Elegoo has finally released the price of their new Centauri Carbon 3D printer, and it is, well, astonishing.
The Centauri Carbon is Elegoo’s entry into the “enclosed CoreXY high-speed fully automated” desktop 3D printer market. Begun with a huge success by Bambu Lab’s X1C a couple of years ago, most 3D printer manufacturers have come up with similar devices to compete. These include the Anycubic S1, the Prusa CORE One, Creality K1 series, and now the Elegoo Centauri Carbon.
We’ve just finished an extensive test of the Centauri Carbon and found it to be an excellent machine, receiving a 9/10 rating on our Enthusiast scale. As far as we can tell, it’s got most of the features of the competitors and a few more.
The big question has been, “What is the price of this machine?” Elegoo has been quite cagey on this information and has not published anything about it.
However, we did speak with an Elegoo representative directly some weeks ago, and we were told this:
“You will notice the price.”
That piqued our interest, and we’ve been waiting for the news, which hit today.
The price of the Centauri Carbon is US$299.
For reference, here are the competitive prices (note, these are all assembled versions):
- Anycubic S1: US$449
- Creality K1C: US$529
- Bambu Lab P1S: US$759
- Prusa CORE One: US$1199
To put this in perspective, you can buy FOUR Centauri Carbons for the price of one Prusa CORE One, and two for the price of a P1S, and have leftover cash for filament.
This is a defining moment in desktop 3D printing, as Elegoo has clearly shifted the price point expectation for this class of machine. It will certainly put considerable pressure on the competitors, who will have to differentiate their products to justify their much higher pricing.
There could be another effect in the print farm market. Last year the story was that if you bought a high-speed machine it could theoretically replace five slower machines to achieve the same part throughput. This year the story could be that you can buy five (high-speed) Centauri Carbons instead of one higher-priced (high-speed) 3D printer for the farm. This should lower the price of parts produced on 3D print farms.
Another outcome of this price shift is probably the beginning of the end of open-gantry 3D printers. Those have been priced in the US$299 range for a while now, and they occupy the price slot below the more expensive enclosed machines. Except now they don’t, as the Centauri Carbon has taken up that spot. Why buy an open-gantry machine when you can get a much more capable Centauri Carbon instead?
Elegoo will almost certainly have a massive demand for the Centauri Carbon, and I’m wondering if they are able to manufacture enough to keep up. I’m sure they’ve considered this, and perhaps that’s why the price is so low: they anticipate making an enormous number of them, lowering the cost of each.
Either way, we are now in a new world of 3D printer pricing.
Via Elegoo
