When Elegoo released the original Centauri Carbon in early 2025, it made waves within the 3D printing community, bringing the price of a fully enclosed printer below $300. It’s an incredible value, which earned it a ton of praise and a spot in my guide to the best 3D printers.

Of course, it came with drawbacks as well, most notably that it’s a single filament/color printer. Elegoo announced that it would launch a multifilament upgrade within a matter of months. So consumers, reviewers, enthusiasts, and hobbyists waited, only to see months turn into more than a year. Many of us even gave up hope on a multifilament option at all. And then in early 2026, Elegoo finally made good, announcing that the “Canvas” multifilament upgrade for the Carbon will launch this fall… as well as a full-blown successor product, the Centauri Carbon 2, which adds newly automated chamber venting and an upgraded nozzle. Confusingly, the Carbon 2 is also a single-filament printer. So Carbon 2 shoppers will need to buy the Canvas nozzle upgrade to print multicolor, either as part of the “Combo” with the printer, or separately after the fact.

I still believe the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is the best 3D printer for budget-conscious makers, but there’s a new question now: What’s the best version of the Centauri Carbon? Does it make more sense to upgrade your original Centauri Carbon with the Canvas upgrade, or go straight to the Centauri Carbon 2? And if you don’t already have the original Carbon, are the upgrades in the new model worth the added cost? I’ve answered this question the only way I know how, with a testing deep dive comparing both Centauri Carbon printers with the Canvas attachment attached to figure out exactly what you can expect out of each star in the new and/or upgraded Centauri system.

What’s New With the Centauri Carbon 2?

Looking at the two printers together, the Centauri Carbon 2 feels like an evolution of the original design, rather than a ground-up reconstruction. The biggest improvement for most upgraders will be—surprise, surprise—the ability to print with up to four filaments, even though that’s enabled by the same Canvas feeder upgrade you could buy for the original model.

Beyond being able to print with up to four materials or colors, the Canvas feeder adds a RFID reader that allows the printer to detect the color and material of specially tagged filaments. (If you’re not sure if your filament has an RFID, look for a label on the spool.) It’s a helpful addition, speeding up filament changeouts and reducing the risk of printing a part using the wrong settings.

But there’s more to the Centauri Carbon 2 than the fact you can buy it with the Canvas upgrade in the box: It’s a streamlined design that’s easier to use, with more automation and expanded capabilities that can expand your printing horizons.

It features a similar enclosure with metal walls and a glass front door. The Carbon 2 replaces the original glass lid with a plastic dome enclosure that covers the PTFE tubes running from the Canvas module to the nozzle, which reduces noise, fumes, and control chamber temperature.

It also adds a “smart grille” that automatically vents or recycles chamber air, based on the temperature requirements of the filament you’re using. Automating this process makes it much easier to move between printing high- and low-temperature materials.

More importantly, the new grille, in conjunction with a hardened steel nozzle, also expands the range of filaments it can print effectively. The original Carbon struggled with printing materials like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA), which require a higher nozzle and bed temperature. With the Carbon 2, printing either one is a breeze.

Even with these changes, the “evolved” Centauri Carbon 2 comes with a couple of drawbacks: Both the Centauri Carbon and the Centauri Carbon 2 leave their spools exposed to the air, which may be an issue depending on the filament material and the conditions where you’re printing. If you’re in a high-humidity environment (like, say, an Ohio basement in summer), then you’ll need to keep your filament dry to keep your prints from turning into stringy messes. There’s no moisture detection system here, either, so watch for excessive strings of filament appearing on your prints: That’s usually a sign it’s time to dry out the filament.

Though most of the upgrades are relatively small, the improved efficiency and overall potential of the Centauri Carbon 2 feel like a nice boost to what was already one of the best printers I’ve tested for less than $500. That’s especially true when you factor in the fact that it can print with multiple filaments.

The question is, how will those improvements translate into real-world performance? Though the difference in price between the original Carbon and the Carbon 2 isn’t huge right now—as of launch, it’s about $50—it’s easy to see how the original might get a price cut before too long. Especially for upgraders, who want to get the most out of the printers they already own, it may not be enough to know that the Carbon 2 is the better printer. Let’s take a closer look:

Centauri Carbon with Canvas vs. Centauri Carbon 2 Combo: What’s the Better Upgrade?

Print Quality

Both Centauri Carbon printers produced high-quality prints, especially given their respective price points. Comparing their prints, I found the quality to be very close, but the Carbon 2 prints were slightly smoother, with fewer visible layer lines and less drift on taller models. How much this matters depends on what kind of printing you’re doing. If you’re making functional prints like new heads for a woodworking clamp or wall-mounted battery holders, then the quality is essentially the same. But if you’re making detailed tabletop miniatures or artwork intended for display, then the Carbon 2 has the edge.

Ease of Use

The changes between the Centauri Carbon and Centauri Carbon 2 are fairly nuanced and performance-focused, so there isn’t a huge difference in how you use them. Both feature large, bright touchscreens with an intuitive UI that uses logical terminology. Likewise, Elegoo’s slicer—the software that breaks down 3D models into printable layers—is a custom version of the industry-standard Orca slicer: If you’ve ever used another 3D printer, you’ll find the layout and commands very familiar.

Even a new user will be able to navigate the menus and commands after a short learning period. Should you run into trouble, Elegoo maintains a wiki to help with common issues, which can be helpful, but I would always encourage new makers to look for help and answers from the community at the Elegoo Discord or r/elegoo on Reddit.

Setting up the Canvas feeder is also easier on the Carbon 2. It only took me about 15 minutes, and wasn’t much different than setting up any other multifilament printer. Adding the Canvas feeder to the original Carbon is a bit more involved, and requires you to retrofit various pieces and parts. The instructions are easy to follow, but you’ll be flipping the printer on its back and removing the bottom panel—the kind of thing that’s more involved than the typical “pull it out of the box and go” setup of an enclosed printer. I wouldn’t call it a problem, but it is one more reason for new makers to spend a little extra on the Carbon 2.

Print Speed

For me, the biggest shock during testing was finding that the original Centauri Carbon printed up to 10 percent faster than the Carbon 2, regardless of whether I printed with one or more filaments.

Both printers list a max printing speed of 500 mm/s and max acceleration of 20,000 mm/s², so I assumed it would be close, with the newer Carbon 2 having a slight edge. Instead, when using default print profiles and the same speed setting on each printer, the original Carbon consistently finished prints faster.

When I asked Elegoo if there was a technical difference between the printers that might explain the difference, the brand simply confirmed that its engineers also found that the Canvas-equipped Carbon “takes less time in switching the different filaments [than the Carbon 2], which builds up a faster print." Depending on the print, shaving off 10 percent of your print time is nothing to sneeze at.

Noise

The Centauri Carbon 2 makes much less noise while printing than the original model. That’s partially because the Canvas upgrade for the original Carbon doesn’t include a top dome. But mostly, the Carbon 2 just runs more quietly. This is one of the few places where I found a major difference between the two options. I tested both printers in my basement workshop and found that I could consistently hear the original Carbon from the first floor while it was running, but barely noticed the Carbon 2.

Range of Materials

Realistically speaking, the Carbon 2 is a better fit for printing high-temperature materials like ABS or Nylon. The Centauri Carbon 2’s nozzle can reach up to 350 degrees Celsius (680 degrees Fahrenheit), compared to the 320°C/608°F of the original Centauri Carbon. I saw the biggest improvements, though, while rapidly switching between prints that used low-temperature filaments like PLA or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), followed by high-temperature materials, and vice versa.

The Carbon 2 also ships with a hardened steel nozzle, which can better withstand the wear and tear of materials like carbon fiber.

Connectivity

Elegoo printers have connectivity issues across the board. I currently have three in my test rotation (the third is the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra), and they all frequently drop off my home network. Restarting them usually gets things going again, but sometimes I do need to actively reconnect them to WiFi.

Interestingly, I encountered more connection issues with the Carbon 2. Specifically, it repeatedly failed to connect to Elegoo’s cloud service, which led me to restart the printer at least once a day. (It’s worth pointing out that this appears to be a known issue with the Elegoo cloud service, not the printer. Hopefully, a fix is in the works.) Losing connectivity didn’t affect printing, as the model would have already been transferred to the printer. But it does make monitoring prints more difficult, as printers will show as “idle” even when they’re printing, or vice versa.

That said, the Carbon 2 makes remote print monitoring a bit easier by adding support for Elegoo’s Matrix companion app. That’s great for keeping tabs on the jobs you’ve started, but sadly does not allow you to set up prints remotely via your phone.

Head-to-head

Who Should Buy the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo? And Who Should Upgrade?

Despite the faster multi-filament print speed of the original Centauri Carbon and its slightly lower price tag, I think the Centauri Carbon 2 Combo is the superior printer. With the added ease of the smart grille, the dome lid, and the more durable hardened steel nozzle, this is a more streamlined machine that makes things easier and will handle most prints more effectively (if a bit slower).

Let’s quickly do the pricing math here: The Centauri Carbon 2 Combo (which comes with the Canvas upgrade) will run you $450, while the original Carbon costs about $415—$360 for the printer, plus $55 for the Canvas upgrade.

If you already own the original Carbon and you’d like the convenience of multifilament printing, then the $55 Canvas upgrade is a no-brainer. It greatly expands your printing options for a price far lower than the cheapest multifilament printer. I’d probably recommend most Carbon owners stick with the printer they have, though: While the new features of the Carbon 2 are great, they’re not worth $400.

Ultimately, both Centauri Carbon printers are still excellent choices. I think it’s great that Elegoo made good on its promise to give Centauri Carbon owners an affordable path to multifilament printing, even if it creates a little confusion for outsiders. And even with the small price bump, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better printer in this price range. Most comparable multifilament printers cost twice as much.