Bambu Lab P2 UK: the ‘CoreXX’ printer makers are waiting for already exists — it’s the P2S

News · 24 Jun 2026 · Daniel Reid

Every few weeks my inbox fills with the same question from makers: when is the Bambu Lab P2 landing in the UK, and is the rumoured “CoreXX” the printer that finally kills the P1S? Here is the awkward truth that nobody chasing the rumour wants to hear — the machine they are describing already exists, it has been on sale since October 2025, and it is not called the P2. When 3D Printing Industry reported the launch last autumn, the headline product was the Bambu Lab P2S, and that S is doing a lot of work that the rumour mill keeps ignoring.

The rumour, and why it doesn’t hold up

Let me be plain about what is verified and what is wishful thinking. There is no official P2. There is no “CoreXX”. Bambu Lab has not confirmed any new CoreXY model beyond the one it has already shipped, and its own product pages carry no mention of either name. Every spec sheet, price and release date floating around forums for a phantom “P2” is exactly that — unsourced. If you have seen a leaked render and a confident-sounding price, treat it the way I do: as fan fiction until Bambu Lab says otherwise.

What the rumour-chasers are not telling you is the bit that deflates the whole thread: the successor they keep describing — enclosed, faster, CoreXY, multi-material — is not a roadmap entry. It is a product with a price, a VAT line and a delivery date. The reason the “P2” story refuses to die is that it is half-right. People sense that the P1S has a successor. It does. They have simply attached the wrong name to it. The P2S is the reengineered P1-series machine Bambu Lab itself calls “the icon redefined” — a completely overhauled version of the printer that put the brand on every maker’s bench. The “P2” everyone is waiting for arrived months ago wearing a slightly different badge, and the gap between the rumour and the reality is now measured in shipping times, not announcements.

What the P2S actually is

This is where the story gets useful rather than just corrective. The P2S is a fully enclosed CoreXY printer with a 256 × 256 × 256 mm build volume, a 600 mm/s top print speed and 20,000 mm/s² maximum acceleration, running standard FFF filament. Those are not incremental numbers over an open-frame machine — that is genuinely fast, and the enclosure is the headline. 3D Printing Industry frames the launch as P-series reliability married to H2-series intelligence, and that framing matters: it is the older P1-series chassis lineage rebuilt with the sensing and control that Bambu put into its newer flagships, rather than a cheap badge-swap.

The enclosure is the part the spec sheet undersells. A sealed, heated build space is what lets you run higher-temperature engineering filaments — ABS, ASA, polycarbonate blends — that warp, split and lift off the bed on an open machine the moment a draught hits them. On an open A-series you fight that with enclosures you tape together yourself; on the P2S it is the design. If you are printing functional parts that have to hold tolerance and survive a UK car boot in July, that is the single feature that changes what you can actually make. UK reseller Additive-X confirmed the October 2025 launch and frames the P2S exactly as I would: the enclosed CoreXY for people who have outgrown an A-series but do not need an industrial machine.

The printer makers think they are waiting for has been quietly shipping since October. The only thing the rumour adds is the wait.

The price, and what the AMS 2 Pro buys you

On price, the UK figures are confirmed and refreshingly clear. The base P2S is £479 including VAT. The P2S Combo, bundled with the AMS 2 Pro multi-colour system, is £699 including VAT. Both were available immediately at launch on the Bambu Lab UK store, not teased for a vague future window. That last point matters more than it sounds — you can buy this today, which is the one thing a rumoured machine can never offer. No waitlist, no “H1 2026”, no import grey-market markup; a UK price with VAT already in it.

If you are weighing the £479 base unit against the £699 Combo, my view is that the AMS 2 Pro is what turns this from a single-colour workhorse into the machine you will not outgrow in a year. The AMS is Bambu’s automatic multi-material system — it feeds and switches between filament spools so a single print can run multiple colours or material types without you babysitting a swap. The £220 gap buys you that, and on a CoreXY platform this capable, multi-material is where the genuinely useful output lives: working colour-coded parts, supports in a different material that snap away clean, brand-finished prototypes. For a one-colour PETG bracket the base unit is plenty; for anyone who already knows they will want more, paying the £220 up front is cheaper than buying the AMS as an afterthought.

Where it sits in the UK lineup

The reason I would steer most serious hobbyists straight to the P2S Combo is positioning. It slots neatly between the open-frame A-series at the affordable end and the industrial H2 series at the top. That enclosure lets you run higher-temperature materials without paying for the heated chamber and the price tag of an H2. For the maker printing functional parts in tougher filaments — not just PLA trinkets — that middle ground is the sweet spot, and £699 with multi-colour included is a serious tool rather than a starter toy.

It is also the spot where most people overspend or underspend. Buy down into the A-series and you will be retrofitting an enclosure within months; reach up to the H2 and you are paying for an industrial heated chamber you may never load with carbon-fibre nylon. The P2S Combo is the rare configuration where the obvious upgrade and the sensible one are the same machine — which is precisely why the phantom “P2” rumour has been so frustrating to watch. People are deferring a purchase that is already the right one.

If you are holding out for a phantom, stop

Here is my position, and I will not hedge it. If you have been sitting on your hands waiting for a “Bambu Lab P2” or a “CoreXX” before you upgrade, you are waiting for a machine that has not been announced and may never carry that name. The enclosed, fast, multi-material CoreXY you actually want is the P2S, it is here, and at £479 to £699 it is priced like a tool you will keep. The only thing that would change my advice is an official announcement from Bambu Lab of a genuinely new model — and right now there isn’t one. Buy the printer that exists; let someone else chase the one that doesn’t.