On the verge of getting an Anycubic Kobra but not quite sure which model is the best for you? We’ve put up a head-to-head comparison of the similar but different siblings. Anycubic introduced the Kobra series in 2022, with both the Kobra and Kobra Max, and since has added the Kobra Plus, Go, and Neo to the roster.
Anycubic’s Kobra series of 3D printers has a pretty good rep within the community, and we liked the ones we reviewed here at All3DP. Nevertheless, with a handful of Kobra printers right now, the differences can be a bit more subtle than their sheer build volume. So, to try and help the average reader tell the difference between the machines in the flourishing Kobra family, we’ve put together this buyer’s guide.
Besides showcasing the different versions against each other, we also go into some detail on features and hardware and list a bunch of alternatives, should you decide to go shopping outside the Kobra fam after all.
Without further ado, here is our Kobra guide to figure out which of these may slither into your workspace.
First of its kind – the Anycubic Kobra (Source: All3DP)
The Anycubic Kobra was the first of the bunch, striking a delicate balance between low-cost and advanced features and conveniences not typically found at the price point.
Its 220 x 220 x 250 mm build volume is more than ample for the most average of 3D prints, but where it excels is the easy-to-use, abuse, disassemble, and patch-back-up direct extruder, plus reliable automatic bed-leveling. First-layer concerns are non-existent, thanks to the use of an inductive sensor to detect the metal print bed beneath it. Housed in an adjustable plastic cage, we found the sensor did its job without fuss or fail.
The printer maps a 25-point mesh on each leveling routine, with the Kobra automatically accounting for variances in its print bed. This gives a smooth and consistent first layer. The bed sits atop spacers, so all bed leveling duties are carried out by this system. The printer does come with belt tensioners, so you can manually tighten the Kobra’s belts. Good for long-term maintenance.
The removable magnetic PEI-coated spring-steel print bed sheet adheres to your day-to-day materials, think PLAs, PETGs, and TPUs, and shrugs them free with a quick flex.
Porting prints from and to the printer is done via a microSD card, and the printer is controlled via the large 4.3-inch touchscreen LCD. Underneath the hood, the Kobra packs Anycubic’s own Trigorilla Pro A V1.0.4 32-bit board with silent stepper drivers.
You can see where Anycubic has shaved the price down, though, with the Kobra being incredibly plasticky and some assemblies skimping on parts you expect could easily improve the experience. Putting this aside, though, the Kobra is a cheap, capable printer that’s easy to take apart and tinker with. It’s Anycubic at its best, with smart, inexpensive machines.
The Anycubic Kobra Go is the slimmed-down version of the original.
You will get the same 220 x 220 250 mm build volume, but while the original Kobra featured a direct extruder, the Go is Bowden based.
This change doesn’t affect the temperatures on the Kobra Go, which remains the same as the original. The hot end can achieve temperatures of up to 260 °C and 110 °C on the print bed, meaning you should have access to the same palette of printable materials. However, printing with flexibles could prove to be a bit more challenging due to the extruder type. This may get aggravated by the fact that the Go features a single-gear extruder instead of a dual-gear variant, which typically has a better grip on the filament and hence more pushing power.
The Kobra Go features the same auto-leveling system as the original Kobra, with an inductive probe measuring a mesh of 25 points across the build plate and factoring in the unevenness – no leveling wheels needed. Seeing it on a system at this price point is definitely a treat.
Polyetherimide-coated spring steel sheets are becoming an increasingly common spot on budget FDM printers. The textured variety primarily offers great adhesion and easy removal of stubborn prints, thanks to its flexibility. Of course, not all PEI-coated sheets work perfectly, though. If we take our experience with the seemingly identical print surface of the original Kobra into account, we would attest to the Go’s grainy print surface providing proper adhesion and easy removal of prints, albeit its coarse print surface might blitz the first layer detail.
Other changes from the original include the switch to a smaller, 2.4-inch LCD screen with a rotary knob instead of a touchscreen, a simplistic-looking UI, and the lack, or rather the optional inclusion, of a filament runout sensor.
All in all, the Anycubic Kobra Go looks to be a solid 3D printer offering a range of features at a very low price point. However, you can see where Anycubic has saved up on money over other members of its series, with the Go using a lot of plastic for parts that will be all metal on others. We already deemed the original Kobra somewhat plastic-y and the Go steps things up a notch.
That being said, the Kobra Go is an affordable 3D printer that has saved in all the right corners, making it the most affordable Kobra, by far.
The Anycubic Kobra Neo serves as the middle ground between the two aforementioned models.
Featuring the same base, the Neo also offers a standard-sized build volume of 220 x 220 x 250 mm. Furthermore, in terms of temperatures, the Neo also clocks in at 260 °C for the hot end and 110 °C for the heated bed, which means you can print the usual suspect filaments such as PLA, PETG, ABS, and even flexibles, the latter not least due to its direct extruder.
For the Kobra series, it’s a constant back-and-forth when it comes to extruder types. For the Neo, Anycubic opted (again) for a direct drive extrusion system. Typically, direct extruders tend to feed filament more consistently as there is less chance of a blockage as the extruder sits directly on top of the hot end. This can make all the difference with print performance, especially with noodley filaments like TPU and other flexibles.
Also making a showing on the Neo is the use of automatic bed leveling via an inductive probe. Run the routine, and it’ll map out 25 points across the bed and measure how much they deviate. The Z-offset function allows for adjustments, but there are no leveling wheels on the Neo either.
Just like the original and the Go, the Neo comes with a PEI-coated spring steel plate. What’s new, though, is the plate being double-sided, essentially giving the user two different print plate surface structures. Both sides should provide good print adhesion throughout the process and removal of prints remains easy, thanks to its flexibility.
Further similarities include belt tensioners for the X and Y axis, a power outage resume function, and the lack of a filament sensor, which can be purchased separately.
Running on a Gen A V3.0.4 32-bit Trigorilla mainboard with silent stepper drivers, the Neo comes with a 2.4-inch LCD UI, operatable via a rotary control knob. Compared to the original Kobra, the interface feels a bit old hat now, but print performance is not affected by this.
As its mixed bag of features might suggest, the Kobra Neo also finds itself midway price-wise.
As its name might suggest, the Kobra Plus has been scaled up to a 300 x 300 x 350 mm build volume. It’s not quite up there with the Kobra Max but should provide a happy middle ground of build space for customers. To factor in the extra height, the Plus’ Z-axis is dual stepper motor driven and synchronized by a timing belt on top – a first for the Kobra series.
For its extruder, Anycubic opted for a Bowden, meaning less weight on the Z-axis to move around, which should further help reduce wobbling and other unwanted printing artifacts. The dual-geared extruder is compatible with PLA, ABS, PETG, and TPU, with the hot end reaching a maximum of 260 °C.
Like its smaller brethren, the Plus comes with Anycubic’s automatic bed leveling system, LeviQ. Although named identical, the Plus does not feature an inductive probe but a strain gauge system. The leveling process remains the same, though. The printhead will probe multiple points across the build plate. No manual leveling wheels, but it can be adjusted manually via the Z-offset.
Another noticeable difference is the use of a carborundum glass build plate on the Plus. Like PEI coatings, the tempered glass bed is known for its good adhesion during prints, although flexing the plate to pop prints off is not an option. However, the rough glass surface should release prints with ease once cooled down. Whether you prefer one over the other is primarily up to personal preference. Heat-wise, it’ll reach 100 °C, which is bang on par for most basic consumer FDM 3D printers.
For its control, Anycubic opted for a large 4.3-inch touchscreen and a more modern-looking UI, with the mainboard being Anycubic’s 32-bit Trigorilla Pro A V1.0.4. The Plus does come with a filament runout sensor as a standard feature, as well as a print recovery mode.
Like with its build volume, the Kobra Plus occupies the middle ground of the Kobra series price-wise. For anyone looking for a bit more without going all out on print volume, the Plus might be the one.
With 400 x 400 x 450 mm, the Anycubic Kobra Max is the series’ top dog of build volume. Whether you want to 3D print life-sized helmets or scale up your favorite models, the Kobra Max offers ample build volume to let your creativity run wild. Bear in mind you will need the space for it. The footprint of the Kobra Max is 720 x 715 x 665 mm, and even more room is needed as the bed traveling on the Y-axis exceeds the frame’s footprint.
Noticeably, the Anycubic Kobra Max comes with braces for the frame – a measure to make the printer as rigid as possible. In testing, we found little print defects caused by wiggling, even in high Z-axis latitudes. Furthermore, like the Plus, the Z-axis is dual stepper motor driven and synchronized by a timing belt on top.
The print head on the Kobra Max consists of a Volcano-style hot end and two cooling fans and is fed by a double-geared Bowden extruder. The hot end can reach 260 °C. Printing flexibles might be cause for concern given the Bowden setup, but we found the Max to produce clean TPU prints without fuss during testing.
Like the rest of its kind, the Kobra Max also comes with Anycubic’s LeviQ automatic bed leveling, facilitated here via the use of a strain gauge system. Again, no manual leveling knobs are present, but we didn’t miss them one bit during our time with it. X and Y axis tensioners make sure everything else is tight as well.
Like the Plus, the Max also comes with a carborundum glass plate. The plate heats up to 100°C and provides good adherence and easy model release. During our review, we had no gripes with it. It heats up fairly quickly and has even heat distribution. Especially for prints lasting days on end, having a good thermal equilibrium throughout the print bed is essential as prints may otherwise start to wrap or detach from the print plate completely.
The Max uses a 4.3-inch touchscreen display as UI and a 32-bit Trigorilla Pro A V1.0.4 motherboard with TMC2209 silent stepper drivers underneath its hood.
Price-wise, the Max does stand out from the pack, but for its build volume, features, and overall print experience, it’s a bargain. If you need a large volume, trouble-free operation, and repeatable performance, the Kobra Max is likely a good fit.
Anycubic’s LeviQ inductive bed leveling probe rides shotgun on the print head on the Kobra (Source: All3DP)
All Kobra 3D printers come with Anycubic self-developed automatic bed leveling systems. But while they all trade under the brand name LeviQ, different technologies are involved.
The series’ smaller variants, the Kobra, Kobra Go, and Kobra Neo, all feature an inductive probe. The circular pin rides shotgun on the printhead and works by proximity, producing a magnetic field and detecting the field’s interference. In general, inductive probes are said to be precise, consistent, and with a low standard deviation. However, only metals produce enough interference to the induction coil’s magnetic field to be picked up by the current sensor device. In other words, it will only work with a metal build surface – like the PEI-coated sprint steel plate of the three 3D printers.
The strain gauge leveling system on the Kobra Max (Source: All3DP)
The Kobra Plus and Kobra Max, on the other hand, feature a carborundum glass print bed and, therefore (have to) come with an entirely different leveling system. Both 3D printers use a strain gauge for bed leveling. This electrical sensor is mounted directly onto the hot end and uses the nozzle to detect the bed’s surface. Essentially when the hot end contacts the build plate, the strain gauge bracket deforms and the resulting change in electrical resistance is measured. The benefit of using a strain gauge system generally is the reduced weight on the carriage and, as the nozzle functions as the measuring tool, no sensor-nozzle relative position calibration is needed.
We’ve tested both variants on the Kobra and Kobra Max printers and can attest to their stellar performance and repeatability. And quite frankly, they have to – there are no manual bed leveling knobs on any of the series printers.
The PEI-coated spring steel plate of the Anycubic Kobra (Source: All3DP)
These print beds have been in use for quite a while but generally were found on high-quality, more expensive 3D printers.
Recent widespread adoption in the budget sector has us rejoicing. In testing the Kobra, we found it to provide excellent adhesion for prints, ripping free of its magnetic base with ease, and popping prints free with a cheeky flex. But the chunky-grainy texture of the PEI surface can leave the first layer detail of prints obliterated with a uniform, grainy finish. It can look nice, but the effect takes away some of your options for using the first layer of your print for a particular effect. There’s no denying that it’s effective, though – prints stick very well. The Kobra Neo does come with a double-sided PEI-coated print plate, with one side, we assume, being less grainy.
Carborundum Glass
The Kobra Max’s Carborundum glass print surface (Source: All3DP)
Before spring steel plates were widely available, Carborundum glass was, and maybe still is, king.
Tempered glass is a strengthened and more heat-resistant version of regular glass that prevents the sheet from deforming during printing. It is relatively affordable to make, generally provides good heat distribution, and bonds with extruded materials very well without any intermediaries like glue or tape. It also has the neat benefit of making prints pop off the surface without intervention when it cools, but that can also be of detriment if you experience a power out. It produces a smooth bottom finish on prints and is wear and tear-resistant. The Anycubic Kobra Plus and Kobra Max both feature it, and we liked its performance on the Max.
To shreds, you say? Tut tut tut. The Kobra’s print head, easily disassembled, reveals the basic hot end components within (Source: All3DP)
The Anycubic Kobra series uses different extruder setups throughout its series’ versions.
The Anycubic Kobra and Kobra Neo come with a direct drive setup with a single-geared feeding system.
The Kobra Go’s extruder is also single-geared but comes with a Bowden-type instead.
The dual-geared Bowden extruder on the Kobra Max (Source: All3DP)
The series’ larger versions, the Kobra Plus and Kobra Max, also come with a Bowden extruder, albeit with dual-geared ones. This should generally allow for smoother feeding of filament, as a greater torque means less chance of filament skipping.
For their hot end types, the Kobra Max and Plus feature a Volcano-style hot end that allows for great throughput and fast printing speeds, while the Kobra, Go, and Neo come with a V6 Titan-style hot end.
The Kobra Max’s Trigorilla Pro A V1.0.4 mainboard (Source: All3DP)
All Kobra 3D printers come with Anycubic’s own Trigorilla 32-bit mainboards, albeit with different versions. They are of the same generation but have different motor driver chips, displays, and leveling interfaces, so the corresponding firmware differs.
The series’ first batch, the Anycubic Kobra, Kobra Plus, and Kobra Max, come with Trigorialla Pro V1.0.4 motherboards with TMC2209 silent stepper drivers. Since these three machines run different firmware, it is recorded separately on the same motherboard for individual sale.
For the Kobra Go and Kobra Neo, Anycubic uses Trigorilla Gen A V3.0.4 motherboards with CG6609 stepper drivers.
All motherboards run on Marlin 2.0 firmware, with advanced features such as linear advancement not being enabled. Users can modify the source code to enable it, though.
We have it from Anycubic that if you are looking for a replacement board, you might not find all versions in their official store as they are not frequently used accessories. Should you need one, though, the customer service team will gladly help you out.
Though Anycubic’s Kobra series is a favorite, a lot of 3D printer manufacturers offer very different options for a similar price. If you’re interested in picking up a Kobra, here are a few more options we think you should also consider:
The Ender 3 S1 is a significant step up from the Ender 3 machines that came before it. Here you get dual stepper motors to drive the Z-axis movement, a flexible, metal, removable PC-coated print bed, and a sophisticated lightweight print head that introduces a dual, reduction-geared extruder that directly feeds filament to the hot end beneath – features that can also be found on various Kobra models.
With a build volume of 220 x 220 x 250 mm, it is a viable alternative for the smaller Kobra series’ versions, such as the Kobra, Kobra Go, and Kobra Neo. It is considerably more expensive, though, currently being available for $379. A comfortable choice if you want a fuss-free printing experience.
If you fancy a Kobra-Plus-like build volume alternative, cast your eyes toward the Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus, with its 300 x 300 x 300 mm build volume alongside a mix of features. It’s not quite as tall as the Plus, with its 350 mm Z-axis height.
Similar to the above-mentioned S1, the S1 Plus comes with CR touch, dual Z lead screws, and belt tensioners, all stock. It also has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and Creality’s own Sprite extruder rated for 260 °C. For its extra legroom, the Ender 3 S1 Plus will cost you ~$530, making it quite a bit more expensive than the Plus.
Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus
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Mingda Magician Pro
(Source: All3DP)
The Mingda Magician Pro offers a large build volume of 400 x 400 x 400 mm, just 50 mm short on the Z-axis compared to the Kobra Max.
The Mingda Magician Pro comes with all the bells and whistles you expect on a more expensive printer, though. These include a direct extruder, a simple-to-use touchscreen interface, a full metal base plate, and an excellent textured glass build surface. The Magician Pro also features automatic bed leveling using a strain gauge, similar to the Max.
While the direct extruder performed great, the extra weight means the printhead isn’t as nimble as the Anycubic Kobra Max. For the resulting prints to match the quality of the Max, the speed had to be lowered.
Overall, the Mingda Magician Pro is quick to print out of the box, but if you want the printer to perform perfectly, a fair bit of tweaking in the settings is required. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something large with a direct extruder, the Mingda Magician Pro and its $599 price tag, is worth consideration.
