How often have you been deep into a gaming session to discover that your pizza has gone cold? Rarely?

If you find yourself in that situation, Pizza Hut Canada has what you need with the new PIZZAWRMR (via Creative Bloq). It's a 3D-printed model that uses the heat exhaust from your PlayStation 5 to keep your pizza hot.

The model is free to download, but you must fire up one of the best 3D printers to get it. We should note that your printer needs to have a build volume of 15 x 15 inches, at a minimum, to accommodate the warmer. It does rule out many of our recommended 3D printers based on size unless you're okay with cutting the model up. We recommend trying the Prusa XL, a larger version of the beginner-friendly Prusa Mini+.

Usually, when companies post silly products on their social media accounts, there is no way that they become a reality — looking at that KFC gaming console.

The PIZZAWRMR will work best with the standard PS5. However, the PDF with the STL files says it should work on a PS5 Slim. There is no word on whether or not it can handle the PS5 Pro or Xbox Series X|S.

The model is printed in separate parts with STL files for the body, lid, manifold and left and right stands. It's not clear from anything released by Pizza Hut how long the print is expected to take, but based on the size and number of parts, we imagine this is a multi-day print. Also, Pizza Hut Canada recommends using food-safe materials in your print. They specifically mention PLA plastic. To prohibit grease and foil from getting everywhere, Pizza Hut recommends placing a foil tray that measures 34 x 23 x 2.5 cm in the warmer.

As for the pizza holder itself, it doesn't look like it will hold an entire pizza together, but instead, it seems like it can hold a small pizza split up.

Based on the design, we have to say this looks like it could work. However, as a general rule, you don't want foodstuffs near your gaming console or controllers. Who wants a greasy DualSense or Nacon Revolution 5 Pro? Also, we don't want to block heat exhaust from our electronics, even those with reliable heat sinks installed.

Still, I want to try it...

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Have you ever wanted to be your own action figure? I had the chance to do so at CES, where Hasbro was demoing its Selfie Series, which lets you put your 3D-printed head atop a Ghostbuster, Star Wars, Power Ranger, GI Joe, or Marvel action figure for $60. 

Hasbro partnered with the 3D printing company Formlabs (which makes some of the models on our best 3D printers list) to make customized action figures with some of the most valuable IP out there. 

So, is it worth spending $60 to get a personalized action figure for you or someone else? I went through the whole process, so you can see the results for yourself.

It starts with an app...

Here's how it works: Within the Hasbro Pulse app (Android, iOS), you scan your face by turning your head to the right and left; it's a bit like setting up Face ID with an iPhone. 

Then, the app generates a digital image of your head. From there, a series of screens lets you adjust your skin tone, and then select the action figure you'd like to be. 

At the moment, you can choose from the following, which is somewhat limited, but not too shabby considering the service started this past fall.

Star Wars — Mandalorian, Storm Trooper, X-Wing pilot, or Princess Leia

Marvel Legends — Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, or Black Widow

Power Rangers — Red or the Pink ranger

GI Joe — Snake Eyes or Scarlett

Ghostbusters — Male or a female Ghostbuster

Despite my lifelong affinity for Star Wars, I opted to go with the Ghostbuster body, as I had received the Ecto-1 Lego kit as a Christmas present, and thought that it would complement it nicely. (As an aside: The Ecto-1 Lego kit is a pretty fantastic build, with some really clever moving parts. Thanks to my wife and sister for getting it for me!) The Ghostbuster figure also comes with some nice accessories, including a proton pack and a P.K.E meter. 

A note to would-be Stormtroopers, Mandalorians, Iron Men, Spiders-Man and Black Panthers: Those figures don't come with helmets, so you don't necessarily get the full effect of the whole outfit. As you're going through the process, you can see what accessories each figure comes with. 

Next, you choose your hairstyle, of which there are 48 to choose from, as well as five different hair colors. After, you can give yourself facial hair, and choose its style and color.

And then you wait...

Then, go ahead and order it. At CES, I was told the typical turnaround is about 45 days; it took a slightly shorter amount of time to get to me (mine arrived in late January), but when I went through the process of making a new action figure on Feb. 9, it said that the estimated delivery would be March 26. 

So, if you're planning to give this as a gift to someone (you can send it as a gift code via the Hasbro Pulse app), just let them know that it'll be a while before they receive the finished product.

The results

And when it arrived? It had a passing resemblance to me, in that it had hair and a beard. The color of both was a bit lighter than my actual hair color, but ultimately, I think it looked more like Jake Gyllenhaal than myself. Which may not be a bad thing. 

Still, there's lots of great detail in the costume itself, and the figurine is very adjustable. All of the joints are articulated, so you can pose it in just about any way you choose. The only quibble (aside from the likeness) is that the hands had trouble keeping the proton gun in place. 

If you're worried about Hasbro saving your face data, a company rep told The Verge that it would be deleted 60 days after the ship date of your action figure. 

Would I get this as a gift for someone? Definitely. I have one cousin who has a basement full of action figures, bobbleheads, and other assorted toys for whom this would be a perfect present. I wish it would look a bit more like me, but the novelty of it outweighs the lack of verisimilitude. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make like Dark Helmet and play with my dolls again.

Businesses and creators looking to invest in a new 3D printer to create models, prototypes, molds, and end-use parts will run into the question of which technology to use: fused deposition modeling (FDM) or stereolithography (SLA).

SLA was the first 3D printing technology created, and it has long been the preferred printing technology for professional designers and engineers. The SLA printing process uses an incredibly precise laser to cure liquid resin into the solid final part. Thanks to this precision, SLA prints can have incredibly fine detail, smooth finishes, and accurate sizing for machine parts and prototypes. 

SLA printed parts come out dense, watertight, and isotropic, giving them structural integrity in a wider variety of applications. Those qualities combined with the precision of SLA-printed parts even allows them to be used in industrial applications.

There’s also a greater degree of flexibility available with SLA printing. Creators can use different SLA resins to produce hard or soft objects, use resins filled with additives like glass or wax, create either opaque or clear prints, and choose materials for their unique mechanical properties. There are also biocompatible materials available for SLA printing, allowing for customized healthcare products, like dental aligners or surgical planning tools. 

There are some key ways that SLA printing differs from FDM, the other largely popular 3D printing technology. FDM printers deposit material in a melted form to build each layer of the print. Each line the printer deposits can be slightly rounded and may not always adhere perfectly to the layer beneath, creating an anisotropic structure. The resulting prints will show gradation between layers that can impact the aesthetics and functionality of the design. 

The precision of FDM prints is also limited by the size of the extrusion nozzles and inaccuracies caused by the thermal expansion and contraction of the filament, so FDM printers are not as well suited for creating fine details on smaller designs. While FDM prints come out of the printer without requiring cleaning or post-curing, they may require support removal and sanding to remove any unwanted layer lines. This makes them better suited for quick mock-ups or for use in workflows that won’t involve considerable post-production work, which adds time and labor expenses that may negate the relative affordability of the printers and low cost of filament material.

So if SLA printers have so many clear advantages over FDM printers, why would anyone opt for an FDM printer? The answer is thatSLA printing technology hasn’t been as accessible for many companies. The large, industrial machines previously used for SLA printing were expensive, especially compared to many of the affordable FDM printers available on the market today. 

A big factor in the price of SLA printers has been the expensive laser responsible for curing the resin. The resins can also be expensive, and the complicated process of shifting between print layers puts a strain on parts and could cause costly print failures. 

But the relative inaccessibility of SLA printing has gradually been addressed by the introduction of desktop SLA printers from Formlabs. Formlabs has spent the last decade eliminating the prohibitive costs of SLA printing while simultaneously making the technology more versatile, reliable, and intuitive. These investments have culminated in the recently launched Form 3+ SLA printer. 

The Form 3+ is a capable, fast, and reliable 3D printer for business applications. Its versatility allows users to employ it for rapid prototyping, end-use parts, model making, and more. The Form 3+ starts at $3,499 for the basic package.

The precision of the laser in the Form 3+ produces prints that require minimal post-processing. Beyond the smooth finishes of its prints, Formlabs’ software can automatically create support structures for each design and the laser can cure them in such a way that they break off easily and cleanly, further eliminating post-production work. The printer is backed by an ecosystem to improve and simplify the production pipeline, including automated washing and curing machines as well as a quick-release build platform.

The reliability of the printer and the quality of the prints can allow a business to save time and money on prototyping or designing custom parts. While the upfront cost may be higher than an entry-level FDM printer, the flexibility allows this printer to do more, and the reduction in post-production labor, print time, and print failures can outweigh the higher upfront costs. Ultimately, it’s an investment that makes sense for businesses looking to go from concept to final form quickly, precisely, and reliably. 

If you think Formlabs’ Form 3+ may be right for your business or application, you can find out more about the printer here. 

For the month of February, Formlabs will also be running a giveaway on a Form 3+ Basic Package that includes the Form 3+ 3D printer, Build Platform, Resin Tank, Finish Kit, and one liter of Draft Resin, valued at $3,500. You can enter for a chance to win here. 

We’ve seen the 3D printer market change over the past few years, with prices falling and the quality of the prints improving. The AnyCubic Photon Mono X continues this excellent trend by offering SLA printing for $599. That’s not the cheapest price we’ve seen for an SLA printer, but it’s definitely an attractive one for a devicer that produces high-quality prints and has earned a place among the best 3D printers we’ve tested.

As part of our AnyCubic Photon Mono X review, we also tested the Anycubic Wash and Cure Plus machine, a separate device that can wash the prints the Photon Mono X produces and cure them to harden the resin with a series of UV lights. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Price and availability

The Photon Mono X is available now for $559 from Amazon. The Wash and Cure Plus costs $249.99 from Amazon.  

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Design

The Photon Mini X is a Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer, which means it uses a light source to turn a liquid resin solid. This solid material then sticks to the metal print bed, which is raised, lowered, and the process repeats, creating the print layer by layer. 

It’s a bit more complex than the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) type of 3D printer, which uses melted plastic to build the layers, so SLA printers have generally been the more expensive option. (Our favorite SLA printer, the Form 3 from Form Labs, costs $3,499.) However, SLA printers produce more complex prints with finer detail because they produce finer layers. The default layer height for the Photon Mono X is 0.01mm, ten times smaller than a typical FDM printer. 

At 18 inches tall and 11.4 inches wide, the Photon Mini X is a small printer for the size of prints it produces: It’s capable of producing 9.6 x 7.5 x 4.6-inch prints — a total of 331 cubic inches. Most of the volume of the printer is the hood that fits over the printing area, made of see-through plastic that shows you the printing process, but blocks UV light from getting in or out. 

Many SLA 3D printers use a laser to zap the resin, but the Photon Mono X goes another route, using a panel of ultraviolet (UV) LEDs with an LCD screen above, right below the tank that holds the resin. This works like the backlight on your HDTV: the light shines through the LCD screen where each pixel is turned and blocked where each is turned off. The screen has a 4K resolution (3840 by 2400 pixels), which means that each pixel translates into a space of less than 0.01mm on the final print. The bottom of the resin tank is a sheet of clear film made of a material called Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) that lets through the UV light to solidify the resin. 

Both the screen and the FEP film require replacement after heavy use, as the UV light damages them over time. AnyCubic claims that the monochrome screen used in this model will last for thousands of hours of printing, while the FEP sheet needs to be replaced every 20 to 30 prints. 

The other advantage of a monochrome screen is speed: while the color LCD screens that are used in most SLA printers have three filters to let through red, green, and blue light, monochrome screens don’t have any filters. That means more light gets through, so the printing is quicker. AnyCubic claims a printing speed of 6 vertical centimeters (about 2.3 inches) per hour, and we wouldn’t disagree: this is a fast printer. 

The Wash And Cure Plus is the same size and shape as the printer, with a similar design. Instead of the print head, there is an arm covered in UV LEDs which bends at the end to cover the entire print. A removable vat for washing is also included; it includes a built-in agitator to stir the liquid. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print process

The prints that the Mono X produces are set up in the Photon Workshop software, available as a free download for Windows and OSX.  It’s a decent if slightly quirky 3D slicer that allows you to load one or more 3D models and set them up for printing. The models can be moved, multiplied, and scaled up and down, the saved for printing. You can’t create new models in Photon Workshop, though. 

The Photon Workshop can automatically add the supports, the tree-like structures that hold the print in place while it is being produced, and which are removed later. This didn’t prove to be too successful, though: several of our print failures were caused by incorrectly placed supports, and I found that I would usually do the automatic supports, then go through and manually add more to the places on the print that might have issues. 

One interesting feature here is the ability to divide models. If a model is too big to print at once, Photon Workshop can divide it into pieces. Each piece is then printed in turn and stuck together. That’s a nice trick that would be good to see on other slicer apps. 

There is also an Anycubic app available for Android and iOS that you can use to start a print or monitor print progress from your phone. You can’t upload a print file from this app, but it is nice to have a way to see how far a print has to go before it’s done. Even nicer would be a camera to show you if the print is working properly, but that isn’t present on the Photon Mono Xr.

Once the print is complete, you use the Wash and Cure Plus to — as the name suggests — wash the print to remove any liquid resin and cure it to solidify the resin with UV light. Firstly, you wash the print in isopropyl alcohol, which can be done either after you remove the print from the print bed or mount the entire print bed onto one of two slots in an included basket. This large container holds a lot of liquid — up to 8.5 liters (2.25 gallons). You won’t always need that much, but you will need enough to cover the print completely. At the moment isopropyl alcohol is not cheap, as it is one of the main ingredients of hand sanitizer.  

When the print is in place, you select how long you want it to be washed for, then press the control dial in to start. The agitator stirs the liquid, changing direction every 2 minutes to make sure that all of the cracks and crevices of the print are washed. 

Once your print is washed, you remove the print and let it dry. After that, it is time to cure the print, which you do by replacing the alcohol container on the Wash and Cure Plus with a rotating platform. Again, you use the control dial to select how long to cure for: typically, this would be 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of the print.

Once you start the process, the platform rotates exposing the print to the UV light from the LEDs on the arm that towers over the print. The process won’t start until you replace the plastic cover, which blocks the UV light from coming out. That’s a good precaution, as this intensity of UV light can damage your eyes. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print speed

The Photon Mono X is a speedy printer: our 4-inch high Thinker test model took 7 hours and 35 minutes to print, which is significantly faster than most printers in this class. The Peopeoly Phenom, for instance, took just over 13 hours to print the same model at the same size. 

We usually print the Thinker model vertically to make it fair for printers that don’t have enough space on the build plate to print the Thinker lying down horizontally. The Photon Mono X has plenty of print space large enough to handle this, so we also tested this and found out that it was much, much quicker, taking just 3 hours and 56 minutes to print in this direction.

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Print quality

I was impressed with the quality of the prints that the Photon Mono X produced. My prints had clean, sharp edges and smooth, organic curves and surfaces. We test using three models that test the ability of the printer to reproduce details: a scan of Rodin’s Thinker, a set of planetary gears, and a geometric sculpture. 

The Thinker statue was generally well reproduced, with fine details and smooth, organic curves that looked like the real thing on the head and shoulders. The Geometric sculpture had sharp, clean edges with nice points and accurate interlocking surfaces. The Gears were easily assembled and ran smoothly, although the grey resin we tested with this printer produced a lot of dust and residue (the white material) when we screwed the various parts of the gears together. 

We did notice some problems on prints, though: sometimes, some of the layers seemed to come loose, leading to loose flaps of resin. Look, for instance, at the keg in the horizontal print of the Thinker: the inner calf of his right leg has a few layers that didn’t stick to the ones above. Likewise, one of the points of the geometric sculpture seems to be flattened because the layers were pushed down by the liquid resin as the print was produced.

Most of these issues can be corrected by tweaking the print, though: the loose layers and the squashed point indicate that the print required a few more supports to hold it in place while printing, or that the object might be better printed at a different angle. 

All of this indicates something that is true of most 3D printers: they still require a lot of tweaking to get the best quality prints out of them, and much of this tweaking relies on working out why a print failed and trying again. 

Photon Mono X 3D printer review: Verdict 

The AnyCubic Photon Mono X breaks new ground, pushing down the cost of SLA printing to a new low. It does so without making too many compromises: printing remains a slightly messy business that occasionally fails, but once you get used to the Photon Mono X (and buy a mask and a big box of disposable gloves), it is generally hassle-free and fast. 

SLA printing is definitely still a process that requires patience, though, as some prints from the Photon Mon X failed and require alteration and re-printing. I would also recommend that you buy the Wash and Cure Plus, as it makes the rather icky business of cleaning and curing SLA prints much easier. 

Combined, the two cost less than $800 and can produce large, high-quality prints at a faster speed than most of the competition. The Form 3 remains the SLA printer to get for professionals who need to do a lot of heavy-duty printing, but the Photon Mono X is an excellent option for at-home work by hobbyists or those curious about 3D printing. 

One thing that strikes you immediately about the Peopoly Phenom when you first lay eyes on this 30.7-inch tall 3D printer — it’s one of the biggest models available to home users. That’s because this 3D printer has a huge build area: a stonkingly large 10.8 x 6.1 x 15.8 inches, for a total of over a million cubic inches of build volume. That’s more than four times the build volume of the Form 3 at about half the cost. 

That sounds awesome, but is the Peopoly Phenom usable enough to land on our list of the best 3D printers? Our Peopoly Phenom review find that the answer is yes, but with enough caveats to make this a pick for 3D enthusiasts only. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Price and availability

When we first reviewed the Peopoly Phenom about a year ago, it cost $1,799. These days, the printer costs $1,999, which is still significantly less than the Form 3's $3,499 asking price. You can buy the Peopoly Phenom directly from Peopoly's website.

Peopoly Phenom review: Design

The Peopoly Phenom uses a combination of an LCD screen and UV LED rather than the UV laser used in the smaller Peopoly Moai and the Form 3. In the Phenom, the UV light comes from a grid of LEDs under the print bed which shines through the LED screen. 

Where this screen is opaque, the light is blocked and the layer of resin between the build plate and the print bed remains liquid. Where the screen is see-through, the UV light passes through and the resin is solidified. Once the resin is solid and sticks to the build plate, the plate is raised, liquid resin rushes in and the process repeats, building the print layer by layer.

The upside of Peopoly’s approach is that it is simpler and requires fewer moving parts: you don’t have to use an intricate mirror system to bounce a laser beam around. The downside is that the parts wear out quicker: the LCD screen can be damaged by the intense UV light and will need to be replaced eventually. Peopoly estimates that this will happen after about 400 hours of print time. That might sound like a lot, but with large prints often taking 24 hours or longer, it can quickly get eaten up. The LCD screen, which is a modified 4K laptop screen, can be replaced with a replacement unit costing about $100. 

Although the Peopoly Phenom design and construction is generally excellent, we noticed a few quirks. For one, there is no Wi-Fi on the 3D printer, despite the on-screen display advertising it as a feature. Peopoly told us that this is because the firmware used on the printer supports Wi-Fi and that the company was not able to remove it. Instead, you have to use wired ethernet to connect to the Peopoly Phenom.

Peopoly Phenom review: Controls

You control the Phenom through a small touch screen on the front of the printer, which is pretty easy to use. With that touch screen, you control every function of the 3D printer including moving the print bed up and down, setting the brightness of the UV light and starting and stopping prints. 

The print files are sent to the printer either through a wired ethernet connection or on a USB drive. To create files for the Phenom, you could use any 3D printing app, but Peopoly recommends the free Chitubox. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, it’s a good choice that is easy to use and is focussed on printing with resin printers like the Phenom. 

With Chitubox, load the model and click on Add Supports; the program analyzes the model and automatically adds supports that will make it easier to print. Chitubox can also do things like automatically hollow a model, removing the interior so it uses less resin to print. 

Once the print file is ready, you can save it to a USB drive or send it directly to the Peopoly Phenom over the wired ethernet connection. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Materials and maintenance

Peopoly doesn’t place limitations on which resins you can use with the Phenom: you can pour any resin you like into the print tray. Different resins require different settings, though, so you will need to tweak settings (notably the LED power and exposure time) for different types. Peopoly mentains a Google Sheet of recommended settings and there is an active community of users on the Peopoly forums. 

Peopoly offers its own Delft resin for this printer, which is priced at $60/kg. Due to the coronavirus pandemic occurring during our testing, this resin was not available. Instead, we used Siraya Tech Fast, a resin designed for use with LED printers like the Phenom that was recommended by Peopoly. This costs a very reasonable $35/kg. It’s a good example of the benefits of not having your 3D printer tied to just one material — when the global supply chain is interrupted, you can just switch to another. 

As noted above, the LCD screen that the Phenom uses is damaged over time by the UV light and requires replacing after about 400 hours of print time. A replacement screen costs $100, and the process of installing it requires removing the tape holding the old one in place under the print vat, disconnecting the controller cable, plugging in the new screen, putting it in place and taping it down. It’s not a difficult process, but it is more hands-on than the simple snap-into-place process of replacing the laser module on a Form 3. It also presupposes that you are comfortable enough to start tearing large amounts of masking tape out of the printer and unplugging things. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print process

Producing a 3D print with the Peopoly Phenom is fairly straightforward, though it involves a few manual steps. First, you have to fill the print tray with resin since there is no auto-fill feature like what you’d find on the Form 3. The Phenom also lacks the ability to detect low resin, so, if you don’t fill the tray enough, your print will just fail part way through without warning or notice. 

Once the tray is ready, you insert the USB drive with the print file and hit Print on the control panel. If you need to confirm you are printing the right thing, the Phenom shows you a small preview of the print on the screen. 

During our testing for this Peopoly Phenom review, we found printing to be a bit of a stinky, noisy process. To keep the UV LEDs cool, the Phenom has two fans on the side of the case, pulling and pushing air over the LEDs. This makes a lot of noise — about the same as a vacuum cleaner running in the next room. This also means that the slight chemical smell of the resin gets spread through the room. Let’s put it this way: You wouldn’t want to sleep in the same room as the Peopoly Phenom. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print speed

The Phenom is a fairly fast printer, because the UV LED and LCD screen approach means it can print an entire layer at once. That doesn’t make it much quicker than printers that use a single laser spot, though, because the LED lights aren’t as intense as the laser, so they have to be exposed for longer. 

In the end, the two different approaches are about equal: The Phenom took just under 13 hours to print a 4-inch high Thinker model, which is comparable to the Form Labs 3. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Print quality

We were impressed with the print quality of the Phenom, which produced clean, smooth-surfaced prints. We found that our test print of Rodin’s thinker was printed with natural, smooth curves.

Our geometric sculpture print had sharp, clean edges, and our test print of a set of gears fit together well, requiring little cleaning to make the various gear teeth and screw threads fit together. 

That’s not to say that the process is hassle-free, though: like all resin printers, you need to treat the prints to get the best results, washing them in alcohol and hardening them with UV light. None of this is handled by the Phenom; you have to handle all this yourself. 

Peopoly Phenom review: Verdict

There is no doubt that the Peopoly Phenom is a great printer. It offers a huge print volume, it’s relatively easy to use and it can produce excellent prints. And the price for this 3D printer is great: at $1,999, the Peopoly Phenom costs almost half as much as the Form Labs Form 3 and can print much larger objects.

There’s some “buts,” though. The Peopoly Phenom is  a hands-on printer that needs a fair amount of tweaking to get the best quality out of it. To use it effectively, you need to be comfortable with getting into the guts of the thing, tweaking settings, fiddling with rather unpolished software and doing multiple print tests to find the settings that work best for each type of resin. That’s a different approach to the hands-off, press-and-print approach of the Form 3. 

If you just want to print and not worry about the process, the Form 3 is the better pick. But if the idea of tweaking and fiddling to get the best results sounds like fun (and you have the time and energy to do it), the Peopoly Phenom is the resin printer to get. 

Polaroid isn’t a name that springs to mind for 3D printing — at least not for U.S. shoppers — but the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer might change that. Polaroid has built a simple device that produces excellent quality prints using a variety of materials, as we discovered during testing our Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review.

The Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer costs $599. Like the Polaroid 3D Play Pen we tested for our 3D pen face-off, Polaroid's 3D printer is an exclusive at craft retailer Joann, currently offering the printer at an attractive discount as of this writing.

Without that discount, you’ll find less expensive choices for novice users among our list of the best 3D printers. But the Polaroid name and the quality output from the PlaySmart make this device worth a look if you want a 3D printer for the home.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Design

Polaroid’s better known for its instant cameras, and the PlaySmart takes some design cues from that iconic product, using white and black plastic and the Polaroid logo. The printer might come across as dated to some, but it didn’t look out of place next to one of my vintage 1970s Polaroid cameras. 

The print area of the PlaySmart is rather small, at just 4.7 by 4.7 by 4.7 inches, for a total of 103 cubic inches. That’s a lot less than comparable printers like the Monoprice Voxel (329 cubic inches in total), but it’s the same as the Da Vinci Nano. Printing area is less of an issue than you might first suspect, though: it isn’t difficult to cut objects into parts and print one at a time if need be. 

Above the PlaySmart’s print area is a small camera, used to monitor prints in progress and to produce timelapse videos. The filament is stored on a separate holder that also monitors how much filament you have left. It’s a nice touch, but one that feels somewhat redundant when you can clearly see how much filament is left on the roll. The PlaySmart works with filament from either Polaroid or third-party manufacturers.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Controls

Next to the print area, the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer features an LCD controller, which is a small but easy-to-read touch screen. It is also responsive, and picking out on-screen options is easy to do. 

Still, you’ll find it easier to control the PlaySmart with the Polaroid PLAYSmart app, available for iOS and Android. This free app allows you to start prints from the library of manufacturer-supplied models, monitor a print in progress through the camera or run maintenance tasks. If you’re printing your own model though, you’ll need to use the control panel and the Polaroid SmartPrep software for Windows or Mac. 

This simple 3D modeling program can load existing models in the .STL and .OBJ formats. You can resize, move, combine or otherwise manipulate your models, saving them and preparing them for printing. The print file can’t be sent directly to the PlaySmart printer, though: you have to save the print files to a USB drive, then connect this to the printer yourself and select it for printing. That seems like an odd requirement as the PlaySmart supports Wi-Fi.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Print speed

The PlaySmart is a pretty fast printer: it cranked out a 4-inch high print of our Thinker model in 3 hours and 56 minutes in Draft mode. Changing the settings to Fine mode lengthened the print time to 10 hours and 13 minutes. That means the PlaySmart can quickly produce a rough print when required or produce a finer, smoother print overnight. 

The PlaySmart is a little faster than most printers we have tested, producing a draft print quicker than the Monoprice Voxel, currently our favorite 3D printer for beginners.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Print materials

The PlaySmart can print using three different materials: PLA, P-Wood and PETG. PLA, or polylactic acid is the standard printing material that most 3D printers use. PETG, or Polyethylene terephthalate, is a plastic that is commonly used in plastic bottles and the like. It is lighter and stronger than PLA, but is also more expensive. P-Wood is a form of PLA that is mixed with sawdust to produce a wood-like feel. 

These materials aren’t expensive: a 1KG reel of PLA costs $38, while a similar amount of PETG  costs $48 and P-Wood is $55 for half a kilogram. You aren’t limited to these filaments, though: the PlaySmart can also use third-party filament, making this device more flexible than 3D printers restricting you to their manufacturers’ filaments.

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer: Print Quality

As fast as the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer created prints, we also were impressed by the print quality of those models. The PlaySmart 3D printer yielded prints with clean, smooth details and very few issues. 

We test print quality by printing three models: a scan of Rodin’s Thinker sculpture, a geometric sculpture and a set of gears. Our first test model came out very well: the Thinker sculpture had excellent detail and smooth, organic-looking surfaces. The printer did a great job of reproducing the curves of the sculptures back and muscles. The layers of the print were rather obvious in all of the print modes, though: the print lacked the polished smoothness of SLA printers and some more expensive FDM printers. 

Our second test model uses a geometric sculpture that really showcases the ability of a 3D printer to produce clean, sharp edges. The PlaySmart struggled a little here, with a print that had a lot of thin filaments of PLA between the edges of the print. Those filaments were produced by the material stretching as the print head moved between the different parts of the print. These are not difficult to trim off, though, and once removed the PlaySmart’s geometric sculpture print had sharp, smooth edges and well-defined points. 

Finally, we printed a set of gears that are designed to snap together to form a set of hand-cranked planetary gears. The PlaySmart handled these without too many issues, producing a set of gears that fit together with only minimal cleaning. We did have to trim off a lot of the brim that held the print onto the print bed, though. 

Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer review: Verdict

The Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer offers a lot for $599: it can produce high-quality prints and churn out quick draft prints very rapidly. It also supports a variety of materials and doesn’t lock you into one supplier for your filament. 

But when comparing this device to other 3D printers aimed at novices for our Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer preview, Polaroid’s offering is relatively expensive. The Monoprice Voxel, for example, can produce prints that are nearly as good while costing $200 less.

Even at its regular price, though, you're getting a high-quality device for your money with the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer. And if that price drops below $599, then it becomes a very good deal indeed. Even when not on sale, though, the Polaroid PlaySmart 3D printer is a very good pick for home users who want to get started with 3D printing and want the very best prints, regardless of how much they have to pay upfront.