Bambu Lab P1 (P1P / P1S)
The machine that made fast, reliable FDM feel like an appliance. The P1 series is superb hardware — quick, quiet and dependable — wrapped in a deliberately closed ecosystem. Both things are true at once, and we will say both honestly.
If you want a fast CoreXY printer that just works — high speeds, accurate output, optional multi-colour via the AMS, almost no tuning — the P1P and P1S are among the best value machines you can buy. The trade is openness: the firmware is closed and signed, the mainboard is proprietary, there is no official Klipper, and the smooth experience leans on Bambu's cloud (a LAN-only mode exists). The one genuinely open part is the slicer — Bambu Studio is open-source and the printer works with OrcaSlicer. Excellent appliance; modest on freedom.
What it is
The P1 series is Bambu Lab's mainstream CoreXY FDM printer, sold in two trims: the open-framed P1P and the enclosed P1S. Both share the same core machine — a rigid CoreXY motion system with a roughly 256 × 256 × 256 mm build volume, a direct-drive hotend, automatic bed-mesh levelling and resonance compensation tuned in firmware. The P1S adds an enclosure and improved cooling, which makes higher-temperature materials like ABS and ASA far more practical.
Where the Ender 3 V2 is a kit you tune by feel, the P1 is an appliance you switch on. It self-calibrates, prints fast, and produces clean output with little intervention. The headline option is the AMS (Automatic Material System), a four-spool unit that adds multi-colour and multi-material printing by swapping filament between objects or layers. For most people the P1 is the closest FDM has come to "press print and walk away".
Openness
On our scorecard the P1 is a mixed picture — strong in one place, closed in most. We score machines on openness, so this is the heart of the review.
- Firmware — closed and signed. The P1 runs Bambu's proprietary firmware. It is not open-source, updates are signed, and you do not flash your own build. You take the firmware Bambu ships and the features it chooses to expose.
- Mainboard — proprietary. The controller is a custom Bambu board with no published pinout aimed at third-party firmware. It is not a documented, community-targetable platform the way a standard STM32 board is, so you cannot simply repurpose it.
- Klipper — not officially supported. Bambu does not support running Klipper on the P1. The machine already uses firmware-side input shaping and pressure advance for its speed, but that is Bambu's closed implementation — you do not get the open Klipper stack or its configurability. Community experiments exist and come with real caveats; treat the P1 as a non-Klipper machine.
- Slicer — open, and the bright spot. This is where the P1 genuinely earns marks. Bambu Studio is open-source, and the printer is fully usable from OrcaSlicer — itself a popular open fork. You are not locked to a closed slicer or forced through a vendor account just to slice a model.
- Ecosystem — cloud-leaning, with a LAN escape hatch. Out of the box the smooth experience — remote monitoring, the handy app, cloud print sending — runs through Bambu's cloud. You can run the printer in LAN-only mode, and Bambu exposes a Developer Mode / LAN mode for local control, but choosing local can mean giving up some convenience features. The default points at the cloud.
- Repairability and parts — proprietary. Many key components are Bambu-specific: hotends, the toolhead, and AMS parts are bought from Bambu rather than as commodity spares. When something wears, the path is usually a Bambu replacement part, not a generic one off the shelf.
Read fairly, the P1 is a walled garden with one open gate. The hardware is excellent and the slicer is genuinely open; the firmware, board, control stack and spares are not. If owning the whole stack matters to you, that is the honest cost.
AI tooling
This is where it is easy to overstate the P1, so we will be precise. The P1 series includes a built-in camera for remote monitoring and time-lapses through Bambu's app, and the system can flag some common issues. That is useful, but it is a monitoring camera, not the full inspection suite.
The more advanced AI features people associate with Bambu live mostly on the pricier X1 series, not the P1. The X1 adds a lidar sensor and a higher-grade AI camera used for first-layer inspection, flow calibration and spaghetti / failure detection. The P1's camera is lower resolution and its on-device AI inspection is more limited by comparison. If AI-assisted first-layer scanning and detailed failure detection are the reason you are buying, the X1 — not the P1 — is the machine that actually delivers them.
Where it wins
- Speed, out of the box. The CoreXY frame plus firmware input shaping means genuinely fast prints with no tuning. This is the P1's headline strength.
- Reliability and ease. Automatic bed mesh, self-calibration and sane defaults make first-print success the norm rather than a milestone. It behaves like an appliance.
- Multi-colour via the AMS. The optional AMS turns it into a clean four-colour / multi-material machine — one of the easiest multi-colour experiences in desktop FDM.
- An open slicer. Bambu Studio is open-source and OrcaSlicer works, so your slicing workflow is not held hostage even though the machine is.
- Quiet and tidy. Low noise and a clean footprint make it comfortable to live with on a desk, especially the enclosed P1S.
Where it's locked down
- Closed, signed firmware. No flashing your own build, no open firmware path. You are inside Bambu's feature set.
- No official Klipper. The open control stack that defines moddable printing is not an option Bambu supports here.
- Cloud dependence by default. The frictionless experience assumes Bambu's cloud; LAN-only mode exists but trades away some convenience.
- Proprietary parts. Hotends, toolhead and AMS components are Bambu-specific rather than commodity, so repairs route through the vendor.
- Proprietary mainboard. The controller is not a documented, community-targetable platform, so you cannot repurpose the electronics.
Who it's for
Makers, engineers and shops who want fast, dependable, low-effort output — and who are happy to trade openness for that polish. If you value time-to-print and multi-colour convenience over owning the firmware and electronics, the P1P or P1S is one of the best buys in desktop FDM. If you want to flash firmware, run Klipper, keep everything off a vendor cloud and fix the machine with commodity parts, an open platform like the Ender 3 V2 fits the spirit of this site better — at the cost of the speed and ease the Bambu gives you. Many workshops, reasonably, keep one of each.
Specs & links
- Build volume: approximately 256 × 256 × 256 mm.
- Kinematics: CoreXY, direct-drive extruder; firmware input shaping and pressure advance.
- Trims: P1P (open frame) and P1S (enclosed, improved cooling for ABS / ASA).
- Firmware: proprietary, closed and signed — no user flashing; Klipper not officially supported.
- Mainboard: proprietary Bambu controller.
- Multi-material: optional AMS — up to four spools for multi-colour / multi-material.
- Camera / AI: built-in monitoring camera and time-lapse; advanced lidar / AI inspection is an X1-series feature, not the P1.
- Connectivity: cloud-connected by default; LAN-only and Developer Mode available.
- Slicers: Bambu Studio (open-source) and OrcaSlicer.
- Product page: bambulab.com.