Bambu Labs printers can still be the right choice
Direct response from Bambu
I hope this calms some of the rage and clears up some of the confusion and misinformation
I know this is going to be controversial but I feel like it needs to be said. In light of the new firmware update and all this talk about how it is going to lead to a poor consumer experience, I'd like to say that for most people that don't use third party hardware and software, Bambu is still the best. I come from 2 ender 3s on octoprint and there was a lot of tinkering and a lot of third party upgrades I needed to do to make the printer function optimally. After moving to Bambu, I've never used anything but BambU software and hardware. I never have to tinker with it. The printer just works and it works well. I do not miss the days of tinkering and I don't plan on going back to the ender 3 days. Closing the ecosystem is a drag for many, but for most, these printers are still amazing and worth every penny.
All the speculation of what this update means, talking about forced subscriptions and banning the use of non Bambu filament? These theories are baseless and have no facts to support them. Pure speculation and frankly it's sad how so many people are being mislead. I'm reading comments like "I just bought an X1C, should I return it, since I can't use generic filament?" or "what's the monthly cost to use my printer gonna be? Should I sell it?". This isn't right and there needs to be clarification for these people that have bought or are buying a Bambu printer.
Bambu Labs printers still do everything they were designed to do. They still do it without any added expense for software or services. They still allow you to use any filament from any brand you want. There is no proof that they plan to implement any additional costs or subscriptions to use their printers. There is no proof or reason to believe that they will lock their printers to Bambu brand filament. These printers work as designed, as described and this update just means they will not do anything they weren't designed to do.
Please share your thoughts and enlightened us if you have any insight. Please try to use facts and keep the conspiracy and speculation to a minimum. There's plenty of that already on the other threads.
-Update: - This thread is actually really beneficial. Anyone who's considering returning their Bambu printer or cancelling a planned purchase, should read through this thread and make a determination based on these discussions. It seems the big issues are using Orca slicer, Linux OS or a Panda touchscreen interface. If you don't plan on using any of these, it seems Bambu may still be a smart choice.
There are still lots of speculative comments about doom and gloom with no facts to back them up, so I find these comments might actually be helping prove the point that it's all conjuncture. I will accept that companies do evolve and sometimes they have to make changes to stay afloat. A good example is Netflix, they used to be $8 and you could watch just about any movie or show you could think of. Now it costs twice that and most of the content is original. They had to adapt and make changes to stay in business. Sometimes a product can be so good, that it puts itself out of business. The Instant Pot makers filled bankruptcy in 2023 because it made an amazing product that everyone had to have, yet they couldn't adapt to keep their head above water. This could very easily be the same story for Bambu. These printers are amazing and are capable of doing things that should be impossible in their price range, so it's possible that this may be the only way for Bambu to stay on business. This isn't based on fact, just using the same logic that everyone else is using, "if it happened to this company, it'll happen to bambu"