The Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro is at the top of our list of the best 3D printers for good reason. The FDM printer offers fantastic print quality and a bevy of premium features including auto bed leveling, direct drive, and an all-metal hotend that goes up to 300 degrees Celsius. All of that would mean nothing if the output wasn’t superb, but in our tests, the prints we got were amazing, even when we used difficult-to-work with materials such as TPU.
Normally, you’d pay around $499 to get Creality’s premium printer, but for Cyber Monday, Amazon has it for just $369 (opens in new tab) after you click on a coupon. Note that several sellers have the printer for $399, but only the listing we’ve linked here has the additional $30 coupon. This is a premium 3D printer that’s easy enough for beginners, flexible enough for experts and, right now, cheap enough for almost anyone.
When we reviewed the Ender 3 S1 Pro we praised not only its excellent output, but its easy of use. The printer took us just 15 minutes to assemble, a welcome change from others that often take more than an hour, as there were only a few bolts to tighten.
Speaking of setup, the Ender 3 S1 Pro uses a CR Touch sensor for auto bed leveling so the system taps 16 different points on the bed to create a map of the z heights the nozzle needs to use as it hovers over each position. This is a great improvement over other printers like the popular Creality Ender 3 V2, which require you to use hand screws to manually adjust each corner of the bed.
The build plate that comes in the box with the Ender 3 S1 Pro is a PEI-coated steel flex plate that makes removing your prints easy. It attaches to the bed magnetically so taking it on and off is a breeze.
However, with the Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro, the Creality Sprite extruder and its all-metal hotend are the real stars of the show. This extruder uses a dual-gear, direct drive system that provides a better path for your filament than the Bowden style extruders on cheaper models.
The hotend itself can get as hot as 300 degrees C, a huge benefit, when many competitors top out at 250 or 260 degrees C. That extra heat and direct drive path allow you to work with TPU filaments rather than just the standard PLA and PETG types.
We printed this model of a plant using Matterhackers Translucent Green TPU and, as you can see in the picture below, it looks absolutely gorgeous. With TPU, you can make models that are flexible.
With the 220 x 220 x 270 mm build surface, you can print some reasonably-large models. For example, this Twisted Cloud Vase filled the entire space and looks great.
The Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro is an incredible bargain at $369 (opens in new tab). However, if you’d like to spend less or have a larger build volume, check out our list of the best Cyber Monday 3D printer deals.