Creality Ender 5 S1

When Creality mentioned sending their Ender-5 S1 to the lab and on top of that their Sonic Pad I was quite intrigued and after spending just over 1 month with it that was only partially justified. In terms of features there’s no denying that the Ender-5 S1 by Creality surpasses the SideWinder X2 model by Artillery 3D, even without taking into account the innovative Sonic Pad. The same of course applies in terms of build quality (I’d argue also looks) since Creality wanted a sturdier construction for their 3D printer. However, for some people printing speed is what matters the most and here is where the Ender-5 S1 did in fact fall short, at least when compared to the SideWinder X2. Yes, the Sonic Pad did trim down the time required to print both models (nowhere near to the advertised 2x+ however – this depends on the printer model according to Creality) but clearly not enough to make a serious impact in that regard (also it would be great if it could connect wirelessly with the Ender-5 S1). Power consumption might also be an issue for some people and here the Ender-5 S1 didn’t do great either (makes sense however, more moving parts compared to the SideWinder X2 and higher temperatures for the nozzle).

When it comes to the initial setup and calibration of the printer, it was very quick and easy to get it going, most of my time with it initially was bed levelling, which was rather tedious, but with a 3D printer, you would expect some tedium given that prints can take hours if not days to complete. In terms of quality, the prints were pretty good, but they lacked a little in precision because even though they looked the part, I found that models that should fit together without flaw often were tighter than I would expect, why this is? I can’t be sure, but I think with some time I could figure it out and get some very clean and precise parts printed.