UnBoxing the M3D Micro (Retail Edition)

If you have been looking to get into 3d printing on a budget, the M3D Micro printer is probably one of the printers you have checked out. It is small, functional, and, best of all, affordable. Coming in between 350 and 450 USD, the Micro is one of several new sub-$500 printers that can actually do what they promise–print right out of the box.

Currently M3D’s website lists two versions of the Micro, the “standard” and the “retail” editions–hence the $100 price spread–the standard version is $349 while the retail edition comes in at $449. I have seen quite a few unboxing videos on their standard edition and so I thought I would spring for the retail version so that the differences might be highlighted.

M3D justifies the retail edition’s $100 premium with; a better box, a longer warranty, a free spool of filament, and (and this is the big one)–dozens of quality improvements…

From M3D’s website:

“The term “Retail” signifies that we’ve made dozens of quality improvements, refinements in design, and created enough consistency in the user experience that our flagship product has matured.”

So the question is, if you are not making a video for Youtube, do you want to spend $100 more for this upgraded edition? Lets break it down:

On it’s face, it seems pretty straight forward; do you want to pay for a cleaner presentation? Do you want longer warranty coverage? Do you want a better(?) printer?

If you back out the cost of the spool of filament you get with the retail version–and you will need at least one spool of filament–you are left spending an extra $86 dollars for the box, warranty and improvements. Honestly, these are decisions only you can make as you determine what is important to you and your comfort with risk (9 extra months warranty!). I personally would find it hard to justify spending 25% of the cost of the product to extend the warranty 9 months and I don’t really care about the box. I am, however, interested in the improvements.

With this in mind, the day after I ordered my printer, I looked up M3D’s support to ask them about the improvements that they had made. Sadly, it took over a week (and several emails) to get a response and even then they weren’t very specific. After two emails (days apart) letting me know that they were a little overwhelmed and would be getting to me soon, they referred me to the very page I had asked them about. After pressing them further they did respond immediately with the following,

“In the retail edition, we are constantly upgrading parts to the Micro to make its performance the highest it can be. We do this by upgrading parts such as the motors, fan, belts etc. Also, the 1 year warranty is a big deal in 3D printing, so if you are a beginner, then we highly recommend the retail edition. If you are an expert, I would recommend saving some money and purchasing the standard edition.”

While this wasn’t the depth of justification I was hoping for, it does seem to point to slight improvements in the quality of certain parts. This would probably be enough to convince me to spring for this higher priced edition as I really just want as trouble-free an experience as possible. Additionally, I think at this level that $86 is a reasonable expense for what I take to be evolutionary improvements.

After spending over a week getting an answer to a simple question however, I begin to wonder how long it might be before I would see my printer again if I had to send it in for warranty service (or how long it might take to get to the bottom of any real issues through their overwhelmed tech support). I am mindful, however, that this project is one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever and so they are probably justified in being a little overwhelmed right now–I will be surprised if they don’t dig themselves out pretty soon.

As for how the product arrived (I have attached a video of the printer coming out of the box), suffice it to say that it was nearly a flawless experience. The printer is very well packaged–I would have no fear that it would arrive damaged–and the presentation (and documentation) is very clean, crisp and easy to follow. In fact, the only issue I had came from the filament I had ordered and how it was packaged–four of five rolls had broken through their sealed plastic packages–but this wasn’t a huge deal. Overall, especially from an aesthetic point of view, the total package is spot-on. It all just fits together, from the printer, to the retail box (looks great), to the manual, everything shows a good deal of effort and lot of attention to detail.

Of course, the real test is how it will print; I will let you know soon how it performs in a future post. In the mean time, from what I have seen so far, the M3D Micro is definitely a printer worthy of consideration in this sub-$500 printer market.