Silhouette Cameo 3 Review

This is going to make a lot of Cameo users very happy.

No longer do you have to manually adjust cutting depths and hope that you remember for each cut.

By using the AutoBlade setting (one of three, the others being Standard and Deep Cut), the blade settings will be automatically calibrated based on the material you are working with.

This will appeal to nearly everybody who uses the Cameo 3, both the experienced operators who sometimes forget to change the blade depth, and beginners who aren’t sure what the best setting should be in the first place. As a result, the machine’s learning curve is sped up considerably.

To use AutoBlade, you simply tell the software what material you are cutting, select AutoBlade, and let the machine handle the rest.

From our testing, the cuts were excellent quality across each blade setting.

Our rolls of vinyl were sliced and diced to perfection. No reliability issues to report.

The Cameo 3’s cutting clearance has risen from a lowly 0.8mm to 2mm.

With the addition of a Deep Cut Blade, this improves the cutter’s effectiveness working on thicker materials. However, as we will get to in our negatives, there is a caveat:  the cutting force remains weak .

While we don’t tend to draw and cut too often, we know many users do — and the dual carriage is one of the nice features of the Cricut Explore series. It also scores and cuts at the same time too.

The Cameo 3 hops onboard with its own dual carriages, and they work very well.

They also make use of the new push locking mechanism, a significant improvement on the unwieldy twist mechanisms of previous machines.

Anything that makes craft cutting a more efficient experience is a huge win in our books.

Forgive us, but we are suckers for the sleek and shiny.

The Cameo 3 is a beautiful cutting machine that is a pleasure to unbox.

You know that feeling of tearing open a brand new Apple product?

Silhouette provides similar tingles for Craft fans. In fact, there’s something rather Jony Ive about the clean minimalism of this model. It will look beautiful on your desktop.

Despite waiting for ages for the software to actually be released, we’re super impressed with Silhouette Studio 4.0.

It’s struck the perfect balance for beginners and more experienced users alike, is intuitive to use with plenty of opportunities to create your own designs and really get stuck in.

In our view, it’s a more sophisticated product than Cricut Design Space that’s generally reliable and fun to use.

Here’s a handy introductory video:

The small touches add up to a significantly improved user experience over the Cameo 2.

Some of the new tweaks we liked:

• Media guides on the slide-out tray — In addition to an extended platform, the new media lines are a useful marker for feeding the Cameo.
• Touchscreen improvements — The audio alerts took us by surprise, even though we had heard about them during our pre-launch research. The touchscreen interface has been simplified in a way that is clearly targeted at eliminating user errors and reassuring beginners.
• New storage compartments — Space is at a premium in our office, so the brand new compartments for the cross cutter and additional work supplies are a nice touch. A nod from Silhouette to the sheer mess their machines create. 😉
• Roller locking mechanism — Slide to lock, slide to unlock. Why didn’t they think of this the first time round?!

If you were hoping for some extra oomph in terms of cutting power, you’ll be disappointed. The Cameo 3 has the same 221 g/s that was built in to the last model.

This lags behind other top cutters and means that thicker materials such as chipboard, leather and metal are still out of the Cameo’s cutting depth range.

However, it was always optimistic to hope for super-deep-cutting.

• Silhouette School Blog — A breakdown of the latest Silhouette products, as well as an insider video of the Cameo 3 direct from the summit.
• Craft E Corner — Detailed photos show the inner workings of the new machine.
• Silhouette UK Blog — Sneak peeks of the Cameo 3, plus photos of many of the new media features soon to be launched by Silhouette
• Terri Johnson Creates — An excellent round up of Silhouette’s new products, including many exclusive photos and a nice video.

The Silhouette Cameo 3 really is at the forefront of developments with desktop craft cutters.

It can cut over 100 different materials — that’s all the usual suspects plus a bunch that you’ve never even heard of. It’s amazingly versatile and definitely deserves its marketing slogan as “the ultimate DIY machine”.

We tried it out with paper, vinyl, heat transfer vinyl, cardstock, foil and foam and were pleased with the results — reliable and consistent.

In the battle of Cameo 3 vs Explore Air 2, the Cameo really stands out for its much increased cutting size.

It can cut up to a maximum of 12 inches wide by a mighty 10 feet long. We loved using it for small designs as well as for larger signage projects.

Another significant development with the Cameo 3 is the much-anticipated arrival of Silhouette Studio 4.0, software that promises to make life easier for those who might have previously been turned off by the studio’s dicey learning curve.

Silhouette Studio 4.0 encourages beginners with step-by-step walkthroughs for a variety of common tasks, plus interactive guides.

This will be complimented by a simpler and streamlined interface, including:

• A freehand smoothing slider tool
• Easier and improved tracing tools
• Accurate cut time estimates
• Object-on-path functionality

The software upgrade will be available free for all Cameo products, although some functionality will only work with the new Cameo 3.

Silhouette is clearly taking steps to reverse the criticism that its software is only for advanced users — we’ll talk more about this below, but we think it’s struck the perfect balance between introductory software for beginners and offering a lot of scope for more advanced users.