The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo enters the market of 3D printing with faster speeds, quality of life additions and multi-colour printing options. Expanding Anycubic’s already wide range of products tailored for everyone’s needs. Anycubic offers something for everyone, from hobbyists starting with FDM printers to 3D sculptors who want to bring their creations to life with a high quality resin printer. The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo provides the ultimate starter package, with everything an FDM printing enthusiast needs
TL;DR
The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo is the all-in-one starter bundle that has everything you need to get into the hobby. The ACE Pro offers the option for multi-colour prints while also functioning as a dryer for your filament, resulting in the best print quality you can get. The Kobra 3 has many quality of life features, making printing even easier.
An intimidating presence – The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo
When you look at the FDM printer market, it/s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the options and the potential costs. Anycubic’s solution was to offer a package for a reasonable price with everything you might need to get started. Plus, they give you the flexibility to expand with a wide range of add-ons.
Printers Assemble!
Now if you are wondering what makes this Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo so special it’s that it gives you options. It’s easy to use and allows you to print multi-colour prints while ensuring the best results. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and see what you get in the Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo bundle.
- The NEW Anycubic Kobra 3 FDM printer.
- The NEW Anycubic ACE Pro for multi-colour prints, filament backup and drying your filament.
- All required tools to build and maintain the Kobra 3.
Unpacking and setting up the Anycubic Kobra 3 is a breeze with its clear instructions and solid build. The ACE came as is and requires minimal prep aside from a smooth protection film peel. We also want to add that the padding in the box was sturdy and thick, so thick your delivery guy could throw it through your front window and it would still print as intended.
Putting the whole bundle together took us about twenty minutes, granted that the Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo isn’t our first run at assembling 3D printers. So we have some knowledge and know-how where things are supposed to go and fit. After adjusting the bed so that it was stable, checking the tension of the belts and feeding tubes, it was time to flick the switch.
The Software that makes it hard.
After setting up the beautiful Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo, its time to boot up the printer and get things started. That is also when it started going downhill for us, the QR code that is supposed to forward you to the Anycubic app was totally broken on IOS. It was leading to nowhere on our phone while still continuing the ‘first start’ setup for the Anycubic Kobra 3.
The Anycubic Kobra 3 automatically starts levelling the bed and a vibration check, prompting clear instructions on the screen on what it was doing next. Five minutes later it was time to play, we figured out we just get the Anycubic app from the App Store, made an account and would add the Anycubic Kobra 3 after it was done. Indeed, in the printer menu, you can add your printer through a QR code or even via Bluetooth.
Printer identity crisis
But that’s when things got weird. After adding the Kobra 3 to the app, it registered it as a Kobra 2 PRO. After checking multiple times and confirming we had the right FDM printer, we established that it was an error in the software. After checking the Kobra 3’s internal printer info, it also said it identified as a Kobra 2 PRO FDM printer. Pretty progressive for an FDM printer if you ask us, but we figured it was time to check if there was a necessary firmware update to iron out the bugs. Indeed, there was a firmware update ready to be installed as prompted in the app.
The Anycubic mobile app did not allow the printer to install the firmware update, though. After looking through the menus of the printer itself and resetting the Wi-Fi connection, we finally got a prompt on the screen of the printer to update its firmware. This also resulted in a new series of first time calibrations and some frustration started to set in. After the update, the Anycubic Kobra 3 finally realized it was actually a Kobra 3 and not a Kobra 2 PRO.
The Anycubic app, though, did not register an updated firmware. The prompt still kept popping up and even after removing the Kobra 2 Pro and adding it several times anew to the app, it always said the Kobra 3 was a Kobra 2 PRO that needed a firmware update it could never do. As for the ACE PRO, it just worked perfectly after connecting it. The software on the printer registered it was connected, read the RFID tags of the filament, and was able to start a PLA drying cycle without any problems.
Note: When finishing up this Anycubic Kobra 3 Kombo review, we learned that Anycubic is working on an updated and new software package that fixes many bugs. We were not able to test that software and have not received an official release date. 29/08/24
Get flashbanged and slice your projects
We all have our favourite slicer in the team, we all think it’s the best and we all know it’s just a matter of taste. That doesn’t mean we don’t test the slicers that printer companies suggest for their FDM or resin printers. But what we all agree on is that dark mode is a must when making a slicer, and getting blasted by a full white screen at night is the most horrible thing.
The Anycubic slicer opens in light mode, and that was our only gripe with it to be honest. The software is good, user friendly and detected our Kobra 2 PRO, which is actually a Kobra 3. This made us realize the problem really lies somewhere with Anycubic, their software, or cloud syncing. We have several objects we are starting to standardize when testing new printers and their filaments. We added them to the slicer and pushed a remote print to the printer.
Nothing happened, after waiting for several minutes and watching our hopes fall as fast as the PC player count for Concord. We gave up, and grabbed the USB stick that came with the Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo and added all our files. The remote printing feature doesn’t work for us, and likely due to a mismatch between the actual printer and registered printer in the software. We sliced everything for a Kobra 3, and it worked perfectly from the USB stick.
The results are in.
We ran our test and some pre-installed files from Anycubic. Everything was printed with the new Anycubic PLA Pantone, which is simply beautiful. We used the ACE Pro as a multi-colour hub and dryer while printing. Stock settings in the Anycubic slicer, just as a newbie to 3D printing would. We ran the following tests:
- Benchy
- All-in-One 3D printing test
- Stringing test
- And a tolerance test
The Benchy came out nice and fast, and the first thing we noticed was how good the plate was on the Kobra 3, after cooling down, the print came off so easily that it made us realize how bad some of our other plates truly are.
For the All-in-One 3D printing test, the results on stock settings were really good, much better than some of the results we got on other printers with stock settings. The details on the lettering were horrible, but the overhangs and bridging was actually good.
The stringing and tolerance test was not the best we have seen so far, though.
Overall, it’s like 3.6 roentgen, not bad, not good. But these issues are the gateway into a three hour loophole to figure out what you can do to solve them. Learning your settings and possibilities the printer has to offer. Getting sucked into wikis and YouTube videos detailing results and printing temp towers to calibrate the perfect settings for your filament.
The Ace of the bundle is the literal ACE Pro.
The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo shaves off a huge slice of the total price when you buy all parts individually. A system for multi-colour prints on top of the price of your printer can already make the initial starting budget rise, add in a filament dryer of decent quality, and you almost double your starting budget.
Yes, we are aware you can print a dryer box and use the heat bed of your printer to dry your filament. But when you are drying your filament on your printer, your printer stops doing what it was made to do; which is print. An integrated dryer in your multi-colour print add-on that links with the software of your printer and automatically detects the added filament is simply genius and groundbreaking.
The Kobra 3 even has two slots, so you can fit two ACE Pro modules to the printer, allowing you to print up to eight different colours. But you will have to purchase a filament hub, which will increase your printing time as the retraction distance greatly increases. Furthermore, the Kobra 3 does not come with a camera, although the app makes you believe it does. The camera is an extra add-on you can buy from the Anycubic shop. Maybe Anycubic left it out on purpose for privacy reasons, we don’t know. However, having a camera is a nice touch for difficult prints that tend to fail.
Everybody make some noise!
The absolute biggest downside of the Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo is the noise levels. The Kobra 3 and ACE Pro are loud even when idling. So loud we could hear the vibrations one floor lower through the ceiling. These loud vibrations can be cushioned with rubber padding underneath the Kobra 3 and the ACE Pro. Even the ACE Pro makes noise when idle, and even more so when drying filament. The speed of the Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo comes at the cost of more noise.
Also, even though the Kobra 3 prints up to 600mm/s, it still does not top some other top of the line models of the market. We compared some prints side by side, timing their starts and using multiple colours, and while the Kobra was not the fastest, it was far from the slowest. If we ran the FDM printer Olympics, it would have earned a Bronze medal for speed and ended up at the bottom for noise. However, if you then compare the overhangs and bridges in the test, it really prints extremely well at that speed. Our fastest printer does not produce such good results at stock settings at a faster speed.
Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo Conclusion
Are you interested in a bundle that simply gives you everything without having to buy hardware from two or three different companies? This bundle is for you. The Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo delivers everything you need to get started at a reasonable price for relatively fast printing compared to older printers and versions. That is, if you can stand the noise and clunky software at the moment. The software can and will be fixed but, the noise will be with you every time you press print.
Thank you Anycubic for this Anycubic Kobra 3 Combo test unit. We are genuinely impressed by the bundle and features you have added.