Crowdfunding sites have been teasing us with inexpensive 3D printers for a year now. But in the end the first modern desktop 3D printer that costs less than $500 came from Taiwan, not Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

The printer is the Da Vinci 1.0, and it is just one of a whole lineup of low-cost machines that XYZprinting has pumped out this year. It is by no means a beautiful machine, but it gets the basics done. Here is how it did over a month of tests:

Two of the best prints I got off the Da Vinci 1.0.

Setup

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from a $399 3D printer. But the process I had to go through to get it up and running for the first time managed to set my expectations even lower.

The first printer that arrived turned on just fine. I installed XYZprinting’s proprietary filament…