Cricut’s New Maker 4 Is Not Improved Enough to Justify Its Price
advantage
-
Faster than ex
-
Reliable applications
-
Supports a large selection of materials
shortcoming
-
Few accurate improvements
-
No new support materials
When Cricut The previous generation of cutting machines was released in 2021the company has little real competition. Cricut’s industry-leading software, impressive collection of unique supporting materials, and the growing home brand name clearly shows that this is a place. Nearly four years have passed, and at that time, competition has arrived from a new corner of the creator market.
Cricut’s response is New Manufacturer 4and its only improvement is that everything Cricut makes at the same price as its predecessor is faster.
Where Cricut Exploration The Series is a budget-friendly cutter for the most popular uses of these machines, and the design of the Cricut Maker series is limited only by your imagination. It supports over 300 materials, allowing you to do anything from making puzzles with cardboard or basswood to custom leather jewelry, except for everything that the Explore series is able to use. Its versatility makes Discovery 3 such a great choice in 2021 because you can have a machine that doesn’t take up a lot of rooms and can do more than just anything else on the market.
Today, Manufacturer 4 is not really competing with Silhouette or Brother’s traditional cutters and those made by these companies. The biggest competition over the past few years has come from companies like Xtool and Glowforge. Both companies have released laser cutting and engraving machines designed to provide features offered by Cricut, which is much lower than previous generations. this Glowforge will have Sparks can be cut stickers, made of steel designs or cut vinyl based on PVC. The same is true XTOOL F1 a little bitall three machines cost $800 or less.
If you use Cricut Maker 3, you also use Cricut Maker 4. The outer shell and interior tool kit are nearly the same, except for being available in different colors. All of my accessories for Manufacturer 3 are connected immediately and partnered with Manufacturer 4, which is great if you have already spent this money on other cutting tools or spools. I had no time to “moving in” this new version, and in fact, I opened the box from 3:30 pm to having a silly fake tag and putting on a bottle of hot sauce, which I gave to a friend at 4:15 because it felt familiar.
Like the new Explore 4, the Manufacturer 4 is much faster than its predecessor when cutting any part of the Cricut smart material line. It can handle multiple projects on the same mat, allowing small businesses or skilled home crafters to spend less time waiting. Such speed improvements can be a big deal for people with limited time, and it is a great way to improve the existing creative process when supporting twice the support of a standard square pad.
The Cricut Maker 4 is not calibrated correctly, requiring the user to go through a lengthy process before using any printing and cutting functions.
This increased cutting speed is very valuable, but it has many of the same limitations that Cricart has always been there. For example, despite an optical sensor to detect the design edge, a lengthy manual calibration process is required to print and accurately cut it. And, if you are using the print and cut features, especially for stickers, cutting parts is the only faster part. While Cricut is working on new algorithms to be released in the coming months to improve this process, the edge of detection design remains the longest part of the process.
While cutting vinyl, paper and iron materials improves speeds, especially when it is not manufactured or controlled by Cricart, the same speed is still very slow on thicker or more complex materials. It will still take some time to make puzzles or cut leather, especially compared to Cricut’s new competitors.
I made a silly label with a bottle of hot sauce with Cricut Maker 4.
If you only have enough space in your home to make a machine, I’m not sure Cricut’s Maker 4 is the best choice for 2025. If you really like using Cricut to cut vinyl and make steel or stickers, Explore 4 for only $250 And will be as fast as Manufacturer 4. If you’re craving more than what Cricut does, the $400 price for this new machine is a big requirement when the race price is much lower than two years ago.
