R QIDI TECHNOLOGY X-Smart 3D Printer, Intelligent Printer with 3.5 Inch Touchscreen, Fully Metal Structure 6.3x5.9x5.9 Inch

Disclaimer: I also wrote a review for the Shadow 5.5s which looks a lot like this one. That's because both printers are stress-free. I never have to fiddle with them.This printer really is just the best value you can get. I'm a mechanical engineer and have been printing for 10 years now. I picked this printer up a few months ago and couldn't be happier. The gist of it is: This printer works 100% of the time. You don't have to fiddle with anything, you don't have to constantly level the bed, you don't have to scrape prints off. You turn the printer on, load your file, hit go, and walk away knowing the print will complete as planned.You can go ahead and buy one of the kit printers or the prusa i3 cheapos for $180, but you'll end up spending tens- or hundreds of hours fiddling with it to get it to print nicely. You'll by more attachments or fixes to get it running. This thing, for a little more than $100 extra, gets you 10x the value. It just works. You don't have to fiddle around with it ever - level the bed the first time around, click go and watch it run.First, the documentation and support is amazing. The book that comes with the printer (also on the included USB) has high-quality color pictures showing you exactly how to set up and maintain the printer. The company stands by their stuff - they put their after-sales support info on the printer, in the LCD menu, and on the setup booklet. If you need something, they want you to call. I've had an earlier QIDI Tech One and had to replace the nozzle within the first month due to an issue. I called them and they sent a full hotend assembly to me within a week. Super helpful customer service, not that you should need it. I've done hundreds of hours of printing so far and I haven't had any issues at all. I bought the QIDI Tech One for a professional environment where it ran for 4 years daily. The thing still runs great with absolutely no modifications or replacement parts (beyond the initial nozzle).The features:- The magnetic bed is amazing. You pop the bed off super easy, bend it, and the print comes right off. It takes less than 30 seconds as opposed to other printers where you scrape for a few minutes to remove the print. (NOTE: if anyone is having issues getting thin support material off, just heat the bed to about 70degC which passes the glass transition temp of PLA and allows you to easily peel it off).- The LCD menu is super easy to use. Very intuitive, and when you go to print it even shows you a thumbnail of your print so you can be extra sure you're printing the right one.- Breakpoint printing is the best. if you have to pause the print or have a power outage, this printer saves yourprogress!- The bed is nice and rigid, so it stays level. I have NOT HAD TO LEVEL this printer since the first time. It prints correctly 100% of the time.I have no cons. I really couldn't recommend this printer, and QIDI as a brand (just bought the resin printer Shadow 5.5s a few months ago and it also works fantastic) enough. 5+ stars.

I've been putting off writing this review for some time but felt the need after having a minor issue this weekend that Qidi tech support helped me fix very quickly (turns out I had caused the vertical positioning of the bed to get a wee bit out of whack when changing filaments- it reset itself during auto home). I've been 3d printing for a year and a half now and quickly went from 1 printer to 5. Two of these are Qidi X-Smarts (the first one is an older red/blue generation version). I can tell you that they are the most reliable and overall best printing machines I own.So what do I need 5 machines for? I'm a game designer and gaming components designer outside of my day job... I'm talking table top games, and yes with that miniatures... probably like 70% of the 3d print hobby market. Its important that I make prototype prints of the stuff I design and sell the files of so I will know what is working and what doesn't. I can tell you that overall the Qidis give me the least amount of headaches. Sometimes the very fine details are a bit harder to get but usually this is just a combination of the filament I'm using and the settings in the slicer. Qidi has its own slicer that is very similar to Cura and there are constant updates.I'm giving these a five star rating but I'm going to tell you both the pros and the cons.. yes, even with 5 stars there are cons but it is less the machine and more that could be done to promote the growth of Qidi products. (I can't blame the machine itself and will not do so)Pros-No assembly... its straight out of the box. Just be careful and pay attention to the unpacking instructions to avoid breaking something or giving yourself a headache. Other than that its easy as it can be.Easy to use... has a nice screen that gives you more options and there's less "rolling through" things (with the control knob( like I have to do with my Ender 3 and Ender 5. Having a digital image of the part on the screen is also nice... not needed, but nice. The plate leveling (making sure that your image is printed on a "leveled" surface) is a breeze. Again, no rolling knob... the Qidi X-Smarts have a touch screen display.Durable Boxy Design- with most 3d printers at this budget you have a somewhat fragile scary design- basically bare bones with wires and motherboards exposed. Something that can easily get broken. The Qidi are housed in a durable boxy frame. By the way with the handles this technically makes them somewhat portable (I don't recommend hauling your 3d printer around in your vehicle all the time, but if you had to this would be one to do it with- though they are a bit heavy).Great Tech Support- They are actually very nice and will walk you through problems with videos. Send them videos of your issues if you can as it makes for easier explanation of the problem should you have problems.Very Few Problems- I've only had two major problems with my Qidis. On my first one I was pulling out some filament I was removing and a piece broke off and lodged itself down in the extruder housing. Not the X-Smart unit's fault... my fault... still it led to me taking apart the housing. Fortunately for some reason or another I was given a free extruder housing when I had ordered other parts so I was able to simply (it was pretty simple) replace the current housing- I still put it back together to save for later use. The second happened this weekend... I was getting a bad knocking issue that prevented printing and they led me through a test... the unit, literally, I swear... fixed itself during the testing phase. You can't complain when the machine literally fixes itself.Price- They're $328 right now. I've considered buying a 3rd at that price. Yeah, you can get a lot of popular hobby printers for $100 less but you have to put those together, and these in my opinion simply work better.Not Filament Picky- Granted I only print in PLA (and I know it does at least ABS and I think a few others), but there's no issues with who's brand of filament you use (I don't recommend 3d Solutech anymore though because all my headaches with my Qidis have been when I was using that stuff). I've used Hatchbox and Stronghero3d a lot plus several other brands. The only one I must warn you about is ESun- it will use ESun but the spool holes on that brand of filament are too small for the attachable spool holder on the back of these machines. Use an external spool holder if you are a die hard ESun user.Cons- Yes, I'm going to be honest as there are some negative aspects. Fortunately they have nothing to do with the printer but rather a limited amount of exposure of the company in the United States.Exposure and Presentation- I would honestly sing the praises about Qidi 3d printers from the roof tops and I have encouraged my friends to do so. However, its a tough market as far as advertising over much louder voices. Ender 3 is heavily supported in the hobby industry- with everyone considering it a standard (so much I had to get one just to see how my print designs were coming out on this industry standard). I totally support Qidi but its supporting a company that a lot of 3d print hobbyists (and newcomers) haven't heard of. I discovered Qidi after a careful comparison of printers I was looking at buying and liked its look and features the best. It was a wise decision on my part.My suggestions to solve this.... updated website is #1. The website feels a bit bare bones and could use some updates. Regular restocking of Amazon... especially parts and accessories is my second (see below). And, of course, more interaction with social media (granted I'm usually just on FB so I may be a bit off here).Make Ordering of Parts and Accessories Easier To Find- The magnetic surface pads (which are awesome, btw) are one thing that you may often look for, but there's other stuff as well. After market brass nozzle heads were a bit hard to find at first but I found some as well as the correct bowden tubing (which I've only had to replace once as well as the nozzle... yep, the printers are that good... and I have to blame 3d Solutech for when I did have to replace the nozzle.) I'd like to see a more steady and easier to find selection of other parts, like Extruder housings (for when I do mess one up again), etc.Promote X-Smart A Bit More: The unit I bought feels a bit like the unwanted step child at times. Qidi promotes their other models (both lesser and more expensive) more on their pages, website, etc. X-Smart, the units I have and love, not as much. Hey, they are great economical machines... promote these! :DOptional Cura/Other Slicer Settings: In all honesty the native Qidi Slicer is all you need if you know what you are doing. Some folks, however, prefer to use the current version of Cura, Simplify 3d, etc. for their slicer. Finding these settings for a Qidi unit- especially the often not talked about X-Smart, is like finding a needle in a haystack. Having the settings for these available on the website and such would be a help.Finally- again- promotion! Honestly I can't say that enough.