Silhouette Portrait 3 Review

What are the Best Portrait 3 Features?

We know lots of people who have been wanting to try out the Silhouette Cameo 4 but have been put off for various reasons — often, it’s just too big and expensive for crafters who will only use it occasionally or just for smaller projects.

If that’s you, the Portrait 3 could be a great alternative.

Just like the Cameo 4, the Portrait 3 is blessed with the AutoBlade and automatic tool detection which makes the cutting set-up incredibly easy. Seriously, even the least tech-savvy person will be able to get on board!

With these tools, the Portrait will automatically detect what tool you’re using and adjust its settings accordingly. Likewise, the AutoBlade will calibrate itself automatically once you’ve selected the material you’re using in Silhouette Studio.

This means more accurate and efficient cuts.

The Portrait 3 is also super versatile and able to work with a variety of different materials, much like the Cameo 4, thanks to its impressive 2mm cutting clearance. It’s also compatible with Print & Cut and PixScan.

And although it doesn’t have a dual tool carriage like the Cameo 4, it is able to both cut and sketch/draw depending on whether you have a blade or a pen in the carriage.

But despite all this far-reaching technology, the Portrait 3 is compact in both size and price. Its RRP is just $199.99 — vs $299.99 for the Cameo 4. That’s a significant saving.

One of the best things about the Portrait 3 is just how compact it is.

It’s got a very small footprint and weighs under 3.5 lbs. If you like to craft when you travel or take your cutting machine to friends’ and family’s houses, then this is a real advantage to the Portrait 3.

That’s also a great thing for people who are working with just a small craft space who can’t afford to keep a huge machine out on a craft table all day. It can very easily be placed into a cupboard when you’re not using it and it’s not a big deal to bring it out and set it up again.

It’s also Bluetooth compatible so you’ll be able to cut wirelessly as well.

Our first thought when trying out this new cutter was that it’s the perfect machine for sticker making and card making.

Firstly, the size will be uniquely helpful for these smaller projects as it can cut a variety of different widths, including letter size, A4, 9-inch rolls and more. The fact that it can cut up to a whopping 60 feet long will be a huge boon to sticker makers who make large sheets.

It can easily cut specialty material like sticker sheets and tattoo paper, as well as more common materials like vinyl and cardstock.

Matless cutting is also a reality with the Portrait 3 and it has two different cut types to choose from:

Another area that the Portrait 3 is really impressive — especially in comparison to the Cricut Joy — is that it can use most of the same tools as the Cameo 4, including advanced ones like the Kraft Blade, Deep Cut Blade, Ratchet Blade and all of the sketch pens.

The Portrait 3 is an impressive cutter given its size but we found it a little frustrating that it doesn’t have the dual carriage. This means that it can only do one ‘job’ at a time — cutting or drawing, for instance — so would take at least double the time of the Cameo 4 to do the same project.

This might not be important to you. If you’re planning to buy the Portrait 3 to make sticker sheets, for example, this won’t bother you at all. But if you want a cutter that can complete a project that requires two skills — card making, for one — we’d be tempted to invest the extra $100 and go for the Cameo 4 as it has lots more capabilities besides.

We had a similar gripe with the Portrait 2, which just seemed to be a slightly worse version of the Cameo 3 but marketed at almost the same price. The Portrait 3 is definitely a superior machine and there is a bigger price gap between it and the Cameo 4, but we still wish it had been made with the dual carriage as that is such an advantage in terms of speed.

Our other little bugbear with the Portrait 3 is that you’ll need to buy adaptors if you want to use the Cameo 4 tools in it (as well as the tools themselves).

This is a change from the Cameo 4 which came already equipped with the adaptors.

If you only want to use the sketch pen and the AutoBlade which come with the Portrait 3, then you won’t need to buy anything else. But if you do fancy using the Deep Cut Blade or Ratchet Blade, for instance, you’ll have to spend a little extra to get the suitable adaptor too.