Bambu Lab P1S vs P2S

We have not printed on either machine. Every figure below is from Bambu Lab’s own published specifications for each model, and the interesting part of this comparison is how much of the spec sheet is simply identical.

What is the same

Worth establishing first, because it is most of the machine and it is the reason the honest answer leans toward the cheaper one.

Build volume: 256 x 256 x 256 mm on both. Not a millimeter of difference. If you were hoping the newer machine prints bigger things, it does not.

Max nozzle temperature: 300 °C on both. The ceiling that decides which materials are possible is unchanged. Both are rated for ABS and ASA; neither reaches comfortably into PC and PA territory.

Max acceleration: 20,000 mm/s2 on both. On real models with small features, acceleration governs print time far more than top speed does — a printer spends most of its time speeding up and slowing down rather than at maximum velocity. The two are level here.

Both are enclosed CoreXY machines with activated carbon filtration, both calibrate themselves, and both take the same 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm nozzles.

What the P2S actually adds

The bed temperature difference is more useful than it looks

If you never print ABS or ASA, those ten degrees do nothing for you. PLA wants a bed in the 35-60 °C range and PETG somewhere around 60-70 °C, both far below either machine’s ceiling. Our ABS roundup covers what those materials actually demand, and it is worth reading before paying for the capability.

The power draw, and what it costs to run

This is the difference nobody mentions and the one we would want to know. Bambu publishes 350 W at 110 V for the P1S and 1000 W at 110 V for the P2S — the P2S draws nearly three times as much at peak.

Two things to keep in proportion. First, these are peak figures drawn mainly while the bed and chamber heat up, not a constant load, so treating them as continuous overstates the cost. Second, even overstated, the numbers are small: our setup cost page works this out from published wattage against the current published US residential electricity rate, with the arithmetic shown so you can substitute your own. A 350 W machine run eight hours a day for a month lands around a few dollars; a 1000 W machine treated the same way lands near fifteen.

So it is not a reason to avoid the P2S. It is a reason not to buy one for capability you will not use, and it is worth knowing if the printer shares a circuit with anything else.

The AMS difference is the strongest argument for the P2S

Both machines take a separately sold multi-color unit. The P1S’s AMS feeds four colors. The P2S’s AMS 2 Pro feeds four colors and dries the filament while it feeds.

That matters more than it sounds. Damp filament is the most misdiagnosed fault in this hobby — it produces popping, stringing, rough surfaces and weak layers, all of which look like the printer failing. Our storage and drying guide covers the problem and our dryer roundup covers what solving it separately costs. If you were going to buy a dryer anyway, the AMS 2 Pro folds that purchase into the printer.

The honest counterpoint: multi-color printing purges filament at every color change, so it wastes plastic regardless of which unit you own. Our guide to printing in multiple colors explains the mechanism before you commit.

Who should buy which

Buy the P1S if you print PLA and PETG, you want an enclosure mainly for dust, noise and draft-proofing, and you would rather put the difference toward filament. It is the cheapest route into a properly enclosed CoreXY machine and it remains our pick in the enclosed printer roundup. Our full P1S review has the detail.

Buy the P2S if ABS or ASA is a real plan rather than a maybe, if you want VOC filtration because the printer lives in a room you use, or if you were going to buy both a multi-color unit and a filament dryer. Our P2S review covers it on its own terms.

Buy neither if this is your first printer and you are not sure what you want to make. An open-frame A1 prints the same PLA models for substantially less, and the A1 versus P1S comparison is the decision most first-time buyers are actually facing.

The honest downsides of each

P1S. The 100 °C bed has no headroom for ABS. The supplied nozzle is all-metal rather than hardened steel, so carbon-fiber blends will wear it. Filtration is plain activated carbon with no VOC rating published. And the AMS does not dry filament.

P2S. It costs meaningfully more for a machine with an identical build volume and nozzle ceiling. It draws nearly three times the peak power. It is 2 kg heavier and slightly larger in every dimension. And Bambu publishes no noise figure for either machine, which is a real gap on an enclosed printer running chamber fans — Anycubic publishes decibel figures for its competing machine, as we noted in Anycubic versus Bambu Lab.

What we cannot tell you

How much quieter or louder one is than the other, because Bambu publishes no decibel figure for either. Whether the P2S’s 600 mm/s is usable on real geometry when its acceleration is identical to the P1S’s. And how much filament the AMS 2 Pro purges per color change compared with the original AMS. All three would need the machines in hand.