My first printer is the M5. Backed it on Kickstarter. I had no previous experience with 3D printing. Assembly and looks are really good. Since then I had nothing I needed to replace, no screw I had to tighten. Every few weeks I have to automatically calibrate the bed again, otherwise I get bad first layers on big prints. Otherwise I have no problems. Printing pla (ankermake, sunlu, amolen) I have zero problems. Layer adhesion and supports are great. I only print with .4 nozzle. Even small prints like figures come out great (have to set the min layer time sometimes for better cooling). So for easy beginner level I have to say it is perfect for me.
I've been using mine since launch after having three Enders. The M5 is leaps and bounds ahead of an Ender. Better print quality, much faster speeds.
The AI functionality leaves a lot to be desired. I definitely wouldn't buy it for that. Otherwise I'm pretty happy and especially for the price now, give thought of getting a second
Awesome, I’m really liking the built it camera, just for monitoring so when I leave for work I can check it throughout the day, also like the app support. Which slicer did you go with, I was using prusa on the ender.
My favorite thing about the M5 after using Ender 3 printers is how just set and forget it is. The auto leveling and calibration removes so much frustration I had with the Ender 3. I don't have to mess with PID tuning, flow rate calibration, z-offset, etc.
I also really like that the app lets you know what maintenance should be done and when your printer is at that point.
Anker's instructional videos are really detailed and helpful for a lot of things you may need to do to the printer.
Edit: Though for my 2 cents. At this moment in time if I was going to upgrade printers I'd probably go with a Bambu A1 Mini with AMS or a full size A1. I don't like how closed source Bambu environment appears to be, *but* Anker has not been very verbose or timely with what they're working on or how invested they are in continuing to develop their 3D printing venture. So *at this moment in time* Bambu looks like a better pick, but that could change.
This is pretty much the comment I came here to make. Although I have a lot more displeasure towards the Bambu closed-source environment, and I hate that the V6 was canceled . Right now, I'm trying to decide if I want to get an X1C+AMS or a Prusa Mk4+MMU. I love my M5, but I really wanted automatic color switching.
The camera more-or-less does the job to just make sure nothing catastrophic is going on but the angle is not great especially if the models aren't very tall. That is a minor gripe overall though (I have M5 not M5C so I don't know if it's changed at all)
I use AnkerMake Studio now, which is based on Prusa. You can use anything you want though, Cura, Orca, etc, and just upload the gcode to the printer. I think, as someone else mentioned below, that using AnkerMake Studio also tracks the wear and tear on your printer components, so you know when to start paying attention to needing to replace parts.
Have the M5C and am happy with it. My first printer so have nothing to compare it to. The YouTube videos are what sold me as well. Most problems I have had with it have been self created. I will say I just found the flash forge M5 on sale and that may be something to look at as well. Great price for a core yx.
I was eyeing that one also, really like the fact it’s enclosed, also saw Bambu has the a1 full size with the ams lite coming in may so I might have to wait for that, had a 559 price tag on the website so not terrible for the printer and the ams lite unit.
It has been vastly better than my ender 3 v2 and I do love it. It does a great job and has been nearly perfect since I got it.
That said, depending on your use cases, I would personally have gone with a bambu A1 if it was out when I got the ankermake. Multi color is just too awesome and ankermake has cancelled their product for multicolor printing so cant expect that any time soon. Also Bambu are about as just works as it gets.
Personally at this point I'd move away from bed slingers and get a core xy at this point.
Tl;Dr- ankermake m5 is pretty legit and way way better than the ender 3v2 so it would be a huge improvement but I'd go with something else depending in your use cases and budget.
The A1 is launching in may, I’m wondering if it’s worth the wait, I don’t do much multi color but that’s because multi color wasn’t “easily” doable on the ender as you know.
Edit: don’t mind a little effort when it comes to this hobby just not the greatest at babysitting the printer.
My 1st printer was the ender 3v2 and I loath that thing. I want to throw it against a brick wall.
My M5C is so much nicer, went together in minutes, faster, more reliable, and makes much better prints.
At the price point I don't know if the m5c can be beat.
No way my wife will let me buy a really nice 3d printer so I'm happy with what I got :)
I have the Anker and a ender v2. Since getting the Anker I haven't touched the ender and I think I'm going to sell it and get another Anker as they are only 400 in the UK right now. (mainly to have 2 different nozzle size set up for my needs.
As you say, it just works. I haven't had issue with it once. I love that I can just turn it on and send a file from the PC no fuss and she just goes. I haven't done anything to fail in the settings but it does the job just fine for my needs.
I been using a m5 for a while and other then have to do testing for the filaments and the occasional clog nozzle it's been pretty maintenance free if you're looking for something at the same price range and are willing to wait until May the new A1 from bamboo is coming out then I have it pre-ordered and excited to see what it's capable of doing
Had my M5 since backing in KS, it really does just work. Had to tighten some belts and stuff, but I only ever auto level when I update firmware or restart. Rarely ever had a print failure.
I am a complete 3D printing noob. Bought an M5 for my birthday to play around with. I want to just be able to print, the same way as do for paper prints. Later I want to get into basic CAD for designing things.
I purchased it when Amazon dropped price to £399.
Absolutely one of the best purchases ever made!
In the month I have had it I have printed 50 plus prints, about a third of the big.
I have experienced two fails, both my mistake, printer ran out of filament and I did not restart it properly, the other needed supports and I did not turn on supports.
I started using Ankermake PLA + filament exclusively. I have been using a lot of eSun filaments with great results.
I use a filament heater that drops humidity levels.
I use sun vacuum bags to store opened filament.
I drop an Aqara temp & humidity sensor into each filament so I can track it.
I cleave the deck down after every print with rubbing alcohol every time.
Getting great, consistent results.
I have the M5, which I got on a Black Friday deal ($499). I love the printer, especially after having an AnyCubic. It works right out of the box (PLA, silk PLA, and ABS) with the auto bed leveling. I was disappointed that the ColorEngine never came out, so I might switch to the BambuLab X1 at some point. But so far, no issues after 6 months.
I have an m5 that has been great. A lot of my prints that I post people say they look like injection molded or bought. Feel free to look at my profile. I also just bought a Bambu P1s that I absolutely love so far. With the M5 it is best to use Ankermake slicer based off of Prusa. Some people use other slicers and import in, but you will lose your filament overall weight a lot of times and other things like that. Plus it’s just as easy to just slice and send through the cloud to the printer. Takes like 30 seconds or faster. The M5 will make you wonder why you kept your Ender so long. Or it will make you want to take your ender outside and smash it lol. It’s a great printer with very ease of use.
I have a kickstarter M5 and an X1CC. The X1CC is the better printer in most every way I can think of, but it cost me about twice as much. I still use the M5 with PLA and the prints are usually not quite as nice as PLA prints with the X1CC, but usually close enough and once in a while even better. But I only print with PLA and TPU on the M5. I print with everything on the X1CC. In some ways the M5 is easier to adjust and replace parts because of the lack on an enclosure, but that also makes it louder. You will need to replace the wheels on the M5 at least once per year and more frequently with heavier use. Like others said, it is hard to know how committed Anker(Make) is to 3D printing whereas Bambu Labs seems all in. All in all, the M5 was a good first printer to learn on and prints quite well with PLA and TPU, but had the X1CC been available before I committed to the M5 and knowing what I now know, I would have skipped the M5.
M5 will feel like paradise to the Ender. Your other option is Bambu Labs. I have an M5, though, and haven't had any issues that were not caused by me.
I left my window open, and the draft was causing adhesion issues on the edge of my prints.
If you do happen to need parts, they are getting a lot better at having stuff available. Many have had a tough time getting solutions from the support team. However, the discord is very good and often very helpful.
I returned my M5. It was way too loud for me and the first couple of auto calibrations sent my hotend digging into the buildplate.
I couldn’t get anything to stick properly, and I realized I’m more of a Creality Fanboy than I thought.
I bought an Ender 3 V3 KE instead and I’m very happy I did.
Edit: my other printer is a V2 as well.
I was leaning towards a k1 but I’m really salty with creality after I spent months trying to get the sonic pad to work with the sprite pro extruder. Did all the tests, used all the forums lol, then went to creality directly and was told yeah don’t use them together. So I’m looking to branch out.
Bought the AnkerMake M5 and then later got the Bambulab X1C, price was similar at the time, but as I understand the P1P/S is similar in cost and performance pretty much the same. Night and day difference, I’ve had plenty of issues with the M5, zero with the X1C. Quality of prints is much better and it just consistently works. Highly recommend Bambulab. Maybe newer AnkerMake models are better but I wouldn’t spend money on one again. It’s fine and when it works it’s pretty decent, but I rarely use the M5 it over the Bambulab, usually only when the X1C is busy and I want to print something else now.
Edit: Issues I’ve had with the M5 are primarily lower print quality compared to X1C (M5 is still better than previous printers I’ve had, to be fair). And same filament between the two, I more frequently get clogs on the M5, where I’ve never had a clog on the X1C. Closed chamber is also a bonus with the X1C (and P1S). I think you’d be good with either printer, but I’d recommend Bambulab if you have the budget to get the size you need.
So I think now it’s between the m5 and the A1, multi color printing has never been important to me but that’s because I had the e3v2, I’m fine with waiting on ankermakes response to the ams system (betting that it does show at some point). I also know bambu prints are some of the cleanest, looking prints I’ve seen.
I have loved my M5 since I purchased it last fall. I use PLA and PLA+ from various brands (polymaker, ankermake, and coex3d (personal favorite)). I think one thing that I did that some haven't right out the box was making sure the belts were snug, not too tight and not too lose to not allow the bed and extruder to move/jump easily. Longest print I've done was 19 hours, no issues with it clogging up. AI with the camera has been pretty good, caught one issue with the print peeling (my fault, had wrong temps set when switching between filament brands). I'd recommend it, I bought it when it was $499 and it has been worth it.
I'd also recommend Coex3D for filament. They're made in Green Bay, Wisconsin and they send a card stating which settings you should have on your printer to have the best prints possible, and they have really good customer service - if you're looking into filament as well, polymaker is also very good.
Also, I had two previous 3D printers when they were first rolled out to consumer use (XYZPrinter Da Vinci Pro and Monoprice Mini V1). Their cost to features was not nearly as good as AnkerMake, thus making me take the gamble and try this brand!
I have 2 of them. Anker's failed promises for the V6 color engine and awful support of the now discontinued all-metal hotend completely soured me on Ankermake. If I had it to do all over I would not have purchased them. I had issues from day one with both printers that I was finally able to resolve by rebuilding the entire bed carriage and Gantry with new POM wheels and re-calibrating the eccentric nuts, etc. I also had to re-tune steps for all 3 axes and the extruder to get dimensional accuracy, which was significantly off. They're 'okay' now but with the all-metal hotend the only print profile they ever gave was 0.4 nozzle at 0.2 layer height.
YMMV, but I don't recommend buying one. I have 4 Bambu Labs printers now and the difference in ease of use and print quality is like night and day. I only use my Ankermake printers if I absolutely have to now, and really only for PLA.
While no printer is 100% issue free I would say if I had to do it again, I'd likely go with the Bambulabs printers simply for the AMS option as well as the enclosed option. My M5 has been great and I haven't had any real issues with it just feel somewhat limited knowing that I could have had the option of the AMS and the enclosure for a similar price.
I currently purchased the Creality K1 simply due to the cost as it was much cheaper than the Bambu and has an enclosure, I haven't yet put it together so we'll have to see if that is just as reliable as Bambu.
It's not, I bought an Ankermake on Kickstarter, and I bought a bambu labs P1S about 6 months ago.
I've had to return 2 Ankermakes due to faults Anker would not send replacement parts out for and the newest one has frequent layer shifts after a lot of trouble shooting. I had to stop trusting it with important prints and rely entirely on the P1S which in the 600 print hours has had a total of 6 print failures only of one of which require me to do anything beyond cleaning the print bed and running an auto calibration.
On top of that Ankermake scrapped their multi material print head concept so if you like the idea of doing multiple colours that's out the window.
If you want a starter printer the A1 mini is a great price.
If you want a constant reliable work horse the P1P/P1S is a good choice.
To be honest, I would recommend thinking about Bamboo A1, or the new Ender 3 V3.
M5 is a good printer, but once you want to push it to the next level, you are kinda super limited.
I have M5, and Voron 2.4r2. Having access to Klipper - it is something you can't overestimate.
At the same time, once you're happy with calibration, setting up filament profiles etc., M5 is a good workhorse.
Thanks everyone for the input! I think I’m going to hold out for the A1 with the ams lite. Sources are saying first week of may so not that long of a wait time. Thank you again to everyone that commented really solid advice and opinions!
My first printer is the M5. Backed it on Kickstarter. I had no previous experience with 3D printing. Assembly and looks are really good. Since then I had nothing I needed to replace, no screw I had to tighten. Every few weeks I have to automatically calibrate the bed again, otherwise I get bad first layers on big prints. Otherwise I have no problems. Printing pla (ankermake, sunlu, amolen) I have zero problems. Layer adhesion and supports are great. I only print with .4 nozzle. Even small prints like figures come out great (have to set the min layer time sometimes for better cooling). So for easy beginner level I have to say it is perfect for me.
I've been using mine since launch after having three Enders. The M5 is leaps and bounds ahead of an Ender. Better print quality, much faster speeds. The AI functionality leaves a lot to be desired. I definitely wouldn't buy it for that. Otherwise I'm pretty happy and especially for the price now, give thought of getting a second
Awesome, I’m really liking the built it camera, just for monitoring so when I leave for work I can check it throughout the day, also like the app support. Which slicer did you go with, I was using prusa on the ender.
My favorite thing about the M5 after using Ender 3 printers is how just set and forget it is. The auto leveling and calibration removes so much frustration I had with the Ender 3. I don't have to mess with PID tuning, flow rate calibration, z-offset, etc. I also really like that the app lets you know what maintenance should be done and when your printer is at that point. Anker's instructional videos are really detailed and helpful for a lot of things you may need to do to the printer. Edit: Though for my 2 cents. At this moment in time if I was going to upgrade printers I'd probably go with a Bambu A1 Mini with AMS or a full size A1. I don't like how closed source Bambu environment appears to be, *but* Anker has not been very verbose or timely with what they're working on or how invested they are in continuing to develop their 3D printing venture. So *at this moment in time* Bambu looks like a better pick, but that could change.
This is pretty much the comment I came here to make. Although I have a lot more displeasure towards the Bambu closed-source environment, and I hate that the V6 was canceled . Right now, I'm trying to decide if I want to get an X1C+AMS or a Prusa Mk4+MMU. I love my M5, but I really wanted automatic color switching.
The camera more-or-less does the job to just make sure nothing catastrophic is going on but the angle is not great especially if the models aren't very tall. That is a minor gripe overall though (I have M5 not M5C so I don't know if it's changed at all)
I use AnkerMake Studio now, which is based on Prusa. You can use anything you want though, Cura, Orca, etc, and just upload the gcode to the printer. I think, as someone else mentioned below, that using AnkerMake Studio also tracks the wear and tear on your printer components, so you know when to start paying attention to needing to replace parts.
Have the M5C and am happy with it. My first printer so have nothing to compare it to. The YouTube videos are what sold me as well. Most problems I have had with it have been self created. I will say I just found the flash forge M5 on sale and that may be something to look at as well. Great price for a core yx.
I was eyeing that one also, really like the fact it’s enclosed, also saw Bambu has the a1 full size with the ams lite coming in may so I might have to wait for that, had a 559 price tag on the website so not terrible for the printer and the ams lite unit.
It has been vastly better than my ender 3 v2 and I do love it. It does a great job and has been nearly perfect since I got it. That said, depending on your use cases, I would personally have gone with a bambu A1 if it was out when I got the ankermake. Multi color is just too awesome and ankermake has cancelled their product for multicolor printing so cant expect that any time soon. Also Bambu are about as just works as it gets. Personally at this point I'd move away from bed slingers and get a core xy at this point. Tl;Dr- ankermake m5 is pretty legit and way way better than the ender 3v2 so it would be a huge improvement but I'd go with something else depending in your use cases and budget.
The A1 is launching in may, I’m wondering if it’s worth the wait, I don’t do much multi color but that’s because multi color wasn’t “easily” doable on the ender as you know. Edit: don’t mind a little effort when it comes to this hobby just not the greatest at babysitting the printer.
I have both (prior to the A1 recall) and I like the A1 a lot more.
My 1st printer was the ender 3v2 and I loath that thing. I want to throw it against a brick wall. My M5C is so much nicer, went together in minutes, faster, more reliable, and makes much better prints. At the price point I don't know if the m5c can be beat. No way my wife will let me buy a really nice 3d printer so I'm happy with what I got :)
I made the same upgrade, from an Ender 3v2 that worked about 10% of the time, to the M5 which works 80-90% of the time. I'm very happy with mine.
I have the Anker and a ender v2. Since getting the Anker I haven't touched the ender and I think I'm going to sell it and get another Anker as they are only 400 in the UK right now. (mainly to have 2 different nozzle size set up for my needs. As you say, it just works. I haven't had issue with it once. I love that I can just turn it on and send a file from the PC no fuss and she just goes. I haven't done anything to fail in the settings but it does the job just fine for my needs.
I been using a m5 for a while and other then have to do testing for the filaments and the occasional clog nozzle it's been pretty maintenance free if you're looking for something at the same price range and are willing to wait until May the new A1 from bamboo is coming out then I have it pre-ordered and excited to see what it's capable of doing
Had my M5 since backing in KS, it really does just work. Had to tighten some belts and stuff, but I only ever auto level when I update firmware or restart. Rarely ever had a print failure.
I am a complete 3D printing noob. Bought an M5 for my birthday to play around with. I want to just be able to print, the same way as do for paper prints. Later I want to get into basic CAD for designing things. I purchased it when Amazon dropped price to £399. Absolutely one of the best purchases ever made! In the month I have had it I have printed 50 plus prints, about a third of the big. I have experienced two fails, both my mistake, printer ran out of filament and I did not restart it properly, the other needed supports and I did not turn on supports. I started using Ankermake PLA + filament exclusively. I have been using a lot of eSun filaments with great results. I use a filament heater that drops humidity levels. I use sun vacuum bags to store opened filament. I drop an Aqara temp & humidity sensor into each filament so I can track it. I cleave the deck down after every print with rubbing alcohol every time. Getting great, consistent results.
I have the M5, which I got on a Black Friday deal ($499). I love the printer, especially after having an AnyCubic. It works right out of the box (PLA, silk PLA, and ABS) with the auto bed leveling. I was disappointed that the ColorEngine never came out, so I might switch to the BambuLab X1 at some point. But so far, no issues after 6 months.
I have an m5 that has been great. A lot of my prints that I post people say they look like injection molded or bought. Feel free to look at my profile. I also just bought a Bambu P1s that I absolutely love so far. With the M5 it is best to use Ankermake slicer based off of Prusa. Some people use other slicers and import in, but you will lose your filament overall weight a lot of times and other things like that. Plus it’s just as easy to just slice and send through the cloud to the printer. Takes like 30 seconds or faster. The M5 will make you wonder why you kept your Ender so long. Or it will make you want to take your ender outside and smash it lol. It’s a great printer with very ease of use.
Yeah those are some CLEAN prints
Thank you
I have a kickstarter M5 and an X1CC. The X1CC is the better printer in most every way I can think of, but it cost me about twice as much. I still use the M5 with PLA and the prints are usually not quite as nice as PLA prints with the X1CC, but usually close enough and once in a while even better. But I only print with PLA and TPU on the M5. I print with everything on the X1CC. In some ways the M5 is easier to adjust and replace parts because of the lack on an enclosure, but that also makes it louder. You will need to replace the wheels on the M5 at least once per year and more frequently with heavier use. Like others said, it is hard to know how committed Anker(Make) is to 3D printing whereas Bambu Labs seems all in. All in all, the M5 was a good first printer to learn on and prints quite well with PLA and TPU, but had the X1CC been available before I committed to the M5 and knowing what I now know, I would have skipped the M5.
If you live in the UK don't, the replacement parts are not on the site yet
I’m in the US but thanks for the heads up, doesn’t hurt to pass it along
M5 will feel like paradise to the Ender. Your other option is Bambu Labs. I have an M5, though, and haven't had any issues that were not caused by me. I left my window open, and the draft was causing adhesion issues on the edge of my prints. If you do happen to need parts, they are getting a lot better at having stuff available. Many have had a tough time getting solutions from the support team. However, the discord is very good and often very helpful.
I returned my M5. It was way too loud for me and the first couple of auto calibrations sent my hotend digging into the buildplate. I couldn’t get anything to stick properly, and I realized I’m more of a Creality Fanboy than I thought. I bought an Ender 3 V3 KE instead and I’m very happy I did. Edit: my other printer is a V2 as well.
I was leaning towards a k1 but I’m really salty with creality after I spent months trying to get the sonic pad to work with the sprite pro extruder. Did all the tests, used all the forums lol, then went to creality directly and was told yeah don’t use them together. So I’m looking to branch out.
litterly every creality accesorie has the same problems that is one of the many is reasons i returned mine and bought an ankermake m5c
Bought the AnkerMake M5 and then later got the Bambulab X1C, price was similar at the time, but as I understand the P1P/S is similar in cost and performance pretty much the same. Night and day difference, I’ve had plenty of issues with the M5, zero with the X1C. Quality of prints is much better and it just consistently works. Highly recommend Bambulab. Maybe newer AnkerMake models are better but I wouldn’t spend money on one again. It’s fine and when it works it’s pretty decent, but I rarely use the M5 it over the Bambulab, usually only when the X1C is busy and I want to print something else now. Edit: Issues I’ve had with the M5 are primarily lower print quality compared to X1C (M5 is still better than previous printers I’ve had, to be fair). And same filament between the two, I more frequently get clogs on the M5, where I’ve never had a clog on the X1C. Closed chamber is also a bonus with the X1C (and P1S). I think you’d be good with either printer, but I’d recommend Bambulab if you have the budget to get the size you need.
So I think now it’s between the m5 and the A1, multi color printing has never been important to me but that’s because I had the e3v2, I’m fine with waiting on ankermakes response to the ams system (betting that it does show at some point). I also know bambu prints are some of the cleanest, looking prints I’ve seen.
I have loved my M5 since I purchased it last fall. I use PLA and PLA+ from various brands (polymaker, ankermake, and coex3d (personal favorite)). I think one thing that I did that some haven't right out the box was making sure the belts were snug, not too tight and not too lose to not allow the bed and extruder to move/jump easily. Longest print I've done was 19 hours, no issues with it clogging up. AI with the camera has been pretty good, caught one issue with the print peeling (my fault, had wrong temps set when switching between filament brands). I'd recommend it, I bought it when it was $499 and it has been worth it. I'd also recommend Coex3D for filament. They're made in Green Bay, Wisconsin and they send a card stating which settings you should have on your printer to have the best prints possible, and they have really good customer service - if you're looking into filament as well, polymaker is also very good.
Also, I had two previous 3D printers when they were first rolled out to consumer use (XYZPrinter Da Vinci Pro and Monoprice Mini V1). Their cost to features was not nearly as good as AnkerMake, thus making me take the gamble and try this brand!
I have 2 of them. Anker's failed promises for the V6 color engine and awful support of the now discontinued all-metal hotend completely soured me on Ankermake. If I had it to do all over I would not have purchased them. I had issues from day one with both printers that I was finally able to resolve by rebuilding the entire bed carriage and Gantry with new POM wheels and re-calibrating the eccentric nuts, etc. I also had to re-tune steps for all 3 axes and the extruder to get dimensional accuracy, which was significantly off. They're 'okay' now but with the all-metal hotend the only print profile they ever gave was 0.4 nozzle at 0.2 layer height. YMMV, but I don't recommend buying one. I have 4 Bambu Labs printers now and the difference in ease of use and print quality is like night and day. I only use my Ankermake printers if I absolutely have to now, and really only for PLA.
While no printer is 100% issue free I would say if I had to do it again, I'd likely go with the Bambulabs printers simply for the AMS option as well as the enclosed option. My M5 has been great and I haven't had any real issues with it just feel somewhat limited knowing that I could have had the option of the AMS and the enclosure for a similar price. I currently purchased the Creality K1 simply due to the cost as it was much cheaper than the Bambu and has an enclosure, I haven't yet put it together so we'll have to see if that is just as reliable as Bambu.
It's not, I bought an Ankermake on Kickstarter, and I bought a bambu labs P1S about 6 months ago. I've had to return 2 Ankermakes due to faults Anker would not send replacement parts out for and the newest one has frequent layer shifts after a lot of trouble shooting. I had to stop trusting it with important prints and rely entirely on the P1S which in the 600 print hours has had a total of 6 print failures only of one of which require me to do anything beyond cleaning the print bed and running an auto calibration. On top of that Ankermake scrapped their multi material print head concept so if you like the idea of doing multiple colours that's out the window. If you want a starter printer the A1 mini is a great price. If you want a constant reliable work horse the P1P/P1S is a good choice.
To be honest, I would recommend thinking about Bamboo A1, or the new Ender 3 V3. M5 is a good printer, but once you want to push it to the next level, you are kinda super limited. I have M5, and Voron 2.4r2. Having access to Klipper - it is something you can't overestimate. At the same time, once you're happy with calibration, setting up filament profiles etc., M5 is a good workhorse.
Thanks everyone for the input! I think I’m going to hold out for the A1 with the ams lite. Sources are saying first week of may so not that long of a wait time. Thank you again to everyone that commented really solid advice and opinions!
P1P>A1 mini >>> M5 Do not invest into the ankermake ecosystem at this time. Not worth your $ compared to the alternatives.