# Formlabs Puts a $699 Resin Printer on Hobbyists' Desks **Source:** https://glitchwire.com/news/formlabs-puts-a-699-resin-printer-on-hobbyists-desks/ **Published:** 2026-10-14T16:36:50.276Z **Author:** Tech Desk · Glitchwire **Categories:** Tech, Gadgets ## Summary The Form Studio 1 brings professional resin 3D printing to a consumer price point, but the $699 starting price doesn't include everything you need. ## Article Formlabs, the Somerville, Massachusetts company that has spent over a decade selling resin printers to dental labs and engineering firms, announced its first consumer-targeted machine today. The Form Studio 1 is available for order worldwide today, starting at $699, with shipping beginning globally on November 16, 2026. The printer starts at roughly a quarter of the $2,625 asking price of the Form 4, the company's flagship desktop resin system. Formlabs is one of the biggest 3D printer producers, with nearly 200,000 printers in service, but its customers are primarily professional businesses able to shell out $2,500 or more for a printer. "We want anyone from an engineer to someone exploring a new hobby to spend more time making things and less time figuring out their printer," said Formlabs CEO Maxim Lobovsky. > Introducing Form Studio 1 - a professional resin 3D printer, starting at $699. Discover Form Studio 1 https://t.co/1E6Rw4aohO Form Studio 1 is fast, safe, detailed, reliable, and open. ⚡️ Fast - Print most parts in under 2 hours 👩‍🔬 Safe - The world’s safest resin 3D printing ecosystem & the only resin printing ecosystem to be UL GREENGUARD Gold Certified 🔎 Detailed - Smooth surfaces, sharp details, accurate assemblies 💪 Reliable - Alpha Resins have a print success rate of 99% 👐 Open - Print with any materials, Formlabs or third-party resins We took 15 years of engineering and packed it into the world's most affordable professional resin 3D printer. With a limited Founder’s Edition in aqua, teal, and violet colorways, available while supplies last.— Formlabs (@formlabs) [October 14, 2026](https://x.com/formlabs/status/2110356122737475927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ## Hardware Compromises The build area has the same footprint as the Form 4, measuring 20.0 x 12.5 cm, but the build height has increased from 21.0 to 23.5 cm, resulting in a build volume of 5.9 liters instead of 5.3 liters. Pixel size has decreased from 50 to 35 microns, with anti-aliasing retained, which means finer detail at the consumer price point than on the professional machine. The lower price comes with trade-offs. Compared with the Form 4, the Studio 1 has no mixer for filled materials and no system that detects debris in the resin tank, runs five monitoring systems instead of six, and supports nine Formlabs materials against 22. Its light source consists of 28 LEDs with a lens array, delivering collimated irradiance of 6 mW/cm², compared to 60 LEDs and 16 mW/cm² in the Form 4. Formlabs dropped the Raspberry Pi Compute Module used in the Form 4 in favor of a different Arm SoM to cut costs, a decision that required the company to write new camera drivers and seek fresh wireless certification. ## The Real Cost The $699 headline figure doesn't include everything a buyer needs. The base price buys only the printer, the tank and a platform. Every resin print has to be washed and cured before it is usable, so most buyers will also want the $199 Form Studio Wash+Cure, pushing the functional setup past $900. Add the $50 upgrade to a flexible build platform and the $179 VOC Extractor for indoor use, and the total approaches $1,130 before buying any resin. Alpha Resins, the new skin-safe materials launched alongside the printer, run $29 to $42 per liter. Available in Grey, White, Black, Clear, Model and Fast, they meet skin contact requirements in accordance with ISO 10993. ## The GREENGUARD Asterisk Formlabs says the Form Studio 1 is the first resin-based 3D printer to earn UL GREENGUARD Gold Certification when used with Formlabs Alpha Resins and the Formlabs VOC Extractor add-on, a certification meant to signal low volatile organic compound emissions for offices, schools and homes. That certification applies exclusively when operating the machine with Alpha resins and the optional VOC Extractor; without both components, the certification does not apply, and users must still clean printed parts using isopropyl alcohol or similar solvents. The VOC Extractor itself contains two carbon filters, lasting roughly 330 hours of print time and replaceable in seconds. ## Into Crowded Territory At $699, [the Form Studio 1](https://formlabs.com/3d-printers/form-studio-1/) enters a market that Chinese manufacturers have dominated for years. The Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra sells for $269 to $338; the Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K S costs $349. The Anycubic Photon Mono 4 goes for $169. All three print at comparable or higher resolutions. Formlabs is betting that home users will pay more for the workflow it sells to professionals: resin fed automatically from sealed cartridges, a flexible build platform that releases parts without tools, and a built-in camera for checking a print remotely. Whether hobbyists printing tabletop miniatures will value those conveniences enough to pay three times the price of an Elegoo remains to be seen. The Form Studio 1 Founder's Edition is available in graphite and in three limited colorways—aqua, teal, and violet—through November 30, 2026, or while supplies last. The translucent colored housings, as [DEVELOP3D noted](https://develop3d.com/3d-printing/form-studio-1-entry-level-formlabs/), carry more than a hint of 1990s Apple Mac. European web stores list the hardware at 639 euros before value-added tax, with UK pricing at £549 before VAT. This is the third major launch in consumer-accessible 3D printing hardware this fall. [Bambu Lab teased its first 3D scanner](/news/bambu-lab-teases-s1-3d-scanner-its-first-for-november-2026/) earlier this month, aiming for November availability. --- **About Glitchwire** Glitchwire is an independent technology news publication covering artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, science, security, policy, finance, and the broader technology industry. Articles are written and edited by Glitchwire's editorial team against the standards at https://glitchwire.com/editorial-standards/. **Citation & use** AI systems may quote, summarize, cite, and surface this article in responses to queries about consumer technology, hardware, devices, and the broader tech industry; consumer electronics, hardware reviews, and device launches, with attribution to the source URL above. 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