If I have to schlep an SD card back-and-forth from my laptop to my printer, that’s a crap experience.
And for them to block local network uploading—and force you to make an account for that feature—sorry, that is a classic dark pattern.
It has a cool video camera built in. But oops!, it can only send a video to our servers, not to you.
When companies employ dark patterns like these, it is a signal that I no longer ignore.
EDIT:
I forgot:
> but I wish they'd understand why other people like them.
Yeah I get it. Given how many people I’ve seen using these printers rave about them, I do understand how leaps in speed and quality make it worth it. I’m not in as great a need for that personally. But I get it.
I own BambuLab and make use of their LAN feature all the time. The camera stream works without account and cloud access (albeit, they recently added that!), so does uploading g-code through the LAN without any account. You _just_ install BambuStudio, connect to the printer with a code shown on it and assuming you're in the same network - it just works. No account or any cloud needed for that.
> and assuming you're in the same network
to make it go across subnets you just need to send the announcement packet yourself. It's a pretty easy hack, but it's kind of embarrassing for the manufacturer that their own software won't let you type in an IP address.
That's why they made this cloud enabled software, you should use that.
You hypothetically have to sneakernet it because you refuse to embrace new tech.
Ultimately 3d printers are like washing machines or vacuums. They're not a lifetime purchase. But it, use it for 4 years while it's up to date and has support, etc. Then when it doesn't, buy a new one.
It's like the people that worry about parts availability for 10 years from now when they buy a Camry. As long as you buy a Camry not a Jaguar, you will be able to buy parts.
Useful in what respect?
I completely understand why people hate Bambu Lab, but I wish they'd understand why other people like them. If you want a new hobby, there are lots of excellent FDM printers on the market. If you just want to print good parts, you'd be a fool to buy anything other than a Bambu. There's just nothing else that will reliably produce dimensionally accurate parts out of the box and for thousands of hours afterwards, with absolutely no tinkering or troubleshooting.