a hardened steel nozzle that can print abrasive filaments like carbon-fibre infused PLA and PETG. Unlike the K1 it also has a camera for monitoring print progress remotely, and it’ll detect and notify you of problems like foreign objects left on the build plate and failed prints.

The touchscreen makes it easy to use, and Creality’s desktop and mobile apps aren’t bad, although they lack the polish and ease of use of Bambu’s.

The only real limitation is that the K1C can’t print in multiple colours, but if you don’t need to do that, it’s a great choice.

6. Anycubic Kobra 2 Plus – Best for printing huge models

Pros

• Massive build volume
• Fast

Cons

• Takes up a lot of space
• Not suitable for filaments which require an enclosure

With a build volume of 320 x 320 x 400mm (WDH), the Kobra 2 Plus can print very large models. If that’s not enough, there’s also the Kobra 2 Max with an even larger 420 x 420 x 500mm volume.

It’s a bed slinger, which means the build plate moves backwards and forwards. In turn, this means you need quite a lot of desk space for the Kobra 2 Plus. It’s fast and capable of good print quality, and is pretty easy to use thanks to automatic bed levelling, vibration compensation and a colour touchscreen.

Read our full Anycubic Kobra 2 Plus review

7. Creality 3D Ender 3 S1 Pro

Pros

• Great print quality
• Almost all the features you’d want

Cons

• Auto-levelling requires manual input
• Slow by today’s standards

The S1 Pro is really a budget 3D printer but it’s more expensive than the cheapest because it has had all the bells and whistles thrown at it.

There’s the Sprite direct drive print head with dual metal gears for reliable extrusion. It’s capable of heating to 300C, so you can print with a wide range of filaments. The bed goes up to 110C, too, which helps prints adhere when working with more awkward types of filament.

It isn’t enclosed, though, and is a bed-slinger, so needs room in front and behind it to accommodate its range of travel. There’s a useful LED strip which is really bright, and a colour touchscreen. Its interface could be improved a bit, but it’s not bad.

Print quality is very good, but it isn’t fast. To improve it you can buy Creality’s Sonic Pad – a Klipper-based touchscreen – but this adds a lot of cost and hassle. If speed is important, choose a printer that offers 300mm/sec out of the box like the Bambu A1.

Read our full Creality 3D Ender 3 S1 Pro review

8. Creality Halot One Plus

Pros

• Easy to use & reliable
• Works with various slicers
• Great print quality

Cons

• Fan runs constantly during printing
• Requires post-printing cleanup + curing (like all resin printers)
• More expensive than some rivals

The Halot One Plus is an easy-to-use resin 3D printer that has a good-sized build volume, prints reliably and at high quality. It’s quite expensive compared to rivals, especially in the UK.

The Halot One Plus is a resin printer, so is very different to the others here. Instead of using filament on a reel, it prints using liquid resin which is cured, layer by layer, using UV light.

Build volume is smaller than the FDM printers here, but it’s still relatively large for a resin printer, and the screen’s high resolution means models have lots of fine detail.

The Halot One Plus printed ultra-reliably in our tests, but if you are keen on a resin printer, bear in mind that you have to clean up prints afterwards, which usually means buying a separate washing and curing device that looks a lot like a resin printer and takes up the same amount of desk space.

Read our full Creality Halot One Plus review

Buyer’s guide

Here are the key things you should look out for when choosing a 3D printer.

Automatic levelling

Unless the surface on which objects are printed is perfectly level, prints won’t stick to it and will fail sooner or later.

Manual levelling is a chore you could do without, so go for a printer with auto levelling. Be careful: some printers claim to have auto levelling, but rely on you to do a lot of the work. Which is why it pays to read reviews as well as knowing what to look for.

Heated bed

Almost all 3D printers have them, but it’s a must have. A heated bed will help prints to stick: don’t buy a printer without one.

PEI sheet

Models can be difficult to remove from the build plate. A PEI (polyetherimide) sheet helps immensely. It’s a flexible metal sheet with a textured coating is used, and held in place with magnets. When the model finishes printing, you simply lift the sheet off, flex it and the model pops off.

Touchscreen

Some printers still use a monochrome screen with a rotary dial or buttons. This isn’t nearly as easy to use as a touchscreen. Bambu P1S (and P1P) would be much better with a touchscreen, but it’s not the end of the world with those as you can print from your PC or phone using Bambu’s apps. When a printer doesn’t have Wi-Fi (or any networking) you are stuck using the screen it comes with.

Build volume

A printer’s build volume tells you how big an object it can print. It’s wise to assume that the actual maximum volume is a bit smaller than the specifications suggest, and go for one with a slightly larger volume than the biggest object you will need to print.

It can be hard to know this, and remember that a bigger volume means a bigger printer, which you’ll need space for.

Really large models can be printed in sections and superglued (or otherwise fixed) together, so you don’t necessarily need a huge printer.

Nozzle and bed temperatures

Most people print using PLA, the most common type of filament. It’s easy to work with, strong and durable.

All 3D printers have nozzles that go up to the 220°C or so that PLA requires. But if you want to print with ABS, PETG or another type that needs high temperatures, be sure to opt for a printer that can go up to around 300°C. But see Enclosure below, too.

Similarly, watch out for heated bed temperatures. Some won’t go beyond 80°C, but you’ll need 100°C or more for successful ABS prints.

Enclosure

Some materials such as ABS, ASA, polycarbonate and nylon need carefully controlled ambient temperature to prevent them from warping while printing. If you need to use these – perhaps because you want to print models that can survive exposure to sunlight, then look for an enclosed printer – essentially a self-contained box.

Run-out sensor

With large models taking many hours to print and the fact that you can’t always know if there’s enough filament left on the reel to complete it, a run-out sensor can be a life saver. It does it what it says: detects when the filament runs out and halts printing automatically, allowing you to load a new reel and carry on printing.

Without one, the filament could run out and the printer will carry on printing thin air, and you’d be none the wiser.

What’s the best 3D printer for beginners

The Bambu A1 is an excellent choice for beginners. It’s relatively affordable and is very easy to use because it handles so many things automatically. It’s also fast and offers top notch print quality.

How much does a beginner 3D printer cost?

Printers start from as little as $130 / £130, but you may want to spend more to get a better model with more features, faster speeds and better print quality. There are a lot of great printers under $500 / £500.

What type of 3D printer is best?

The most common type is FDM (printers that use filament on a spool), but the absolute best quality is from SLA printers, which use resin and are capable of printing much finer detail. There are lots of pros and cons of each type, but put simply, resin printers are best for small, intricate figurines, while filament printers are best for printing things that are useful around the home as well as models that hinge or articulate.

Is it cheap to use a 3D printer?

Spools of filament typically weigh 1kg and cost from $15 / £15 to $30 / £30. It’s therefore the weight of the model that matters most, not the size. So-called slicing software turns a 3D model into instructions a 3D printer can understand, and you can adjust the settings to save weight by minimising the amount of infill. Sometimes it’s cheaper to print your own parts, but sometimes you might find it’s cheaper to buy pre-made plastic things than to 3D print them.

Are 3D printers good for beginners?

3D printing is much easier than it used to be thanks to modern printers that automate a lot of the fiddly things like bed levelling. They can also compensate for vibrations, resume printing after a power cut or when the filament runs out. The difficult part is designing your own models to print, but there are thousands of pre-made models available online to download free.

Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor, Tech Advisor

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.

Recent stories by Jim Martin:

• Creality K1C review
• Bambu A1 review
• Bambu A1: a full-size bed slinger 3D printer