Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo Review: Enclosed CoreXY With ACE Pro Multicolor

The Verdict in Short

The Anycubic Kobra S1 is an enclosed FDM printer built on CoreXY kinematics, with a 250×250×250 mm build volume, speeds up to 600 mm/s, a hotend up to 320 °C and a heated bed up to 120 °C — and 4-color (up to 8) printing is added by a separate ACE Pro auto-feeding system. In short, it is Anycubic bringing fast multicolor printing in an enclosed frame to the budget segment, and it mostly lands.

The quick take: for the money this is one of the most balanced enclosed CoreXY machines out there. It prints beautifully in single color right out of the box, and it is quiet and reliable. Buy it if you want a ready-to-run printer for home or a small workshop. If multicolor is your main use case, weigh the filament waste and time first — Bambu Lab P1S with its AMS is still smoother and more reliable there.

Specifications

Unboxing and Setup

The printer ships mostly assembled — from box to first print takes about fifteen minutes. The Combo box includes the printer, the ACE Pro unit with a spool holder, four PTFE tubes, a signal cable, two power cords, tools, a USB drive with software and pre-sliced models, a filament sample, a nozzle cleaner and a carbon filter. Reviewers note that some early units arrived with cosmetic defects — dents or frayed wires — so inspect the machine right away.

The frame is enclosed but made of polycarbonate panels rather than glass. On one hand, it won't shatter in transit; on the other, owners say the plastic feels a bit flimsy and the door doesn't open a full 180°. The toolhead uses a quick-release lever nozzle — you can swap the nozzle in seconds without tools. Below: the extruder, the nozzle unit and the purge eject chute with its cleaning wiper.

The bed is a double-sided PEI sheet on magnetic spring steel. The textured side grips well: reviewers report that models which peeled off other printers stuck here without issue. The first layer comes out flat almost every time thanks to auto-leveling — more on that below. If you want to understand bed adhesion in general, we have a complete first-layer guide.

Print Quality

This is where the Kobra S1 pleasantly surprises. On single-color printing, reviews (including Tom’s Hardware and VoxelMatters) rank it among the best FDM machines they've tested. Overhangs are clean, fine details are crisp, and organic supports peel off easily. Much of the credit goes to LeviQ 3.0 auto-leveling with a strain sensor right in the nozzle: the first layer lays down flat, and issues only crop up from oily fingerprints on the plate or an under-heated bed.

Material support is broad: PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, and — thanks to the 320 °C nozzle — polycarbonate. Third-party filament works with no fuss; Anycubic's RFID filament just auto-loads settings but isn't required. Minor nitpicks: Russian-language reviews note slightly weak cooling on shallow overhangs (~60°) and faint banding on white plastics. PETG on third-party spools can string a bit — fixed with retraction tuning; if you hit it, see our guide on how to fix stringing.

For abrasive filaments (carbon-fiber, glow-in-the-dark) the stock nozzle won't last long — there's a hardened version for those. It also helps if you plan to print a lot of composites or polycarbonate.

Speed and Noise

The 600 mm/s figure is a marketing peak. In practice outer walls run around 200–300 mm/s depending on the plastic (HyperPLA ~300, PLA and ABS ~200, PETG 150–180 mm/s) — same as rivals: few print above 250 mm/s without quality loss. But acceleration up to 20,000 mm/s² gives fast travels and short ramps, so real print times are noticeably shorter than on old bedslingers. The real trump card is noise: ≤46 dB in standard mode and ≤44 dB in quiet mode. That's quieter than many enclosed CoreXY machines, the P1S included, and it can live in a living room.

Multicolor: The ACE Pro System

ACE Pro (Anycubic Color Engine Pro) is a separate 4-spool auto-feeder that sits on top. Chain two units and you can print up to 8 colors. A nice bonus: ACE Pro doubles as a dryer up to 55 °C and keeps filament dry while printing, and RFID recognizes Anycubic's own spools. On drying wet filament in general, we have a dedicated guide.

Now, honestly, the downsides of color printing. A color change means a purge: old plastic is pushed out so it doesn't contaminate the next color. And the waste is huge. VoxelMatters measured 183 grams of purge waste for a 10.9 g Benchy — 17 times more than the model weighs. Each swap takes ~2 minutes, so a one-hour print easily becomes nine hours, and a three-color mask at 3DWithUs printed for 73 hours versus 9 hours single-color. Worse, the stock slicer doesn't show the real purge volume, so you're estimating filament blind.

Jams happen too: per the official wiki and owner comments (2026), filament sometimes gets stuck in the ACE Pro buffer or gear, especially with old brittle filament or incorrect loading. The standard fix is to restart the ACE Pro (the gear zeroes and a gap opens so you can pull the filament out), and if that fails, loosen the cover with an S2.5 Allen key and turn the gear by hand. Retraction on brittle PETG can also cause a hotend clog — keep a cleaning needle handy.

Enclosure, ABS and ASA

The frame is enclosed but has no active chamber heating — it simply retains heat inside. For ABS and ASA that's usually enough: an enclosed chamber reduces warping and delamination compared to an open printer. If you print those often, it's worth understanding the causes of warping and considering air filtration — ABS/ASA emit VOCs, and the stock carbon filter is thin for a living room. The external AirPure 2.0 purifier fits the Kobra S1.

Software and Ecosystem

The native slicer is Anycubic Slicer Next, built on OrcaSlicer, so it's familiar to Orca/Bambu Studio users. It does run noticeably slower, though, and Tom's Hardware put it right in the verdict: "good printer, bad slicer." Firmware is Kobra OS with over-the-air updates: recent versions added ACE V2 support, stabilized cartridge communication, fixed freezes and optimized color changes and purging. You can control it from the screen, the slicer, the app or USB. There's a built-in 480p camera for monitoring — but owners report remote monitoring likes to drop on timeout (about 60% of the time).

Around back are the power connectors and the signal cable to the ACE Pro, with filament routed through four PTFE tubes. Limitations: no Ethernet port (Wi-Fi only) and no direct wireless printing from third-party Orca/Bambu Studio — printing goes through Anycubic's software. Another ecosystem downside is proprietary components and enclosed electronics: modding and repairs are harder than on "open" models. One reviewer spent a couple of hours extracting PETG that snapped inside the printhead and waited about ten days for a part from China.

Pros

• Excellent print quality out of the box — among the best single-color results of any FDM machine tested
• Enclosed CoreXY: genuinely fast travels, 20,000 mm/s² acceleration, clean overhangs and details
• Very quiet — ≤46 dB standard and ≤44 dB in quiet mode, fine for a living room
• LeviQ 3.0 auto-leveling with a strain sensor: a flat first layer with almost no fuss
• 320 °C nozzle and 120 °C bed — PETG, ABS, ASA and even polycarbonate on the menu
• 4–8 color printing via ACE Pro, which also dries filament up to 55 °C
• Quick-release nozzle, filament sensor, power-loss recovery, camera and Wi-Fi
• Accessible base price and official support in Russia

Cons

• Huge purge waste on color changes — up to 183 g for a 10.9 g Benchy
• Multicolor is slow: ~2 minutes per swap, a one-hour print easily becomes nine
• The stock slicer doesn't show the real purge volume — you plan filament blind
• The software lags and the webcam often drops on timeout
• Occasional filament jams in the ACE Pro, especially on old, brittle spools
• Proprietary components and enclosed electronics — harder to mod and repair
• The plastic frame feels flimsy, the door doesn't open 180°, no Ethernet
• Color needs the ACE Pro in the Combo bundle — noticeably pricier than the base

How It Compares

Here's the layout: the Kobra S1 wins on price, temperatures (320 °C nozzle, 120 °C bed) and quietness. Bambu Lab P1S costs more but is friendlier to beginners and clearly more reliable in multicolor — the AMS jams less than ACE Pro, and Bambu Studio is polished. Creality K1C is a solid middle option with no multicolor out of the box. If you want to compare the Kobra S1 with its siblings, see our Kobra lineup breakdown. Prices are approximate — they depend on sales and region.

Bottom Line

The Anycubic Kobra S1 is one of the most balanced enclosed CoreXY printers in its price class. It prints great and quietly, needs little tuning, and happily churns out functional parts, prototypes and models in a set-and-forget way. For the money it's very strong, and the 320 °C nozzle plus 120 °C bed give material headroom many rivals lack.

The trade-offs are a closed ecosystem, somewhat raw software, and multicolor that's expensive in both filament and time. If color printing isn't your priority, the base Kobra S1 is an excellent buy. If you specifically need reliable multicolor out of the box, look at the Bambu Lab P1S with AMS, even at a higher price. For home and hobby use, as a Russian-language review neatly put it, the Kobra S1 is "a great option" — just not for a print farm.

FAQ

Sources

• VoxelMatters — Anycubic Kobra S1 review
• Tom’s Hardware — Kobra S1: good printer, bad slicer
• 3DWithUs — Kobra S1 Combo: tests and settings
• The Gadgeteer — Kobra S1 Combo review
• 3DToday — Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo review
• Anycubic Wiki — ACE Pro clog troubleshooting
• Anycubic — official Kobra S1 page