We bought the xTool P3 the day it was released, at the end of September 2025, with the full bundle. It was one of the first sold in Europe. We received it in early October.
Affiliate link: if you buy through it, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. We bought it ourselves and the review is independent.
Ten months later, the machine’s own counter tells us without any estimates: 430.4 hours of laser work, 815.3 hours on standby — that is, about 1,245 hours powered on — and 1,705 jobs completed. This is not a test unit or a loan for a review: it’s the machine we use to bill, and when it stops, we lose money.
This is the summary of everything we’ve learned. Each section links to the article where it’s detailed.
The verdict, upfront
So you don’t have to read 2,000 words if you just wanted this:
The machine itself is totally recommendable.
And the AP2 Max is essential if you’re going to work without external ventilation. It’s not an accessory: it’s part of the purchase.
The rest are nuances, and there are quite a few that are worth money.
What the P3 is
| Data | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | 80 W CO₂ laser (+ optional 5 W IR module) |
| Work area | 915 × 458 mm — about 2.3 times the size of the previous model |
| Engraving speed | up to 1200 mm/s |
| Cutting limit | 300 mm/s (400 mm/s in score) — software limit |
| Step height | up to 220 mm |
| Focus | LiDAR + AutoLift: measures thickness and raises the bed automatically |
| Cameras | Two: one overhead in the lid and one macro in the head |
| Cooling | Integrated chiller. Tube life ≈ 10,000 h |
| Weight | Declared 105 kg. The manual requires 4 people |
| Input power | 1,700 W (machine label) — maximum, not average consumption |
| Storage temperature | 10 °C to 45 °C |
| Software | xTool Studio. Does not support LightBurn |
What it does well
It holds up. We have had it running for 16 hours straight without a single problem. For a workshop that relies on large runs, that reliability is the reason for the purchase.
It’s really fast. A job that took us three hours on a 10 W diode machine is done here in less than half an hour. That’s not just a percentage improvement: it means accepting orders you used to reject.
The bed is huge, and that changes how you use material. Fewer sheets, fewer repositionings, less downtime.
Autofocus works. It measures thickness and raises the bed automatically. With two caveats to know: it fails with transparent acrylic — the LiDAR can’t see it, and the trick is to put a sheet of paper on top — and with very dark materials. Also, the workshop’s overhead light interferes: don’t trust the button message, wait for the LED next to the lid camera to turn green.
The cameras are truly appreciated. The P3 has two, and placing a design on the material is incredibly convenient. With an honest caveat: the top-down camera on the lid does not provide dimensional accuracy — it has distortion at the edges of the bed, the typical wide-angle distortion from above — so don’t rely on that general view for millimeter positioning. The solution is built into the machine and is excellent: the close-up photo mode — single or mosaic — shoots from just above the piece and does give you millimeter precision. For us, placing an engraving at an exact spot on an existing object went from a lottery to reliable.
What it doesn’t do
This is what we most wish we had known before buying:
- It doesn’t do deep relief 3D engraving. Confirmed by xTool support themselves. For that, you need the galvos from the F series.
- It doesn’t support LightBurn. Only xTool Studio. This has been a real reason for order cancellations in the forum.
- Thick acrylic is at the limit. Cutting 25 mm is possible at 1 mm/s with the L lens, and that’s the maximum output of 80 W.
- It doesn’t do smooth grays on slate. The CO₂ tube has a minimum firing power below which it doesn’t emit stably. It’s physics of the source, not a defect.
- It has no Z adjustment or mid-job pause. What you start, goes all the way.
The installation: the hardest part was the first day
Our workshop is on the upper floor of a family house, so we carried it up the stairs with three adults. The transport only gets to the front door, on a European pallet, and from there it’s your responsibility.
The problem isn’t the weight: it’s that the casing has not a single grip point and the lid, because of its two gas pistons, tends to open by itself when you tilt the machine. It can be done. We don’t recommend it.
And once it arrived: it came with the optical path factory misaligned and it took us almost an hour to fix it properly. Since then, in ten months, we haven’t had to realign anything.
The smoke, which is half the purchase
The P3 doesn’t extract smoke on its own: either a fan venting outside or a purifier. We don’t have an outside vent, so we went for the AP2 Max, and the result is clear: it eliminates practically 100% of the odor in a house where people live.
With an honest caveat we explain in the extraction article that could be decisive: the AP2 Max solves the odor problem, but it’s deafeningly loud. At the power level we use it, it’s hard to hold a conversation more than half a meter away. It works for us because it’s in a duplex with no neighbors; we don’t see it as realistic in a normal apartment. The odor is solved; the noise is the real limitation on where you can install it.
Two warnings that are detailed in the extraction article: the standard AP2 can’t handle a P3, you need the Max version; and never chain the IF2 and the purifier — xTool says this explicitly, and the consequences range from smoke inside the machine to flames coming out from under the wood.
The fire is real
If you’re only going to read one article on this blog, make it the one about the extinguisher.
We ordered the CO₂ bottle with the machine, but there was a stock shortage at the factory and it arrived two months late. During those two months, the machine stopped twice in emergency mode because it detected fire inside. It stops on its own and sounds a loud alarm, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do. But detecting is not the same as extinguishing.
The bottle is an accessory that the brand itself recommends and warns about. Don’t leave it out of the order to save money. And watch out: the one for the P3 is not the same as for other models.
Materials: what it cuts and how
Our main material is wood and plywood, also glass, leather in large batches, and doormats occasionally. What we sell most are wooden pieces for weddings and communions.
Our production parameters for plywood — M lens, 90% power, 30-50 mm/s, low air assist — cut perfectly. They are alongside all the others in the parameters table, which we keep updating.
And the big issue with this machine, the plywood scorching, turns out it’s almost never the machine’s fault: it’s the wood glue. The same thickness takes more than three times as long if the plywood isn’t laser-suitable. With the right material, the problem practically disappears — although the perfect edge without tape or sanding doesn’t exist, and by now we’ve accepted that.
Maintenance: less than we feared
xTool recommends cleaning every 8 hours of work and we often skip it without consequences, because the real frequency is marked by the smoke, not the clock.
The lens cleans in two minutes: two screws, a cotton swab with isopropyl alcohol, and done. The mirrors are magnetic and we have never needed to realign them after touching. The one on the head is almost always clean. And the lower tray is the best part of the design: it comes out, you empty it, and put it back in.
The accessory that wasn’t worth it
We bought the 5 W IR module in January to engrave metal, and ended up buying a fiber galvo because it fell short.
It engraves metal, yes. In exchange: you can't use the rotary, you lose half the bed, it's slow, and with stainless steel the height measurement fails, which ruins repeatability. If metal is an occasional extra, it's worth it. If it's a business line, that money is better spent elsewhere.
The accessory that has been a total hit is the RA3 rotary: it has made life much easier for us with bottles and steel thermoses, and in summer it’s one of the tools we use the most. We also have the honeycomb panel, convenient for small pieces although it doesn’t completely prevent flashbacks and has clips that could be improved.
What it costs to have it
The surprising number isn’t the machine’s, it’s the filters’: €671 excluding VAT for the complete AP2 Max set, with the six layers sold separately. Well below the “thousand dollars” circulating on the forum, and you can change individual layers.
The tube, on the other hand, is a non-issue, and for two reasons: it’s replaceable — €341.90 excluding VAT, about 3.4 cents per hour with 10,000 hours of life — and, above all, it warns you before it dies. It doesn’t just shut off overnight: as it runs out, you notice the power gradually dropping, so you have plenty of time to plan the replacement instead of facing a surprise stoppage. The full breakdown is in the cost article, including the figure you need to enter in the spreadsheet before buying: if you don’t have external ventilation, the initial budget isn’t €5,800, it’s almost €7,800.
xTool support: our experience goes against the grain
On the forum, support ratings are polarized and pre-sales get a bad rap. We have to say the opposite, and we say it precisely because we are critical about everything else:
Being among the very first users and paying owners, our experience with support has been unbeatable. They respond in a timely manner, show real interest, and there is always someone taking control of the case.
With two types of outcomes, and we appreciate that they distinguish: there are things with a solution, and there are things they explain to you that are not that way by design — especially in xTool Studio. We much prefer that second answer, clearly stated, than weeks of beating around the bush.
The trick that makes everything go faster: record a video showing the problem. This is what they systematically ask for and what saves three back-and-forth emails.
The case of the CO₂ bottle sums it up well: when there was a stockout, instead of leaving us waiting, they wrote to us explaining the cause and giving us in writing the exact specification of a compatible generic bottle. In other words, they told us how to solve it without their product.
What did make noise
For honesty, what is read on the forum and that we didn’t experience firsthand: there was controversy over the European deposit of €100 that promised a €1,000 discount which turned out to be on the non-promotional MSRP, and many people felt deceived. And there are quite a few threads about lost shipments and missed deadlines; it’s worth knowing that xTool does not insure shipments.
Oddities worth knowing
- Picky WiFi: requires 2.4 GHz on a separate SSID —not a combined band—, no special characters in the name, and VPN disabled.
- Left-right asymmetry: it doesn’t deliver exactly the same power across the entire bed. The software itself warns of less power in the upper left corner.
- Factory misaligned lid on some units: since the top camera is in the lid, the engraving comes out shifted. Usually fixed by repeating the full calibration.
- Loss of height reference when canceling a job or opening the lid too quickly at the end: the next repetition comes out out of focus.
- The lid button changes language on its own. Without any apparent reason and without the ability to revert it. Anecdotal, but true.
Who is it worth it for?
It’s worth it for those who produce in volume with organic materials: wood, plywood, leather, thin acrylic, glass. For those turning down large orders due to lack of capacity. For those who need a machine that can run for days straight without complaints. And for those who have the budget for proper extraction, which is not optional.
It’s not worth it for those who mainly make small and varied orders —a galvo is more agile there—, for those who need to engrave metal in series, for those who have a workflow based on LightBurn, or for those who live off cutting thick acrylic.
Ten months later, with over 430 hours of laser use and a few scares along the way, we would buy it again. What we would do differently is budget for the purifier from day one, not leave the IR module for the end of the list of questions, and not turn on the machine until the fire extinguisher is in place.
And if we have to sum up this entire analysis —the good, the critiquable, and what it took us to learn— in a single compliment, it is this, and it’s the most sincere one we know how to give: it’s a machine we would buy again even having paid full price without a single discount, all out of our own pocket. Which is exactly how we paid for it.
Written by Noemi and Javi, from Picasita. We are affiliates of xTool and our workshop is a brand demonstration space; we bought our P3 paying for it the day it was released. More about this blog and our relationship with xTool.
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