The new Snapmaker U1 3D printer is soaring on Kickstarter, with over $12.5 million raised so far, and it’s easy to see why – the U1 looks amazing.
The Snapmaker U1 is a new “color 3D printer” with multiple tool heads.
Simply put, the new Snapmaker 3D printer has 4 toolheads (and 1 active printhead) that allows it to print with multiple colors and materials quicker and with less waste than other machines on the market, at least at anywhere close to its price point.
I have a Bambu 3D printer, and while it can print in multiple colors, it must purge the extruder to do so. This creates a significant amount of waste, and it adds lengthy delays to the print time.
The Snapmaker U1 looks to feature everything I like about my Bambu, and so much more.
Some of the more notable features include:
- Compact automatic filament system
- CoreXY motion system
- 500 mm/s speed
- AI-powered print monitoring
- Smartphone app control
- Steel ball kinematic couplings – locks in toolhead, tested to over 1,000,000 swaps without failures
- Smart calibration sequence
- Vibration compensation
- Automatic mesh bed leveling
- Over a dozen sensors with anomaly detection and alerts
- 3.5″ touchscreen
- 2MP live view camera
Snapmaker says the U1 will help users “make more [with] less waste” and they sure do make it look believable.
The build volume is 270 x 270 x 270mm.
It has a heated bed, 300°C max nozzle temperature, 0.4mm nozzle diameter, and works with 1.75mm filament size.
There are also add-ons, including a top cover for air purification and a chamber temperature up to 50°C, hardened steel hot end bundle, PEI steel sheet, and filament starter packs.
At this time the pledge price is $799 (20% off $999 MSRP) with a November 2025 ETA, plus $50 per machine for shipping to the USA. They say that taxes and duties are included in the price.
The $799 special price also includes a spare hot end and 4x 500g spools of SnapSpeed PLA filament.
The Kickstarter fundraising campaign has an end date of 9/30/25. There are over 13,000 backers so far, who pledged more than $12.5 million.
There are always risks with Kickstarter projects, where project creators can take your money and not deliver promised rewards on time or sometimes at all. If you’re interested, you have to weigh whether a discount (compared to retail pricing) and earlier fulfilment are worth it to you. I generally do NOT recommend backing Kickstarter projects. Snapmaker is an established company, and so the risks should be lower, but I would still advise waiting.
Discussion
I’m going to follow this project with great interest. I’d like to be able to make multi-material prints with my Bambu, but it’s just not a good idea with the single hot end.
That the Snapmaker has 4 tool heads that can be swapped back and forth automatically seems like a fantastic way to approach multi-color and multi-material prints.
Snapmaker is not new to 3D printing. I looked around for context and comparison, and it only made the U1 seem more impressive.
Prusa has a 3D printer with tool changer – the XL – and it’s several times the price. The Prusa XL is $2000 with 1 tool head, $2500 with 2, and $3500 with 5.
The Snapmaker will be $999 ($799 via Kickstarter), and it comes fully loaded with 4 tool heads.
I haven’t looked at multi-color or material 3D printers before, due to the cost. This one looks neat, and the “SnapSwap” system sounds good.
Snapmaker says that the toolheads are all preloaded and preheated with their own filaments, and that it takes just a few seconds to swap them out, rather than several minutes.
I really like the idea of this and am actually very excited to see the U1 launch. Even if ultimately I’m not sold on the Snapmaker, I imagine that other 3D printer companies will accelerate competitive development.
I probably won’t back the Kickstarter campaign, but will strongly consider picking one up (on ToolGuyd’s dime) once it launches at retail.
Here’s a look at how some of the Snapmaker U1 components are produced:
And Snapmaker’s Kickstarter launch video:
