Elegoo Mars 2 Pro Review

Given this machine's very detailed prints and smaller overall build area, it's a great option for hobbies that involve miniatures, like model building or tabletop gaming.

Print Quality

The Mars 2 Pro created some excellent prints, earning one of the better scores of all the printers we have tested. It did an excellent job of recreating all but the tiniest details, which we noticed would occasionally warp, depending on their orientation inside the printer. It did very well with bridges and overhangs, as long as they had support and were oriented correctly to avoid islands.

The stairs and spirals on the chess rooks had very smooth curves and an excellent surface finish. It even delivered an almost flawless Eiffel Tower, with even the smallest details towards the top of the tower coming through in the print.

The tiny figurines and the icebreaker ship all had immaculate details, with the Mars 2 Pro even handling exceptionally thin features, like the antennas on the icebreaker. These were actually so delicate that we frequently broke them off when cleaning, but that's on us. All in all, we think we would be hard-pressed to expect more from a consumer 3D printer and highly recommend this one to anyone who values print quality above all else.

Ease of Use

Unfortunately, the performance of the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro plummeted in ease of use. While resin printers create exceptionally detailed prints compared to FDM printers, they can also be notoriously more labor-intensive to operate, and the Mars 2 Pro is no exception. This printer earned a relatively low score, but one on par with most resin-based printers.

The main difficulty when using resin printers is the resin itself. If there is any chance that the resin might come in contact with your skin, you should wear gloves. It also tends to make a mess, making it much more difficult to swap different resins. You should filter the resin back into the container, then clean the vat out—usually with isopropyl alcohol—before you can swap in a different color.

Fortunately, the Mars 2 Pro doesn't require a ton of setup or assembly and is essentially ready to go right out of the box. It is also considerably easier to level the build plate compared to an FDM printer in our experience. You usually loosen the screw, lower the Z-axis with a piece of paper separating it from the screen, then re-tighten the screw and set the new Z-axis height.

Files are sent to the Mars 2 Pro via USB thumb drive, and the screen gives you some basic information about the status of the print while the machine is running. However, you also have to deal with all of the cleanup and other tasks that resin printing entails. After a print is removed from the Mars, you usually will need to remove any supports and then thoroughly wash off and properly dispose of any uncured resin on the model.

Finally, you need to post-cure the resin using UV light — either sunlight or a UV-light chamber — before the print is finished. This whole process requires plenty of consumable materials — gloves, paper towels, isopropyl alcohol, toothbrushes, filters, UV lights — so you will also want to take this into account if you are considering the Mars 2 Pro.

Print Capabilities

We looked at the build volume, compatible materials, and slicer compatibility for the Mars 2 Pro, and it did better in this regard.

We used the ChiTu Box slicer software for our tests, which is what most people will use with this printer. There are a few other slicers available but you definitely have considerably fewer options than an FDM printer. The build volume for this printer is a bit on the small side, measuring in at 130mm x 80mm x 160mm.

The stock build plate worked fine for our uses with plenty of different resins. We like that this printer is quite open when it comes to materials, compatible with any 405 nm resin — both made by Elegoo or third-party manufacturers.

Support

The customer support available from the Elegoo team wasn't the most helpful in our opinion, but it worked well enough. We like that there are plenty of videos about how to troubleshoot, fix, or replace various components of your machine on the Elegoo website. They also have a contact form and email — but no US phone number — if you need to reach out to them for support. We have had a bit of a mixed experience with their support team, finding them decently helpful but sometimes with considerable wait times in the response.

Value

For producing such excellent prints, the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro is actually one of the more affordable printers of the group. However, it does come with an associated cost in consumable supplies that needs to be taken into account, but even with that, this still can be an attractive budget-friendly option for anyone looking to make highly detailed miniature models.

Conclusion