Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra Review – Amazing FAST Resin 3D Printer!

This is a massive upgrade from my original Elegoo Mars – this is the Mars 5 Ultra, an exceptional, and pretty decent value resin 3D printer. For those that don’t know, resin printers work with liquid resin stored in a vat, and use a combination of UV LEDs and a liquid crystal display to selectively cure the resin to create your 3D print. The magic with resin printers is that the LEDs cure the entire layer at once, so even if you are printing a little rook or a huge handle, if they are the same height, they’ll take the same time. That also means you can print multiples of items and it’ll take the same time regardless of how many you print. Compared to FDM – that’s filament based – printers, that’s quite the difference. 

The biggest catch with resin printers, generally anyway, is that the build volume is often freaking tiny. This one is an upgrade from my original Mars, but not by much. This prints a maximum of 153mm by 78mm by 165mm, up from 120 by 68 by 155 on the OG Mars. That’s miniscule, and means that a lot of models just won’t fit. This amazing looking cosplay knife for example just will not fit – even the handle on it’s own barely fits if you tilt the thing up – so do keep that in mind.

What you can fit in the build volume though is absolutely incredible for quality. The big selling point of this Ultra version of the Mars 5 is the 9K LCD they use – that’s 8520 pixels, by 4320 pixels. That is, compared to the paltry 4098 by 2560 panel they use in the standard Mars 5. That means a minimum feature size of just 18 micrometres, versus 35 micrometres on the standard Mars 5. That is frankly insane, and means you get exceptional quality out of the prints – as you’ll see shortly. The other big feature difference actually has to do with how the printer resets between layers. My original Mars – and the regular Mars 5 – reset layers by lifting the print bed upwards, pulling the part away from the release film at the bottom of the vat, and letting new resin flood in. This Ultra has a unique party trick – it tilts the tank to more cleanly peel the film off the part, and to literally slosh new resin under the part. This means it can print considerably faster – 150 millimetres per hour compared to just 70mm on the regular Mars 5. That does mean there is an extra moving part in this – one of the advantages of a resin printer is they generally only have one motor for the Z axis, whereas this one has two including the tank tilter, but I can’t say I’m concerned for the longevity here. 

The benefit of that 9K display becomes really clear when you look at the test prints. The default test print is a little rook, which as a side note gives us a great demonstration of the interesting hexagonal pattern the build plate imparts on the bottom of your prints. Of course if you use supports this isn’t a problem, but anything printed straight on the bed will have this pretty cool pattern. Anyway, the detail here is excellent, and it printed remarkably quickly. The other test print is from Chitubox, the slicer software you’ll want to use for this printer, which has a bunch of essentially benchmark designs – incredibly thin struts, weights on supports, a fine grid, the works. This thing didn’t break a sweat – the 0.25mm pole shows just how insane this thing is. That is a quarter of a millimetre wide, and yet it printed perfectly. I couldn’t believe it! Even the weights are all held on perfectly, despite the tiny contact patch and the frankly massive size of the back ones. The grid looks amazing too despite it’s incredibly thin thickness – the only even minor imperfection I can see is the 0.2mm wall thickness square shaft has a bit of bowing on the walls. It’s really slight, and more a statement on the design rather than the printer, but still. 

Of course test prints only go so far to showing what this thing can do – we need a real print for that, and happily I was asked to print the handles for those absolutely beautiful cosplay blades, and these actually turned out to be an amazing benchmark for the quality of the printer. This has a faux wooden texture, on top of a leather wrap, and the printer got it spot on. With a bit of paint, this thing is going to look ridiculously realistic – something you definitely can’t do with an FDM printer, at least without an awful lot of sanding and hand-sculpting. This thing looks incredible. 

One of the other extra features you get on the Ultra is this, the “AI camera”. There is no AI involved at all, but hey marketing buzzword right?! Anyway, via the Chitubox Manager software, you can use this both for a live view to remotely watch the print happen in real time, or you can enable the time lapse mode which gives you a short video of the thing rising out the resin tank like magic. For a near 7 hour print it gave me a 720p 30 FPS video that is 9 seconds long. Considering the camera is meant to be 1080p that’s a little disappointing, but the video definitely looks cool. 

There are actually a bunch of features that mostly operate from the Chitbox manager software, via WiFi of course, like being able to remotely upload print files, then start, pause, and stop prints remotely. You can see the progress, the release film and UV light lifespan, and access the built in storage too. It’s pretty handy really. I should note that there is a USB port for the included USB stick should you prefer to manually start your prints, and of course you still need to fill the resin tank, and take the prints of the self-levelling print bed, although the quick release locking handle makes that easy. The one thing I’d note about the IO is that it’s now on the right hand side of the printer, which does make it easier to access, although it does mean you can’t have anything too close to that side of the printer, taking up more counter space. It’s not a big deal though. 

One downside for me is that the printer doesn’t have any of Elegoo’s own fume filters built in. Resin stinks, and while these little charcoal filters really do help, to need to charge these and turn them on manually kinda sucks, when Elegoo have previously had the filter built in. There is an “expansion port” on the back of the UV lid, for “compatible accessories” but that doesn’t appear to include a filter, and to have it sold separately is annoying anyway. 

With that said, at least at the current £231 price tag, it’s hard to argue that this is anything other than an exceptional value. The regular Mars 5 is much cheaper though, at just £131, although the speed and quieter operation of this thing makes this great for anyone looking for an upgraded version. If you’ve already got a 3D printer – an FDM one maybe – and you are looking at getting into resin printing, this definitely feels like a good option. I should make it clear though that I’m no 3D printing expert, and I’ve only used Elegoo resin printers, so you 100% should check out other reviews and more experienced reviewers for recommendations as there’s a very good chance something from, say, Anycubic, might actually be better than this. I can say that I’ve really enjoyed using this. It’s a marked upgrade from my Mars 1, the usage experience is way better, and the remote control aspects are actually really useful for me. Being able to start a print from my PC – assuming there’s nothing on the build plate and there’s enough resin in the tank – is really handy, and to be able to monitor it – not just from the status but a camera too – is amazing. I really like this thing.