When I first encountered the New Matter MOD-t 3D Printer ($399) two years ago, it was in the middle of an Indiegogo funding campaign and was being touted as the first $250 3D printer. Although, at its commercial release, the MOD-t is priced higher than the company had originally suggested, it's still at a modest price relative to most 3D printers. In testing, it proved easy to use, with good output quality, despite the occasional misprint. It's a solid choice if you're looking for a starter 3D printer for home use.

Design and Features
The MOD-t is simple, yet elegant—the company enlisted Frog, a well-known studio that specializes in technology product design. Its white base is topped by a removable rectangular hood made of clear plastic. It measures 11.6 by 15.4 by 13.1 inches (HWD)—considerably larger than the M3D Micro 3D Printer (7.3 by 7.3 by 7.3 inches) but smaller than the XYZPrinting da Vinci Jr. 1.0 (16.5 by 15 by 16.9 inches) and the Flashforge Finder (16.5 by 16.5 by 16.5 inches)—and weighs 12 pounds. Its build dimensions are 6 by 5 by 4 inches, a bit smaller than with the da Vinci Jr. (5.9 by 5.9 by 5.9 inches), larger than with the M3D Micro (4.6 by 4.4 by 4.3 inches), and similar to that of the Flashforge Finder (5.5 by 5.5 by 5.5 inches).

The MOD-t employs slightly different hardware than most 3D printers, which generally use several motors to drive belts that move the extruder and/or build plate in three dimensions. The MOD-t's servos (motors coupled with gear-reduction units and their own circuitry) drive two pinion (geared) shafts on which rests the build plate, grooved on the bottom to fit the gears. This moves the build plate in the X (right or left) and Y (inward or outward) directions. The extruder assembly moves vertically.

Setup
Setting up the MOD-t is a fairly simple and straightforward process. First you snap the print surface into place on the build plate base, seating the build plate on the pinion rods so that the gears mesh. Then you place a filament spool on the spool holder on the back of the printer and feed the filament through a hole in the printer's side through a guide tube until it comes out the tube's end. You then press Load Filament, either in the print utility or on the MOD-t site (both of which will be covered in the next section). When the extruder reaches the proper temperature, you are prompted to feed the filament into the extruder and attach the end of the guide tube to the extruder assembly.

One thing you won't need to do is to level the MOD-t's print bed. The printer does it automatically, something we're seeing more frequently in 3D printers, even budget ones.

As is often the case with entry-level 3D printers, the MOD-t is limited to printing with polylactic acid (PLA) filament. PLA is easier to work with than acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), the other most common type of filament. The corners of objects printed with ABS tend to curl upward—particularly on unheated print beds such as the MOD-t's—while PLA prints seldom have this problem.

New Matter sells filament spools for the MOD-t for $19.99 for a 1.1-pound (0.5kg) spool and $29.99 for a 2.2-pound (1kg) spool—very reasonable prices for PLA. M3D sells half-pound (227g) PLA spools, with about half the filament of the MOD-t, for $14.99. XYZPrinting sells 1.32-pound (600g) smart PLA spools for $28.99, and Flashforge sells 1.5-pound (680g) spools for $34.00. If need be, you could use third-party filament with the MOD-t, but there's no compelling reason to do so with New Matter's relatively low prices.

Software and Connectivity
For software, you need to go to the New Matter website and set up a free, password-protected account. Once you're logged in, you download the driver and print utility. The MOD-t works a little differently from most 3D printers in that instead of opening a 3D object file in software resident on your computer, you go to a "Library" associated with your account on the MOD-t store. It contains files (free or paid) that you have selected from the store, as well as your own files, which you upload to the Library.

To print a file, you select it from the Library. You are taken to a screen where you can change the resolution—standard resolution is 200 microns; the high-quality setting is 100 microns, and high speed is 400 microns. You can also add or remove supports (by default, they're enabled), or open a menu from which you can choose custom settings. When you're ready, you press Print Now. A light on a button on the MOD-t's front will soon start blinking rapidly. Pressing the button will launch the print, once the file transfer is complete and the printer is warmed up.

Although you can load and unload filament from the MOD-t print utility on your computer—as you can from the store—the utility mostly works behind the scenes to facilitate the transfer of files from the store to your computer to the printer. Connectivity between computer and printer is via either USB or Wi-Fi.

Regardless of which connectivity method you use, you still have to work through your library in the New Matter store to launch a print, so you need an active Internet connection in order to print. If your Internet connection is prone to frequent outages, the MOD-t wouldn't be a good choice. Also, several times when I tried to upload files from my computer to my Library, the files would not upload, although each worked on the second try.

Printing
In testing the MOD-t, I printed seven files, including a starter file that appeared in my Library when I opened the account, another file from the MOD-t store, and some of our standard test files that I uploaded. I experienced three misprints. In two cases, the objects pulled off the build platform early in the print for no obvious reason. The third misprint was with a tall, thin object that experienced some buckling near the top, an issue that I've seen in two other printers. (There was no buckling when I printed the same object on the MOD-t with added supports.) Excluding these misprints, overall print quality was very good. It ties the Flashforge Finder for the best output I have seen from a budget 3D printer.

One trait the MOD-t shares with other budget 3D printers I've looked at is that it's quiet. While many more expensive machines emit an annoying level of noise, I barely heard a peep out of the MOD-t in my workspace, about 20 feet away from the printer.

Conclusion
As an entry-level 3D printer geared toward consumers, the New Matter MOD-t 3D Printer is a handsome machine that offers easy setup and good overall print quality despite occasional misprints. Although the MOD-t experienced more misprints than the da Vinci Jr., those prints that were completed looked better. It's not as petite as the M3D Micro, but once again shows better print quality. And it's easier to set up than the Flashforge Finder, and has comparable print quality.

Unlike any of the aforementioned models, the MOD-t can't receive a print job directly from a computer; you have to transfer the files from your Library in the New Matter store. This indirect system generally works well, though I did have occasional trouble uploading files to the library, and an Internet outage could take the MOD-t out of play. If you can spring for it, the LulzBot Mini—our midrange Editors' Choice—offers easy setup, can print from a variety of filament types, and produced no misprints in our testing. But although the MOD-t isn't quite up to our standards to make it an Editors' Choice—we have yet to find a consumer 3D printer worthy of that title—it does well as an entry-level 3D printer, particularly in terms of print quality.