The $270 Sculpfun iCube Pro is our budget pick for this update. While there are cheaper laser engraving machines, the iCube Pro is a pretty competitive little device for this price.

First, there’s the safety-oriented design with a light-shielding enclosure that prevents harmful laser light from leaking from its box. It also comes with a built-in smoke filter and can sense when its temperature limit is exceeded, automatically shutting down and setting off an alarm to inform the user.

It’s always reassuring to know these things are in place, but the usual precautions should still be taken, of course.

In terms of its portability, the iCube Pro is a lightweight, cuboidal shape around 3.2 kg in weight, making it something that should be easy to carry under the arm from A to B. Its 262 x 300 x 226 mm dimensions mean it might even fit in a backpack, too.

Once at your destination, you can use the iCube Pro via computer or mobile app, connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The work area itself is just 130 x 130 mm, which is fairly small but good enough for what we consider a portable laser engraver. It works with acrylic, wood, leather, ceramic, and even stainless steel. Sculpfun does claim its 5 W diode laser can cut some materials, too, but this is best thought of as a pure engraver. Removing the enclosure allows it to function as if with a pass-through, too, and taking its metal base plate out lets you engrave directly onto a large object, both useful features to have in a machine like this.

With a beam spot size of 0.06 mm, it should also be capable of fine detail. So, those looking for a portable, well-equipped laser engraver for items such as coasters, mobile device cases, and more will likely find this one ticks many boxes.

xTool’s twin-laser-toting F1 is the exciting Upgrade Pick for portable laser engravers, offering an array of features as standard, plus optional extras.

Packing two lasers into its body, a 10 W diode and a 2 W infrared, the xTool F1 has been designed specifically for portability and creatives on the go, and thanks to its twin-laser setup, it also has a little extra flexibility when it comes to materials. xTool says the inclusion of that 2 W infrared is intended for engraving metals.

It’s also absolutely rapid, with a claimed top engraving speed of 4,000 mm/s, possible thanks to its two galvanometers, which deflect the laser with fast flicks of mirrors instead of moving an entire toolhead about. Expect to see the F1 engraving items considerably quicker than most – that F1 name suddenly makes more sense now, doesn’t it?

There’s only so far the mirrors can deflect, however, so the work area is a fairly limited 115 x 115 mm, although xTool does sell an add-on called the Slide Extension, which expands the working area to 400 x 115 mm. Actually, optional additional accessories are a bit of a theme with the xTool F1. While you probably won’t suffer at all carrying the 4.6 kg, 179 x 235 x 334 mm F1 around, you can splash out extra on the rolling hard case, which fits the F1 exclusively and allows for remarkably easy transporting of the device.

Then there’s the optional power pack, so you don’t have to plug it into the mains supply; the rotary add-on, which has the versatility to hold a wide range of objects; and the air purifier, too. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself signing for a package with over $3,000 of kit in it. That’s more or less double the price of the F1 itself.

What you get from that kind of investment is quite clearly a highly-developed portable laser engraving experience. Auto-focusing, Wi-Fi, app control, and a wide range of operating system and software (LightBurn) compatibility is, of course, part of the F1 experience too. All in all, xTool may have, for the time being, made the most advanced portable laser engraving experience available. You just have to have the budget to unlock its full potential.