Product Comparison: Cricut Explore Air 2 vs Silhouette Cameo 3

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Cricut Explore Air 2 Personal DIY Cutting Machine

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Silhouette Cameo 3 Wireless Cutting Machine

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General Specifications

About the Product

Cricut Explore Air 2™ is a DIY speed machine. This smart cutting machine cuts and writes up to 2x faster than previous models and helps you make projects with over 100 different materials.

The Silhouette CAMEO® is the ultimate DIY machine. It uses a small blade to cut over 100 materials, including paper, cardstock, vinyl, and fabric up to 12 in. wide. The CAMEO has the ability to register and cut printed materials and is PixScan™ compatible. What does this mean for you? It is our machine that has the largest cutting space and is most versatile in the materials it can cut.

Brand

Cricut

Silhouette

Model

Explore Air 2

Cameo 3

Origin

China

Key Specs

Type

Electric

Number of Cutting Blades

Cutting Area

12 x 12 in.

12 in. x 10 ft.

Clearance

3 mm

2 mm

Cut Pressure

8.3 lb/sq.in

What customers say about "Key Specs"

Cricut Explore Air 2 Personal DIY Cutting Machine

Cuts very intricate details with ease. Easy to use interface. Fast cutting/drawing.
This Cricut was the right one for me. I have do so much with it since I got it, and you'd be amazed at all the little personalized craft projects your friends and coworkers will bring to you once they know you have one.
Love this machine! I use it all of the time! It is very precise. The print then cut feature is amazing! I could never say enough good things about it.
It's ok. Cuts great and cuts lots of materials. It is very simple and easy to use my 8 year old can use it on her own from the designing to the cutting.
The tools are minimal to design with. There isn't much creative freedom with this machine. Creating complex designs hard time consuming and tedious due to lack of tool options.
It's not even been a week and i'm having issues, sometimes it ruins a paper and doesnt cut correctly, or it just marks the paper while its on cardstock, other times it disconnects mid cutting, i was really excited to buy this machine but now it just takes too long to cut one thing.

Silhouette Cameo 3 Wireless Cutting Machine

Auto-blade saves a bit of time and, with my brief experience cutting both glitter paper and card stock, the autoblade settings were accurate.
Dual carriage. Ok, I haven't put this through its paces quite yet. I tend to do a lot of straight cutting basic card stock, so I don't often switch to pens, fabric blades, deep cut blades, etc.
The only feature they didn't add that I would have loved to have was a wider cut area. Maybe that will come with the Cameo 4, but I'm completely content with this for now.
I have had the portrait, figured I'd start off with doing just cards,.. but enjoyed it so much I desperately wanted the cameo's larger width working area.
The Cricut machine and online design studio only allow for a cut area of 6 inches by 9 inches! Now, if you're buying expensive sticker paper or vinyl it probably comes in 8.5x11" and everything outside 6"x9" is waste.

Size & Weight

Height

6 in.

Weight

21 lbs.

8 lbs.

Width

22.2 in.

22.5 in.

Depth

7 in.

8.5 in.

Features

Cutting Materials

Paper, Cardstock, Vinyl, Fabric, Magnet paper, Heat transfer material, Photo paper, Copy paper, Rhinestone template material

Vinyl, Heat transfer material, Cardstock, Photo paper, Copy paper, Rhinestone template material, Fabric

LCD screen

Yes

Built-in Scanner

Yes

Wireless Cutting

Yes

Accessories Included

German carbide premium blade, USB cable, Power cord, Accessory Adapter, Pen & cardstock sample, Cricut 12 in. x 12 in. StandardGrip cutting mat

AC adapter, USB cable, AutoBlade, Crosscutter, 12" Cutting Mat, Silhouette Studio install disc

Extras

Up to 2X Faster. Select Fast Mode when you need to make every minute count, Create on your computer, tablet, or smartphone, Embedded Bluetooth® for wireless cutting, Cut 100+ materials from vellum to leather, Smart Set® dial for easy material settings, Upload your own images for free (.svg, .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .dxf), Thousands of designs and ideas to kickstart virtually any project, Upload and use your own image files or fonts for free

PixScan compatible, Full-color LCD touch screen

What customers say about "Features"

Cricut Explore Air 2 Personal DIY Cutting Machine

Absolutely Love Love Love this machine! So easy to use with the Cricut design studio. The best feature is the dial for what type of paper you are using. No guessing how much pressure you need as it does it all for you.
Amazing product for DIY for fraction of the cost. I made my own onesies for my friends baby shower and everyone was stunned that I made them. Its so great to personalize things with the Iron-on Vinyl.
love that this machine has the ability to use a pen to write content. I also like the fact that this machine can still use cartridges.
Admittedly, it can be difficult to cut small intricate images and words. I've found the "print and cut" feature a good solution to this problem. That feature allows you to print an image off on your computer and simply have the Cricut cut out the shape of it. I use this technique to make stickers.
The Cricut software needs an always-on, active internet connection to work. Generally speaking, this isn't a problem, however, it does limit your ability to "fire and forget"...as in, send a design to print and walk away with your computer or turning it off.
There is one downfall and it might be something I am doing wrong and that is using the Scoring Tool. It really doesn't score very well. Can't see the lines on the paper of where to fold, so I put one of the cricut markers in the carriage to draw the lines on where to fold.
I bought this on valentines day for my wife. Here 2 weeks later, she gets a notice that she can no longer use the software without paying $10 month. She gets on chat with Cricut and they confirm it. So this machine is now useless to us.

Silhouette Cameo 3 Wireless Cutting Machine

Built in storage is nice enough. It doesn't add much to the overall size (and this version is quite a bit larger than the cameo and cameo 2), so it's good they were thoughtful about how to utilize the added size.
Touchscreen menu seems fairly responsive and intuitive.
New blade holder. They've switched the old clamp/key turny method of holding the blade (or pen) with a slide mechanism that is SO NICE.
The new features are very welcome, but not really as revolutionary as they might seem. I would say, though, the cameo 3 is nicer to use than the original cameo.
I like the touch screen feature and the option to cut slightly wider pieces.

Warranty / Certifications

Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

1 year(s)

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download

MSRP

299.99 $