Review roundup · Updated Oct 17, 2026
Formlabs Form Studio 1: What the First Reviews Found, What It Really Costs, and Who Should Buy It
Wired called it a 3D printer for normies. Four reviewers have now lived with it. We read all of them, ran the numbers Formlabs didn't, and fixed three things we got wrong on launch day.
By Dreaming3D · San Diego, CA · First published Oct 14, 2026; rewritten Oct 17 with the first hands-on reviews
The short version
- It works. Tom's Hardware and TechRadar both gave Editor's Choice awards and reported zero failed prints across weeks of use. CNC Kitchen now recommends a resin setup for the first time.
- $699 is the start. The setup Formlabs' own air-quality claim assumes is $1,127. With a liter of resin and a year of support it's about $1,262.
- "Under 2 hours" is a 53 mm part at 100 µm. Reviewers printing taller models at 50 µm waited 8 to 11 hours.
- Easier, not clean. Cartridges keep resin off your hands. Washing and curing still happen, in alcohol, with gloves.
- Closed by design. PreForm only, chipped cartridges, non-replaceable tank film. That's the price of the hand-holding.
Three things we're correcting from our Oct 14 post
- "Glove-free resin handling." Loading a cartridge is glove-free. Pulling a part off the plate, washing it and curing it are not. Tom's Hardware recommends gloves, safety glasses and ventilation. Formlabs only says a respirator isn't required.
- "98% print success." Read the asterisk: that is the Form 4's independently tested 98.7%. Formlabs' own page says Form Studio 1 reliability testing is still in progress and is "expected to match."
- The price. Formlabs' page says "from $749" in the header and $699 in the package list. $699 is the graphite Base printer; $749 is a Founders color with the flex plate.
What Formlabs launched on Oct 14
Formlabs built its name on $2,500-and-up resin printers for dentists, engineers and product designers. The Form Studio 1 is the same Low Force Display architecture as the Form 4, with a smaller light engine, at a price that lands in Elegoo and Anycubic territory. CEO Maxim Lobovsky told 3D Printing Industry that affordability matters, "but so does getting great parts without hours of tuning." That sentence is the whole pitch. Here is the spec sheet, with the Form 4 for scale where it helps:
| Item | Form Studio 1 |
|---|---|
| Price | $699 Base; $948 Complete (adds flex plate and Wash+Cure); $1,647 Professional (Form Wash V2 and Form Cure V2). Formlabs' page header says 'from $749'; that's the Founders colors with the flex plate. |
| Build volume | 200 × 125 × 235 mm (5.9 L), 250 cm² plate. 25 mm taller than the Form 4. |
| Light engine | MSLA, 'Low Force Display'. 28 LEDs at 405 nm, 6 mW/cm² at the plane, 35 µm pixels with anti-aliasing (Form 4: 60 LEDs, 16 mW/cm², 50 µm). |
| Layer heights | 25 to 250 µm. |
| Speed (Formlabs) | Up to 130 mm/h with Alpha Fast; 40 mm/h average for the general-purpose Alpha resins; 10 to 20 mm/h for the three functional resins. |
| Resin system | Chipped cartridges with automatic refill, chipped tanks, heated resin to 45 °C, Z-axis force sensor. Tank film is not replaceable; Formlabs rates a tank at 75,000+ layers ($55; $79 Tank Pro). |
| Materials | 9 validated: six Alpha Resins ($29 to $42/L), Tough 1500 V2 ($79), Flexible 80A V2 ($199), True Cast ($199). No biocompatible resins. Open Material Mode included. |
| Software | PreForm (free, Windows/macOS), Dashboard, Form Mobile app. No third-party slicers. Built-in 2 MP camera for monitoring and time-lapses. |
| Safety | UL GREENGUARD Gold certified with Alpha Resins and the $179 VOC Extractor. Alpha Resin parts tested to ISO 10993 for skin contact after post-processing. |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB-C. |
| Size and weight | 342 × 315 × 502 mm, 14.3 to 14.5 kg. Operating range 18 to 28 °C. |
| Ships | Orders opened Oct 14, 2026; global shipping from Nov 16. Founders colors through Nov 30. 1-year limited warranty (3DPI); service plans $99/1 yr, $199/3 yr. |
The "normies" framing in Wired's headline is fair. Formlabs' FAQ says most users learn the full workflow in about 10 minutes, and the printer walks you through leveling, tank and plate installation and every print with on-screen prompts. What the headline leaves out is everything after the print finishes, which is where resin printing has always lost people. More on that below.
What four reviewers found
Two Editor's Choice awards in the first 48 hours is unusual for any 3D printer. The details matter more than the badges, so here they are side by side:
| Review | Verdict | What went right | What went wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom's Hardware, Matt Farmer, Oct 15 | Editor's Choice | Three prints, zero failures, 8 to 11 h each at 50 µm. Flex plate worth it. | Hood mount flimsy (Formlabs says it's working on it). No resin reclaim, proprietary slicer, small plate for the money. Recommends gloves and glasses. |
| TechRadar, Alastair Jennings, Oct 14 | 5/5, Editor's Choice | A month of printing, no failures, six cartridges used. 100 mm model about 10 h. 'The only resin printer I'd currently recommend.' | Had to shim a leg to level. Wi-Fi discovery needed a manual IP. RFID cartridges weren't recognized at times. No biocompatible resins. |
| CNC Kitchen, Oct 16 | Recommends it, first resin setup he has | Dimensions and threads close to target. Grey at ~40 mm/h, Fast at ~90. Most prints 2 to 3 h. | An N64 controller housing warped at the edges. Resin splashes the cover when draining; cover arm can jam on the flex plate tabs. Tough 1500 smells. Form 4 can't use the cheaper Alpha resins, which he reads as a business decision. |
| ToolGuyd, Oct 15 | 'I don't see the catch' | Launch analysis, not a hands-on. Totals a desk setup at $1,106 to $1,156. | Notes fewer resins than the Form 4 and the GREENGUARD claim's extractor requirement. |
Three things stand out. First, nobody reported a failed print, which is the one claim Formlabs can't yet back with its own data. Second, every hands-on review hit the same wall at the end: the part still comes out of the printer wet, and alcohol, gloves and a cure step follow. TechRadar put it plainly, that the printer reduces the mess but doesn't eliminate it. Third, the quirks are the quirks of a closed system: an unrecognized cartridge chip, a slicer you can't swap, a cover arm that catches on Formlabs' own flex plate. None of those stop a print, but they are the trade you make for the guided experience.
CNC Kitchen added the one data point we'd push back on Formlabs about: a scanned N64 controller housing showed clear warping at the outer edges. Thin, flat resin parts warp on every MSLA printer, and the Studio 1 didn't escape that. If your use is enclosures rather than figures, orient and support accordingly, or print them on a filament machine.
"Most parts in under 2 hours," decoded
This is the line that will sell the printer, so it's worth knowing exactly what it means. Formlabs' own FAQ defines it: the claim is based on an 80th-percentile print height of 53 mm at 100 µm layers. In other words, four out of five parts Formlabs sees are shorter than 53 mm, and those print in under two hours in a general-purpose Alpha resin.
Our arithmetic from Formlabs' average speeds
- 53 mm in Alpha Grey, White, Black or Clear at 40 mm/h: about 1.3 h. Claim holds.
- 53 mm in Alpha Model (the fine-detail resin, 50 µm) at 13 mm/h: about 4.1 h. Claim doesn't hold.
- 53 mm in Tough 1500 or Flexible 80A at 10 to 20 mm/h: 2.7 to 5.3 h.
- A 100 mm figure in Alpha Grey: 2.5 h by the average. TechRadar's 100 mm model took about 10 h, so fine settings cost far more than the average suggests.
- The full 235 mm build height in Alpha Fast at its 130 mm/h maximum: 1.8 h. That's the "entire build volume in under two hours" line, and it needs the $29 fast resin at 150 to 250 µm layers.
So the claim is true and narrow at the same time. It describes the tabletop-sized part printed at a coarse layer in a standard resin. Miniature painters printing at 50 µm, the people most likely to care about 35 µm pixels, should plan on the 4-to-11-hour reality the reviewers saw. Formlabs' speed is in the same band as the Elegoo machines it competes with, not ahead of them; Elegoo claims 150 mm/h for the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K.
What it really costs: the desk setup, then every print
The $699 is real, and the Base package does print. But two reviewers independently said to buy the $50 flex plate, nobody prints resin without a wash and cure step, and Formlabs' headline safety claim, UL GREENGUARD Gold, is only certified with the $179 VOC Extractor. The ladder in the chart above adds up like this:
| Step | Add | Running total | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printer, tank, platform | $699 | $699 | Base package |
| Flex platform + Wash+Cure | $249 | $948 | Complete package, $948. A la carte it's $699 + $135 + $199 = $1,033 |
| VOC Extractor | $179 | $1,127 | Required for the UL GREENGUARD Gold claim |
| First liter of Alpha Grey | $36 | $1,163 | $29 with a Founders Edition |
| 1-year Pro Service Plan | $99 | $1,262 | Optional. 3 years is $199 |
Call it $1,127 for the setup that matches what Formlabs is selling, before tax, alcohol, gloves and a second tank. ToolGuyd got to $1,106 to $1,156 with the same logic. That's still about 40% of a Form 4 with its $898 wash and cure pair, which is the comparison Formlabs wants you to make. Against a Saturn 4 Ultra 16K plus a wash-and-cure in the $100 to $200 range, it's roughly double.
The per-print math nobody published
Tom's Hardware logged resin volume for each test print, which lets us price them with Formlabs' per-liter numbers:
| Print (Tom's Hardware) | Resin | Volume | Time at 50 µm | Resin cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johanna figure | Alpha Grey | 264 ml | 10 h 56 min | $9.50 |
| Headless Horseman | Alpha Grey | 224 ml | 7 h 58 min | $8.06 |
| Stress ball + tennis ball | Flexible 80A V2 | 153 ml | 7 h 53 min | $30.45 |
The flexible print is the one to notice: Flexible 80A V2 is $199 a liter, five and a half times Alpha Grey, so a stress ball and a tennis ball cost about $30 in resin. The $29 to $42 Alpha resins are genuinely competitive with hobby resin; the functional ones are priced like Form 4 materials.
Tank wear, since the film can't be replaced
- $55 tank ÷ 75,000 layers = about $0.073 per 100 layers.
- Per 100 mm of part height: $0.73 at 100 µm, $1.47 at 50 µm, $2.93 at 25 µm. The $79 Tank Pro: $1.05 and $2.11.
- Formlabs' own example: about 190 prints of a 39 mm part at 100 µm per tank. Cut that in half at 50 µm.
- Not in this math: isopropyl alcohol, gloves, the VOC Extractor's two carbon filters (Formlabs says about 330 print hours), and electricity. Formlabs hasn't published the Studio 1's power draw; the Form 4 is rated at 480 W.
The repair-shop view: what breaks on resin printers, and what Formlabs did about each
We fix resin printers around San Diego and run an Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K for our own jobs. The failures that take a resin printer out of service are boringly consistent, so we went through them one by one against what Formlabs has designed in. (For how brands compare once something breaks, see our ranking of eight brands by what happens when they break.)
| Failure | What the Studio 1 does | Our read |
|---|---|---|
| Torn or clouded FEP film | You buy a new $55 tank; the film doesn't swap. Formlabs rates it at 75,000+ layers, about 190 prints of a 39 mm part at 100 µm by its math. | Fine if tanks stay in stock. Film on a Saturn costs a fraction of that. |
| Burned-in or dead LCD | All3DP quotes Formlabs at 750,000 to 1,500,000 layers for the light processing unit. Replacement price not published. | The number we'd want before recommending it for a print farm. |
| Bad leveling, prints stuck to the film | Guided leveling with a disc and shims. TechRadar still shimmed a leg. Z-axis force sensor slows lifts and warns about debris. | Better than most. Not foolproof. |
| Resin in the electronics | Spill-resistant tank, cartridge feeds the tank automatically, chipped parts warn about wrong resin. | CNC Kitchen still got splashes on the cover while draining. Keep the paper towels. |
| Resin left to cure in the vat | Tanks have lids. Formlabs recommends one tank per material. | Each extra material is another $55 tank. |
| A cartridge or chip the printer won't read | TechRadar saw RFID cartridges go unrecognized; it's a chipped, closed system. | The flip side of 'it just works': when it doesn't, you wait on Formlabs. |
| Slicer abandoned or changed | PreForm only. No Chitubox or Lychee fallback. | A bet on Formlabs' software roadmap. |
The pattern is the same as every other sealed, consumer-friendly machine: Formlabs removed most of the ways a beginner wrecks a resin printer and, in exchange, took away most of the ways an experienced owner keeps one running cheaply. For someone who has never owned one, that is a good trade. For someone who already keeps a Saturn alive with a few dollars of replacement film and whatever resin was on sale, it isn't.
Against the printers we see most in San Diego
Our launch-day post compared the Studio 1 to the Mars 5 Ultra, Saturn 4 Ultra 16K and Form 4. The columns haven't changed; the reviews filled in the rows that matter. For the long-form version of Elegoo against Formlabs, we compared every Form-series and Saturn/Jupiter printer here.
| Form Studio 1 | Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K | Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra | Formlabs Form 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $699 | $427 (Tom's, Oct 15); $520 list | about $260 to $300 | $2,625 |
| Build volume | 200 × 125 × 235 mm | 212 × 118 × 220 mm | 153 × 77 × 165 mm | 200 × 125 × 210 mm |
| Pixel size | 35 µm | 14 × 19 µm | 18 µm | 50 µm |
| Max speed (maker claim) | 130 mm/h | 150 mm/h | not stated | 100 mm/h |
| Resin handling | Cartridge, auto refill, heated to 45 °C | Pour; heated to 30 °C; residue sensor | Pour; level detection | Cartridge, heated, mixer |
| Release | Low-force display, force sensor | Tilt release | Tilt release | Low-force display |
| Leveling | Guided, manual shims | Automatic | Automatic | Factory |
| Slicer | PreForm only | Any (Chitubox, Lychee, SatelLite) | Any | PreForm |
| Resins | 9 validated + open mode | Any | Any | 23 + open mode |
| Air-quality cert | UL GREENGUARD Gold with extractor + Alpha | None | None | None claimed |
Read the pixel row carefully. CNC Kitchen works 35 µm out to roughly a 5.7K panel in hobby-printer terms, against 14K and 16K machines at the same or lower price. Every reviewer still called the detail excellent, because anti-aliasing, a stable light engine and tuned resin profiles matter more at this scale than the raw number. But if your work is 28 mm miniatures and you already know how to tune exposure, the Elegoo is the sharper and cheaper tool.
San Diego notes
- Cold garages. Resin gets viscous below about 20 °C and failure rates climb. The Studio 1 heats its tank to 45 °C, and Formlabs rates the printer for an 18 to 28 °C room. A North County garage in January sits below that at night; the heater covers the resin, not the room, so give it a warm-up and keep it off the concrete.
- Indoor air. The GREENGUARD claim needs the extractor and Formlabs resin. Open Material Mode with a $20 resin voids it. Alcohol from the wash step isn't covered by any certification; crack a window. Our resin safety guide covers handling and disposal, and our cure-station roundup covers what to do after the wash.
- Disposal. Uncured resin and used alcohol count as household hazardous waste in San Diego County; cure the dregs in sunlight before they go anywhere. Nothing about the Studio 1 changes that.
- Build plate wear. The flex plate is the one accessory every reviewer recommended, and it also saves the aluminum plate from the scraper. When to replace a resin build plate applies here too.
Who should buy it, and who shouldn't
Buy it if
- You want resin results and have been put off by the smell, the mess, or the tuning. The reviews say this is the first machine that genuinely lowers that bar, and the heated tank, cartridges and force sensor are why.
- It will live indoors near people, and you'll buy the extractor and use Alpha resins. That's the only combination with a certification behind it.
- You print parts, cases, prototypes and figures up to about 80 mm, and you'd rather pay $36 a liter than learn exposure tests.
Skip it if
- You chase detail per dollar. A Saturn 4 Ultra 16K has 14 µm pixels, automatic leveling, tilt release and a lower price, and it will run any resin through any slicer.
- You already own a resin printer and know how to keep it alive. The Studio 1's convenience is worth the most to people who don't.
- You need biocompatible, dental or filled engineering resins. That's still the Form 4 and Form 4B, and the Form 4 keeps its resin mixer for a reason.
- You need large parts. 200 × 125 mm is the same plate as the Form 4; if you need bigger, see our guide to the largest resin printers.
Our pick hasn't moved since Oct 14, it has just gained evidence: the Form Studio 1 for the indoor first-timer who wants it to work, the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K for detail per dollar, and the Form 4 for regulated or engineering work.
Thinking about a resin printer in San Diego?
We repair resin and filament printers county-wide, help with setup and settings, and print on our own machines if you'd rather not own one yet.
Start a requestText 858-342-6984FAQ
Is the Formlabs Form Studio 1 good for beginners?
The four early reviews say yes, with caveats. Tom's Hardware and TechRadar both gave it an Editor's Choice, had no failed prints, and praised the guided setup and cartridge system. TechRadar still had to shim one leg to level it and found Wi-Fi discovery clunky. You also still wash parts in alcohol and cure them, so it is easier than a typical resin printer, not mess-free.
How much does a full Form Studio 1 setup really cost?
The printer is $699. Add the flex build plate and Wash+Cure (the $948 Complete package) and the $179 VOC Extractor, which Formlabs' air-quality certification depends on, and you are at $1,127 before tax, resin, alcohol or gloves. A first liter of Alpha Grey is $36 and a one-year service plan is $99, which brings a realistic first-month total to about $1,262.
Does the Form Studio 1 really print most parts in under 2 hours?
For the part Formlabs has in mind, yes. Its FAQ bases the claim on an 80th-percentile part height of 53 mm at 100 µm layers, which takes about 1.3 hours at Alpha Grey's 40 mm/h average. Taller parts and finer layers take much longer: TechRadar's 100 mm model took about 10 hours, and Tom's Hardware's three prints at 50 µm took 8 to 11 hours each.
Can I use cheap third-party resin in the Form Studio 1?
Yes. Open Material Mode is included and accepts any 405 nm resin, but it needs the $79 Resin Tank Pro, turns off automatic resin dispensing, and leaves exposure settings to you. Formlabs says print performance and mechanical properties may differ from its validated materials.
Does the Form Studio 1 work with Chitubox or Lychee?
No. Formlabs says the Form Studio 1 is not compatible with third-party slicers; you slice in its free PreForm software on Windows or macOS. You can import pre-supported models from other tools, though TechRadar notes they may need exposure adjustments.
Is the Form Studio 1 safe to run indoors, in an apartment or bedroom?
Formlabs' UL GREENGUARD Gold certification applies only when you use its Alpha Resins and the $179 VOC Extractor. Without the extractor Formlabs still says the sealed chamber and low-odor resins allow use without separate ventilation. Reviewers reported less smell than usual, but washing parts in isopropyl alcohol still produces fumes, and Tom's Hardware recommends gloves, glasses and ventilation.
Form Studio 1 or Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K?
The Saturn 4 Ultra 16K costs roughly $430 to $520, has 14 µm pixels against the Studio 1's 35 µm, and is rated up to 150 mm/h. It wins on detail per dollar and works with any slicer and any resin. The Studio 1 wins on guided setup, cartridges with automatic refill, a heated tank, remote monitoring and a safety certification. Pick by how much hand-holding you want, not by resolution.
When does the Form Studio 1 ship, and what is the warranty?
Formlabs says global shipments begin November 16, 2026. The Founders Edition colors are available through November 30 or while supplies last. 3D Printing Industry reports a one-year limited warranty; Formlabs sells a one-year Pro Service Plan for $99 and three years for $199.
Can Dreaming3D help with a resin printer in San Diego?
Yes. We repair resin and filament printers across San Diego County, help with setup and resin settings, and print parts on our own Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K if you'd rather not own a machine yet. Text or call 858-342-6984 or use the repair request page.
A note on sources
Wired's Oct 14 article prompted this rewrite, but its full text was not reachable from our tools; we used its headline and the one-line summary that news aggregators carry ("fits on a desk and only stinks a little bit"), and nothing else from it. Specs and prices are from Formlabs' product and comparison pages as read on Oct 16 and 17, 2026. Test results are attributed to the named reviewers. Everything marked "our arithmetic" is ours and can be checked against the numbers cited.
What we'll update
We'll revise when Formlabs publishes Form Studio 1 reliability results, LPU replacement pricing or a power rating, when first customer units ship on Nov 16, and as more hands-on reviews land. Already have one on order, or decided against it? Tell us why on Instagram at @dreaming3dprinting; we'll fold the best replies into the next update.
Related posts
- Elegoo vs Formlabs: Saturn 4, Jupiter 2 and every Form-series printer, honestly compared
- Eight 3D printer brands, ranked by what happens when they break
- The resin safety guide nobody gave you
- Best UV cure stations for resin 3D printing, 2026
Sources
- Formlabs: Form Studio 1 product page, specs, resins and packages
- Formlabs: printer comparison (Form Studio 1 vs Form 4)
- Tom's Hardware: Form Studio 1 review, Editor's Choice (Oct 15, 2026)
- TechRadar: Form Studio 1 review (Oct 14, 2026)
- CNC Kitchen: Form Studio 1 review (Oct 16, 2026)
- ToolGuyd: Form Studio 1 launch analysis (Oct 15, 2026)
- All3DP: Form Studio 1 launch coverage (Oct 14, 2026)
- 3D Printing Industry: specs, pricing and ship date (Oct 2026)
- Wired: Formlabs Has a 3D Printer for Normies (Oct 14, 2026)
- Fabbaloo: Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K launch specs (Jan 2025)
- Tom's Hardware: Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra review (Sept 2024)