Plenty of Anycubic 3D printers have passed through our studio workshop for testing, and they’ve impressed us on price and performance, particularly the budget and beginner-friendly models. One example that’s worth looking at is the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo, now $380 (was $500) at Anycubic.
This open-enclosure multi-color 3D printer bundles the machine with Anycubic’s ACE 2 Pro filament system for native 4-color printing out of the box. In the UK, the Kobra 4 is also discounted to £329 (was £449).
That’s cheaper than it is at Amazon, which also has the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo discounted to $400 in the US and £370 in the UK.
Why we recommend it
Beyond our own experiences testing Anycubic’s well-built range of 3D printers, our sister site Tom’s Hardware tested this exact Combo configuration and called it a solid machine and a good value, even while noting it is more of a refinement than a leap over Anycubic’s previous model.
Arriving almost fully assembled, with the ACE 2 Pro filament system already in the box, the site praised its quick-swap hardened steel nozzle, which lets you change or clear a jammed nozzle without tools. The review also highlighted genuinely quiet operation, with the ACE 2 Pro staying nearly silent outside of active filament drying.
Anycubic has clearly refined its auto bed leveling and Z-offset calibration through this generation, and the reviewer noted the leveling process is thorough, covering PID tuning, resonance testing, and noise cancellation before every print. Loading filament into the ACE 2 Pro was also described as far simpler than the previous generation, which often needed multiple attempts to feed correctly.
The ACE 2 Pro’s ability to dry filament while printing is a genuinely useful feature for anyone working with moisture-prone materials like PETG, and the built-in 720p camera adds print monitoring with AI-based failure detection, which the review found worked reliably without being oversensitive.
Also consider
Price Context & Historical Value
As a new model 3D printer, this is the lowest price yet if you pick it up direct from Anycubic.
Over at Amazon, it’s slightly more expensive at $400 (was $430) in the US, and £370 (was £530) in the UK – and that’s the lowest price it’s been there, too.
Should you buy it?
✅ Buy the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo if…
You are new to 3D printing and want multicolor output without a steep learning curve, quiet operation matters in your workspace, or you want a filament dryer built into your setup for moisture-sensitive materials like PETG.
❌ Skip the Anycubic Kobra 4 Combo if…
You already own a comparable multicolor printer like the Kobra X, you are tight on desk or shelf space, or fast color-swapping matters more to you than an all-in-one solution for drying and printing.
The Catch: What to know before you buy
Filament swaps between colors can be slow, and the default flushing settings wasted a meaningful amount of filament during testing, close to 40 grams on one multicolor print. The Combo also has a larger footprint than Anycubic’s own Kobra X, and running TPU requires bypassing the ACE 2 Pro and loading filament directly into the toolhead, since the system could not run TPU through the standard feed path at the time of review. The reviewer ultimately preferred the Kobra X for value and space efficiency, so if you already own one, this is not an obvious upgrade.
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bryan.wolfe@futurenet.com (Bryan M Wolfe)
