The New Glowforge Aura Is a Sleek Desktop Laser Cutter for the Masses

Glowforge is a company that sells laser cutters designed for people that don't know much about laser cutters. That is an important niche to fill, because hobbyists and crafters can make good use of a laser cutter and don't need the power of an industrial machine. Taking that idea even further, Glowforge just released the sleek new Aura model that is perfect for everyday consumers.

Glowforge's original laser cutters, which have been retroactively dubbed the "Professional Series," were very user-friendly by design, but they still resembled conventional desktop machines. The new Aura is far more compact. It is also much, much more affordable. Glowforge achieved that by reducing the size of the cutting area, switching to a plastic enclosure and rail system, and eliminating the large CO2 laser in favor of a solid-state laser.

That laser is just 6W, which is the big drawback of the Glowforge Aura. While that is enough for many jobs, it is significantly less than the Professional Series models and even other models on the market that also utilize solid-state lasers. The benefit is that it is cheaper and requires much less space. A CO2 laser tube is quite large, so it needs to be mounted at the back of the machine with a set of mirrors to reflect the beam to the work piece. This solid-state laser, on the other, can attach directly to the moving gantry.

Glowforge clearly put a lot of effort into making the Aura easy to use. It has a camera inside to help users set up job origins on their work pieces, a web interface, and a material tag system to load settings. The latter feature lets the Aura identify material purchased from Glowforge so that it can configure the ideal settings.

But that user-friendliness comes at a cost. It seems that Glowforge will be pushing subscription services and proprietary materials for the Aura, which might represent a significant ongoing cost when compared to competing machines. Because the software is web-based, a user can't even operate their Aura if they don't have internet access or if Glowforge denies access for some reason. Will they do so if a user attempts to circumvent any of the proprietary systems? We don't know, but that is something we've seen from other manufacturers of consumer products in the past. It is telling that Glowforge refers to this as "printer."

Still, it is hard to deny the appeal of the new Glowforge Aura. It has a pleasing, approachable design and promises a streamlined experience for users of all levels. The Aura is available at your local Michaels and Joann stores for $1,199.99.