Despite layoffs, Motorola says Moto Z line is alive and well

There were rumors this week of a 50 percent reduction in Motorola’s Chicago workforce and that the Moto Z line was finished. Given that we’re still hearing about upcoming products for Moto Z phones like a VR headset Moto Mod, the news is confusing at the least. We reached out to parent company Lenovo, and a spokesperson confirmed that while there have been some layoffs, both rumors are incorrect.

“In late 2017, Lenovo announced a worldwide resource action that would occur over the next several quarters, and impacting less than two percent of its global workforce,” a Motorola spokesperson told Engadget. “This week’s employment reductions are a continuation of that process. We are reducing our Motorola operations in Chicago however this did not impact half of our workforce there and our Moto Z family will continue.”

Back in January, Motorola’s entire 2018 lineup was tipped in a series of leaks, including the next Z-series devices. If that info holds true, this year’s handset will feature a curved display and, of course, be a key vessel for all of those Moto Mods. Either way, we should find out soon enough what the company has planned for the immediate future.

Source: TheLayoff

We’re live from SXSW 2018!

We have arrived in Austin, Texas for the 2018 edition of SXSW, the festival that showcases some of the best things in the tech (interactive), film and music industries. This year, we’ll be taking a look at HBO’s Westworld installation here on the ground, which promises to be one of the most exciting events at the show. We’ll also attend panels featuring Apple’s Eddy Cue and YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki, among others, as well cover new gadgets like Bose’s audio-focused augmented-reality glasses. You can keep up with all the news from SXSW by bookmarking this page here.

Netflix test turns kids into binge scouts, rewards TV time with badges

Netflix is currently testing a feature that lets kids collect “patches” for watching shows, Variety reports. Those included in the test see red locks on children’s shows that can get them a patch, which they can then earn by watching episodes of those titles. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Trolls: The Beat Goes On and Fuller House are among the titles through which viewers can earn patches. Netflix told us, “We are testing a new feature on select kids titles that introduces collectible items for a more interactive experience, adding an element of fun and providing kids something to talk about and share around the titles they love.”

The patches don’t actually get you anything — there’s no additional content to be gained from collecting them — and Netflix sees them more as a way to promote conversation and foster personal interactions between those watching the shows. But naturally, there are concerns that offering a sort of reward for watching TV isn’t good for children. Facebook has attracted similar concern recently over its Messenger Kids app, with advocacy groups speaking out over its encouragement of more screen time and social media engagement. Netflix is sure to see some pushback over its feature.

However, for now, patches are just a test and there’s no guarantee they’ll be rolled out. Netflix said, “We learn by testing and this feature may or may not become part of the Netflix experience.”

Via: Variety

New McLaren hybrid hypercar will be company’s fastest ever

By Antti Kautonen

We’ve reported earlier that the upcoming McLaren Ultimate Series “Hyper-GT” BP23 will be a seriously fast machine. Today, McLaren set a top speed target for it: The limited-edition hybrid hypercar will surpass the legendary McLaren F1 from the 1990s. That car reached the top speed of 243 mph, or 391 km/h; it appears the manufacturer wants the new car to hit or exceed 400 km/h. Maybe it’ll even top 250 mph. The indicated 243 mph speed illustrated in the teaser sketch is a nice touch.

The BP23 will hit the highest top speed of any McLaren yet. It will feature nods to the original McLaren F1 in several ways, including the centrally mounted driver seat flanked with passenger seats. That 106-unit production run also refers to the original F1 road car’s sales figure.

The finished vehicles will all be done to any specific customer’s taste, as they will be seen through by McLaren’s Special Operations division. McLaren is still keeping a few surprises to itself, as the actual top speed along with the BP23’s actual name will be revealed closer to the car’s unveiling. McLaren also hints the name will be something more special “rather than an alphanumeric nomenclature.”

McLaren Automotive today confirms that its forthcoming new ‘Hyper-GT ‘, codenamed #BP23, will achieve the highest top speed of any McLaren yet with the capability to exceed the 243mph peak speed of the legendary McLaren F1 road car. pic.twitter.com/rePHJkLCVJ

— McLaren Automotive (@McLarenAuto) March 9, 2018

This article originally appeared on Autoblog, the complete authority for news, reviews and car-buying research.

MacRumors Giveaway: Win an iPhone X Case From Krown

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Krown to give MacRumors readers a chance to win one of four slim iPhone cases made from unique materials.

Krown is an indie iPhone case manufacturer that offers cases for Apple’s newer devices, including the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The company makes cases in four materials (prices for iPhone X): aluminum ($24.95), concrete ($39.95), an ultra thin plastic ($19.95), and marble ($49.95). All Krown cases with the exception of the aluminum model are compatible with wireless charging.

The Slim Aluminum Case is made from a brushed aluminum material that comes in blue, black, gold, or red. To protect the iPhone, there’s a soft rubber material inside of the case, and it features a lightweight, minimal design with no unnecessary bulk.

Krown’s Concrete iPhone Case is thicker than the aluminum case, but as far as cases go, it’s still relatively slim. It’s made from a concrete and resin material that’s smooth to the touch, and inside, there’s a soft rubber for drop protection. There are two shades of concrete available: dark with a black border and light with a white border.

The Ultra Thin iPhone Case is similar to other ultra thin cases on the market, measuring in at 0.012″ thick. These kinds of cases often don’t offer much in the way of drop protection, but they’re the best way to preserve the slim design of the iPhone while also protecting it from scratches. Krown says its version, available in dark blue, black, red, and white, is designed to “feel invisible.”

Krown’s Marble iPhone Case is similar in design to the Concrete case, but instead of a concrete back, the outside of the cases is made from a thin layer of genuine marble that comes in black or white. Inside, there’s the same soft rubber used in other cases, which offers protection for drops and bumps.

We have 15 Krown cases to give away to MacRumors readers, with winners able to choose case size and material. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (March 9) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 16. The winners will be chosen randomly on March 16 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Tag: giveaway
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Mario Comes to Google Maps in Celebration of Mario Day

Mario Day, which celebrates Nintendo’s iconic plumber, takes place on Saturday, March 10. To celebrate Mario Day, Nintendo has teamed up with Google to bring Mario to Google Maps.

Starting today, “Mario Time” is available in Google Maps for Android and iOS devices. To enter Mario Time, tap on the yellow “?” icon that’s available in the bottom right of the Google Maps app after updating the app to the latest version.

With Mario Time enabled, your Google Maps navigation arrow will turn into Mario driving a Mario Kart vehicle. Google says Mario will be a “constant companion” wherever you’re driving this coming week. The new Mario icon will be visible in Google Maps on every route you take while using the app.

The new Google Maps update with Mario Time is rolling out to iOS and Android users today, and Mario will be available for the next seven days. Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Nintendo is also celebrating Mario Day with a 50 percent discount on Super Mario Run, which means unlocking the game via in-app purchase will cost you $4.99 instead of $9.99 through March 25. The new lower pricing for the in-app purchase will be available starting on March 10.

Super Mario Run can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google Maps
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Dozens of Popular Apps Still Don’t Natively Support iPhone X, But Updates Are Coming Soon

One of the minor disadvantages of buying an iPhone X early is having to wait for developers to update their apps with support for the smartphone’s taller display. Many popular apps were updated within a few weeks after the device launched, but over four months later, there are still some notable omissions.

MacRumors recently asked our readers to share their favorite apps that have yet to be optimized for the iPhone X display. Then, we reached out to the developers of each app to ask them if and when they will release updates with iPhone X support. We’ve included comments from every company that responded below.

Apple

Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

• iMovie
• iTunes Connect
• iTunes Remote
• Beats Pill+
• AirPort Utility
• Music Memos

Google

Google said it does not have anything to share at this time.

• Google Authenticator
• Google Analytics
• Google Admin
• Google Street View
• Google Wifi
• Google Cloud Console
• Inbox by Gmail
• Chrome Remote Desktop
• Snapseed

Microsoft

Microsoft confirmed it is working on updating its remaining apps to be optimized for the iPhone X, but it did not provide a timeframe.

• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Microsoft Solitaire Collection
• Office 365 Admin

Banking and Finance

• Chase — “We constantly evaluate changes in the market while listening to customer feedback and regularly update our mobile app based on that feedback. Watch for an update in the near future.”
• TD Canada — “The next release of the TD mobile app, expected later this month, will be optimized for the iPhone X display.”
• National Bank of Canada — “The app will be updated for iPhone X in the coming months.”
• HSBC
• ANZ goMoney Australia
• Barclaycard

Fast Food

• Domino’s — “It will be updated in one of our upcoming app updates. I don’t have an exact date.”
• Pizza Hut — “Pizza Hut is currently developing numerous app enhancements, including optimizing the iPhone X display and other capabilities offered by the phone.”
• Taco Bell

Sports and Gaming

• NBC Sports — “It will happen soon.”
• PGA TOUR — “We are updating our app on March 20 to support the new iPhone X format.”
• MLS
• Steam
• Hearthstone
• Candy Crush Soda Saga

TV and Media

• NPR News — “We will have an update for iPhone X for the NPR News app on April 2.”
• NPR One — “The update for NPR One will come later in the summer.”
• The Economist
• IGN
• TiVo
• Cineplex

Technology

• Amazon Alexa — “The Alexa app will be updated and optimized for iPhone X display in the coming weeks.”
• Linksys — “The update for the Linksys app for iPhone X will be rolling out in the next few days.”
• OpenVPN — “We are currently developing a new iOS app that will support iPhone X. It will tentatively be released end of April.”
• HipChat — “HipChat will not be updated for the iPhone X but Stride will be soon.”
• Harmony Control

Airlines and Travel

• Hotels.com — “We will be releasing our update to better support iPhone X shortly.”
• Virgin Airlines
• Emirates
• Air France
• myChevrolet

Apple recently announced that, starting April 2018, all new iOS apps submitted to the App Store, including universal apps, must support the iPhone X display. The rule doesn’t apply to existing apps.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: App StoreBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Video Comparison: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X

Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S9 started last week, and the first S9 orders are set to arrive to customers on March 14. We managed to get our hands on a new Galaxy S9 ahead of the device’s launch date, so we thought we’d compare Samsung’s new flagship device to Apple’s latest flagship device, the iPhone X.

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Design wise, the Galaxy S9 looks a lot like the Galaxy S8, with slim bezels at the top, sides, and bottom and a display that curves downward at the sides. It’s taller and slimmer than the iPhone X, and with Samsung continuing to use a thicker top bezel, there’s no notch. The Galaxy S9 has a 2960 x 1440 display, which DisplayMate says is better than the iPhone X’s display.

With the Galaxy S9, Samsung uses multiple biometric methods, so there’s a fingerprint sensor that’s been relocated to the middle of the device’s back underneath the rear camera, making it easier to reach. The iPhone X, of course, has fully embraced facial recognition, something Samsung hasn’t been able to do because it’s using an inferior 2D facial and iris recognition system that’s not secure enough on its own.

A fingerprint sensor is, of course, an attractive offering for those who prefer fingerprint sensors to facial recognition, and offering multiple biometric methods provides consumers with choice. The Galaxy S9 also continues to offer a headphone jack, which Apple abandoned with the iPhone 7.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is using variable aperture camera technology (with two cameras if you have an S9+), and it’s putting out photos on par with the iPhone X (if not better), and to combat Animoji, Samsung has its own new AR Emoji, which are more realistic humanoid animated emojis that some have called creepy. We’ll be looking into both AR Emoji and the Galaxy S9 and S9+ cameras in later videos, so make sure to visit MacRumors next week to check those features out in detail.

The Galaxy S9 runs Android 8.0 Oreo, with useful features like native multitasking and edge panel customization. Android is appealing to many because it’s more customizable than iOS, but it can’t match features like iMessage and Continuity, and these key differences are what draw people to the different operating systems and drive customer loyalty.

When it comes to performance, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 doesn’t quite measure up to the iPhone X in terms of benchmarks, but in day to day usage, the difference isn’t noticeable. Both devices are responsive, fast, and offer the kind of performance you expect in an expensive flagship smartphone. It’s worth noting, though, that Galaxy S9 pricing starts at $720 in the US, while pricing on the Galaxy S9+ starts at $840. That’s a solid $280 to $160 price difference compared to the $999 price tag of the iPhone X, and lower price is often an edge that Android devices have over iOS devices.

With Samsung and Apple devices, deciding which one is “better” is often a matter of choosing your preferred features and your preferred operating system. Both of these smartphones are fast, modern, and highly capable devices and each one has its upsides and downsides.

We’ll be further exploring similarities and differences between Samsung’s new flagship smartphones and the iPhone X next week, but let us know what you think of the new Galaxy S9 in the comments below.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: Galaxy S9Buyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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NASA releases first images of Jupiter’s bizarre geometric storms

Jupiter is a big, complex, chaotic planet. It has long been known as the most dominant feature in our sun’s orbit, but it wasn’t until last May that the planet’s internal features began to be revealed. During a few close passes, NASA’s $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft collected data on the gas giant that revealed cyclones the size of Earth and a surprisingly strong magnetic field.

Now, data collected by Juno have uncovered more never-before-seen features on its north and south poles. In a study published this week in the journal Nature, a team of scientists report bizarre geometric storms surrounding a single massive cyclone on each of the planet’s poles. The storms measure seven thousands miles across and reach wind speeds nearing 220 miles per hour, which would classify them as Category 5 hurricane here on Earth.

On July 4, 2016, Juno rendezvoused with Jupiter to perform a series of close passes that would bring the spacecraft just a couple thousands miles above the gas giant’s top cloud layer. Using its sophisticated instruments, Juno began to peer beneath the planet’s clouds for the first time, snapping photos and measuring Jupiter’s infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, gravity, and magnetic features.

Among the many mysteries Juno scientists sought to uncover were Jupiter’s poles, previously hidden from our telescopes due to the planet’s nonexistent tilt. When Juno finally beamed back images of the north pole, scientists were shocked to find eight cyclones circling a single storm in the middle. Later, the south pole presented a similar arrangement with five outer storms.

Alberto Adriani, a co-investigator for Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) and lead author of the paper, explained that the storms are likely the result of Jupiter’s heat and rotation speed.

“The high rotation of the planet — about 10 hours for a complete turn around its axis — and the heat coming from the lower levels of the atmosphere certainly have a great impact to the formation of the cyclonic pattern we have observed over the Jupiter’s poles,” he told Digital Trends.

As with many space discoveries, it’s not always clear how or why the findings are relevant to us on Earth. Sure, Jupiter’s strange storms are cool, but why does it matter?

“Space research has a triple value,” Adriani said. There’s the knowledge itself, the search for which “pushes our minds to try to understand what we don’t know.” Then there are the technological advances that enable such a discovery in the first place, some of which can be used to study things like space weather, which have an immediate impact on Earth.

“Last but not least, economically speaking every euro [or dollar] invested in research comes back to the society,” Adriani, and that return on investment is often multiplied by many factors.

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Zortrax M300 review

Research Center:
Zortrax M300

When it comes to 3D printing companies, Zortrax doesn’t enjoy the same level of name recognition as, say, Makerbot or Ultimaker — but it’s been making 3D printers for quite some time. In fact, the company’s M200 printer (which was released back in 2012) is widely regarded as one of the best FDM printers you can buy.

For this reason, we were very excited when the company announced the new M300: a bigger, badder version of its flagship machine. To find out how it stacks up, we put the printer through its paces over the course of a month. Here’s how it went.

Standout Features and Specs

The first thing that you’ll likely notice about the M300 is that it’s huge. This isn’t exactly a desktop printer, so you should definitely plan to allocate some space for it. Weighing in at 110.2 pounds, and measuring 18.6” x 19.2” x 26.1” in external dimensions, this thing is a big, beefy bastard of a printer. Luckily, that also means that it has a rather large build area — boasting a spacious 11.8” x 11.8” x 11.8” envelope.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Some other neat features you’ll find on this machine are: a heated bed (which boosts adhesion and helps prevent print warping), semi-automated bed leveling, a small LCD screen for navigation, and removable front/side panels.

The M300’s otherwise great foundation is marred by a myriad of small design flaws.

The M300 also comes with something we’ve never seen before, which had us scratching our heads in confusion. This “feature” is a perforated build plate — something that doesn’t make much sense for a machine that squirts out molten plastic to make objects. We’ll get into why shortly.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be a running theme with the printer. While it’s clearly well-made and boasts an admirable feature set, the M300’s otherwise great foundation is marred by a myriad of small design flaws and puzzling oversights.

Setup and Config

Getting the M300 set up is relatively straightforward and easy to do, but does require a bit of assembly and some heavy lifting. Once you’ve got the printer freed of its packaging and tie downs, you’ll need to attach the printer’s build plate. Luckily, doing so isn’t particularly difficult, and only requires you to attach a few wires into a clearly-marked socket.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

After that, you can fire the printer up and start feeding filament through to the hot end, which Zortrax’s onboard instructions will walk you through. The printer’s semi-automatic bed calibration is also quite simple, and guides you through the leveling process before you fire up your first print.

Overall, the M300 certainly isn’t the simplest machine we’ve ever set up, but it’s still pretty damn easy. As long as you’re capable of reading and following basic instructions, you shouldn’t have any trouble.

User Interface/software

While the M300’s onboard controls are simple to use and understand, there are a couple little hiccups in the onboard software interface that make it a pain to print with. For example, once a print is started, you’re locked out from interacting with the machine any further. There’s no pause/resume function, and no way to adjust settings on the fly, or even cancel a print outright. The only way to stop a print is to switch the machine off — which is puzzling, because in most modern printers, these features come standard. Needless to say, the M300’s unfinished software led to some annoying usage issues down the line.

Removing a finished print from the M300 is like pulling Excalibur from its stone while you’re trapped in a broom closet.

As for offboard software, the M300 is designed to work exclusively with Zortrax’s proprietary slicing program, Z-Suite. Downloading the program required the serial code from the back of our printer, and asked for it again during installation. While this isn’t the worst thing in the world, we felt it was excessive, redundant, and mildly annoying.

Once we had Z-Suite up and running, we were pleased with it’s clean interface, easy-to-navigate design, and fun visuals — then immediately disappointed with its oversimplified print options. The program seems geared more toward beginners and is therefore very easy to use, but unfortunately it leaves out a bunch of “advanced” print customization options that are extremely important. For example, there’s no clear way to turn off support structures, rafts, or even fine-tune the infill settings. This is extremely frustrating, and generally means you’ll burn through filament more quickly.

Design/Build Quality

The M300’s design takes a page of Z-Suite’s book, and by that we mean it has a strong foundation and is clearly well made, but is also peppered with annoying drawbacks. Individually, these problems aren’t a big deal, but together they’re enough to spoil an otherwise stellar machine.

We’ll start with the good stuff. The M300 boasts one of the sturdiest frames we’ve ever seen in a 3D printer. It’s built like a bomb shelter, and would probably print just fine during a magnitude 8.7 earthquake. It also has a clean, attractive look to it, and comes with side panels that allow you to hide its mechanical guts from view.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

But then there’s the perforated build plate. It’s a bit of a double edged sword, since it keeps prints stable during printing, but also makes them a huge pain to remove once the print is finished. To make matters worse, there’s also no easy way to remove the print bed from the printer — so you’re forced to pry, scrape, and wrench on the print from within the limited confines of the printer’s interior chamber. In other words, removing a finished print from the M300 is like pulling Excalibur from its stone while you’re trapped in a broom closet.

Most of our prints came out incredibly clean, detailed, and almost completely error free.

Oh, and one more thing: The perforations on the build platform effectively prevent you from printing without a raft (a support structure that’s a few layers thick, printed beneath the object to aid adhesion and prevent warping). If you do, the best case scenario is that you’ll end up with a bunch of plastic nubs on the bottom of your object. The worst case scenario is that your print won’t come free easily and will crack when you try to pull it off the build plate (which happened to us on a couple occasions).

What’s most frustrating, though, is that this perforated design is completely unnecessary. Our best guess is that Zortrax included the perforations in order to boost bed adhesion. But the thing is, the M300 already has a heated bed and automatically prints with rafts — both of which would’ve likely done the trick and mitigated any adhesion/warping problems. The perforations are redundant, and cause more problems than they solve.

Zortrax M300 Compared To

Robo C2

Monoprice Mini Delta

Ultimaker 3

FormLabs Form 2

NewMatter MOD-t

M3D Micro

MakerBot Replicator (5th Gen)

Pirate3D Buccaneer

3Doodler 2.0

3D Systems Cube

Ultimaker 2

Formlabs Form 1+

Unfortunately, the M300’s issues don’t end there. Another big design flaw we encountered was the printer’s the bowden tube assembly. The bowden tube, which is what guides the filament to the print head, is secured to the back of the printer via adhesive pads on the back of plastic clamps. The glue on these pads eventually failed mid print, causing the filament to unravel from the spool and knot up — ultimately jamming the printer and ruining a 13-hour print.

Without any sensors in place to detect filament running out or jamming, or even being able to pause it when it happens, attempting to use the M300 for large-format, multi-hour prints is risky business.

Print Performance

Despite the struggles on both the hardware side and software interface, both the included print (a strange, bottomless bottle) and our standard 3DBenchy test print came out remarkably well.

With it’s max print resolution of 90 microns and outstanding dimensional accuracy, most of our prints came out incredibly clean, detailed, and almost completely error free, giving us one of the best Benchy boats we’ve ever printed.

The M300 also handles gaps and overhangs right along with some of the best FDM printers we’ve seen, and earned our praise on virtually all the prints it finished. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to give it many more chances to prove itself due to hardware issues, but were thoughtfully impressed with the level of print quality we saw in the pieces we completed.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

When it comes to reliability, though, the M300 definitely needs some work. When it completes a print, that print will undoubtedly look great — but the machine doesn’t always complete the print jobs you give it. Until you secure the bowden tube and prevent it from breaking loose and tangling up your filament, the M300 shouldn’t be trusted with big, multi-hour prints. Thankfully, that’s the only real reliability issue, though. We never experienced any warping or prints that detached from the bed.

Our Take

The M300 is like a dumpy house built on a solid foundation. In its current state, it’s not something you’d want to live in, but if the landlord gave it a few small touch-ups, it’d be a great place to hang your hat.

In other words, the M300 has the potential to be an amazing machine, but its aforementioned design flaws are holding it back. With an update to the software and firmware, this printer could potentially be at the top of its class. Mid print options, more control in Z-Suite, and a print bed that doesn’t have holes in it would take the M300 to the next level.

Is there a better alternative?

Considering the M300’s $2,990 price point, there are dozens of alternatives that will provide better performance and reliability.

For a bit more money, you can get yourself a Formlabs Form 2 SLA printer — a machine that’s vastly superior to the M300 in terms of print quality, and is widely considered to be one of the best consumer-level 3D printers on the market. It’s worth noting, though, that due to the Form2’s resin-based printing technique, it’s a bit trickier (and stickier) to work with in some ways.

If SLA printing doesn’t sound appealing and you’d rather snag an FDM printer, we highly recommend the Ultimaker 2+. It offers better print performance, a comparably-sized build area, and none of the annoying problems that plague the M300. For $2,999, you can even get the Extended edition, which has a taller build area and allows you to create larger parts.

Another solid choice would be the Lulzbot Taz 6, which isn’t nearly as good-looking as the M300, but is far more reliable, upgradable, and streamlined. If what you’re after is a workhorse that can do job after job without fail, then the Taz 6 is the printer to get. It’s also a few hundred dollars cheaper, and offers a nearly identical build envelope.

How long will it last?

The M300’s sturdy construction and outstanding build quality will likely keep this printer running for a long, long time. That being said for the hardware, the software and firmware of this printer are already outdated and in need of an upgrade. If Zotrax comes through with an update that irons out some of the kinks, this printer will keep on tickin’ for years.

Should you buy it?

At this point, no. With other options out there that offer more bang for your buck, the M300 isn’t a printer we can recommend — at least not right now. While its large build volume, impressive print quality, and sturdy structure are alluring, its myriad design flaws and limited control of print parameters make it one of the most frustrating printers we’ve ever used. If those issues were addressed, the M300 would be a dream, but for now, you’d be wise to spend your money elsewhere.