Comparing Creality K1 vs. Bambu Lab P1P

Upstart Chinese 3D printer manufacturer Bambu Lab made a splash in the 3D printing market, offering users an advanced feature set and unprecedented print speed. Beginning with the X1 Carbon in June 2022 and following it up soon after with the more affordable Bambu P1P, Bambu Lab has quickly become a sought-after 3D printer brand.

More recently, Creality has released their response to the Bambu P1P, the Creality K1. This new machine seems to be clearly aimed at the Bambu P1P, with a similar feature set and price point. But how do these printers match up?

In this article, we’ll compare the Creality K1 to the Bambu P1P to determine how these printers are similar and different, and which one is the best choice for you.

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Shared Features Between the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P

The Creality K1 and Bambu P1P share many features, making it clear that these two machines are direct competitors. We’ll cover each feature’s purpose and explain how they contribute to the overall capabilities of each printer.

High-Speed Printing

Both the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P are capable of extremely high print speeds, which is one of the main selling points of both machines. The two 3D printers advertise different maximum speeds, so we’ll cover that further in the Differences section below. Both machines have an advertised maximum printing speed of at least 500 mm/s, which puts them far beyond most other FDM 3D printers.

These higher print speeds translate directly to shorter printing times, reducing one of the biggest frustrations in 3D printing. You’ll notice that many of the other features shared by the K1 and P1P are included on these machines specifically to support the demands of high-speed printing. This explains the higher cost of the K1 than many of Creality’s other 3D printers, and also partly explains why these two machines have so many similarities.

Chassis and Kinematic System

Both printers have semi-enclosed, cubic frames as opposed to gantry frames like the Creality Ender 3. These more robust frames maximize rigidity and stability to minimize vibrations and flexing, which is imperative with the print head flying back and forth at very high speed.

At high speeds, a CoreXY kinematic system is a must to minimize moving weight, so both printers use this. This design uses two stationary motors mounted to the frame, taking weight off the moving print head and X axis rail. Long serpentine belts and a clever pulley arrangement allow the motors to move the print head in both X and Y directions simultaneously. The bed remains stationary in the X and Y directions, only moving up and down in the Z direction. The printer does not throw the heavy bed back and forth in the Y direction, which decreases vibration during printing. This arrangement increases speed and reduces moving weight, which are tremendous advantages for both printers at these high speeds.

While Bambu is a newer manufacturer and Creality does not typically use the CoreXY kinematic system in their designs, we don’t have any concerns about the chassis or kinematics of either printer. These are well-understood technologies used in many 3D printer designs, and from what we have seen, both the P1P and K1 implement them well.

Bed Surface

A flexible, removable, magnetic PEI bed plate is the current state of the art in the industry for good bed adhesion and to ease the removal of prints. Both printers use this excellent material, and we’re happy to see this feature included by default.

Extruder and Hot End

A direct drive extruder is also required for high speed printing, and both the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P use direct drive extruders with high-flow nozzles to keep up with high printing speeds. The extruders share a similar design, with dual gears to help the extruder grip the filament from both sides so they won’t slip when pushing filament through quickly. Direct drive extruders also minimize the distance the filament has to be pushed, reducing drag and eliminating the possibility of the filament folding over and jamming.

Both printers use all-metal hot ends to allow printing a wider range of more advanced filaments which require higher temperatures. For high speed printing, the hot end must also be capable of high flow or the printer will be unable to lay down filament fast enough before the nozzle moves away, so both printers have high flow hot ends with exactly the same flow rate. The hot ends on both printers are capable of feeding 32 mm³/s of filament. This is significantly more than a standard hot end which is typically in the 15-20 mm³/s range.

Vibration Compensation

Any 3D printer will vibrate to some extent at high speeds, no matter how rigid and how well built it is. This will produce artifacts on prints and negatively affect print quality. Both the K1 and P1P are equipped with an accelerometer in the print heads to allow the 3D printer firmware to compensate for vibrations, reducing artifacts when printing at high speeds. This is a feature normally reserved for custom-built 3D printers or by using the Creality Sonic Pad, so it’s a great addition here that makes these printers more suited to high-speed 3D printing than a standard machine.

Firmware-Controlled Pressure Advance

Another optimization that is known to improve print quality at high speeds is a firmware feature known as pressure advance, and both the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P support this feature in their default firmware. When printing at high speeds, so much material is being fed into the hot end that the pressure of filament extruding from the nozzle increases beyond levels seen in a lower speed 3D printer. As the nozzle direction changes, for example in sharp corners, this pressure may lead to molten filament spilling out in all directions, creating an unsightly blob in the print. To correct this, the 3D printer firmware can slow the extruder down slightly just before a predicted direction change, which reduces the pressure and eliminates this type of print defect.

The Creality K1 uses a variant of the open-source Klipper firmware, and the Bambu P1P uses proprietary firmware, but in both cases the firmware supports pressure advance, allowing these printers to maintain high print quality even at fast print speeds.

Reliability Features and Sensors

Both the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P are equipped with a strain gauge bed level sensor, which allows the printer to press the nozzle into the bed in a grid pattern across the bed surface to enable automatic bed leveling. We love seeing automatic bed leveling as a standard feature on modern 3D printers, and the implementation on both of these machines is a good design that also can set the Z offset automatically, further simplifying the calibration process. The strain gauge leveling sensor has fewer moving parts than other options, making it reliable and fast.

The K1 and P1P also both include filament runout sensors, which detect when the filament spool is empty or otherwise not feeding into the extruder. This is a feature that we generally haven’t been impressed with on Creality machines because the print bed cools down when a filament runout is detected, which releases the print and generally makes it impossible to resume later. We have a similar complaint about power loss recovery. In both cases, these features are nice to have, and can save a print from certain types of failures, but we don’t see them as critically important features.

Differences Between the Creality K1 and Bambu P1P

While the Creality K1 may seem to be a copy of the Bambu Lab P1P, Creality tries to make the K1 more compelling with extra features. But there are other features of the P1P that Creality is unable to match. In this section, we’ll cover each of these features and discuss how the two printers differ.

Enclosure

The Creality K1 is a fully enclosed 3D printer, with side, back, and top panels, along with a front door that swings open. This makes printing with temperature sensitive materials such as ABS much easier since it increases the ambient temperature and prevents air drafts. The K1 even has an enclosure fan to pull air and particles out of the enclosure.

On the other hand, the Bambu P1P is not supplied with an enclosure. The back is a solid wall, but the sides and top are open. Bambu Lab supplies print files allowing you to print a variety of customizable and attractive side panels, but the front and top remain open even with the addition of the side panels. This may help somewhat in printing materials like ABS, but it’s not directly comparable to a full enclosure. Although Bambu Lab shows a chamber temperature regulator fan as optional, with such large holes in the enclosure, its value is dubious.

In our experience, a 3D printer enclosure both improves the performance of printing with certain materials, and reduces the sounds of the 3D printing process. While this isn’t necessarily a make-or-break feature, it’s a meaningful advantage to the Creality K1.

Build Volume

The printers’ build volumes are very close, but the Bambu P1P has a build volume of 256 X 256 X 256 mm (10.08” x 10.08” x 10.08”) while the Creality K1 has a build volume of 220 X 220 X 250mm (8.7” x 8.7” x 9.84”). Basically, the K1 has a slightly narrower build volume that’s not as deep and not quite as tall as the P1P. The 36mm width and depth difference might just be enough to make a difference for you. The 6mm height difference probably won’t matter.

The Bambu wins in this comparison, but it’s worth noting that Creality recently released a larger K1 Max, which offers a larger 300 x 300 x 300 mm (11.81” x 11.81” x 11.81”) build volume. The K1 Max has the same feature set as the K1, so it’s probably the best choice if you need a larger build volume than what either the regular K1 or P1P offer.

Nozzle/Carbon Fiber Material Compatibility

The Creality K1 is listed as compatible with ABS, PLA, PETG, PET, TPU, PA, ASA and PC, but notably also PLA-CF, PA-CF and PETG-CF. Creality sells hardened nozzles for the K1 separately, and you likely need one of these nozzles to print with carbon fiber filaments.

Conversely, the Bambu Lab P1P doesn’t seem to offer this capability. It’s supplied with a stainless steel nozzle which is a harder material than the standard brass nozzles found on many printers, but Bambu Labs insists that the P1P cannot print carbon fiber filaments of any kind. Since the maximum nozzle temperatures on both printers are identical (300°C), Bambu Lab must not be using hardened components and are concerned about wear. They list PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA and PET as “ideal”, and ABS, ASA, PA and PC as “capable”,with the addition of the side plates discussed previously.

Although carbon fiber is a niche filament type, if you’re interested in printing with it, the Creality K1 is likely a better choice for you.

Maximum Print Speed

The Bambu Lab P1P advertises a maximum print speed of 500mm/s, which matches their flagship X1C, and made it the fastest consumer-level 3D printer at the time of its release. Creality wanted to outdo this and listed the K1 as having a maximum print speed of 600mm/s.

So the K1 is obviously faster than the P1P, right? At these extremely fast speeds, it’s not clear. Vibration compensation and linear advance are both pushed to their maximum limits at these speeds to keep print quality acceptable, and achieving these speeds greatly depends on how well these features can compensate for the challenges of high-speed printing. We’ll also note that you are unlikely to be able to successfully print at these top speeds for every 3D model. For intricate models, the 3D printer won’t be able to attain these speeds, and even on models where the printers can reach those speeds, you may see more print defects. There’s a reason we refer to these as the advertised maximum speed, rather than just the print speed of the machine.

In our opinion, although the K1 and P1P advertise different maximum print speeds, we don’t think this is a meaningful difference that should sway your decision. Both printers offer print speeds far beyond most other 3D printers available, and have the necessary design and firmware features to back it up. You’re unlikely to notice a different in real-world print speed between the K1 and P1P.

Multiple Material Support

One of Bambu Lab’s most interesting features with the P1P is their optional Automatic Material System (AMS). It can select and feed any one of four filament spools to the P1P and switch spools in the middle of a print. Up to four AMS units can work together, meaning as many as sixteen different spools can be selected in each print. Creality’s K1 has no multiple material capabilities at all. However, this is an add-on for the P1P and is not included in the price of the printer.

We haven’t tested the Bambu AMS, but we’ve been a little underwhelmed by previous attempts at this capability, such as the Mosaic Palette, which was a third-party add-on that purported to offer a similar feature. Many multi-material features also require additional steps when slicing and preparing models, which can make printing a more time-consuming process. That said, the Bambu AMS may be more reliable since it’s a manufacturer add-on, and it’s definitely an interesting feature that is only found on the Bambu P1P.

Camera

Bambu Lab includes a 1280 X 720 camera with the P1P, which they describe as “low rate” (0.5 frames per second) but which can create timelapse videos. Creality does not include a camera with the K1, but a 1920 X 1080 “AI camera” is optional, with the AI features yet to be developed.

A camera can be nice for monitoring prints remotely, but is not a necessity. In this category, we’d give the edge to the Bambu P1P, since the camera is included and has the Timelapse feature.

Screen and Controls

The Creality K1 has a 4.3” color touchscreen, which is standard for printers in this price range, but the Bambu P1P has a 2.7” 192 X 64 monochrome display with a directional keypad. The Bambu’s display is definitely a downgrade compared to the K1 and this type of display isn’t typically used in modern 3D printers. This was likely a decision made to help cut costs on the Bambu.

Another possible reason for the Bambu’s simpler display is that they intend users to control the printer from their phone or computer. Both printers do support this function, which we describe in the Connectivity section below.

Software

The Bambu Lab P1P requires the proprietary Windows-only Bambu Studio software for slicing and full control over the printer. Common slicers like Cura are potentially compatible but cannot access some of the P1P’s advanced features such as WiFi printing and the AMS. Also, Bambu Labs’ Gcode for their proprietary firmware is very different from the G-code third party slicers generate, so control may be error-prone.

When Creality released the K1, they similarly tried to promote their Creality Print software, but Cura and other slicers already have basic support for the K1 and the situation is likely to improve rapidly. Creality uses Klipper firmware on the K1, so the Gcode is a standard format that any slicer can generate.

If you want to use third-party slicers such as Cura or PrusaSlicer, the Creality K1 will be more compatible than the Bambu P1P.

Connectivity

While both printers have USB and WiFi, the Bambu P1P has Bluetooth connectivity which connects to the Bambu Handy app on a smartphone. Once set up, the app can control the printer through the cloud over the P1P’s WiFi interface. The Creality K1 can also be controlled over WiFi from a phone or computer, but you’ll need to connect to it through your local WiFi network to control it.

To load gcode without a wireless connection, the P1P has a microSD card slot like most 3D printers, while the K1 has a USB port to allow you to plug in a USB drive. Between those two options, the USB port on the K1 is probably better since you’re more likely to have a USB drive already and can easily plug it into your computer without needing a card reader. However, many 3D printers have a microSD card slot, and we don’t have any concerns about that approach on the P1P.

Verdict

Creality tried to meet or exceed the Bambu Lab P1P’s features with the K1, and wants to offer more value for a lower price. But shortly after the release of the K1, Bambu Lab dropped the price of the P1P to match the K1’s price. So we are left with two very fast, advanced 3D printers at very similar prices.

Creality came out with the K1 quite quickly, given the technologies they had to develop to compete with Bambu. Despite their extensive experience in making 3D printers, the K1’s feature set goes far beyond what they’ve included in past printers such as the Ender 3 series. At release, users have experienced some issues and bugs with the Creality K1, which indicates to us that Creality needs to do more refining of the firmware and other new features on the K1. By comparison, Bambu has been developing the features in the P1P for longer, and seems to have higher quality right now as a result.

One thing that does give us confidence in the long-term success of the K1 is that it’s based on the open-source Klipper firmware. While the firmware in the P1P seems to perform well, it’s proprietary to Bambu and can’t take advantage of any community improvements. Creality is using a customized version of Klipper, so community members can’t directly contribute to it, but Creality can likely incorporate major firmware improvements as the Klipper project progresses. It’s also worth noting that with the release of the Sonic Pad, which also runs Klipper, Creality is rapidly gaining experience with this firmware.

We’re unhappy to see that Bambu is going in the direction of requiring users to slice models with their proprietary Bambu Studio software. While we haven’t necessarily heard any complaints about the software, we always want to have the option to use other slicers, and have often found that a model which does not work well in one slicer may work in another one. In general with 3D printing, we like to have the flexibility to choose the right tools for the job, and Bambu is limiting those options a bit by requiring use of their Studio software. We hope to see third-party slicer support for the P1P in the future.

One major reason to consider the Creality K1 is the enclosure. It’s far superior to the user-printed DIY side panels for the P1P, by offering full coverage and not requiring you to print the panels yourself. If you need to print ABS, you may want to overlook the K1’s first-generation shortcomings and opt for it over the P1P for this reason alone. In response to this, Bambu Labs has just released the Bambu P1S with an enclosure similar to the K1 (and similar to their flagship X1C) but it’s quite a bit more expensive than the K1.

If you need multi-material printing, Creality cannot match the capabilities of Bambu Lab’s Automatic Material System (AMS) add-on. There’s no question you should buy a P1P with an AMS if you want to print with multiple materials at once.

A final consideration would be carbon fiber printing capability. If you want to print carbon fiber, the K1 is capable, but the P1P is not. You could consider the Bambu Lab X1C, but that’s twice the price of the K1 and the P1P and is a different class of machine.

Overall, we feel that the Bambu P1P is currently a better choice over the Creality K1. It’s more polished and has more user run time on its advanced features than the K1, which was clearly designed to counter the P1P. There are a lot of vocal users who enjoy using Bambu’s printers, and the P1P seems to back up its marketing claims with solid performance.

If you want to print temperature-sensitive filament such as ABS or abrasive filament such as carbon fiber, the Creality K1 is the better choice in this price bracket because it includes an enclosure and works with hardened nozzles. To get comparable features on the Bambu, you’d need to step up to the more expensive P1S.

For us, this is a printer category we’re going to be watching closely. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Creality over the past several years, it’s that they are very good at iterating on a design and continually making improvements. The K1 is their first attempt at this type of 3D printer, and some rough edges are visible as they learn how to build printers with this feature set. But we wouldn’t count them out in the long term—when they come out with a revised version of the K1, we expect it to be a significantly improved machine. Until then, the current Creality K1 is still a compelling 3D printer, but has a few gaps compared to the Bambu P1P.

Click here to view the Bambu Labs P1P on Bambu’s site.

Click here to view the Creality K1 on Amazon and Matterhackers.

If you’d like to compare other printers, take a look at our 3D Printer Comparison Tool. This tool lets you view multiple 3D printers side by side to easily compare features.