Anycubic Mega S Review

This mid-range printer is compact, with the power supply and control box integrated underneath the moving bed. Many other budget printers have the power and control as a separate unit, taking up considerably more of your precious workbench real estate than the Mega S.

Print Quality

The Mega S delivered middling prints, not great, but not bad. We began printing a 3D benchy. The Mega S did decently well, delivering average prints in both PLA and ABS, with only a small amount of drooping on overhangs. The text on the bottom of the PLA version was legible, but the hull had a rough finish with some weird indentations. The text on the ABS version was essentially unreadable.

Next, we looked at how each printer handled bridges (unsupported features) and small details, with our bridging and Eiffel Tower tests. The Mega S struggled with these two prints, with both ABS versions failing completely. The PLA version of the Eiffel Tower did finish printing, but it looked horrible, and it would take a stretch of the imagination to call it a successful print. The PLA bridging test had some noticeable sagging on the longer bridges and an overall lackluster print quality.

The performance of the Mega S did improve a bit with these three prints, delivering acceptable result with a print-in-place articulated elephant and the overhanging geometry. The PLA and ABS elephants both articulated freely, but the print quality is overall a bit rough, with plenty of deformities and defects. It was a similar story with the overhangs, with all but the steepest overhangs actually printing well but the overall quality just seemed to be lacking compared to the top-tier printers.

Dimensional accuracy is based on a nickel test, where a nickel should fit perfectly in the cavity of the print when completed. Unfortunately, both of the openings were a little on the larger side, with plenty of gaps around the coin.

The Anycubic Mega S struggled with the next model, a single-piece articulated platform jack. This printer failed with both the PLA and ABS versions. The ABS wouldn't print successfully and the PLA version repeatedly broke whenever we tried to actuate it. Performance was a bit better with our wireframe cube, showing minimal sagging and only a few strings on both PLA and ABS prints.

This printer continued to do well with a pair of low-poly figures, producing relatively clean surfaces and smooth overhangs, though the ABS version of the smaller model had a rough surface finish. It also did well with the single-shell spiral vase in both types of plastic, though it had a less-than-amazing surface finish.

We had to resort to using pliers and other tools to remove the temporary supports used in large overhangs. However, the underside of the supported area actually came out pretty clean.

Ease of Use

We found it relatively easy to change the filament in the Anycubic Mega S, thanks to its semi-automatic process, though the loading and unloading part can be a bit time-consuming with the slow feed rate. It doesn't have an automatic bed leveler, so you'll have to tinker with 4 independent adjustment screws in each corner of the build plate.

This printer comes mostly assembled, with just a few cables to plug in and other components to attach. You can send files to this printer via USB or SD card, and there is a display on this printer that shows the percentage completed and the time elapsed while the printer is going.

Print Capabilities

This printer's maximum hotend temperature is 260°C, and its peak heated bed temperature is 120°C, giving it a decently wide range of compatible printing materials. It isn't constrained to proprietary products, so any 1.75mm filament that will work with those temperatures is fine to use with the Mega S.

It has a slightly smaller-than-average build volume of 210mm x 210mm x 205mm and a build plate that provides plenty of adhesions. We used the free Cura slicing program for our tests, but you can use a variety of other software suites, both free and paid.

Support

Our last metric looked at the customer support and, regrettably, Anycubic hasn't delivered the best results. There are only a few troubleshooting videos on the website, and we only found a contact form that didn't yield the best results for us when it came to technical questions.

Value

All in all, the Mega S is a decent value, delivering good quality prints at a fairly affordable price if you don't mind dealing with any troubleshooting issues yourself.

Conclusion

While Mega S is definitely far from our favorite or the best printer we have seen, it is a decent machine with one of the lower price tags of the group. It might be a great starter printer for someone looking for a project and who doesn't mind dealing with any troubleshooting issues on their own. However, it probably isn't the best printer for someone who doesn't want to spend time tuning or tweaking their machine to maximize performance.