It seems like everyone is dog-piling on Anker over this, so I'd like to put forward a bit more positive of a take.
I have a M5 that I got through the original Kickstarter campaign. I love this printer. I use it casually, but I rarely have a failed print that I can't attribute to i.e. poorly chosen supports. Almost all of the parts on it are still original and working well, apart from the hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end where the very thin, long screws did not have the shear strength in aluminum to not break when accidentally torquing the nozzle head. This was fixed with the all-metal hot end, which is not ideal for all filaments.)
Despite my issue with the hot end (which I believe could easily be fixed with an updated design), and the nearly useless "AI" feature, I feel like this printer was a great value at the time. It's very well built, looks great, and very reliable. I really enjoy every opportunity I have to use it and do not regret my purchase decision at all.
I'm saddened that they seem to be pulling out of the market, even though it makes sense compared to the competition. It really seemed like they had a promising start. If this is truly the end, then RIP with positive sentiments from me.
They unfortunately released at an unfortunate time. Bambulab became widely successful at the same time and just ate up the market. Anker printers would have been a hot sell otherwise.
Anker should focus on its core business which is batteries. Recently they had multiple safety recalls for batteries. If they can't get batteries right anymore, which is their core business, they can't conceivably get anything else right.
I used this to monitor my son to see if he was going anywhere before or after school as I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going anywhere I disapproved of. I was able to do this quite easily using the ('zattechhacker at g ma i l c om') and I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the locations. I went to the locations and saw who he was with and where he was going.
I was disappointed by this but not super surprised, we did the kickstarter (or whatever platform they used, I don't remember) for the original ankermake thinking that Anker was a company that stood by their products and this would be great.
It was at a good time that we were looking at getting a new printer, and had high hopes.
While the printer itself was decent, it just felt like they really bit off more than they could chew and really should not have entered the market. It did not take long for us to regret getting it, having a ton of issues with it, and now barely use it since it just almost always ends in annoyance.
Anker is no longer selling 3D Printers
(theverge.com)50 points by geerlingguy 26 July 2025 | 71 comments
Comments
I have a M5 that I got through the original Kickstarter campaign. I love this printer. I use it casually, but I rarely have a failed print that I can't attribute to i.e. poorly chosen supports. Almost all of the parts on it are still original and working well, apart from the hot end that I've had to replace a few times due to accidentally breaking the screws when changing nozzles. (It was a poor design of the original hot end where the very thin, long screws did not have the shear strength in aluminum to not break when accidentally torquing the nozzle head. This was fixed with the all-metal hot end, which is not ideal for all filaments.)
Despite my issue with the hot end (which I believe could easily be fixed with an updated design), and the nearly useless "AI" feature, I feel like this printer was a great value at the time. It's very well built, looks great, and very reliable. I really enjoy every opportunity I have to use it and do not regret my purchase decision at all.
I'm saddened that they seem to be pulling out of the market, even though it makes sense compared to the competition. It really seemed like they had a promising start. If this is truly the end, then RIP with positive sentiments from me.
I used to expect anything they made to be good by default. Now, it's the opposite.
It was at a good time that we were looking at getting a new printer, and had high hopes.
While the printer itself was decent, it just felt like they really bit off more than they could chew and really should not have entered the market. It did not take long for us to regret getting it, having a ton of issues with it, and now barely use it since it just almost always ends in annoyance.
But hey, they could use mine for free.:)
https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-making-a-500c...