Bambu Lab P2S Review

What this machine is for

The P1S it replaces was the default answer to “I want an enclosure and I do not want to spend flagship money.” The P2S keeps that position and rebuilds the parts of the machine that limited it, which is a more interesting product than a price cut.

Everything below is read from Bambu Lab’s own published specification table. We have not printed on this machine and we say so on every page that recommends one.

The specification, and what each figure means for you

256 × 256 × 256 mm. Unchanged from the P1S, and unchanged from the A1. If you were hoping the new model got bigger, it did not — Bambu Lab put the extra volume in a different machine.

110 °C plate, up from 100 °C. The single most useful number here. Bed temperature is what keeps a large part stuck down for the hours it takes to print, and it is the quiet limiter on ABS and ASA work. Ten degrees sounds like rounding and is not.

600 mm/s head and 20,000 mm/s² acceleration. The speed is up from the P1S’s 500 mm/s; the acceleration is the same. Acceleration is the figure that actually decides print time on real geometry, so treat the headline speed increase as smaller than it looks — a point we work through on how long a print takes.

A rated 40 mm3/s flow. This is the number that matters if you print large, chunky parts: it is how much plastic the hot end can actually deliver per second. A fast head with a slow hot end is a machine that cannot use its own speed.

The Adaptive Airflow System. Bambu Lab’s own framing is the useful one: the system draws cool air from outside the chamber rather than recirculating hot air, so low-temperature filaments can be printed with the door closed. On earlier enclosed machines the standard advice was to prop the door open for PLA, which defeats the filter and the noise containment. This fixes a real annoyance.

A 50 °C chamber and a carbon filter. The chamber is flap-controlled and the filter is rated for VOC and particulate filtration. Together they are what makes ABS in a room with a person in it a reasonable proposition rather than a tolerated one.

The PMSM servo extruder, at 8.5 kg of force. Bambu Lab publishes 70 percent more extrusion force than its predecessor and says the servo architecture samples resistance and position at 20 kHz to detect grinding and clogs in real time. Whether that translates into fewer failed prints is exactly the sort of thing we cannot verify from a specification sheet.

392 × 406 × 478 mm, 14.9 kg, 1000 W at 110 V. Heavier than the P1S and thirstier while the plate heats. Put it on a shelf that does not flex and think about which circuit it shares.

Setup: what is automated

Bambu Lab documents print calibration on the P2S as motor noise cancellation, vibration compensation, auto bed leveling, high-temperature bed leveling and nozzle offset calibration, and states that a faster leveling pass can run before each print job.

The high-temperature bed leveling is worth calling out separately: a plate that is flat at room temperature is not necessarily flat at 100 °C, and a machine that measures it hot is measuring the condition the print actually happens in. If those terms are new, our bed leveling and Z-offset page explains both in plain language.

What it does not fix

Multi-color is still a separate purchase. The AMS 2 Pro is sold on its own or in a Combo bundle. It still cuts and purges filament at every color change, so it still costs plastic and time. Our advice has not changed with the new model: buy the base machine and add color in month three.

It is not easier than an A1. Nothing about an enclosure makes a first print more likely to succeed. It makes different prints possible. Those are not the same sentence, and the gap between them is where most over-buying happens.

It does not print bigger. 256 mm cubed, as before.

What it costs to run

Bambu Lab publishes 1000 W at 110 V as the maximum draw and 200 W as the steady state while printing PLA. That gap matters: the big number is what the plate pulls while it heats, for a few minutes, and the small number is what the machine actually sits at for the rest of the print.

Use the steady-state figure and the arithmetic is undramatic. An eight-hour print at 200 W is 1.6 kWh, which is pennies rather than pounds at any residential rate. We show the full calculation with its inputs, including where our electricity rate comes from, on what your first month actually costs. Filament remains the running cost of this hobby; electricity does not come close.

The 1000 W peak is still worth knowing for one practical reason: it is enough to matter on a circuit already carrying a space heater or a kettle. Think about which outlet it lives on before you plug it in.

The first week on an enclosed machine

Two things surprise people moving from an open frame, and neither is a fault.

PLA behaves slightly differently inside a box. PLA prefers to be cooled quickly, and a warm chamber works against that. On earlier enclosed machines the standard workaround was to prop the door open, which defeats the filter and the noise containment. The P2S’s airflow system is Bambu Lab’s answer to exactly this — it draws cool air from outside the chamber so the door can stay shut. If your first PLA prints look softer than you expected, check the cooling mode before you change anything else.

The filter is a consumable. An activated carbon filter saturates. It is not a fit-and-forget component, and a filter that has stopped adsorbing is doing nothing for the smell you bought it to manage. Treat it as a periodic replacement, like a nozzle.

Who should buy the P1S instead

Anyone whose reason for being here is simply “I want an enclosure.” The P1S gives you the same 256 mm cubed, the same automated setup and the same AMS ecosystem for less, and Bambu Lab still lists it new alongside factory refurbished units carrying, in its own words, the same warranty as new. We take that comparison apart on the P1S review and in the Bambu Lab lineup guide.

The reasons to pay the difference are specific: you want the hotter plate for large engineering parts, you want to print PLA with the door shut, or you want the machine you will still be using in five years. If none of those is a yes, the older model is the better buy while it is stocked.

Who should skip both

Anyone who cannot yet name a project that needs ABS, ASA or a fiber-filled filament, and whose printer will not live in a bedroom. An enclosure is money spent on a capability you will not use this year. Buy an A1 mini, spend the difference on filament, and come back when a project demands the box — the enclosed roundup will still be here.

What to buy with it

PLA for the first month regardless of why you bought it. When you do move up, the PETG page covers the sensible second material and PETG against ABS covers the step this machine actually unlocks. Read where to put your 3D printer before the box arrives; at 14.9 kg this is not a machine you reposition casually.