xTool P2 Review 2026: Hands-On Testing After 6 Months With a 55W CO2 Laser

Six months ago, I pulled the xTool P2 out of its box in my workshop with a reasonable amount of skepticism. I’ve tested a lot of laser engravers on this site — diode machines, budget CO2 units, and Glowforge variants — and I’d seen enough overpromised desktop CO2 lasers to keep my expectations measured. After running hundreds of jobs across acrylic, basswood, MDF, leather, rubber, and hardwood, I’m ready to give you a full accounting of what the P2 actually does and where it genuinely falls short.

If you’re researching the CO2 laser market more broadly, start with our best CO2 laser engraver guide and best laser engravers of 2026 before narrowing down. But if you’re specifically on the fence about the xTool P2, you’re in the right place. This review covers everything: setup, cutting results organized by material, engraving quality, camera system performance, software, and how the P2 stacks up against its two most relevant competitors.

Quick Verdict

xTool P2 55W CO2 Laser

★★★★★

✓ Pros

• 55W sealed RF CO2 tube, excellent camera positioning system, 600mm/s max speed, passthrough slot for oversized material, LightBurn compatible, integrated air assist

✗ Cons

• 308mm Y-axis is a real constraint, passthrough requires manual re-registration, semi-enclosed still needs ventilation infrastructure, RF tube replacement more expensive than glass

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xTool P2 Specifications

Who This Review Is For

The xTool P2 is not a beginner’s first machine. If you’re new to laser engraving, you’ll have a smoother experience starting with a diode machine — check our xTool D1 Pro review to see what a strong entry-level diode laser looks like and what it can realistically do.

The P2 is built for people who already understand how lasers work, have worked with materials before, and are ready to step up to CO2 class performance. That means: small business owners producing acrylic signage, leather goods, or custom wooden products at volume; experienced hobbyists who’ve hit the ceiling on diode machines and need cleaner acrylic cuts or finer engraving on harder materials; and makers who want a machine that can double as a light production workhorse without occupying a full laser room.

If that describes you, keep reading. The P2 was designed exactly for your use case, and in my experience, it delivers.

Setup and First Use

I want to be straightforward about the unboxing experience: the P2 is packaged excellently. The machine arrived double-boxed with foam corner inserts, and all fragile components were individually wrapped. Nothing was loose, nothing rattled.

From opening the box to running my first engrave took 35 minutes. That’s meaningfully more involved than a Glowforge, which practically sets itself up, but considerably simpler than the OMTech 60W and similar K40-lineage machines that require manual alignment, mirror tuning, and a fair amount of patience before first light. The P2 sits squarely in between: there are a handful of mechanical steps, a few cable connections, and one piece of physical calibration to do with the bed, but xTool provides a printed quick-start guide and a well-structured in-app setup flow that held my hand through the whole process.

Camera Calibration

Camera calibration is one of those features that either works or it doesn’t — and the way it works determines whether the camera actually saves time or just adds a step. On the P2, calibration took me 8 minutes using the guided wizard in xTool Creative Space. The software walks you through printing a calibration pattern, placing it on the bed, and letting the camera capture reference points. Once complete, the camera overlay in Creative Space showed an accurate representation of my bed with a physical test object.

I did not need to repeat calibration at any point during six months of use. The camera stayed accurate session to session, which is exactly what you want.

First Job

My first real job was a 3mm clear acrylic keyring cut using a design imported from Illustrator as an SVG. I ran it at 25mm/s, 85% power — parameters I’ll discuss more in the cutting section — and the result was a clean, smooth-edged cut with zero yellowing on the acrylic and no post-processing required. I literally peeled the masking off, and the piece was done. That’s a good sign out of the gate.

Cutting Performance

This is where the P2 justifies itself. Let me walk through each material I tested.

Acrylic

Acrylic is where CO2 lasers separate themselves from diode machines, and the P2 handles it better than anything else I’ve tested in this size class.

3mm clear acrylic: Single pass at 25mm/s, 85% power. The cut was clean on both the top and bottom faces, edges showed the characteristic flame-polished clarity you expect from a good CO2 cut on cast acrylic, and there was absolutely no yellowing. No cleanup, no sanding, no second pass. This is the result you’d expect from a machine in this category, and the P2 delivered it consistently across dozens of jobs.

6mm clear acrylic: Single pass at 10mm/s, 90% power. This is a more demanding cut. Under close inspection with a loupe, I could see faint score lines on the cut face — likely from the slower travel speed interacting with minor variations in the acrylic sheet. However, for commercial purposes, these are invisible to the naked eye and don’t compromise the structural integrity or appearance of the piece. This is a production-viable result.

Wood

3mm basswood: Single pass at 40mm/s. Clean cut, minimal charring on the cut edge, and the kerf was tight and consistent. Basswood at 3mm is the easiest laser cut material there is, and the P2 handles it effortlessly.

6mm basswood: Single pass at 20mm/s. Some char on the cut face, which is normal at this thickness. The char wiped clean with a dry cloth on most cuts. Structurally, the pieces were cleanly separated and showed no incomplete cutting in corners or curves.

10mm basswood: Two passes at 8mm/s. This is a genuine production cut — 10mm hardwood is not trivial material. Both passes were required, but the result was a clean through-cut with no bowing, no incompletely cut sections, and consistent kerf across the full 600mm width of the test piece. If you’re making thicker wooden signs, boxes, or structural components, the P2 can handle it.

3mm MDF: Single pass at 30mm/s. MDF is always messy with CO2 lasers — the resin binders produce heavy smoke and substantial char, and the P2 is no exception. The cut was clean and complete, but ventilation is absolutely critical here. Do not cut MDF without proper exhaust. This is not a knock on the P2 specifically; it’s the nature of the material and CO2 physics.

Rubber Stamp Material

I wasn’t expecting the rubber stamp test to be a highlight, but it was. The P2 cut a clean relief design into standard rubber stamp blanks in a single pass, producing crisp edges and consistent relief depth. If you’re interested in running a custom stamp business alongside other laser work, the P2 is a genuinely viable tool for it.

Leather

Deep, clean engraving on vegetable-tanned leather at 80% power and 400mm/s. The engraving was dark and legible with no scorching of the surrounding material. Leather engraving on a CO2 machine at this power level produces a much cleaner, more controlled result than diode machines at equivalent power, and the P2’s results reflected that.

Engraving Quality

Cutting gets the headlines on CO2 machines, but engraving is where many buyers spend most of their actual production time. I ran extensive engraving tests across materials.

Basswood photo portrait (100mm x 100mm): This is my standard benchmark for engraving quality. I ran a grayscale portrait at 142 tonal gradations and 400mm/s scan speed. The result was excellent — comparable to what I’ve seen from top-tier diode engravers like the xTool D1 Pro at maximum power, but with the CO2 advantage of cleaner edge definition and more consistent power delivery across the scan width. Shadow detail was preserved, highlight areas showed appropriate restraint, and the midtones had good separation.

Fine detail engraving: 0.5mm lines resolved cleanly on maple hardwood. This is a demanding test for any laser — 0.5mm approaches the boundary of what a focused CO2 beam can resolve reliably. The P2 held it on multiple test runs, which speaks to the beam quality from the RF tube.

Leather engraving: Already covered above, but worth repeating: the CO2 beam produces a cleaner, deeper engrave on leather with less peripheral burning than comparable diode machines. If leather is a primary material for you, this matters.

Camera System: A Detailed Assessment

The camera system on the P2 is, in my view, one of the two or three things that most justify its position in the market. Let me explain why.

Most laser engravers — including most CO2 machines — require you to manually measure your material, manually set an origin point, and run test fires to verify positioning before committing to a job. This works, but it consumes time, especially on short production runs where setup time is proportionally expensive.

The P2’s overhead camera captures a live image of the bed and overlays it in xTool Creative Space. You drag your design onto the camera image, position it visually over your material, and run the job. The first time I tried this with a 6mm acrylic sheet, my design landed within 1.5mm of the intended position. That’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for the overwhelming majority of production work.

The second test I ran was more demanding: I placed a custom text engrave on a specific scrap piece nestled among other material offcuts on the bed — the kind of real-world scenario where you’re trying to use up irregular material without waste. The camera correctly identified the target piece, I positioned the design over it, and the machine ran the job with correct placement on the first attempt. No wasted material, no test runs.

Compared to the workflow on machines without a camera system, the P2’s camera setup is meaningfully faster. I estimate it saves me 5–8 minutes of setup time per job for anything involving specific material placement. Over a production day with 15–20 jobs, that accumulates into real time savings.

It’s also worth comparing to the Glowforge Pro’s camera system, which I’ve used extensively. The two are comparable in accuracy — both land within roughly 1–2mm on first placement. xTool’s implementation feels slightly more responsive in the software, while Glowforge’s is arguably more beginner-friendly in its UI.

Speed: How Fast Is 600mm/s in Practice?

The 600mm/s maximum engraving speed is a specification that sounds impressive. Here’s what it means in practical terms.

I ran a direct comparison using a 400mm x 400mm fill engrave — the kind of job that’s common for large signs or tray fillers. On a typical 40W CO2 machine, this job completes in approximately 28 minutes. On the P2 at 600mm/s, the same job completed in 19 minutes. That’s a 33% reduction in cycle time on a single job.

In a production environment, 33% faster throughput is a real competitive advantage. If you’re running a small laser cutting business and this speed difference applies consistently across your job mix, you are meaningfully increasing your capacity without additional machine investment.

Software: xTool Creative Space vs. LightBurn

The P2 ships with xTool Creative Space as its native software, and Creative Space has become substantially better over the past 18 months. It handles the camera integration natively, has a clean design-to-cut workflow, and is genuinely accessible for users who are not coming from a professional design background.

For most users, Creative Space is all you need. SVG import works cleanly. Raster images import and process correctly. The parameter library for common materials is a reasonable starting point for dialing in settings. Camera positioning works inside Creative Space without any additional configuration.

Where Creative Space falls short is advanced toolpathing. If you need to control the order of individual cut operations, manage complex layer hierarchies, run variable power passes across a design, or import DXF files with precision, LightBurn is the better tool. LightBurn’s node editing, fill optimization, and cut sequence controls are simply more powerful than what Creative Space offers, and for production users running complex jobs, that matters.

The good news is you don’t have to choose. The P2 is fully LightBurn compatible, and xTool provides a device profile that makes setup straightforward. I ran many of my longer production test jobs through LightBurn and experienced no issues. My recommendation: start in xTool Creative Space, learn the machine, then evaluate whether LightBurn’s additional control is worth the additional complexity for your specific workflow.

xTool P2 vs. Glowforge Pro

This is the comparison most P2 shoppers want to see. I’ve spent significant time with both machines, and my full Glowforge review covers that machine in detail.

Here’s the honest summary:

Where the P2 wins:

• Raw cutting power: 55W versus Glowforge’s 45W — the P2 handles thicker materials and faster speeds
• LightBurn compatibility: the Glowforge is a closed ecosystem; the P2 is open to third-party software
• Offline operation: the P2 can run via USB without cloud connectivity; the Glowforge requires internet access
• Passthrough performance at thicker materials: the P2’s 55W handles passthrough jobs on thicker stock more reliably

Where the Glowforge Pro wins:

• Beginner experience: Glowforge’s onboarding and cloud-based workflow is genuinely more polished for new users
• Material catalog: Proofgrade materials with embedded QR codes for automatic settings are a genuine convenience feature
• Industrial design: the Glowforge looks like a premium consumer device; the P2 looks like a professional tool

The honest verdict: For anyone with production goals, intermediate or advanced skills, and a desire for software flexibility, the P2 is the better machine. For a first-time laser buyer who values ease of use over control, the Glowforge Pro’s ecosystem is defensible. Both machines share the same 308mm Y-axis constraint, so neither wins on that dimension.

xTool P2 vs. OMTech 60W

The OMTech 60W (and similar K40-lineage machines with upgraded tubes) is the other common comparison point for P2 shoppers. These machines are traditional red-and-black cabinet-style CO2 lasers with larger beds and competitive raw power.

Where the P2 wins over OMTech:

• Setup complexity: as described above, the P2 gets you cutting in 35 minutes; OMTech machines typically require an hour or more of initial alignment and calibration before first use
• Camera system: OMTech machines in this class have no built-in camera; positioning is entirely manual
• Software integration: the P2’s xTool Creative Space integration is cleaner out of the box
• Build consistency: xTool’s manufacturing quality control is meaningfully more consistent than the typical OMTech experience

Where OMTech wins:

• Bed size: OMTech machines in this class often offer larger Y-axis dimensions, alleviating the 308mm constraint
• Raw price-to-power ratio: at equivalent power ratings, OMTech units are typically less expensive
• Repairability: K40-lineage machines with glass tubes are easy and cheap to repair; RF tube replacement on the P2 is a more significant event

For buyers who want a machine that works well immediately and consistently, and who don’t want to spend time on mechanical upkeep, the P2 wins. For buyers who are technically comfortable with CO2 machine mechanics and want the largest possible bed for the money, OMTech deserves a serious look.

Where the P2 Falls Short

I want to be direct about the limitations, because I’ve seen too many reviews that gloss over them.

The 308mm Y-axis is a real constraint. If you frequently work with material larger than 308mm in the short dimension, you will use the passthrough slot. The passthrough works — I’ve run it successfully on multiple long jobs — but it requires manual repositioning and re-registration between sections. This is a skill that takes practice to do cleanly, and on long pieces, you will see the seam if your re-registration isn’t accurate. It is not a dealbreaker, but it is not automatic.

Ventilation is not optional. The P2 is semi-enclosed, not sealed. CO2 cutting and engraving — especially on MDF, acrylic, and rubber — produces significant fumes. You need an exhaust solution: at minimum, a duct run to a window. Budget machines hide this infrastructure requirement in the marketing; the P2 doesn’t, but buyers who don’t research it can still be surprised. Plan for ventilation before the machine arrives.

RF tube replacement is expensive. The sealed RF CO2 tube is a genuine advantage during normal operating life — I’d rather have a 10,000-hour tube than a 2,000-hour glass tube. But when it eventually needs replacement, the cost is higher than simply swapping in a new glass tube on a K40-style machine. If you’re running the machine at maximum commercial intensity, build that replacement cost into your long-term business calculation.

xTool Creative Space has limits for power users. Creative Space is excellent for what it does. But if you’re coming from LightBurn on another machine, you’ll feel the constraints quickly. The good news is that LightBurn works on the P2, so this is a solvable problem — just know that you may end up running two pieces of software and learning when each is the right tool.

Who Should Buy the xTool P2

Buy the P2 if:

• You’re an experienced maker or small business owner who needs reliable CO2 production performance in a manageable footprint
• Acrylic is a significant part of your material mix — the P2 is exceptional on acrylic
• You want LightBurn compatibility without buying a full-size industrial machine
• You value a camera positioning system that genuinely saves setup time
• You can accommodate proper ventilation exhaust in your workspace

Skip the P2 if:

• You’re buying your first laser and want the gentlest possible learning curve — consider a diode machine or Glowforge first
• You regularly work with material larger than 308mm in the short dimension and don’t want to deal with passthrough registration
• You want the largest possible bed for the money and are comfortable with mechanical setup — OMTech may serve you better
• Your workspace has no viable exhaust solution