FlashForge AD5X Review 2026: The $399 Multi-Color Printer's Purge-Waste Problem

FlashForge built its own answer to the AMS-style color box directly into the toolhead instead of bolting one on the side, and priced the whole printer under $400. The AD5X has gone unmentioned on this site until now, despite being one of the cheapest ways to add multi-color printing to a CoreXY machine — here’s what that internal Intelligent Filament System actually costs you in practice.

FlashForge’s Adventurer line already has a dedicated 5M review on this site; the AD5X is a different, cheaper machine built around one specific idea — ditch the external AMS box and do color-switching inside the toolhead itself. Here’s whether that trade-off is worth it.

AD5X by the numbers

• $399 MSRP, often $319-349 on sale — FlashForge’s AD5X launched at $399 (per All3DP’s own coverage of the launch), and has been repeatedly discounted to $319-349 at mainstream US retailers since, per TechRadar and retail price trackers — among the cheapest built-in multi-color printers sold today.
• 1.75 kg of TPU purged for a 150-gram print — the documented worst case from 3dprint.com’s own testing: over 15 purge cycles in a single layer of a multi-color Flexi-Rex, roughly 11 times the finished part’s weight, attributed to a firmware misread of the purge sequence specific to TPU.
• 300 mm/s real print speed vs. a 600 mm/s advertised figure — 3dprint.com’s testing found the 600 mm/s number is a travel speed, not a sustained print speed; the printer reliably held 300 mm/s print speeds, and only after dropping to a 0.1 mm layer height.
• 220×220×220 mm build volume, 300°C nozzle, 110°C bed — a compact CoreXY footprint, with enough nozzle headroom for PLA, PETG, and TPU but not the engineering composites that need an active chamber.
• No camera or enclosure standard — per Tom’s Hardware’s review, both are separate accessories, despite some retailer listings describing the AD5X as fully enclosed with built-in monitoring.

AD5X vs the budget multi-color field at a glance

The AD5X’s pitch is simple: it’s the only printer in this table with multi-color built directly into the machine rather than as an external unit you buy and mount separately, and it undercuts even the budget Kobra 3 + ACE Pro combo on price. What it gives up is the enclosed chamber and standard camera that the pricier options include.

The 30-second verdict

Buy the AD5X if price is the only thing that matters. At $319-349, it’s the cheapest way to get built-in four-color printing on a CoreXY machine, and it handles PLA and PETG without the purge-waste issue reviewers flagged specifically on multi-color TPU.

Budget extra filament if you’re printing multi-color TPU. The documented 11x-waste case was tied to a firmware bug in the purge sequence on flexible filament specifically — treat it as a known risk to test carefully on a small print first, not a reason to avoid the printer for standard PLA/PETG work.

Skip it if you need a camera or enclosure out of the box. Both are separate purchases on the AD5X; the Bambu Lab P1S or a camera-equipped machine from our best 3D printer camera guide cover that need directly.

Why the IFS trades one kind of waste for another

Every single-nozzle multi-color system — Bambu’s AMS, Creality’s CFS, Anycubic’s ACE Pro, or FlashForge’s IFS — purges the old filament out of the nozzle before the new color can print clean. This site’s own multi-color 3D printer guide cites Eolas Prints and community testing putting that waste at roughly 15-25% of total filament on a typical multi-color print, regardless of brand. The AD5X’s IFS doesn’t change that core mechanic — it just builds the spool holders into the toolhead instead of an external box, which is why FlashForge can sell the whole machine for less than a competitor’s printer-plus-AMS combo. The firmware-related TPU case 3dprint.com documented is a separate, material-specific bug on top of that normal waste rate, not the baseline you should expect on PLA or PETG.

AD5X vs Bambu Lab A1 mini + AMS Lite

Both put four-color printing within reach of a first-time buyer, but they solve it differently. The A1 mini’s AMS Lite is a mature, widely-reviewed external unit with a strong reliability track record; the AD5X folds the same basic idea into the printer itself at a lower combined price ($319-349 vs. roughly $449 for an A1 mini plus AMS Lite). The trade is unproven firmware on edge cases like multi-color TPU, and no standard camera or enclosure. If this is your first multi-color printer and you want the safer bet, the A1 mini combo is it; if $100+ in savings matters more than ecosystem polish, the AD5X delivers the same core feature for less.

Bottom line

The FlashForge AD5X is a genuine budget-category first: built-in four-color printing for less than most competitors’ bare single-color enclosed printers. Buy it if you want to try multi-color printing without paying for a separate AMS-style unit, and stick to PLA/PETG until FlashForge’s firmware updates settle the documented TPU purge issue. Buy the Bambu Lab A1 mini + AMS Lite instead if you want a more proven multi-color system and don’t mind paying the premium, or the Bambu Lab P1S if you need an enclosed chamber and standard camera as well.

If purge waste is the dealbreaker, FlashForge’s own step-up is the Creator 5: four independent toolheads instead of one shared nozzle, so color changes don’t flush a shared nozzle. It still primes on a prime tower, and Notebookcheck measured 8 g of waste on a 16 g four-color Benchy after tuning (36 g at factory settings), so it’s less waste, not zero. It cost $699 on Flashforge’s US store on October 30, 2026, double the AD5X’s $349. Our FlashForge 3D printer guide lays out where each model fits.

Related guides

• FlashForge 3D printers compared — the AD5X against the Adventurer 5M, 5M Pro and four-toolhead Creator 5, with October 2026 store prices.

• Best multi-color 3D printer — how the AD5X’s built-in IFS compares to AMS, CFS, and ACE Pro systems on cost and purge waste.

• FlashForge Adventurer 5M review — FlashForge’s single-color sibling, for buyers who don’t need multi-color at all.

• Best budget 3D printer — where the AD5X’s $319-349 street price fits against other sub-$400 picks.