A 3D pen is the handheld answer to a 3D printer. Coloured plastic goes in at the back, a heater melts it, and it comes out of a nozzle at the front as a thick, tacky thread that you draw with. There is no scanning, no slicing and no waiting: you make the shape yourself, layer on layer, in the air or on a surface. Fifteen pens were put through an extended test, of which eight remain on sale, and while most of them sit close together on paper the differences in practice turned out to be enormous.
What follows is recorded testing, translated. Nobody at Truthful Reviews has drawn with any of these pens.
How a 3D pen actually works
The handling is closest to a glue gun. Coloured plastic — the same filament 3D printers use — is fed into the back of the pen, heated inside the barrel and pushed out of the tip in a viscous state that is sometimes firmer and sometimes looser depending on the material. Most models have an indicator light that tells you when the filament is up to temperature and you can start. On some pens that heat-up takes about half a minute; on others it takes noticeably longer.
Power comes either from the mains through a USB cable and plug or from a battery. If you are working with a corded pen, cable length matters more than it sounds: a short lead visibly restricts how freely you can move around a piece.
From there it is handwork. A 3D printer takes over and executes a file; here you press a button and draw the object yourself, building it up layer by layer. You have to be quick about it, because the plastic has hardened again after two or three seconds.
One practical finding came up almost immediately in testing: a stand for the pen is not merely convenient, it is close to essential, because it is the only way to put the pen down without the hot tip marking whatever is underneath it. A few manufacturers supply one. Most do not.
Where a 3D pen earns its keep
The range of use is wider than the toy-shop framing suggests. Hobbyists use them for small DIY projects — model cars, decorations, earrings, even sandals. Professionals use them to knock out architectural models and small-scale prototypes of real parts, and they turn up in industry, in schools and universities, and on designers' benches. A pen is also a sensible way into 3D modelling if you are not yet sure whether a printer is worth buying, because the handheld device is a genuinely useful tool in its own right.
As for where to work, the sensible answer from testing is on a separate surface rather than straight on a table. Glass, plastic and wood all behave differently and it is worth experimenting; a cutting mat is the most resilient of the lot. Pens and filament both reach temperatures high enough to mark a work surface, which is why one of the more telling observations in this test was simply whether the clear film underneath survived a session.
What separates one 3D pen from another
Handling. A 3D pen should be simple to operate, and that starts with the manual. Several of these pens need a small screwdriver for particular adjustments, which is a real obstacle for a beginner, so a clear, comprehensible set of instructions is a basic requirement. The buttons should be logically laid out, and after two or three attempts operation ought to be close to intuitive.
Filament compatibility. Nearly every 3D pen now runs the two most common filaments, ABS and PLA. It is still worth checking that your chosen pen offers both, and if you want to be more exacting, checking how cleanly it switches between the two.
Extrusion speed. This is simply print speed — how fast or slow the molten material is pushed out of the tip. Large filled areas benefit from a high extrusion speed; fine detail needs a low one. It is one of the most consequential specifications on the list.
Nozzles. Three materials are in general use: plastic, ceramic and metal. Metal nozzles in particular get very hot, and plastic looks like the choice that costs you nothing elsewhere.
Accessories. Most pens come with filament, which is a pleasant extra, though it is often not the best quality — which is why experienced users tend to settle on a filament brand of their own and then check compatibility with the pen. If a pen needs a small screwdriver for its settings, that screwdriver should be in the box. A stand is worth having, and if one is not supplied it is worth buying or improvising. Many manufacturers also provide stencils to work from; if none are included, there is no shortage of them online.
ABS, PLA and PCL: what the filaments do
Instead of a lead, a 3D pen takes a filament: coloured thermoplastic that melts readily, can be shaped, and then sets hard again. There are others, but the three that matter are PLA (polylactic acid), PCL (polycaprolactone) and ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) — the last of which is also what LEGO bricks and car dashboards are made from. They look almost identical on the reel and behave very differently.
Temperature. ABS broadly needs more heat than PLA to work properly. The ideal nozzle temperature for PLA is 180 to 230 degrees and for ABS 210 to 250 degrees. PCL is the outlier: it processes at just 65 to 90 degrees.
Print speed. PLA and ABS can both be worked at 60 mm/s, but PLA goes far beyond that — up to 150 mm/s. ABS is limited to the 60.
Hardness. ABS is distinctly tougher, which is also why it cannot be worked as flexibly as PLA and PCL. ABS holds a tensile load of up to 129 kg, PLA only 83.5 kg, and PCL less again.
Durability. ABS copes with high temperatures; PLA turns brittle in the cold. Neither is especially sensitive to damp, but quality does suffer over time, and heavy sunlight does the same. Filament is best kept in an airtight container — dry, cool and dark, with PCL in particular benefiting from that treatment. Some go as far as keeping filament in the fridge.
Finishing. Tidying a finished piece means more than snipping off stray threads; it can also mean sanding. ABS is the easier of the two to sand and it also responds better to smoothing with a solvent such as acetone. PCL, thanks to its mix of toughness and flexibility, also takes clean rework well.
Sustainability splits the same way: PLA and PCL are plant-based materials, usually made from maize starch, and are biodegradable and more readily recycled, where ABS is not.
Do all filaments fit every pen?
No. Most pens take filament of 1.75 mm diameter, and where that is the case you can use material from a great many brands. Some pens do not play along: the 3Doodler line takes 3 mm material, which sharply restricts what you can feed it.
Cleaning
The easiest pens to clean are the ones with a removable nozzle: unscrew it, tap it gently, and most of the filament residue drops out. Where the nozzle cannot be removed, cleaning filaments are the answer — they load like a coloured filament and clear the inside of the pen as they pass through.
The picks
Top pick — Filapen 3D Pen
The Filapen 3D Pen sets itself apart before you have switched it on. It arrives in a smart case that the pen and its accessories store and travel in. Alongside it are PCL filaments in nine colours — black, white, red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and light and dark purple — at five metres each, plus a manual. The manual is good; the video guide reached through the printed QR code is better. The upshot is that the German start-up behind it, based in Kiel, takes even an outright beginner by the hand.
The controls are laid out just as plainly: on, off, filament in, filament out. There are three print speeds, and the low mode is particularly good for working precisely and picking out fine detail. An OLED display shows the temperature, which is reached very quickly and is pleasingly low — a working temperature of 75 to 85 degrees, using low-temperature PCL technology rather than the conventional high-heat approach.
At 53 g the pen is average in weight and sits well in the hand, and the build quality is high throughout. One neatly judged extra: the cable is generously long, so you can move about freely instead of working on a tether.
In use it holds its line. It is relatively loud while running, which is the one real irritation, but everything else goes its way. The filament pulls almost no threads at all, so lines stop where you want them to stop, and the tip does not become excessively hot. As with every project in this test, the work was done on a sheet of clear film — and with the Filapen the film did not melt, which was a rarity here.
The trade-offs are that it is one of the pricier options, and that it takes PCL filament only, so the filament market open to you is narrower than it would be with a PLA and ABS pen.
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The gentle-running alternative — 3Doodler Start+
Start with the idea behind it. The 3Doodler Start+ is an entry-level model built around low-temperature running and stripped-back operation, and the filament is the decisive part of that. Instead of long reels it uses thick, short filament sticks in a range of colours, which push in without fuss. It does not take ordinary PLA or ABS at all, but only special 2.5 mm eco filaments tuned to low-temperature working, melting at comparatively little heat. What can be reported from testing is that no unpleasant smell develops while working — a rarity in this field.
The manual is in English only, but the picture-led layout makes it easy enough to follow, and the set includes a book of inspiration and practice templates.
In day-to-day use the battery is the strongest card: there is no cable to snag, which makes the pen markedly easier to handle. A small lamp reports the charge state when the pen is plugged in. Operation is deliberately reduced — a single button for on and off, no selectable speed steps. Precise work is still possible, though fine threads can form when you lift off. Clean results reward a steady working pace, because pulling too fast thins the filament until it snaps.
There are real weaknesses. The button is inconsistent: sometimes it is very sensitive, and at other times it takes several presses to switch off. The filament sticks are used up comparatively quickly, so you are reloading often, and all that stopping and restarting can leave untidy patches if you are not practised. Colour changes are the worst of it — even with a fresh stick loaded, a good deal of the previous colour keeps coming through first, which muddies the result you were after.
On heat, though, it does what the manufacturer says: it becomes warm only at the tip, and only slightly.
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The novelty that earns its place — Polaroid Candy Play 3D Pen
With the Polaroid Candy Play 3D Pen the name really is the specification: this one draws in confectionery rather than plastic, so what you make can be eaten. The objects come out tasting of strawberry, apple, orange, lime, grape or cola. The main ingredient across all the flavours is isomalt, a sweetener made from sugar beet, with a small number of further ingredients, all of them vegan.
The manual is printed in genuinely tiny type, and the QR code leads only to another version in English. The pen's workings were nonetheless straightforward enough to establish. What it does not have is more of a problem: there is no display and no choice of print speeds. It runs from the mains, a USB cable is supplied and a plug is not — and the first two plugs tried were, for no obvious reason, incompatible, with only the third working.
So why is it in the recommendations at all? Because it is fun. No other pen here lets you make your own sweets. Small treats, decorations for a cake — it is a way to produce something genuinely charming and edible. The results are admittedly not cleanly finished: there are no variable print speeds to help, and the nozzle is very short. Even so, the point stands, and nibbling as you go is entirely permitted.
There is a final catch, and it is time. The pen wants cleaning, and needs it — after every use, and ideally at every change of colour or flavour. Taking it apart, cleaning it and drying the individual parts completely took 20 minutes. If that does not put you off, this is a genuinely enjoyable thing to own.
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Also tested
MYNT3D Super 3D Pen — a pen of two very different characters depending on what it is fed. The German manual is adequate and clearly written, and the standout feature is a stepless speed control that lets you dial in an extrusion rate: fine detail on a low setting, large fills on a high one. Working temperature runs between 140 and 230 degrees depending on the filament. The pen itself is very slim and extremely light, with no display and a very simple design, and runs from the mains with cable and plug supplied. In practice the supplied ABS is the problem: the colours smell distinctly unpleasant throughout first use, the material is very hard and unyielding, and it pulls a great many threads, so the finished object was unconvincing. The tip, though, is very fine and lays material down very thinly, and with PLA loaded that tip comes into its own and produces attractive work. Unloading filament takes a very long time. Search Amazon UK · Search Amazon US
XYZ Printing Da Vinci 3D Pen — simple, simpler, simplest. The manual is English-only, though step-by-step pictures carry it. The supplied PLA is meagre: two colours only, one metre of yellow and two metres of dark blue. The pen matches — one button to load filament and one to extrude, no speed steps, nothing else, and it takes PLA only. Using it requires patience. It smells on heating, a little as though something inside had burnt, and it smells somewhat in use as well. Getting there takes a while, because the filament will not draw itself in: it is meant to be pushed until it meets resistance and then feed automatically, and instead it has to be pushed, and pushed, and pushed again before it finally takes. It pulls threads, and it is very loud in use — louder still when unloading, which also never seems to end, the pen dawdling on long after the filament is out, and pulling threads while it does. The nozzle stays hot for a good while after it has been switched off. At 70 g it is unusually heavy. Search Amazon UK · Search Amazon US
The Italian Home 3D-Stift Plus — supplied with 20 coloured PLA filaments and a small inspiration booklet. Build quality feels less than solid overall — no visible defects, but not the standard of the better models. Silicone finger sleeves are included, a small but sensible extra, as is a stand that holds the pen adequately upright. Handling is partly straightforward and partly wilful. A green light signals readiness at 190 degrees. The pen must draw the filament in itself; push it in by hand and the feed does not work reliably, as was duly confirmed by trying. Long threads form when you stop, which makes clean transitions difficult and means trimming afterwards with scissors. A slider sets the feed rate, and on the lowest setting precise work is possible; area fills come out tidily, again only with patience, because working too hastily makes the material stick to itself. The heat is conspicuous — not just the tip but the section behind it becomes distinctly hot. A clear mark against it is an unpleasant smell in use, which stands out as particularly bothersome. Temperature can be raised to 210 degrees, and the pen can in principle be switched to ABS, though only PLA is supplied. Search Amazon UK · Search Amazon US
KreativKids DS-201506 — comes with PLA filaments in twelve colours, plus a storage box for pen and filament, a stand and a small inspiration booklet. Temperature and speed — three steps — are set with plus and minus keys. The manual is in German but stays very rudimentary and offers little help getting started. An intense, unpleasant smell is noticeable in use, strongest on first use but still there afterwards. Fine work is possible in principle, but larger areas are hard going, and threads form frequently when lifting off, spoiling clean transitions. Filament also continues to run after stopping and has to be removed before restarting, or the next line will not begin cleanly. The feed is not always even, and at times it feels as though the filament needs pushing to keep a constant flow. Heat is conspicuous in a different way here: the pen takes a fairly long time to get hot enough to work at all, and then becomes distinctly hot well beyond the black tip. All of it is accompanied by an unpleasantly droning noise. Search Amazon UK · Search Amazon US
3Doodler Flow — an English-only manual, again carried by its pictures, plus an inspiration book. The pen sits reasonably in the hand but is noticeably heavier than its rivals, which tells over a long session. In use it manages both precise work and larger areas. The limiting factor is thread formation, which recurs whenever you lift off or change lines. Volume stands out too: every 3D pen makes some noise, but this one is genuinely unpleasant, closer to a dental surgery than a workshop. Heat is a mixed picture — it warms up only very slowly, the tip gets hot, but beyond that it stays merely warm and bearable. It is designed for PLA and ABS, with a slow and a fast working mode. Search Amazon UK · Search Amazon US
How they were assessed
What counts in a 3D-pen test is not simply whether decorative shapes can be produced; it is how cleanly and how practically the pens work day to day. Several aspects were checked in turn.
First the technical information was verified, then handling: how the pen sits in the hand, what it weighs, and whether it can still be guided comfortably after a long stretch. Operation came next — whether temperature and speed are adjustable, whether there are separate steps, and how reliably the buttons and switches respond.
Material feed was a particular focus. Does the pen draw filament in evenly, or does it need pushing? Do threads form when starting and stopping, and how cleanly can a line be finished? Different projects place different demands: fine detail asks for something quite different from filling a large area, where patience and an even flow of material decide the result.
Heat development was examined closely, and not only at the tip but in the area behind it. Smell in use was recorded alongside it, since some combinations of pen and filament are distinctly unpleasant. Equipment counted too: storage boxes, stands and extras such as silicone finger sleeves. So did the comprehensibility of the manual, especially where it was not in the buyer's language, and finally which filaments are supported and how easily a colour change can be carried out.
The short answers
Which is the best 3D pen? The Filapen 3D Pen. It produces very good results in practice, the supplied filaments are convincing in their own right, the pen is very well made, and it brings a case with it as an extra.
Which 3D pen is best for younger users? Although the overall winner also suits them, the recommendation here is the 3Doodler Start+. It works at a particularly low 65 degrees and does without a mains cable altogether.
Are 3D pens any good? They are the handy, practical alternative to a 3D printer. You can be creative with one, carry out your own DIY projects, or produce prototypes of real parts.
How long does the plastic take to set? Two to three seconds, which is why speed of hand matters as much as the pen does.
