14 DAY TRIAL // Current 3D printers aren't that great; they're good enough in the sense that making something out of nothing is such a great experience that we can ignore the imperfections or the time spent calibrating or fixing the printer.
The good news though is that printers are getting better, and the improvements are coming from both ends of the market. Cheap printers are getting better, good printers are getting cheaper.
Leapfrog's Xeed is in the latter category, or at least that's what the company boasts. The Xeed is a professional 3D printer packaged as a desktop printer and sold at a somewhat affordable price of €7,000 ($9,400), €8,470 ($11,374) with taxes.
That's expensive for a desktop printer, but Leapfrog boasts that's actually half the price of a comparable printer. The Xeed is a dual extruder mode with a metal casing and fully enclosed build environment.
The device comes fully assembled and calibrated, which is to be expected at this price, and weighs in at a hefty 75 kg (165 pounds).
"Dual extruders provide you with the possibility to print with two colors or two different materials at the same time," Leapfrog explains on its website.
"This also means that you can print with ABS filament and with soluble PLA or PVA filament that can serve as support material. The plastics PLA and PVA are both materials that can be dissolved and do not leave any marks on the surface of your print," it adds.
One of the printer's unique characteristics is that it can print wirelessly, i.e. models can be sent to it via email and there's no need to install any software anywhere.
Print size is 350 x 270 x 220 mm, coming in at 20.8 liters. Layer resolution is between 50 and 350 microns, and the printer works with PLA and PVA.
