Anycubic Vyper 3D Printer Review

Anycubic Vyper is the latest in a long line of i3-style printers targeting a budget and user-level previously dominated by the Creality Ender range.

Can this new entrant unseat the current king of the budget 3d printers?

Can the Vyper Compete?

There are a couple of elements that a 3D printer MUST have to be even a contender in this part of the market, and the Vyper has all of them.

1. Can you buy it for under $500? – For a 3D printer to compete against top brands such as Prusa and Ultimaker, it has to play in the budget end of the market, and that is for end-users who are looking for their first or only printer. When you consider 3D printer farms, keeping the price low while having necessary features puts the machine into the running.
2. Does it assemble easily? – In this market some assembly is to be expected because adding pre-assembled to the feature list bumps up the price considerably, both of the unit (due to the fact someone has to build and test the printer) and also for shipping (these things are large and heavy while flat-packed, so adding bulk for shipping an assembled unit successfully puts the box into a whole different category). There was a time when “some assembly required” meant building the machine from scratch, every nut, bolt, and tiniest component, thankfully assembly today is more IKEA and less LEGO. Ease of assembly is also important to printer farm folks, as for them time is very much money.
3. Is print quality good? – Despite what other reviews might imply, it’s not fair to look at the bottom end of the 3D printer market and expect results that compare with machines in the several thousand dollar range. That said, the results need to be good because the incumbent market leaders have heritage, tuned profiles, and lots of community behind them.
4. Ease of use – We have moved on from “low cost = high frustration”, and will simply not tolerate it. We don’t necessarily expect 100% plug and play but it should be a pleasure rather than a pain to use.
5. Reliability – There was a time that 3D printing was a frustration delivery system. Now we expect way more successful prints than failed ones. That includes everything from the print surface to the extruder assembly.

AnyCubic Vyper Review Highlights

AnyCubic knew what they were doing when they put this 3D printer specification together.

It feels well-built, with 20mins assembly time tops, in printing it performs very nicely, very quietly, and once you get a dialled-in Cura profile it prints extremely well.

I am a huge Prusa fan but I have to admit the injection molded parts and covered extrusion of the Vyper are a classier option than all the 3D printed parts on my beloved mk3s. Especially considering the price difference between the machines.

The Vyper is no slacker in the specs department either, coming out as a great option all around, even before considering how inexpensive it is.

AnyCubic Vyper Specification

• 245mm x 245mm x 260mm build area
• Textured, Flexible, Removable magnetic print surface
• Colour LCD touch screen
• Auto-level (16 point) Z adjustment built-in (strain sensor style)
• 32-bit Controller board
• SD card reader
• Bowden, Volcano-style extrusion with powerful cooling
• Fast + Silent steppers
• Print runout/power fail recovery

AnyCubic Vyper Printing Results

Other than the usual test-trinkets and benchies, I wanted to put the large print area to the test. A lot of the time these review printers that we are sent are perfectly well capable of printing fast, detailed models in the centre of the build platform but fail over a longer print period. In total I put days of prints on this thing and it did extremely well with very minimal issues in lifting or warping which were my main fears with this textured build surface.

AnyCubic Review: Conclusion

I am very happy that AnyCubic sent me this machine and have had many successful 3d prints off of it before packing it all up to travel with us to England for our big move. The fact that it made the cut out of all of my FDM 3D printers along with only my Prusa Mk3s is probably the best endorsement I could give

AnyCubic will be launching an update 3D printer called the Kobra Plus on June 8th and will be for sale on June 15th. Until then you can find the Vyper on the usual stores for under $500 and often under $400!

Check out my Amazon affiliate link for the latest prices above. Last time I checked there was a $30-off coupon making the printer $399 with free shipping!