Creality Hi Combo

9.3

SCORE

9.3/10

Pros

Affordable multi-color printing
Speed
Plenty of new features
Camera included
Easy assembly
Silent

Cons

Main extruder cable could use more support
Pc software did not always generate timelapses
Smaller display than older printers

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Creality Hi Combo

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Creality Hi Combo, the first, affordable, multi-color 3D printer from Creality.

In the last years we have reviewed an endless amount of 3D printers and also most of the newest 3D FDM machines from Creality included in the flagship and ender series (Creality K1C, Creality K1 SE, Creality Ender-3 V3 Plus, Creality Ender-3, Creality Ender-3 SE) but this new model from the brand does not belong to any of the previous series, launching as the very first product of the Hi family.

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Creality Hi Combo Review

Tests & Scores

Scores

Creality Hi Combo Scores

Accessories - 9/10
9/10
Assembly - 9.5/10
9.5/10
Design - 9/10
9/10
Display Screen - 8.75/10
8.8/10
Operation & Control - 9/10
9/10
Construction & Build - 9/10
9/10
Connectivity - 9/10
9/10
Versatility - 9.5/10
9.5/10
Performance - 10/10
10/10
Print Quality - 10/10
10/10
Power Consumption - 8/10
8/10
Durability - 9/10
9/10
Software - 9/10
9/10
Features - 10/10
10/10
Tech & Specs - 10/10
10/10
Value for Money - 10/10
10/10

9.3/10

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ACCESSORIES & PACKAGING
^4.5^_/5

The packaging and internal protection of the Creality Hi, follows the same standards of all other printers from the brand with a generous amount of soft, thick padding and no risk to get the machine damaged during shipping.

With the printer you will also receive:

• Hyper PLA Filament sample
• Assembly/maintenance tools
• Silicone nozzle cleaner replacement
• Assembly screws
• Zip ties
• Diagonal pliers
• Needle
• Anti-tangle addon
• Metal grease

The Creality Hi can be also found as Creality Hi Combo, the last one means that the model comes bundled with one Creality CFS machine and all the included accessories for the CFS – this is the variant that we are reviewing.

ASSEMBLY
^4.75^_/5

The Creality Hi is, probably, the most pre-assembled non-CoreXY 3D FDM printer that we have reviewed so far.

This means that the printer did not need any over-complicated manual assembly, having 2 main pieces pre-assembled from factory that just needed to be put together.

In fact, the brand has optimized the assembly design without needing to flip upside down the machine to put the securing screws of the base and frame sections.

A couple of wire connections, placement of connection covers and less than 10 screws and you get your Creality Hi fully assembled and ready to work.

DESIGN

^4.5^_/5

The Creality Hi can be defined as a mid-sized 3D printer with a printing volume that sits between the K1C, Ender-3 V3 and the Ender-3 V3 Plus; allowing larger prints than the K1C but not as large as on the V3 Plus.

The exact maximum printing volume offered by the Creality Hi is 260*260*300mm; at the bottom of this section you can see our photo directly comparing the maximum printing size of the Creality Hi vs Creality K1C vs Creality Ender-3 V3 Plus with a side-by-side 3D print at max. size of each one (same 3D model)

Something that you can easily appreciate from our photo comparison is that in real-life, the maximum print size of the Creality Hi is significantly larger than on the Creality K1C, K1 SE and Ender-3 V3; yet not that much smaller than on the Creality Ender-3 V3 Plus.

Creality has taken care of smaller details while designing the Creality Hi with a better perfected and seamless overall look where belts, rods, guides are now completely hidden with front, top and back axis covers. Also the bed axis has an “internal” styled design with no belts nor rods visible. These polished design elements do not only offer a more refined aesthetic look but also a better protection against dust and external factors that could damage the rods, belts and electronic connections.

A difference that you might notice if you own any K series or top-tier Ender-3 V3 models, is that the Creality Hi uses an arc/frame without an unibody design, showing some sections of the arc/frame in black color and not all in the space-grey color used for the overall machine.

Also, the Hi has a significantly large extruder head which is almost twice the size of all the older siblings from Creality that we have tested.

With the Creality Hi Combo model you also get the Creality CFS which is able to offer automated multi-color printing with capacity to load and auto-swap 4 independent filaments. On top of that, the Creality Hi can be upgraded with up to 4 Creality CFS machines to reach multi-color printing with 16 different spools at the same time.

The CFS has a slightly black tinted, translucent top cover that can be opened to access, install, replace, service the 4x filament spools. When closing the top cover, you can secure it with 2 sliding locks on each side of the machine.

Before you feel tempted of buying a Creality CFS to transform your Creality K1C, Creality K1 SE or Creality Ender-3 series; you need to know that the CFS is not compatible with these printers and will only work with machine designed to work with the CFS system (like the Creality K2 Plus)

Brand new to this type of printers from the company, the Creality Hi comes with a camera and light bundled from factory. With it you have the same features as we have seen while reviewing the Creality K1C, from live viewing of the printing process through the PC software or mobile app, up to timelapse videos automatically created. The camera is able to produce timelapse videos with a quality of 1280×720, so this is not a FHD nor 4K camera – you can see an example of a timelapse below but this is a sped-up, reduced in size and highly compressed GIF animation of the original video file, so do not take it as a video quality reference.

From left to right: Creality K1C vs Creality Hi Combo vs Creality Ender-3 V3 Plus

DISPLAY SCREEN

^4.5^_/5

The display screen is noticeably smaller than all the other high-tier 3D printers from Creality that we have reviewed but this is the very first one to offer a tiltable and foldable adjustability.

Still, while not being as big as the 4.3″ of the K1 series, the display of the Creality Hi is not small; offering a diagonal size of 3.2″ the difference does not feel limiting nor uncomfortable to use in comparison to the larger 4.3″ of the “older” printers.

The screen uses a color panel with good contrast, resolution and sharpness making fonts, images and icons easy to read.

Moreover, the display is touch sensitive, allowing intuitive UI navigation and full control of the machine without any noticeable lag nor hiccups.

Same as on previous printers from the brand, all the same info access and features are available through the screen (temps, axis, files, print and settings control, network, camera, etc.); and now including, also, a dedicated section for the multicolor CFS system settings.

If you have the Creality CFS too (meaning that you bought the Creality Hi Combo, like the one that we own), you will see that the Creality CFS has a exclusive info screen of its own, which informs humidity and temperature and added info regarding the filaments. Also the CFS has 4 colored LED indicators aligned with each of the filament slots, giving a quick insight of which filament is being used/loading.

CONSTRUCTION & BUILD

^4.5^_/5

We can say that the build feel of the Creality Hi Combo, is inline with even laser machines with price tags that range from $1500, $3000 up to $5000 (that we have reviewed in the past) and with 3D FDM printers from some competitors and also 3D Resin Printers of similar and twice the price of the Creality Hi (that we have tested).

The Creality Hi presented a solid and sturdy build with nearly all of the machine made of hefty metal; in fact, the printer does not show any wobbly nor flimsy parts.

To be more specific, the body of the printer makes use of aluminum alloy parts and metal rods, while introducing a whole new redesigned enclosed linear rail for the X-axis with no exposed belts.

The hotbed comes with a magnetic attaching, flexible two-sided epoxy bed plate, equipped with a nozzle cleaning silicone “brush” and bed plate alignment guides (unlike Ender-3 series).

Part of the internals that you might not see at bare sight include a direct-driver extruder with metal extruder gears, tri-metal nozzle, step-servo motors, special sensors for functions such as bed leveling, calibration, filament monitoring and input shaping and a buzzer for beep notifications.

As we mentioned in the Design section, the arc of the Creality Hi does not have a full unibody design, showing a 3-part arc/frame but with all part already pre-assembled.

Some of the pre-assembled sections are black-colored and made of plastic; like the curved angled “connection” between the vertical and horizontal arc which acts as a cap also and is fixed in place with 2 screws. Other plastic sections of the printer include the power/connector boxes found on the rear and front, the print head cover and spool holder.

The Creality CFS machine does not have the same rugged metal case of the Creality Hi, having a shell made entirely of plastic, as well as the top, translucent cover and the 4xCFS multiplier addon.

CON

CONNECTIVITY
^4.5^_/5

Holding an internal Wi-Fi module, the Creality Hi is fully compatible with wireless communication, operation and control through a PC or mobile device connected to the same Wi-Fi network – and running Creality Print software or Creality Cloud mobile app.

Moreover, the printer can be used as a standalone machine thanks to the USB-A connector on the side of the frame; allowing the connection of USB disks with pre-sliced files.

PERFORMANCE

⁵^_/5

When testing the Creality Hi, right out of the box, we did not need any manual calibration nor screws to adjust the bed and neither any tedious leveling cards and manual z-offset adjustments as all of the calibration process is fully automated in the Creality Hi.

Not only the leveling and calibration was fully taking care by the machine but also we found the auto calibration to be always perfect without any consequence in the final prints nor failed print tasks.

The Creality Hi has inherited nearly the top-notch printing speeds and acceleration seen on the flagship models from the brand; just a tad below the max. 600mm/s seen on the K1C, reaching 500mm/s printing speeds (the most noticeable difference is seen in acceleration at 12000mm/s2 vs 20000mm/s2 on the K1c).

On top of that, the boost in max. printing volume (260*260*300mm) and possibility to access 4 multi-filament printing was mind-blowing, considering the asking price – and upgradeability to up to 16 filaments with the use of 4x Creality CFS.

Of course, if you are getting the Creality Hi Combo variant and you have an OCD about the shortest printing times, the nature of multicolor printing takes longer than single-color printing as the process of loading, unloading, swapping the filament color adds further steps needed.

To make the bed heating process faster, the brand has empowered the power dedicated to this process to a wattage between 1000W and 1200W; through our tests the huge bump in wattage truly reduced the times needed to heat up the bed taking as low as a couple of seconds. This will be a feature welcomed by many 3D printing enthusiasts that want to cut down the total time needed to complete their 3D printing.

Some less evident but very handy performance-enhancing new features that we found while testing the Creality Hi were an automatic filament cutting system and a dedicated latch to manually cut filament when needed to remove a filament from the print head.

Also we highly welcomed a new redesigned run-out sensor that was now built-in to the extruder itself, resulting in barely any wasted cm of filament when switching filaments.

On top of all the brand new features and tech seen incorporated in the Creality Hi, we were also glad to notice that the new step-servo motors of the printer presented a way-quieter printing than all previous printers from Creality and also from competitors that we have reviewed. In fact, the Creality Hi did not show the typical grinding noises coming from the axis movements while printing and performed all the job with a smoother and stealthier noise – this was not a barely noticeable difference but, instead, a night and day difference.

When placing a filament spool, the Creality CFS will auto-feed and auto-load the filament and set the correct type and color. A detail to note, if you want to use the mini-spool that comes as a sample with the CFS; it will not work as the motors and rods will not “touch” the spool, thus being unable to control the feeding and rotation of the spool and filament.

Another advanced feature of the Creality CFS is humidity and temperature sensors and live information and, on top of the the capability of auto setting the type and color of the filament being used the Creality Hi Combo with the CFS with also take care of auto-replacing, loading, swapping and preparing each color filament according to the configuration of the sliced file – automated filament color and type setting is only compatible with Creality spools that include RFID codes.

Also worth highlighting that not all filament types are accepted by the CFS, for example TPU cannot be used. On the other hand, the CFS is not limited to Creality spools that have the RFID; standard Creality filaments will work but you will have to set the color and type manually – also the CFS can be used with non-Creality branded filaments.

Regarding pre-made models, as multicolor tech is a newer and less diffused type than single-color 3D printing, you will not find as many ready-to-print files online. Also, if you are new to multicolor 3D printing and like to make your own designs, you will have to learn the new way to design each color element of your 3D designs and slicing setup.

Regarding the RFID automated reading and settings, we were unable to test this feature as none of the filament spools that we had around the office were of Creality with RFID.

PRINT QUALITY
⁵^_/5

Every test print we made was maximizing speed and layer settings. No print tests needed print glue and we did not use any brim nor supports.

Also, we did not need to redo any of the prints with every test completing without printing errors on the very first attempt.

Multi-colored prints

You will notice stringing in the 2-colored rocket print, though this is probably due to the fact that the 2 filaments used for this print were quite old filament spools that have been opened for months already.

Maximum size print test using the maximum height capability.

POWER CONSUMPTION
⁴^_/5

The new and more powerful heating system also comes with a higher spiked power consumption (but for shorter times)

On the other hand, but specifically in our case, the bump in wattage consumption needed to achieve the faster heating up, surpassed the handling of our typical UPS protection system used (an ALLPOWERS R600 able to handle 600W and a CyberPower UPS of 900W), thus it needed to be replaced with another beefier one that e own and could handle the 1200W (an ALLPOWERS S2000 with a capacity of 2000W)

Our power consumption measurements revealed the following values (approx.):

HEATING: 1200W to 1227W for just some seconds for the heatbed
IDLE: 12W
AXIS travel: 24W-29W
CALIBRATION: 25W-150W
Re-heating and nozzle heating combined: 450W-1050W

SOFTWARE

^4.5^_/5

The printer works seamlessly with both Creality Print Windows, Mac and Linux software or Creality Cloud app for Android and iOS.

Both software apps are robust with already a current v6 version for the PC software and always evolving features on each new release.

In the case of the timelapse videos, this was the only “issue” that we found were the videos were usually not generated despite being activated when using the PC software; if the files were sent through the mobile app the timelapse videos were created as intended.

Without doubt this is just a bug in the PC software version of Creality Print used at the time of the tests and review, but it will be eventually fixed by the company.

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Creality Hi Combo Technical Specifications

Printing Technology
Fused Deposition Modelling
XYZE Motor
Step-servo motor for X/Y axis; step motor for others
Build Volume
260 × 260 × 300 mm
Printer Dimensions
409 × 392 × 477 mm
Printer Package Dimensions
650 × 460 × 240 mm
Combo Package Dimensions
650 × 460 × 560 mm
File Transfer
USB drive/WiFi
Display Screen
3.2″ color touch screen
3D Printer Net Weight
8.75 kg
3D Printer Gross Weight
11.58 kg
Combo Net Weight
13.31 kg
Combo Gross Weight
19.14 kg
Monitoring Camera
Yes
Auto Filament Relay
Yes (with CFS)
Filament Run-out Sensor
Yes
Filament Tangle Detection
Yes
Input Shaping (G-Sensor)
Yes
Lighting Kit
Yes
Printing Speed
300 mm/s typical speed; 500 mm/s max speed
Rated Voltage
AC 100~240V/50 Hz
Acceleration
≤ 12000 mm/s²
Rated Power
1150W@220V; 390W@110V
Printing Accuracy
100±0.1 mm
Supported Filaments
Hyper-PLA/PLA/PETG/ABS/PLA-CF
Layer Height
0.1-0.35 mm
Slicing Software
Creality Print 5.1 and newer versions
Extruder
Direct drive extruder
Max Number of Filaments
1 (without CFS); 16 (with four CFS)
Filament Diameter
1.75 mm
UI Languages
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese
Nozzle Type
Durable tri-metal nozzle
RFID Filament
Optional
Nozzle Diameter
0.4 mm, compatible with 0.6/0.8 mm
Support File Formats
G-code/3MF
Nozzle Temperature
≤ 300 ℃
CFS
Yes
Heatbed Temperature
≤ 100 ℃
CFS Connection
≤ 4 (Separate power source required for 2 and more units)
Build Plate
Two-sided epoxy flexible build plate
APP for Cloud Printing
Creality Cloud
Leveling Mode
Full-auto leveling
File Storage
8G EMMC