Back in June 2024 I got a Bambu Lab A1 mini to add to the printers in the shop. The Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D Printer is a tiny little thing! And it’s not my first mini printer. Back in 2021 I got a Prusa MINI+ and when I did I pretty much stopped using the old Monoprice Maker Select Plus except for larger prints because the quality was so good on the Prusa.
I liked the Bambu Lab P1S I got in October 2023 so much that I convinced Josh at Brown Dog Gadgets to replace our Ender-3 S1 printers with a few, so he got four of them.
And since I was having great success with the P1S it made the A1 mini look nice, and I saw it as a “replacement” for the Prusa MINI+… oh, and Bambu Lab was having a sale, and oh, I actually had a $50 gift card to apply to the purchase so I got it for $175 USD. Killer Deal!
I did not get the AMS unit. I’ve got one for the P1S and do any multi-color stuff on that machine. There are a few things that aren’t amazing about the A1 mini, like the camera and the light, and of course the smaller print area, but the print quality is extremely nice for a bed slinger. It appears to print higher quality prints than the Prusa MINI+ did, even when it was brand new. The A1 mini came ready to print… no assembly required.
The screen is a little small (though it’s much better than the old “car stereo” style screen on the P1S) and I use a stylus for pressing the buttons on the screen because my fingers are not tiny because I am a fully grown adult man.
I mostly use the A1 mini for printing printing plates (yes, plates!) or other small prints if the P1S is busy. Honestly if you want a small beginner printer the A1 mini fits the bill pretty well.