3D printers have changed drastically over the years. Starting out as toys, they slowly improved and became professional prototyping tools akin to a CNC machine or other industrial tooling. That said, 3D printers are also a commodity with cheap ones hitting the $100 mark and the most expensive ones topping out at $1,000. This means manufacturers have to do more with less.

ELEGOO, a Chinese company that has been making STEM gear and 3D printers since 2015, is fairly well known in the hobbyist community. Their printers, like their latest Centauri Carbon 2, are rugged, well-built, and offer some amazing features at a price point that is more than acceptable. The Centauri Carbon 2 is no exception.

The Specs

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo is a desktop filament 3D printer built around a CoreXY motion system. The frame is rigid and square, the gantry moves smoothly, and the machine feels solid when you set it up. The build volume is 256 × 256 × 256 mm, enough space for most hobbyist and prototyping parts. Printing at higher speeds is possible because the CoreXY layout keeps motion stable, and Elegoo rates it up to 500 mm per second. In real use, you will dial that back for quality, but the system handles acceleration and direction changes without vibration becoming a problem.

Setup is a bit tricky with a number of screws needed to put the whole thing together. The core of the system is the quad filament driver that allows for instant color changes during the build. This requires four separate spool holders, which are a bit tight as you begin working with the system. After a while, however, the spools will loosen up and start spinning freely, reducing the number of snags.

The hotend can reach 350°C, and the heated bed gets up to about 110°C. That lets you work with standard polymers like PLA and PETG, and also with tougher filaments that need more heat to stick and flow well. The bed has a magnetic, flexible surface that makes removing parts easier. The printer also comes with an automatic bed leveling feature that reads multiple points and compensates during printing. This is a baseline feature for most printers at this price, but here it works quietly and reliably without much fiddling once you set the offsets.

A distinctive part of this model is the multicolor filament system. It holds four spools and manages filament paths with guides and sensors. The software handles filament switching on its own when you print parts with multiple colors or materials. The system has RFID tags on the filament and a basic tangle prevention setup so that the printer can check that you loaded the right type before you start. It does add complexity, but once you get into the habit of preparing the files and managing the spools, it is straightforward, and you can see the layers shift color without stopping and swapping manually.

The interface is a 5-inch touchscreen that responds without lag, and the menus are simple to follow. You can connect via Wi-Fi or USB, and it will take standard G-code files. The partially enclosed case helps keep the chamber warmer for filaments that do better with less draft and more consistent temperature. Connectivity and controls are not cutting edge, but they are solid and don’t get in the way when you are printing the parts that matter.

The interface and software are surprisingly good. Usually, manufacturers would skimp on the software and user interface simply because the hobbyists wouldn’t complain if they had to jerry-rig their setups to match their printers. The Slicer ELEGOO recommends allows for automatic plate organization and a fast slicing time, which means you can download a model and print it in about a minute.

ELEGOO also uses a site called Nexprint that contains thousands of 3D models, including some that showed off the Centauri Carbon 2’s powers. Except for a few complex models, everything printed in under an hour. Longer prints failed a few times because of filament snags, but interestingly, the printer was able to pick up where it failed without much damage to the object. In fact, one project took about eight hours and stopped overnight. When I restarted it again, I figured it would delaminate where the head stopped, but instead, it made a seamless continuation of the previous work.

In daily use, the Carbon 2 feels like a printer you can rely on. It is not perfect out of the box, and you will take time to tune the settings for your filaments and parts, but those are the same issues you find on all printers in this class. Once you have a routine dialed in, the prints come out consistently. If your work spans simple functional parts, multicolor pieces, and tougher materials, this machine gives you the room and heat capacity to handle all of that without changing hardware. It does not make decisions for you; it gives you tools and leaves the choices to you.

The Good

The printer is more than capable of large and complex objects. It prints quickly and produces prints that are far better than the previous printers I’ve used, including Makerbots and Bambu systems. The four-filament system is particularly interesting and allows for some truly impressive prints. I love having access to multiple colors (even if it results in little lumps of filament popping out every time it changes color).

In short, this is a heavy-duty, high-quality printer at a sub-$500 price, which is honestly amazing.

The Bad

The only issue I had with the printer was a multitude of filament snags. While this wasn’t a deal breaker, I did have to fix the spool quite often, resulting in longer-than-normal print times. Otherwise, everything else about this printer was smooth and extremely impressive. Even the network and software capabilities were light years beyond devices I’ve used in the past.

The Bottom Line

The Centauri Carbon 2 is now the printer to beat. It’s a solidly built, highly adaptable printer with a lot of great features and a great interface. It’s quite big, but if you’re looking to build large things — cosplay items, prototypes, and models — it’s definitely an important addition to your design arsenal.