Creality
Popular entry point with high-speed motion upgrades and broad modding support.
Really impressed by how much Creality has improved. Input shaper and auto-leveling work well, speeds are competitive. Creality Print slicer is decent but I prefer Orca Slicer for this machine. A few rough edges in build quality but nothing that affects print results.
Good printer for the money but requires some patience to get dialed in. The first few prints needed profile tweaking to eliminate some ringing artifacts. Once tuned, it produces consistently good results. The community is large which helps enormously for troubleshooting. Decent starter machine.
The Ender 3 V3 is a massive upgrade over its predecessors. Core XY kinematics bring it up to speed with modern machines, and the direct drive extruder handles flex filaments without issue. At this price, the value is genuinely unbeatable for someone wanting a budget-friendly capable machine.