The Lotmaxx Shark v2 is perhaps the most simple to setup and quietest printer I've used. The presentation after opening the box is very good, with all of the parts and components clearly labeled and packed safely. With the included, well written and clearly illustrated documentation, I had the print setup in about 20 minutes from start to finish. This model requires manual leveling but the procedure via the touch screen was extremely easy and I don't miss the extra 2-3 minutes that an auto bed leveler would add to each print. The touchscreen interface is excellent and a pleasure to use. After a short while I was very accustomed to navigating and dialing (touching) in the settings during prints or when queuing up prints.
Build Quality:
The extrusions on this printer are a matt gray color and look fantastic. The chassis, rollers, extruders, and touch screen are very well constructed leading to a very polished look. I like how all of the connections that you would need are external to the printer. The second extruder port, auto leveling port, USB, microSD, laser, and screen connectors are all in the front, clearly labeled and easy to access. Certainly better than having to flip the printer over and unscrew bottom covering and rerouting cables as I've had to do with other printers.
Print experience and results:
The results have been fantastic. I printed the standard included cat STL which came out great and then moved on to bi-color prints. I printed a bi-color benchy without issues using the included green and orange PLA. One thing to note about bi-color printing is that the slicing software will require a purge tower for each layer where there are multiple colors. This is to purge the remaining filament that may remain in the nozzle after switching to the alternate color. It's required for a clean print and I should add that you want to make sure that the tower is larger than the default 20mm for taller prints to prevent the tower from becoming dislodged from the print bed during operation. I was able to print a large Among Us crewman with a different color face shield and the result was amazing. I'm already thinking of a ton of different multi-color prints. I would also like to try using PVA filament for support material and see if I can make extremely detailed single-color prints with support material that you can dissolve in water.
It also prints so quiet! The stepper motors via the 2208 drivers are super silent and the fans only kick on sparingly, likely due to the excellent design and attention to passive cooling. Speaking of cooling, the dual part cooling toolhead is perfect for printing parts that round up from the print bed (bowls). Other printers with single part cooling fans have trouble with rounded, bowl shape parts since the fan is only blowing on one side of the part as it prints. This wasn't a problem with the Shark V2. Also with that additional cooling power you can print much faster. I was amazed at how fast the printer was able to complete the built-in test models. I highly recommend this printer for it's print quality, ease of setup, speed, silence, and versatility.
Drawbacks and precautions:
There is a lack of easy and intuitive belt tensioning controls. A simple threaded knob would be a great improvement on the clean design. The existing tensioning is done via loosing t-nuts and drawing the belts tight and holding this tension while tightening the screws. It is doable but could be easier. The laser attachment and included software was a little difficult to get functioning properly. The default settings in the software did not produce any output on the wood (500 power, 50mm print speed, 30mm travel). I had to increase the power to 1000 and lower the travel and print speeds to 10mm each to get the light output in the picture. I'm certain that I can get the output to look much better with some testing, but as you only get 2 wooden sheets the process would benefit from some properly tuned defaults either in the software or written in the documentation. I would also caution users regarding the filament sensors. Make sure you straighten out the end of the filament instead of attempting to insert the filament curved into the filament sensor. You could prevent the filament from going cleanly through and potentially damage the internal switch lever. Straight path for straight filament, makes sense.