Prusa Research has given its entire desktop printer lineup a refresh in one go, retiring the CORE One, CORE One L and XL in favour of the CORE One+ (Gen 2), CORE One L+ and XL+.The Czech manufacturer confirmed the changes in mid-August, putting an integrated nozzle wiper, updated belts and a handful of smaller mechanical tweaks across all three machines, with a route for existing owners to get the same changes rather than having to buy new. Founder Josef Prusa introduced the update in a video alongside two colleagues, and was keen to frame it as evolution rather than replacement saying “nothing you own becomes obsolete today” at launch.
Thats a company value for Prusa. None of the three new machines cost more than the printers they succeeded, and Prusa pushed the update through to every order still in the queue rather than treating it as a paid upgrade. On Prusa’s own EU shop, where prices for Irish deliveries already include VAT, an assembled CORE One+ (Gen 2) runs to €1,349, the CORE One L+ is €1,849, and a single tool XL+ starts from €2,299, with dual and five tool versions priced above that. Anyone with an outgoing XL can pick up the upgrade kit separately for €249
What’s changed with the new lineup?
The changes are largely mechanical. The Core One+ Gen 2 skips the pre-warming pause that used to run before PLA and PETG prints on beds at 85 degrees or under, shaving up to ten minutes off the time before the first layer starts according to Prusa. The XL+ picks up a Tool Offset Sensor that Prusa reckons speeds up toolhead alignment roughly twentyfold compared with the old removable pin. It also gets 360 degree part cooling and a better sealed enclosure, good for around 50 degrees on its own waste heat or 60 with the optional chamber heater, which matters if you’re printing something too large to finish on the old machine in one go.
The new GT1.5 belts, paired with the resonance avoidance feature already sitting in PrusaSlicer, are aimed at cutting down the faint vertical ripples that show up on tall prints. Prusa gives props where due as a fair bit of this came directly from what the community had already been experimenting with, showing just how community focused this company is.
Which 3D printer suits you?
If you’re weighing up a first serious printer, or replacing something you’ve outgrown, the range still splits by ambition rather than gimmick, but the good news is that I’ve been researching this very question for myself after meeting Prusa at IFA in Berlin.
The CORE One+ is Prusa’s all-round enclosed workhorse, pitched at both beginners and professionals alike. Move up to the CORE One L+ and you’re in maker and small-business territory, built for people who want the same reliability with roughly double the build volume. And if you need genuine multi-material or multi-toolhead work, or you’re printing production parts rather than the odd bracket, the XL+ is what Prusa positions as its answer for print quality at that scale.
If you are buying one in Ireland, the good news is that there are no additional import costs because it’s all in the EU. It is worth noting given how much of the desktop 3D printing market otherwise ships direct from China. Every order placed through Prusa’s own shop leaves a warehouse in the Czech Republic, which is inside the EU, and Irish deliveries are quoted with VAT already folded into the price at the Irish rate, rather than added when the parcel lands. No customs surprises, no duty, no courier holding your printer hostage over a fee nobody mentioned at checkout. Score.
The European angle
Prusa is based in Prague, and describes its printers as designed and manufactured in the EU, though in fairness it has also opened a factory in Delaware to serve the US market directly. For an Irish buyer that doesn’t change much, the machine landing at your door is still coming out of an EU line, and personally I have shifted a lot of my purchase decisions to try be more EU-focused.
Prusa’s own figure puts around 95 percent of desktop 3D printers sold worldwide as Chinese made, with itself in the remaining 5 percent, though that’s the company’s framing of the market rather than an independently audited number. Does that origin story actually matter to your printing? Well, that’s a personal call, but the practical part checks out regardless. When buying Prusa from Ireland you are buying from inside the EU, with EU consumer protections and none of the customs messing.
Hopefully, in the not to distant future, you’ll be seeing Prusa reviews and the general learning journey of owning a 3D printer here on Goosed.ie. So be sure to give us a follow or add us as a preferred outlet in Google at the top of the page.
