At first glance, the Longer LK5 Pro is a dimensionally stretched LK4 Pro. At second glance, yes, you would mostly confirm that it is the LK4 Pro, albeit bigger. Same print head with same perilously positioned print cooling fan. Same gorgeous and (we hope) responsive touchscreen UI.

Here’s the latest on what exactly the LK5 Pro is all about.

Build volume

The LK5 Pro slings a vast 300 x 300 mm slab of textured glass print bed in the Y-axis, with the Z-axis topping out at 400 mm. Larger than your typical budget 3D printer, but not really large format, it’s a sizable enough build volume for larger than average prints.

Textured Glass Bed

You’ll be printing directly onto a texture-coated sheet of glass with the LK5 Pro. The texture, Longer claims, is better for gripping prints when printing and makes the bed flatter. The first part, we’re sure, will be true. This kind of coated glass bed is commonplace nowadays and typically performs well for bed adhesion with PLA, TPU, PETG, and others.

How flat Longer’s glass is, we couldn’t say. Regardless, you’ll have to level the bed manually using the oversized knobs beneath the print bed.

The LK5 Pro supports the BLTouch auto-bed leveling probe, though without going hands-on, it’s unclear to us whether you’ll have to rip the printer open to plug it into a free port on the mainboard or if there’s a.

Structure and Design

Going taller with these i3-shape printers, as the LK5 Pro does, can introduce a bit of wobble and instability to prints. They need to be rock solid and square. Longer seeks to address this with rods that act as braces between the front of the printer’s base and the top of the Z-axis gantry.

As with the LK4 Pro before it, the LK5 Pro uses aluminum extrusions with closed faces where not used as runs for the various axes’ wheels. This keeps the machine easy to clean and looks slick if you ask us.

Also sticking around is Longer’s propensity to stick its printers on stilts, raising them off the benchtop and giving you more space to poke around underneath the machine. For how odd it can look, it’s pretty nice to have unfettered access to the bed leveling knobs. We likey.

That Fan Duct

The LK5 Pro appears to use the same disappointing 3D printed fan duct as featured on the LK4 Pro. This stock duct sits rather low relative to the nozzle and gives suboptimal print cooling, impacting print quality.

Large Touchscreen UI

The feature we liked most about the LK4 Pro returns to the LK5 Pro: the touchscreen. A large, portrait-oriented rectangle to poke and prod to command the machine, the touchscreen interface is fast becoming our preferred way to interact with a printer. When done right, it lets you quickly and confidently configure the machine and set up prints. We can’t speak to the LK5 Pro’s touchscreen’s responsiveness, but if it’s like the LK4 Pro, it’ll be good.

TMC2208 Stepper Motor Drivers

The LK5 Pro packs Trinamic TMC2208 stepper motor drivers, which allow for micro stepping (shorter, smoother movement) and quieter operation of the motors.