CONTENTS & ASSEMBLY 9/10

The EM-Smart Basic 2R is teenie tiny. It’s so small in fact, when it arrived at the studio I thought it was a diode laser delivery. You could be forgiven for thinking the same. The small footprint is definitely a plus if you intend to travel with this machine. It appeared to be packaged well with the various components of the chassis placed thoughtfully into the foam case dividers.

My EM-Smart 2R arrived with the unit itself, a USB cable, power adapter, questionable safety glasses, the rotary device, some laser cut acrylic positioning bars, some testing materials and a USB disk with your free copy of Ezcad 2.

Once you get the parts out of the box, getting the thing assembled is fairly straightforward. All it takes to get things together are a few machine screws, a hex wrench and some common sense. You can have the whole thing built in 15 minutes if you’re moving quickly. Once together plug in your power cable, usb cable, load up your laser software and get to calibrating and marking.

HARDWARE & SPECS 6/10

The build is undeniably sleek and modern. The chassis is an all-in-one design cut from high quality aluminum and the bed is set up with your standard breadboard grid for whatever attachments you’d want to use or jigging you’d like to apply. Unlike its cousin the original EM-Smart or EM-Smart Nova, the Basic models have a long rubberized fiber optic lead that travels from the base to the laser path. For whatever reason I like this much better than the original EM-Smart fixed tower design. 

On the front of the base we have a basic on/off power button as well as an appreciated emergency stop switch. The sides of the unit are clean and bare of any mechanisms or controls. Around the backside is where we’ll find our power and usb ports as well as our rotary port for rotary engraving.

Both the tower and laser path are sturdy and feel like one cohesive piece which certainly helps with the aesthetics and the manual turn handle for raising and lowering your focus is nice and compact, so I didn’t have to worry about it getting in the way when trying to travel.

The red light focus guide is sufficient for use with one lens though I found it can be a little awkward to adjust if needed. It gets the job done but as always with galvo lasers I recommend laser cutting your own focal sticks for the most accurate focusing experience.

While everything LOOKS very nice on the surface I’m a bit disappointed with my inability to go into detail on the components that make this machine possible. The galvo scan head and f-theta lens on the EM-Smart units are completely proprietary and I don’t have much to go on as far as being able to ascertain their source or quality. Furthermore, during a livestream I took a look inside the base unit during my initial unboxing to inspect its internals. I was contacted by 3PLasers shortly after the live concluded and they requested it be removed. I removed the livestream as a professional courtesy, but it's very frustrating feeling like I can’t show you guys the inside of the machine during this review, as I do believe that is valuable information when considering if we will recommend a laser.

I could speculate as to why 3PLasers requested this part of the livestream be removed, or why they requested that not be part of the review, but to be honest I am not sure why they don’t want this information shown. Please just be aware that you won’t have concrete information about the internals of this machine until you’ve purchased it and it’s in your hands. 

LASER MODULE 6/10

While 3PLasers offers a variety of units with different sources installed, the review unit I was given came with this custom 25w MAX source so we’ll be judging this particular review based on that. 

This unnamed custom 25w MAX fiber laser source while seemingly dependable and fairly easy to use, still just doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence in me. Despite the legions of fans out there vouching for these very budget friendly sources I still find myself worried about what the longevity will be for them and how much strenuous activity they can endure before issues crop up. MAX sources have certainly improved since I came to know them but it just hasn’t been long enough for me yet to wholeheartedly recommend them - especially for a main production unit. More on that later.

Since it behaves for the most part very similarly to my 30w JPT LP source in my Mactron, I was able to use the same settings library with small variations here and there. That said you are looking at a 30khz to 60khz frequency range so there will be some limitations there when trying to high frequency marks including some anneals and when working with plastics and other synthetics.

PERFORMANCE 7/10

Like every laser we review on the channel it’s really important to consider what I believe to be the machine’s intended use when addressing usability.  It’s super easy to recommend this to anyone looking for a second or third machine that they plan on using as a backup unit or for a mobile operation of some sort. Clearly, even more-so than the typical “portable” style fiber laser, this machine is perfect for marking on the go. That’s where this machine really truly stands out. While I don't believe the 2R is an unstoppable power house, and I have some unanswered questions about the reliability or quality of the parts (since we weren’t allowed to look too deeply into this) - these things are freaking small and would be easy to travel with. That by itself is worth something.

SOFTWARE & USABILITY 7/10

In my opinion, the small bed, limited tower height, limited lens selection and limited laser source make this extremely difficult to recommend to anyone looking to purchase this unit as a main rig that they plan on starting or running a business with. Likewise I probably would NOT recommend this unit like this to someone who is brand new or just getting started. I believe the low wattage of the laser and limited z-depth is going to prove challenging for inexperienced users and I can see newbies getting frustrated with their inability to produce results similar to those of their peers due to the 2R’s limitations.

COST & VALUE 8/10

A lot of people that will be considering a machine like the EM-Smart Basic 2R will be doing so due to the fact that the price is one of the lowest out there for a complete fiber laser system. Considering all the pros and cons I’ve mentioned, if you’re an intermediate or experienced user who is in the market for a compact and low cost machine, EM-Smart lasers are worth a look and offer a pretty fair value for what you’re getting. Truly compact fiber lasers are hard to come by and based on the claimed specs I’d say the price for one of these is totally fair, not to mention on the low end of the price spectrum for fibers in general. 

Sure, you can find full size machines at a similar price but why take the risk on cut corners or bait and switch tactics for the super low priced full sized units when there’s nothing to gain? At least here you can argue there’s a trade off and that’s the Basic 2R’s incredibly compact size and tight design aesthetics.