xTool S1 Review

The xTool S1 is the newest diode laser in xTool’s lineup! This laser comes with new innovations such as a pin-point positioning system that outworks any other technology on the market and makes lining up projects easier than ever! No more distortion from a camera or guesstimating where you are on the work bed! The xTool S1 also offers interchangeable laser module so you are not limited to one type or watt of machine, easily upgrade or change modules when needed! Let’s see if this machine lives up to the hype!

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So far I have only used this machine for a few days and I am already ready to write this xTool S1 review because I am SOLD on it! Lol! Yes, I was provided this machine to review because I enjoyed my xTool M1 so much I wanted to try out other machines, particularly something a little more powerful and with a larger work bed! The S1 hit the spot for what I wanted, as it has a much larger work bed and I am reviewing the xTool S1 20w so it is more powerful than the M1 10w I reviewed previously!

There are three other options available in the S1 series, in addition to the 20w, there is a 10w, 40w, and a 2w IR laser module available…yes, they are interchangeable! No need to purchase a bunch of machines! Save space and only have to store the little module! SO AMAZING!

All xTool machines have their place in the laser crafting world but I hope to help you decide which one best fits your needs when shopping for a laser because they are expensive and I want you to be truly happy with your purchase even if that means not purchasing the machine that I am reviewing! Ultimately a laser engraver is an investment whether you are using it for fun as a hobby or you want to start making money off of your awesome creations, so I want you to have all the information to make the best decision for your hobby or business!

Unboxing the xTool S1 20w

Let me tell you xTool packaging is unlike any other, they go the extra mile in their packaging materials and I am here for it! My new S1 was wearing suspenders when it arrived! Lol!

In all seriousness though, the packaging is absolutely top notch!

Owner’s manual right on top, easy to find!

Next you come upon your honeycomb panel! Another upgrade from the M1! You have to purchase this separately for the M1 and it is a valuable component, it was on my list to purchase as it keeps small cuts from falling on the risers and being accidentally cut again, and keeps airflow underneath the piece to help minimize burning!

We have made it to the machine!

Guess what, they made a BIG upgrade with the xTool S1, first thing I noticed in the box is the air assist is INCLUDED! This is standard on 20w and higher watt models! I ran to their website to make sure it wasn’t a special package or something! Nope, all xTool S1s 20w and higher come with an air assist in the box, and it is SMART air assist! You know what that means, it sets speed based on the material you are cutting! Yeah, I know, crazy cool! You just set it to auto and it sets the best speed based on the material being used! WHAT?! Yep!

Another thing that makes me fall in love with a brand (as if I wasn’t already in love with xTool) is not having to go find any tools to setup the item! Low and behold, not only do they give you the tools you need, they are all in the cutest little tool box! 🤩

We have all the supplies to set this machine up and make some awesome stuff! First I will give you a little rundown of the exciting things about the S1 laser cutter/engraver!

Brief Comparison of the xTool S1 to Other Machines

Alright, straight out of the gate, I have to say, the pin-point positioning system on this machine is A GAME CHANGER! I know, I know, I have said it before, but now it is in all caps! LOL! Like this machine is SPOT on for engraving and cutting, without having to spend a lot of time figuring it out!

There is no camera but as much as I thought that was a bad thing, that is a wonderful thing! When I heard it didn’t have a camera, I thought, why would they do that on a more expensive machine! But now I realize, they knew exactly what the were doing and this pin-point positioning system is an UPGRADE!

With the M1, the camera is great, and if I was cutting and engraving at the same time, it came out perfectly! But, I realized that if I already had something cut, like a circle let’s say, I couldn’t go back and engrave on the circle without wasting a test piece or two finding out exactly where it was because the camera slightly distorts the location!

This is understandable because the camera can’t be everywhere and so the further away from the camera you go, the less precise it would be! Well, with this pin-point positioning system throughout the entire work bed, you don’t have to worry about this at all! I’ll show you exactly how to use this system down below!

As I mentioned before another HUGE advantage of the xTool S1 are the interchangeable laser modules, I received the machine with the 20w module, and I can upgrade this machine with a 40w module or a 2w IR module to engrave precious metals! The xTool F1 has the same 2w IR module but is portable!

As someone without a lot of space, I think this is the BEST part of the machine! I do not have a room dedicated to crafting unfortunately and I don’t think the garage is a place for fancy laser machines because I make too much of a mess in there! So to be able to store small laser heads in a drawer vs another 22″x30″ machine! If they ever are able to offer an interchangeable CO2 laser module, I could die young because that is all I would need in life! Lol! Just kidding but seriously, such an AMAZING feature of this machine!

The exhaust hose is incredibly upgraded to a way heavier duty hose, and it is screwed into place instead of using a hose clamp! This helps keep the fumes to a minimum! It also is able to be collapsed into a small hose to store when you aren’t using it! These are the little things that xTool listened to their customers about and continue to improve their machines based on customer feedback which again is HUGE and will always lead to happy customers!

THE ABSOLUTE BIGGEST UPGRADE in my opinion from the M1 to the S1 is the air assist being an enclosed system! This allows me to cut even the smelliest of materials INSIDE my house without any smell coming inside! WOW! This SEALED THE DEAL for me, I LOVE my M1 but I use it outside because the whole bottom is open where you slide the air assist hose through, having a son with asthma, I don’t risk smells and burning stuff in the house! But he walked into my room where I had been using the S1 for over an hour and couldn’t smell anything! UNREAL!

Setting Up the xTool S1

Alright, let’s set this baby up and get engraving and cutting! Woohoo! This machine was beyond easy to set up! The instructions are so easy to follow and it was so much better setting the air assist up bc it was literally a few seconds instead of 30 minutes!

First things first, straight out of the gate, you will need to remove the small spacers used to keep the rails from moving during shipment! Two screws removed on each side with the small allen style screw driver, and this step is done!

Now you can move the rails forward, just pull them toward you, and you will remove the paper and zip ties that are covering the spot for the laser module!

Once you have that removed, the laser module is a simple plug-n-play! Plug the two hanging cords into the side of the module! Then you will slide it into the back slot and screw the top two screws into place! I didn’t get pics of all of this step but it is perfectly illustrated in the manual!

Once the laser module is in place, turn the machine around and remove the screws of the vent and attach the exhaust hose!

Next plug all the cord into the machine! Top button is the power button, first cord plugged in is power cord, the second is the usb cable to setup the machine on your computer, and last slot is the key! Yes, you need the key in place to use your machine!

Attach the air assist hose to the machine and add the power cord for the air assist to the machine!

Plug the power cord into the air assist unit!

Now plug it into the back of the machine!

It looks more like my transfer cable for a camera, I didn’t even realize it was the power cord and used it without air assist on my first cut because of this! Lol! Once this is plugged in, physical set up is done!

Now you will need to boot up your computer and install the XCS software, the S1 is also compatible with Lightburn which the M1 is not!

Once you have the software installed, open it up and connect your machine with the USB cable! You will click connect in the upper right hand corner! Mine already says WIFI where your connect will be! It will open a pop up and when the pop up says S1 with your serial number, click that! It is connected and then if you want to use WiFi, you will use the settings button right where my cursor is in the pic below and that will let you enter your WIFI password to use your machine from anywhere in your home!

Your machine is now connected and ready to create all that your heart desires!

Making Projects with the xTool S1

I love the set of test items they include with the S1 so much! It is a variety of items to really get a feel for the machine! It comes with one sheet of 3mm basswood, 3mm black acrylic, brown to gold laser-able leatherette, two circle pendants, a slate coaster, and marking paper to engrave on glass!

Funny thing, this laser module doesn’t have a ‘home’ like the M1 and my heart skips a beat every time this one doesn’t return home, it takes a minute for me to realize it is not broken! Lol! The laser head just stays where it is at!

Let’s check out how this machine cuts and engraves! We will start with a simple shape available in the XCS software, I picked this adorable little ghost, I mean it may be 105 degrees outside, but fall is coming I can feel it! Lol!

I did have to export the ghost and take it into Adobe Illustrator to ungroup all the parts, you should be able to do this in XCS but the option was grayed out and so to save time figuring it out, I just made two separate layers for the eyes, smile, and wisps on his body so they can be engraved, and then the ghost outline can be cut! You can easily do two separate layers by making them different colors! But that is a whole other post on making files!

I opened the file in XCS!

I could not get my screen recording program to work, and so you have to tough it out with these horribly distorted pictures! Lol!

3mm Basswood

Once you have your ghost on the screen, decide which material you want to cut the ghost out of. I decided to cut it out of the 3mm basswood, you will want to set your materials in the laser bed and move the red cross hairs over the material, it can be anywhere on the material to measure the distance using auto measure!

Once you have that done, return to your computer and choose the material in the material slot, we have selected 3mm basswood plywood A4. Then click where my cursor is circling, to the right of the distance slot to auto measure!

That will auto measure for you, distance is a measurement that does have to be set before you can process your project to cut or engrave!

Now that you have measured the distance with auto measure, you will want to set your process settings! You do not have to do these steps in any particular order, just so long as they all get done before you hit the process button!

Click on each layer in the bottom left hand corner, or click on the spot on the ghost. For instance if you want to set the engrave settings for the eyes and smile, you can click them and then look to the right where it says process settings, click engrave, and then it will auto set the power, speed, and passes! If you have not selected a material yet, these will not auto populate! If that happens, click anywhere outside of the picture but still inside the grid and then it will give you the material selection!

Then you can click again on which ever part to get back to setting the process settings! I used the auto settings, if you find that the auto settings don’t work properly, you can adjust them!

I am also engraving the wisps on the ghost, so I click them, or click their color on the layers panel (which is not visible in the photo) and then click engrave! Settings are auto populated!

Last click on the blue outline of the ghost and select cut!

Now that all the settings are good to go, we need to make sure our ghost is going to be placed on our wood so it is cut and engraved properly, this is where that almighty pin-point positioning system comes into play!

Using the Pin-Point Positioning System

THIS IS PURE GOLD! This is how you get the EXACT location so you can cut or engrave on a piece that has to be precise! It still tricks my brain though because I am so used to the camera in the M1! Lol! When I position the laser to show me where my material is in the laser, I am thinking that my cut file is the picture from the laser and it takes me a minute to realize it’s not! If you have not used the M1, this will not be a problem for you! Lol!

We already set our material (3mm basswood) in the laser to figure out the distance in an earlier step, so now we can just click the button that says “start marking” which is below where it says “mark processing area”! It is at the bottom of this column!

Once you click start marking, this pop up will appear asking you to pick a shape!

Once you have selected your shape, you will move the laser module, with your hand, to the corner of the material in the laser bed!

When you have lined it up on the first corner, push the button on the front of the machine!

Now move the laser to the opposite corner! Just push it with your hand! This just feels so wrong to me after using the M1 for so long, but it is correct, just push it where you want it!

Once you have it lined up with the opposite edge corner, click the button on the front!

Now, back at your computer, hit done!

Now you will see a rectangle on your grid!

We can see in the above photo that if we would have sent out ghost to process, he would not have cut correctly since he would have been cut partially off of our wood! So we can now move the ghost fully into the rectangle so we know that it will be cut correctly!

You can see the layers panel that we talked about earlier in the above photo!

Once the ghost is correctly placed inside of the rectangle, we can process this baby! Click the green button at the bottom right of the screen that says Process!

After you hit process, this screen will appear when it is ready to go! Hit start!

Then push the button on the front of the xTool S1 to get the machine to start cutting and engraving!! Woohoo!

The machine will take over from here, all you have to do is be on fire watch just in case things start burning inside the machine! This can happen, so you always want to watch your machine while it is cutting or engraving!

The machine will come to a stop and the computer screen will show Complete! You will hit okay to head back to the grid screen!

Funny thing, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have the power cord on the air assist plugged in because I didn’t think it was a power supply! Lol! So first ghost was cut without the air assist (on the left), so I cut another one with air assist (on the right)! You can see the difference as to why you really want the air assist!

Look how adorable they are! So crisp and cleanly cut! I could never cut that myself! Lol!

You just repeat the same steps for everything you cut or engrave, it is so SIMPLE! Within minutes of opening and setting up your xTool S1 you can be cutting and engraving! Even though it is the same process every time, I will share it for all the test runs I did!

Stainless Steel Pendant

Next, we will try engraving the pendants! I thought they were dog tags so I did engrave them with my dogs names and crossed bones! LoL! They turned out so cute though!

Without the IR laser module, the only metal you can engrave it stainless steel! If you want to engrave precious metals you will want to invest in the IR laser module as well as the 20w or 40w because they just aren’t capable of it!

Lucky for us, the pendants included are stainless steel!

Let’s engrave them!

Set the pendant on the honeycomb panel!

Next set your material in XCS (they have a preset for stainless steel dog tag which is the same as this pendant)! Move the crosshairs onto the pendant inside the laser, and click auto measure in XCS (where the cursor is spinning in the photo below)! I didn’t get a picture of this but I know you can follow instructions! 😅

Now we need to use the pin point positioning system to make sure we get the name and/or picture inside the pendant! To do this, again, we will click the start marking button! The pop up appears for you to choose the shape, choose circle this time! When you chose the shape they show you how you need to set your crosshairs! A circle requires you to make a triangle on it’s edges!

Sorry for the blurry photo! I’ll try to update with better pics!

Set the first cross hair!

Hit the button on the front after you have the crosshairs in place! It should recognize the first point being set on your pop up on the screen as well! Point 1 turns green!

Next, move it across forming the triangle we need!

Hit the button on the front!

See how point 2 is now green on the popup!

Set your last point and hit the button on the front!

Now all three of your points show green on the popup and we are ready to hit done!

Now we have the precise circle on our grid so we can type up the dog’s name, which is Thor, and move it into the circle! We can center the name or place it wherever you want!

I added crossed dog bones from the XCS shapes that are free!

We need to make sure the settings are set to engrave for the name and dog bones!

It is ready to process! Make sure the lid is closed on the laser and hit the process button! This took 12 seconds I think!

I made another one for Dexter!

They are so cute! That is way too easy!

3mm Black Acrylic

The great thing is that you can cut acrylic beautifully with the xTool S1! It cut so clean with the preset settings! Let’s take a look!

The acrylic from xTool always comes with the paper masking which I love, if you want to paint the engraved parts, this is exceptionally helpful! You can peel the paper masking off though if you want, totally up to you and I haven’t ever noticed a difference in cutting or engraving with and without the paper!

I got my pin-point positioning done right away before I even added a picture, I then grabbed an adorable little ghost from XCS shapes and I did have to make two separate layers again! Making sure to set 3mm black acrylic as our material, and auto measure! I set the eyes and mouth to engrave and the outline to cut!

Hit process!

Hit start and watch that baby cut and engrave the cute little ghost!

Look how clean the edges cut in one pass!

And here it is with the paper masking removed!

So freaking cute!

Brown Leatherette

Included with your xTool S1 is a sheet of faux leather that you can cut, and when you engrave it, it turns gold! This may be one of my favorite things I have tested and I can’t wait to order more! Just to test I cut the leaf and engraved the name Chloe!

The screen shots for this one were not clear at all for some reason and so I will not even post them and make you try to strain your eyes to see them! Lol! But here’s the cut and engrave next to it! I used the preset settings for leatherette!

Could you imagine how cute that little leaf would be with the veins engraved in the gold and made into earrings for fall?! So adorable, and yet so classy with the gold!

Slate Coaster

Okay, I have to work with the grayscale settings of the photo, but this is my favorite piece out of the whole test set! I never really cared for slate coasters much until I saw photos engraved on them and I knew I had to try it out!

I took a photo of my son with his guitar that I recently took as part of his senior pictures and went to Imagr which is an awesome free (up to three photos a day) site for prepping photos for laser engraving! It is crazy how easy it is to use, completely self explanatory, and I didn’t play around with the grayscale but could have, and should have, but I just wanted to experiment with it first!

After saving the photo in Imagr, I set the material to Stone Coaster, and auto measured!

I set the slate coaster in the laser bed and got to work setting up the fancy pin-point positioning system! Hit the start marking button!

Click on the rectangle (even though it is a square, it works the same), and then click start marking!

Move the laser crosshairs to the top left corner of the slate coaster!

Then hit the button on the front of the laser!

Next move the laser head to the bottom right corner of the slate coaster!

Hit the front button again!

Hit ‘end marking’ on the screen!

Awesome, now it knows exactly where out coaster is at in the laser and we can import our photo!

Don’t mind that I still had my ghost on the screen from the black acrylic! Lol! I’ll delete it before processing!

I sized the photo to fit perfectly inside of the coaster square on the screen!

I reduced the sharpness slider all the way to the left which really cleared up my photo, I was worried when I first imported it, it was so grainy! Once I was happy with the look of the photo, I hit process!

Letting the laser do its thang!

After 12 minutes and 20 seconds, it is completed!

Love how it looks! Needs a wee bit of adjustment but it looks so cool!

I can’t wait to try more photo engraving! I am HOOKED! LoL!

Conclusion on the xTool S1

Getting to use the xTool S1 was so much fun! I really love this machine! The ease of use of xTool lasers and their FREE software called XCS, makes xTool lasers stand out from the rest! The S1 is also compatible with lightburn, but I already know Adobe Illustrator and XCS so I am sticking with them for now! lol! I am telling you, I had no idea how to use the pin-point positioning system and was able to figure it out in minutes! That is huge!

The support that is offered from xTool and the Facebook groups are another priceless asset of owning one of these machines! They are incredibly helpful and even with the time difference of support being in China, they never seem to exceed 24 hours to return your call or email! Customer service is a BIG DEAL when you are talking this type of investment!

I have a friend who purchased a CO2 laser from a well known company that starts with a ‘G’ and when she couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her laser, they offered a discount on a new one, that was it! She lost out on selling at Christmas time because she had already spent the money on the machine (5000 bucks) and only owning it a year, she was not able to purchase a new one! That is awful! No company is perfect, but I REALLY feel like xTool goes out of their way to make customers happy from everything I have seen in our Facebook groups!

Now that I have used this one and the M1, I can share a few of the differences I noticed and a few of the pros and cons of each! The biggest thing to note though I feel that is the SAME about them is that they are BOTH diode lasers! Diode lasers CANNOT cut clear or blue acrylic, and there are other colors that it may struggle with!

You MUST purchase cast acrylic to cut with this machine! You cannot cut clear materials of any kind with the laser! You can engrave glass with both of them as long as you use a marking paint or paper!

Check out my M1 review here if you are interested in seeing the blade function and projects I did with it!

Comparison of the M1 and S1

So the biggest difference between the two is the wattage! The M1 is a 10w and the S1 that I have is a 20w! This increases the power of the machine and allows it to work far faster than the M1 on the same materials! Do you know what this makes me think…I NEED the xTool P2, it’s a 55w! Can you imagine how quickly it makes the work of these cuts and engravings? Lol! But of course there is a large difference in price between the P2 and the other two machines!

The cost of the M1 and S1 are pretty similar, the M1 currently is on sale for $899 but to get the air assist and the honeycomb panel that come with the S1 it costs and additional 249, bring you to a grand total of $1184 and the S1 is on sale for $1449! Now they have the S1 in a 10w that comes with the air assist and the honeycomb for 869! So if you don’t need or want a blade cutter, you can do the S1 10w if you are wanting to stay under a thousand dollars!

Another difference is the laser bed cutting size, the S1 has a cutting size of 13″x19.6″ and the M1 has a cutting area of 11.5″x15″ so that is a pretty big difference in size! But that also means you need a lot more room to store the S1 over the M1 as the outside dimensions of the M1 are only roundabout 22″x18″x9″ and the S1 are roundabout 30″x22″x7″ so if space is an issue that may help you decide which machine is best!

One more difference is the fact that the S1 has the pinpoint positioning system and the M1 has the camera! I will say at first the thought of not having a camera was a con for me, but after using the camera and not being able to line up my engraving after something had been cut, I was interested to try out the pinpoint positioning and low and behold, although it took me a minute to get used to it, I definitely prefer the S1 without the camera! I know, I know, it’s hard to believe, but it is TRUE!!!

Again, as I said it before, I LOVE that the S1 has interchangeable laser modules! This is so IMPORTANT when you don’t have much space but want to be able to cut and engrave more materials! The M1 does not have interchangeable modules but it does have the blade function which was really cool since I don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette!

xTool also just recently came out with a new M1 Ultra which has me wanting it because it has a print function! YES, you heard me correctly, you don’t have to paint your laser crafts after you have cut them, they are already printed in the colors you want! It has a fine point pen, inkjet printing, blade, and 10w or 20w laser! Talk about freaking FOMO!! I NEED All the machines!! 🤣 But for real okay! I need them all! It does run a little more expensive at $1199 for the 10 watt (it does come with air assist and honeycomb in both wattages) and $1699 for the 20w!

I am telling you, xTool is cutting edge with the laser game, but not only the laser game, they are seriously the GOAT of crafting in general, have you seen that they also recently added the screen printer and the heat press?! I am telling you, they are going to cause my divorce when I purchase all of it! Lol!

I will have the review of the screen printer in the next few weeks! I am beyond excited for this! I am waiting for a hat press to be included with the heat press before I purchase it, but I don’t think they have any plans of adding one! LOL! I’m still waiting though! 😂

So all in all, with the excellent support from the xTool team, the quality of the machines, and the ability of the machines you can not go wrong with purchasing any of the laser engravers from xTool!

Do you have any plans to purchase a laser engraver anytime soon? If so, make sure and check out xTool.com, you will not regret it!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have fun with your laser crafting!

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