FlashForge AD5X Review 2026: The $399 Multi-Color Printer's Purge-Waste Problem

FlashForge built its own answer to the AMS-style color box directly into the toolhead instead of bolting one on the side, and priced the whole printer under $400. The AD5X has gone unmentioned on this site until now, despite being one of the cheapest ways to add multi-color printing to a CoreXY machine — here’s what that internal Intelligent Filament System actually costs you in practice.

FlashForge’s Adventurer line already has a dedicated 5M review on this site; the AD5X is a different, cheaper machine built around one specific idea — ditch the external AMS box and do color-switching inside the toolhead itself. Here’s whether that trade-off is worth it.

AD5X by the numbers

• $399 MSRP, often $319-349 on sale — FlashForge’s AD5X launched at $399 (per All3DP’s own coverage of the launch), and has been repeatedly discounted to $319-349 at mainstream US retailers since, per TechRadar and retail price trackers — among the cheapest built-in multi-color printers sold today.
• 1.75 kg of TPU purged for a 150-gram print — the documented worst case from 3dprint.com’s own testing: over 15 purge cycles in a single layer of a multi-color Flexi-Rex, roughly 11 times the finished part’s weight, attributed to a firmware misread of the purge sequence specific to TPU.
• 300 mm/s real print speed vs. a 600 mm/s advertised figure — 3dprint.com’s testing found the 600 mm/s number is a travel speed, not a sustained print speed; the printer reliably held 300 mm/s print speeds, and only after dropping to a 0.1 mm layer height.
• 220×220×220 mm build volume, 300°C nozzle, 110°C bed — a compact CoreXY footprint, with enough nozzle headroom for PLA, PETG, and TPU but not the engineering composites that need an active chamber.
• No camera or enclosure standard — per Tom’s Hardware’s review, both are separate accessories, despite some retailer listings describing the AD5X as fully enclosed with built-in monitoring.

AD5X vs the budget multi-color field at a glance

The AD5X’s pitch is simple: it’s the only printer in this table with multi-color built directly into the machine rather than as an external unit you buy and mount separately, and it undercuts even the budget Kobra 3 + ACE Pro combo on price. What it gives up is the enclosed chamber and standard camera that the pricier options include.

The 30-second verdict

Buy the AD5X if price is the only thing that matters. At $319-349, it’s the cheapest way to get built-in four-color printing on a CoreXY machine, and it handles PLA and PETG without the purge-waste issue reviewers flagged specifically on multi-color TPU.

Budget extra filament if you’re printing multi-color TPU. The documented 11x-waste case was tied to a firmware bug in the purge sequence on flexible filament specifically — treat it as a known risk to test carefully on a small print first, not a reason to avoid the printer for standard PLA/PETG work.

Skip it if you need a camera or enclosure out of the box. Both are separate purchases on the AD5X; the Bambu Lab P1S or a camera-equipped machine from our best 3D printer camera guide cover that need directly.

Stocking filament and parts for a shop? A free Amazon Business account unlocks quantity discounts and tax-exempt purchasing on spools, spare nozzles, and build plates.

Why the IFS trades one kind of waste for another

Every single-nozzle multi-color system — Bambu’s AMS, Creality’s CFS, Anycubic’s ACE Pro, or FlashForge’s IFS — purges the old filament out of the nozzle before the new color can print clean. This site’s own multi-color 3D printer guide cites Eolas Prints and community testing putting that waste at roughly 15-25% of total filament on a typical multi-color print, regardless of brand. The AD5X’s IFS doesn’t change that core mechanic — it just builds the spool holders into the toolhead instead of an external box, which is why FlashForge can sell the whole machine for less than a competitor’s printer-plus-AMS combo. The firmware-related TPU case 3dprint.com documented is a separate, material-specific bug on top of that normal waste rate, not the baseline you should expect on PLA or PETG.

AD5X vs Bambu Lab A1 mini + AMS Lite

Both put four-color printing within reach of a first-time buyer, but they solve it differently. The A1 mini’s AMS Lite is a mature, widely-reviewed external unit with a strong reliability track record; the AD5X folds the same basic idea into the printer itself at a lower combined price ($319-349 vs. roughly $449 for an A1 mini plus AMS Lite). The trade is unproven firmware on edge cases like multi-color TPU, and no standard camera or enclosure. If this is your first multi-color printer and you want the safer bet, the A1 mini combo is it; if $100+ in savings matters more than ecosystem polish, the AD5X delivers the same core feature for less.

Bottom line

The FlashForge AD5X is a genuine budget-category first: built-in four-color printing for less than most competitors’ bare single-color enclosed printers. Buy it if you want to try multi-color printing without paying for a separate AMS-style unit, and stick to PLA/PETG until FlashForge’s firmware updates settle the documented TPU purge issue. Buy the Bambu Lab A1 mini + AMS Lite instead if you want a more proven multi-color system and don’t mind paying the premium, or the Bambu Lab P1S if you need an enclosed chamber and standard camera as well.

Related guides

• Best multi-color 3D printer — how the AD5X’s built-in IFS compares to AMS, CFS, and ACE Pro systems on cost and purge waste.
• FlashForge Adventurer 5M review — FlashForge’s single-color sibling, for buyers who don’t need multi-color at all.
• Best budget 3D printer — where the AD5X’s $319-349 street price fits against other sub-$400 picks.