Anycubic Kobra X Review: Multicolor Printing with a Hidden ACE Gen2

The Anycubic Kobra X is an affordable bedslinger FDM printer with a 260×260×260 mm build volume whose ACE Gen2 multicolor system is built right into the toolhead: 4 colors out of the box, expandable to 19, speeds up to 600 mm/s and a hardened steel nozzle rated to 300 °C.

Short verdict: is it worth it?

The Kobra X is one of the cheapest ways to get into color printing at home — from $279 / €299. The whole idea is to ditch the bulky external color box: all the swap mechanics live inside the toolhead, so color changes are faster and waste less filament than external systems. In exchange you get an open frame with no enclosure and no spool drying. It's a great first color printer and a logical step up from a single-color machine, but it isn't built for big ABS parts or fine high-temp prints.

Anycubic Kobra X specifications

The most-searched questions around the Kobra X are price and the Combo bundle. The base machine runs about $279 / €299, and the Combo with an extra ACE 2 Pro unit for a bigger palette is around $449. For that money you get a genuine multicolor printer rather than a single-color budget box — which is the whole point of the Kobra X.

Unboxing and assembly

The printer ships as two main assemblies — the base and the gantry. Inside you'll find the spool holders with guide tubes, the purge wiper, a toolkit, assembly screws, decorative covers, a paper manual and a coil of white PLA. Assembly comes down to bolting the gantry onto the base with eight M5 screws, plugging in the labeled connectors and clipping on the spool holders — around 22 minutes on average, with reviewers reporting anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes depending on experience.

One thing beginners must not miss: remove the six X-axis shipping screws before the first power-on, or you risk damaging the motion system. Nicely, the Kobra X reminds you on-screen. Build quality feels solid — the 13 mm machined aluminum frame adds rigidity, the cables are labeled, and once the decorative covers are on the printer looks factory-built rather than DIY.

The hidden ACE Gen2: how color works here

The Kobra X's headline feature is the second-generation Anycubic Color Engine (ACE Gen2), built directly into the toolhead. There's no external box: four spools sit on the top frame and feed straight into the head. A motor-driven camshaft picks the active channel, and a small display on the front of the head shows which color is loaded. The clever bit is that the cutter sits only 10 mm from the nozzle, so a color change only needs to retract the filament about 30 mm versus ~160 mm on the external ACE Pro used by the Anycubic Kobra 3.

In practice that pays off. Tom's Hardware measured color swaps at around 35 seconds from cut to purge, while the Bambu Lab A1 takes 90 seconds or more. On a model with 776 color changes, the Kobra X finished 10 hours sooner at similar speeds. On waste, the official Anycubic wiki claims a 40–50% reduction; marketing quotes up to 81.25% in an ideal scenario; in a real four-color castle test the Kobra X produced 150 g of purge against 229 g on the Bambu A1 for the same model. For more on the color ecosystem, see our Anycubic ACE multicolor guide.

• Short filament path: cutter 10 mm from the nozzle, only 30 mm retraction — less waste and faster swaps
• Color swaps in ~35 seconds — roughly twice as fast as external AMS boxes
• 4 colors out of the box, expandable to 19 by adding ACE 2 Pro units
• Takes any brand of spool, including odd-sized and sample coils — unlike closed AMS boxes
• Mixes hard and soft materials in one unit: PLA + TPU + PVA

Let's be honest about the downsides. Any single-nozzle multicolor system has to push out the old plastic on a swap, so purge waste is unavoidable — you can see the pile in the photo. You can trim it in the slicer. Second, unlike the external ACE Pro, ACE Gen2 can't dry spools, so wet filament has to be dried separately — here's how to dry filament. Third, the RFID reader only recognizes Anycubic-branded filament and you have to wave the spool over the sensor manually from the menu — not the most convenient feature.

Bed, calibration and first layer

The plate is a two-sided flexible PEI/PEO sheet. Calibration is handled by LeviQ 3.0: automatic bed leveling and Z-offset across 49 points, re-checked before every print. Reviewers call this one of the printer's strong points — the first layer lays down evenly across the whole 260×260 mm bed with no manual Z-offset tweaking. If your first layer still misbehaves, the general fixes are in our first layer troubleshooting guide.

Loading filament takes some getting used to. Because there's so little room between the guide tube and the edge of the spool, you can only push an inch or two at a time, and the holders have no mechanical retraction, so a full spool needs a bit of dexterity. On the plus side, the holders are simple and accept any spool, including cardboard and sample coils that won't fit closed AMS boxes.

Print quality

Print quality is strong for the class. Dimensional accuracy stays within ±0.1–0.2 mm on all three axes, overhangs print cleanly to 45–50°, and a test Benchy at default settings comes out in roughly 13–17 minutes. PLA looks great across the full speed range, and PETG is good after a small retraction tweak; if you get stringing, the fixes are in our stringing guide.

Tom's Hardware's real-world tests show what it can do: an articulated bone dragon with 150 links, about five feet long, printed in 17 hours 22 minutes at an average 140 mm/s; six PETG dragon hatchlings took 5 hours 44 minutes; and a soft-TPU paper-bag vase in vase mode ran 10 hours 48 minutes at 35 mm/s. Notably, the ACE Gen2 handles both 95A and soft 85A TPU without fuss — rare for a multicolor system.

Speed and noise

The 600 mm/s figure is a marketing peak. Anycubic itself recommends staying around 300 mm/s, and reviewers find 140–200 mm/s the comfortable sweet spot for quality. That's normal: a moving-bed design loses stability to enclosed CoreXY machines at top speed, and high accelerations can introduce ghosting — see our layer shifting and ghosting guide. Noise is low: ≤48 dB in normal mode and about 45 dB in quiet mode, with most of the sound coming from the part-cooling fans.

Materials: what it prints

A hardened steel nozzle out of the box is a big plus: you can print PLA-CF and PETG-CF composites right away without worrying about wear. But for ABS and large ASA parts, the open frame can't hold enough heat and you get warping — the fixes are in our warping guide. If you do print ABS/ASA, mind ventilation — why it matters is covered in our fumes and ventilation guide. For general plastic properties, see the filament guide.

Software, camera and firmware

The slicer is Anycubic Slicer Next, built on OrcaSlicer and BambuStudio — anyone who's used those will feel at home, and the basics are in our OrcaSlicer guide. Fine-tuning is limited to temperature, cooling and three broad speed modes. The built-in 720p camera has a physical privacy shutter and LED lighting; it's fine for monitoring from the app and for spaghetti detection, but the viewing angle is weak for time-lapse and the head blocks the part until it grows past 40–50 mm. The firmware is closed (Klipper under the hood): one for enthusiasts to note — the Rinkhals alternative firmware does not support the Kobra X as of March 2026, so there's no deep Klipper-style tuning here yet.

Pros

• ACE Gen2 built into the toolhead — no bulky external box or long filament path
• Very fast color swaps: ~35 seconds vs 90+ on the Bambu Lab A1, saving hours on long color prints
• Less purge waste: officially −40–50%, and 150 g vs 229 g in a real test
• 4 colors out of the box, expandable to 19 via ACE 2 Pro units
• Excellent first layer and reliable LeviQ 3.0 auto-calibration — prints clean right away
• Wide material compatibility in one unit: PLA, PETG, ASA, TPU 95A/85A, PVA, composites
• Hardened 300 °C nozzle out of the box — PLA-CF and PETG-CF ready
• Holders accept any spool, including odd-sized and sample coils
• Low price, fast assembly (~22 minutes) and quiet operation (≤48 dB)

Cons

• Open frame with no enclosure — not enough heat retention for ABS and large ASA
• ACE Gen2 can't dry spools (unlike the ACE Pro) — dry wet filament separately
• Multicolor printing still wastes filament on purging
• Loading is awkward with a full spool, and holders have no mechanical retraction
• RFID only recognizes Anycubic filament and needs a manual wave over the sensor
• A moving bed loses stability to CoreXY at top speed
• Closed firmware means no deep tuning; Rinkhals doesn't support the Kobra X yet
• Not compatible with older ACE Pro units from the Kobra 3 and S1

Kobra X vs the competition

The direct rival is the Bambu Lab A1: it has a more mature ecosystem and app, but color changes are twice as slow and it uses the external AMS Lite box. The sibling Anycubic Kobra 3 is cheaper and can dry spools via the ACE Pro, but it's slower on swaps and tops out at fewer colors. If you need a big bed, look at the Kobra 3 Max with its 420×420 mm plate. And if you want an enclosed CoreXY, that's the Anycubic Kobra S1. For the full "which Kobra should I buy" breakdown, see our Kobra lineup comparison.

Who the Kobra X is for

The Kobra X is the right pick if you want to get into multicolor printing cheaply and without fuss: toys, articulated figures, signs, models, hard-plus-soft material combos, dissolvable supports. It's a great first color printer and a logical move up from a single-color machine. Skip it if your main job is large functional ABS/ASA parts (you'll want an enclosure) or deep firmware tuning. As an entry point into color printing at this price, the Kobra X is one of the strongest options on the market.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Anycubic official wiki — Kobra X (specs, guides, error codes)
• Anycubic official store — Kobra X (bundles and pricing)
• Tom's Hardware — Anycubic Kobra X Review: Hidden AMS (real print tests)
• 3DWork.io — Anycubic Kobra X Review (72-hour test, materials)
• Notebookcheck — Anycubic Kobra X (specs and price)
• 3DJake — Anycubic Kobra X (specs, EU price)
• Cvetmir3D — Anycubic Kobra X review (Russian-language review)
• 3DIY shop — Anycubic Kobra X review (Russian-language review)
• Age of Miniatures — Anycubic Kobra X (terrain and miniature printing)