6 Months with the Bambu Lab P2S: An Honest Review

After 6 months using the P2S as my main printer, here is my real take — the good, the bad, and whether it is worth the investment.

I’ve been printing on the Bambu Lab P2S for 6 months and I’ve formed a solid opinion. Spoiler: it’s the best hardware investment I’ve made in years, but it’s not perfect.

The context

I was coming from a Creality K1 that worked well… when it worked. About 40% of the time was spent calibrating, tuning, and debugging instead of printing. The P2S completely changed that dynamic.

What I loved

The speed is real

The P2S prints at 500mm/s without exaggeration. In practice, most prints run at 200-300mm/s depending on geometry, but that’s still 5-10x faster than before.

A part that used to take 6 hours on the K1 comes off the bed in 1.5 hours.

The enclosure changes everything

With a closed chamber:

  • PETG comes out perfect every time
  • ABS/ASA with zero warping
  • Ambient temperature no longer matters

I avoided ASA before because of constant warping. Now it’s my favorite material for functional parts.

The built-in camera

Being able to watch the print in real time from the Bambu app sounds trivial until you have it. I no longer walk over to check the printer — I just glance at the app.

What I’d improve

The AMS has quirks

The multi-material system (AMS) is impressive but has rough edges. It occasionally jams with flexible filaments and color changes generate a fair amount of waste.

The app ecosystem is somewhat closed

There’s no official documented API. Open-source projects have reverse-engineered the MQTT protocol (which I use with Home Assistant), but official support would be great.

The price

It’s not cheap. The P2S runs around $800 USD. If you’re a beginner, probably start with a P1P or wait for a sale.

Is it worth it?

Yes, definitely — if you print frequently and value your time. The “print and forget” experience is worth every cent.

If you print once a month for casual hobbies, a Bambu Lab A1 mini gets the job done at half the price.

Integration with Home Assistant

I have the P2S integrated with HAOS using the ha-bambulab project. This gives me:

  • Real-time print status
  • Nozzle and bed temperatures
  • Notifications when a print finishes
  • Basic printer control

A great example of why I like self-hosting: real-time data without depending on Bambu’s cloud.

Conclusion

The P2S is the printer I always wanted. Reliable, fast, and it doesn’t need constant attention. The Bambu Studio slicer is also excellent — much better than Cura for their machines.

Questions about the P2S? Drop me a message.