I bought a bambu p1s recently and it can be used entirely offline.
You can import models to orcaslicer (open source), do your slicing, and export the g code file to SD card.
If you want to skip the SD card, block the printer's mac/ip address at the firewall and set up WiFi. Then send the print directly from orcaslicer.
That being said, my gut says bambu is going to slowly require a persistent connection to the cloud at some point. Maybe they think they are an EV car company.
I'm curious - which firmware version are you on? Just yesterday I got confused when I accidentally entered the "cache" folder (Handy sliced models?) on my P1S, so it looks like my machine definitely supports folders at least. I am located in the UK and bought it late 2025.
AFAIK, the hidden internal USB port is intended to charge a phone/other device used as a "touch controller".
I don't like their closed-source control and the way they've managed local integrations, but I also want to accelerate making things with a printer that just "prints" (akin to how some will buy into the Apple ecosystem for something that "just works"). I've now sold my previous open-source Klipper/Mainsail printer which I heavily modified.
If/when Bambu makes their ecosystem unbearable for me, I will switch away (probably to a Prusa). For now, the ease of use of the machine has led to much more things being made as I can trust it to work accurately and reliably.
Yes, this is the dilemma right now. I have 30+ prusa's and 43 Bambu's and another dozen or so K1s. They all have their quirks, weaknesses and strong sides but for sheer reliability and volume you can't beat the Bambus. But for development work I'd much rather have the oldest bedslinger that I have because it is so incredibly precise, even if it is terribly slow as well. K1 I would not recommend for anything, too fragile and too irregular from one machine to another, each is a different printer. To get to that level of lack of consistency must have taken some real thinking.
I'm not so sure. You've had people insisting that, or how they'll lock it to only their own NFC tagged filaments but lets be real, if they start imposing serious restrictions most purchases would go to other makers.
They make solid enough devices sure, but they dont exactly have a moat that would keep users buying their stuff if it were to start getting locked down. They have far more to lose than they have to gain doing so.
Yes, you can use the P1S offline, but they've done everything possible to make it hard: crappy micro sd interface without the ability to use folders, USB plug absolutely inaccessible (see if you can even find it) and then, once you've found it it turns out that there is absolutely no way to use it to print with. They push you towards their closed source plugin 'for your benefit'. Fuck that stuff. There is absolutely no way I'm going to run a Chinese built piece of software that I can not inspect on my desktop. FOSS or bust.