3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
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I have no experience with the Prusa mini, but as a first timer, I found the Ender 3 (pro, I think) perfectly good quality. It might be due to lack of experience with anything else, so if definitely defer to folks who have experience with a few different models, but I've found it good for all of my printing needs (Cases, utility objects, and the occasional figurine/trinket). If that success is anything out of the ordinary, I think I'd attribute it to a few things...
I was generally in the same boat as you; Liked to tinker, and wanted the best quality but didn't want to pay out the ass for it. I typically tend to "overspend" when getting into a new hobby out of the fear I won't stick with it if I struggle with low quality gear, bit also have an aversion to parting with my cash. These upgrades seemed to be the consensus reached at the time for how to get good consistent results out of the Ender 3.
I find the Ender 3 to be occasionally too small for things I want to print, but generally a good size, and look forward to being able to tinker further with an upgraded/quieter main board.
So, all in all, I can't help with anything specific to the Prusa mini, but can vouch for the Ender 3 as fitting my needs when I think I had the same general quality/cost criteria as you. Hope you found this helpful! Good luck in your printer search!
How long ago did you buy it? Ender 3 was a great budget printer when it came out, but things have changed a bit since then. After Creality got the reputation of making "the best printers for beginners" it appears that they started cutting corners everywhere to increase profit margins. Genuine Meanwell power supplies were replaced with generic Chinese parts, and manufacturing quality control sometimes appear to be non-existent. Now, many customers will be lucky, and get no severe issues that can't be fixed with simple mods, but having spent quite a lot of time helping beginners on a 3d printing discord, I've seen my share of people spending days or weeks trying to calibrate their Ender, only to eventually realize that the printer itself has some issue. However if you live the US, Microcenter has been running campaigns with an E3Pro for $99. That's a good deal even though I generally don't recommend the brand.
The other thing that has changed is that the competition is much harder nowadays, and for the same cost as an Ender you can get a printer with better features. Don't get me wrong though, there are no "good" cheap Chinese printers. It's possible to get a bad unit that slipped through QC from any brand, and pretty much all models have some design flaws. My recommendation for anyone shopping on a budget is to find the "least bad" printer, or pay the premium for a genuine Prusa if they don't want to deal with upgrades and mods to fix your printer.
Next thing to be wary of when shopping Chinese printers is brand loyalty. There are no brands that is consistent when it comes to printer models. A few brands might be worth avoiding due to anti-consumer practices, but most of them have made a few decent printers, and several bad ones. Don't trust anyone claiming that one brand is good :)
Finally, many 3d printer manufacturers, including Creality, pay youtubers for "reviews", some even go as far as scripting them. Even very popular channels, who are generally very knowledgeable about 3d printing, have been caught lying about brands that compete with their sponsor, ignoring flaws on the printer they're paid to talk about, and/or rigging comparisons to come out in favour of it. There are also many fake review sites if you try to do your own research using Google. I.e. sites most likely written by a bot or someone who doesn't know anything about 3d printing themselves, so they basically only repeat stuff from the manufacturer's marketing info or copy from other sites. They can be difficult to spot for a beginner (I know I fell for them) but their goal is to make you click their Amazon affiliate links, not give you a fair review, so I think one thing they usually have in common is that all printers they list are somehow the best option for something.
I recommend people looking to buy their first printer check out this list. It's maintained by users on the 3D Printing discord. They have first hand experience with multiple printers, they've seen what kind of issues people come asking for help with, and to my knowledge haven't received any sponsorship money from any brand. Any rating is of course going to be subjective to some degree, but even if you don't trust their "top picks" the list includes common issues and known flaws for the printers, so you can prepare for what you might need to mod or upgrade if you buy it.
Thanks for the insightful comment! I wasn't aware of any big change in quality from Creatality, or those pretty shady review practices. I got my printer right near the start of the pandemic (May 2020), so maybe I got lucky with timing before everything went to shit :-/
If they're junk these days, that's genuinely pretty sad. Always a shame when the a product gets worse due to the manufacturer cutting quality.
Unfortunately it seems to be a recurring theme that companies start with a good, competitively priced product to gain some market share, and then reduce quality when they want to start making money. I've had it happen with food and clothes brands that I used to like too.
While the criticisms against Creality might sound bad, I wouldn't go so far to say all their printers are junk. They have a few models that aren't too bad, assuming you don't get unlucky with their lack of quality control. There are lots of countries where it's difficult to buy something other than Creality (or even worse brands, like Flashforge and XYZ Printing), and while there's a slight gamble with quality, most people can get great results from an Ender if they spend enough money and time on upgrades and troubleshooting. Though you can get better value for money, and a printer that on average requires much less upgrades and troubleshooting before it prints well.