Bambu Lab P1S Review 2026: Still the Best Enclosed CoreXY?

The Bambu Lab P1S has been the default answer to “which enclosed 3D printer should I buy” since it launched in 2023, and despite newer siblings crowding the lineup — the P2S, the H-series, the X2D — it’s still the printer this site points most buyers toward when they’ve outgrown an open-frame machine like the A1. It shows up constantly in our comparisons against the Creality K1, the X2D, and the A1, but has never had its own dedicated review. Here’s the full picture: real specs, what the AMS 2 Pro Combo actually costs, and when it’s the right printer versus overkill or underpowered.

Bambu Lab P1S by the numbers

• 256 × 256 × 256 mm — the P1S’s build volume per Bambu Lab, identical to the A1’s, giving roughly 16.7 liters of usable print space for most hobby and small-business parts.
• 500 mm/s, 20,000 mm/s² — the P1S’s rated top speed and acceleration per Bambu Lab, enough to print a standard Benchy test model in about 18 minutes according to Bambu’s own benchmarking.
• 300°C — the max hotend temperature on the P1S’s all-metal nozzle per Bambu Lab, the figure that lets it run ABS, ASA, PC, and PETG reliably, not just PLA.
• $699 / $650-$750 — the P1S’s US MSRP solo and the street price of the Combo bundle with one AMS 2 Pro unit, per Bambu Lab and current retailer listings; solo pricing commonly drops to $399-$499 during sales per third-party pricing trackers.
• Up to 16 colors — the ceiling when chaining four AMS 2 Pro units, versus the A1’s AMS lite, which supports exactly one unit and four colors, per Bambu Lab’s spec pages for both systems.

P1S vs A1 vs P2S at a glance

The 30-second verdict

Buy the P1S if you need an enclosed chamber and don’t want to overspend. It’s the cheapest way into reliable ABS/ASA printing in the Bambu Lab lineup, it shares the A1’s proven auto-calibration and 500 mm/s speed rating, and sale pricing regularly puts it within $100-$150 of the open-frame A1 Combo.

Buy the Combo if multi-color matters. The AMS 2 Pro is the more capable system in Bambu Lab’s lineup — it chains up to four units for 16 colors, versus the A1’s single-unit, four-color AMS lite — and the Combo bundle’s discount often shrinks the price gap over solo units.

Skip the P1S only if you’re certain you’ll never print ABS/ASA (the A1 is $300 cheaper and just as good on PLA/PETG/TPU), or print speed is a genuine bottleneck for your workflow (the P2S’s 600 mm/s toolhead and quick-swap hotend are worth the premium — see our P2S review).

What you get: the passive enclosure advantage

The P1S’s defining feature versus the A1 is its frame: a fully enclosed chassis that traps ambient heat from the print bed and hotend. It’s a passive system — there’s no dedicated heating element for the chamber air — but that trapped heat is enough to keep ABS and ASA from warping or delaminating during a normal print, which open-frame printers can’t reliably do. Combined with the all-metal hotend’s 300°C ceiling per Bambu Lab, the P1S handles the full range of common hobby and small-business filaments: PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, ASA, and PET.

Everything else that made the A1 easy to use carries over unchanged: full auto-calibration on every print (bed leveling, flow rate, vibration compensation), a textured PEI build plate, an integrated monitoring camera, and the same Bambu Handy app for remote control. The enclosure adds a modest amount of noise dampening too, though Bambu Lab doesn’t publish a separate dB rating for it.

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The AMS 2 Pro Combo: what it actually costs

The P1S Combo bundles one AMS 2 Pro unit, Bambu Lab’s full multi-material system, which feeds up to four spools and switches between them automatically mid-print. Unlike the A1’s AMS lite, the AMS 2 Pro can be chained — up to four units connected together push the color ceiling to 16, and each additional unit typically runs $200-$250 per current retailer pricing.

Solo P1S pricing at $699 MSRP against a $650-$750 street price for the Combo means the AMS 2 Pro premium is often smaller in practice than the list-price math suggests, especially when Bambu Lab runs a sale on the bundle specifically. Worth checking current pricing before assuming you’re stuck paying full freight for the AMS — the gap between solo and Combo shifts more than most spec comparisons account for.

When to step up: P2S and X2D

The P1S isn’t the ceiling of Bambu Lab’s enclosed lineup. The P2S shares the same 256×256×256 mm build volume and passive enclosure but adds a faster 600 mm/s toolhead and a 30-second quick-swap hotend system — worth it if print speed is a genuine bottleneck, not just a nice-to-have. The X2D goes further still: a second auxiliary nozzle for supports or a secondary material without an AMS, a true active 65°C heated chamber, and dual AI monitoring cameras — the right call for engineering nylon or carbon-fiber composites that need consistent chamber heat, which the P1S’s passive enclosure can’t hold. See our X2D vs P1S comparison and Bambu Lab P2S review for the full breakdown of when those upgrades pay off.

For the large majority of hobbyists and small-business makers printing PLA, PETG, ABS, and ASA at normal speeds, none of that extra spend is necessary — the P1S covers it.

Price and value in 2026

At $699 MSRP and $399-$499 during sales, the P1S sits in a clear middle tier: it’s a $300 step up from the A1 that buys a genuinely different capability (enclosed ABS/ASA printing), not just incremental polish. Against enclosed rivals like the Creality K1 — cheaper at $299-339 street but capped at open-frame-adjacent reliability without AMS-level multi-color — the P1S wins on out-of-the-box consistency and ecosystem maturity, as covered in our Creality K1 vs Bambu P1S comparison. Three years since launch, the P1S has also aged well operationally: firmware updates keep coming, and its quick-swap nozzle system keeps routine maintenance simple.

Bottom line

The Bambu Lab P1S remains the printer we point most buyers toward once they need an enclosure. Get the Combo if multi-color appeals to you, the solo P1S if you’re certain it doesn’t, and only look past it toward the P2S or X2D if speed or active chamber heating are genuine requirements — not just nice-to-haves.

Related guides

• Best 3D printers of 2026 — where the P1S ranks against every class of printer.
• Best enclosed 3D printer — the full enclosed-CoreXY roundup, P1S included.
• Bambu Lab A1 review — the cheaper open-frame sibling.
• Bambu Lab A1 vs P1S — should you stick with open-frame or step up?
• Bambu Lab P2S review — the faster, pricier step up from the P1S.
• Bambu Lab P2S vs H2S — where the P2S sits against the H-series.
• X2D vs P1S — when active chamber heating and dual nozzles justify the jump.
• Creality K1 vs Bambu P1S — the P1S against its cheapest serious enclosed rival.
• Best multi-color 3D printer — AMS lite vs AMS 2 Pro vs Creality CFS, compared.
• Best ABS filament — the spools we’d feed a P1S first.
• Best 3D printer for engineering — where the P1S’s material range fits.