Fastest Resin Printers UK

Three numbers decide which is the fastest resin printer uk buyers can order today, and all three are measured differently. Anycubic quotes the Photon Mono M7 Pro at 130 mm/h on standard resin and 170 mm/h on high-speed resin. ELEGOO quotes the Saturn 4 Ultra at 150 mm/h flat, no resin named. The ELEGOO Jupiter 2 is quoted at 90 mm/h and will still finish a batch of thirty models before either of them.

None of those figures is wrong, and all three are close to useless alone. A millimetre-per-hour rating is a vertical build rate: it describes how fast the plate climbs, so it scales directly with layer height. Set a finer layer and the same machine takes several times longer.

So these five are ranked on throughput using layer-cycle arithmetic from the makers' own published figures rather than the number on the box — and the machine that clears a full plate soonest is the slowest of the five on paper.

The five, ranked by what they finish in an hour

Read the second row twice. Every machine publishes a maximum, and the conditions attached differ by brand — which makes the first row uncomparable until you have read the second.

Specification	1 Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro Fastest overall	2 ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra 16K Fastest at the finest pixel	3 ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra 12K Most plate per hour for the money	4 ELEGOO Mars 5 Ultra Fastest compact	5 ELEGOO Jupiter 2 Fastest by batch
Quoted maximum	170 mm/h	150 mm/h	150 mm/h	150 mm/h	90 mm/h
Conditions on it	High-speed resin at 0.1 mm; 130 mm/h on standard	Fast mode	Fast mode	Manufacturer maximum	Manufacturer maximum
Release mechanism	Not published	Tilt release	Tilt release	Tilt release	Not published
Plate	223 × 126 × 230 mm	212 × 118 × 220 mm	219 × 123 × 220 mm	153 × 78 × 165 mm	302 × 162 × 300 mm
Finest layer	0.01 mm	0.01 mm	Not published	0.01 mm	0.01 mm
Heated vat	●Yes	●Yes	No	No	●Yes
Price band	£410–£470	£370–£420	£350–£450	£210–£260	£650–£800
UK availability	Anycubic UK, 3DJake	ELEGOO UK, 3DJake	ELEGOO UK, 3DJake	ELEGOO UK, 3DJake	ELEGOO UK direct only

Two things stand out. The 170 mm/h at the top is the only figure here that depends on what you pour in. And three of the five reach 150 mm/h across a span from the £210–£260 band upwards — so past a point, money stops buying speed and starts buying plate.

What a mm/h figure actually measures

A resin printer does not trace a layer, it prints one. A monochrome LCD masks a single ultraviolet source, so the whole cross-section cures in one exposure, and the maker publishes speed as a height per hour rather than a travel speed. So the useful thing to know about a fast MSLA printer is that mm/h is layer height divided by layer time — and only one of those belongs to the printer.

ELEGOO publishes both halves of one layer for the Saturn 4 Ultra: 5.5 seconds on its general parameter settings, of which 2.5 seconds is the slicer's default exposure. Roughly three seconds a layer is therefore mechanical — tilting the tank, peeling the layer off the film, repositioning. That subtraction is ours, but it is the useful half: exposure belongs to the resin, the three seconds to the machine.

Hold the 5.5 seconds steady and vary only the layer height, which is what a slicer does:

Specification	0.05 mm layers	0.10 mm layers	0.15 mm layers
Layers per 10 mm of height	200	100	67
Implied build rate	about 33 mm/h	about 65 mm/h	about 98 mm/h

The published maximum for that machine is 150 mm/h. At 5.5 seconds a layer that needs a layer height near 0.23 mm, past the coarse end of the class — ELEGOO publishes a 0.01 to 0.2 mm range for the 16K sibling. The two figures do not reconcile, which tells you what the headline is: a ceiling measured under conditions chosen to produce the largest number.

In model terms, a 60 mm figure at 0.05 mm is 1,200 layers, and at 5.5 seconds each that is about an hour and fifty minutes. The headline implies twenty-four. So a listing advertising a 150 mm per hour resin printer is quoting a best case at a coarse layer — not dishonest, since every brand does the same, but not a finishing time.

Independent reviewers who publish their own timings consistently work at finer layer heights than the headline figure assumes, and report print times well short of it as a matter of course rather than as a fault. Reviewers repeatedly note that the slicer's predicted time runs short of the time a job actually takes, so the estimate is worth treating as a floor.

Which release systems print fastest

Those three mechanical seconds are where the engineering competition sits, and the two brands have answered it differently — one with hardware, one with chemistry.

The older way to free a cured layer is to lift the plate straight up until the part lets go of the film, slowly enough not to tear it off its supports. Tilt release peels instead of pulling. ELEGOO describes the Saturn 4 Ultra as adopting tilt release technology, in which the tank tilts so the model peels off the film — stated in the same sentence as the 150 mm/h maximum, which makes the mechanism the manufacturer's own explanation for the figure. Peeling from one edge needs a fraction of the force of lifting a whole face, so the motion can be quicker and gentler together. The same mechanism appears on the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K and the Mars 5 Ultra, which is why all three reach the same number. It is a change to the machine: it applies to every job and costs nothing per print.

Anycubic quotes two figures instead of one. The Photon Mono M7 Pro is rated 130 mm/h on standard resin and 170 mm/h on high-speed resin, both at 0.1 mm layers; the Photon Mono 4 Ultra splits the same way at 80 and 120 mm/h. This is the comparison most listings get wrong. The 170 figure is not a faster machine than the 150 figure — it is a machine plus a consumable. High-speed resin cures in less ultraviolet, shortening the exposure half of the cycle; switch back to standard resin and the same printer drops below all three ELEGOO machines. Weighing a high speed resin printer against a tilt-release one means weighing a recurring cost against a fixed one.

The film is a variable too: the Photon Mono 4 Ultra uses an ACF release film, and films trade clarity for release force.

A recurring recommendation from reviewers is to swap the supplied fast-release film for a clearer type if maximum sharpness matters, accepting slower prints in exchange. Several reports note that prints from high-speed resin are best washed and de-supported soon after the job finishes, since supports become much harder to remove once fully cured.

How we picked these five

Nothing here was bought, opened or printed with. The ranking is built from manufacturer specification pages and manuals, UK retailer listings read for price band and stock, and published reviews and forum threads read for recurring patterns. Our approach is set out in our review methodology.

Candidates were ranked on manufacturer-stated throughput against the layer arithmetic above, with evidence quality as the cut. The Anycubic Photon Mono 4 Ultra is a good printer and a poor fit here: 80 mm/h on standard resin and 120 on high-speed, in the £240–£290 band — slower than the Mars 5 Ultra and dearer than its £210–£260 band. The Photon Mono M7 would have ranked, but no UK price band or availability could be confirmed from a primary source.

Four of the five picks are ELEGOO. No commercial factor was applied anywhere in this ranking; that is what happens when you sort by a mechanism one brand has fitted across its range and the other has not.

Fastest overall: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro

If the brief is "finish sooner, whatever it costs", this is the machine — with one condition the brief must accept. The 170 mm/h rating is the highest here and applies only with high-speed resin at 0.1 mm layers; on standard resin the same printer is rated 130 mm/h. Both figures are honest. Only one is free.

The rest of the specification makes that rate usable. The plate measures 223 × 126 × 230 mm, biggest of the four desktop machines, so a fast cycle covers more models per job. Layers reach 0.01 mm on dual linear rails quoted at 10 μm, the platform is levelling-free, and the vat has dynamic temperature control — the quiet speed feature, since cold resin wants a longer exposure.

Owner and reviewer reports repeatedly describe the automatic resin feed as inconsistent, particularly as the bottle empties, and the manufacturer publishes its own troubleshooting for it.

Anycubic's own table lists power-loss resume as not supported, a real exposure on a six-hour job. It draws 240 W and wants 312 × 315 × 520 mm of bench, and the pixel is strongly non-square at 16.8 × 24.8 μm, so edge quality depends which way a part faces. Against that, the screen carries six months of cover rather than ELEGOO's three.

Buy this if you will keep high-speed resin in the cupboard and would rather spend money than time.

Skip this if you print occasionally with whatever resin is to hand, or if losing a long job to a power cut would be unacceptable.

Fastest at the finest pixel: ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra 16K

Speed and detail usually pull against each other, because detail means finer layers and more of them. This is the best answer here to wanting both: the same 150 mm/h in fast mode as its cheaper siblings, exposing at 14 × 19 μm, the finest pitch of the five.

ELEGOO publishes a layer time of 5.5 seconds in fast mode on its own defaults. Layers run 0.01 to 0.2 mm, so coarse-and-fast and fine-and-slow are both available on one machine; the tank tilts to peel each layer off the film rather than lifting it, across a 212 × 118 × 220 mm plate. The specification that matters most for consistent speed sounds least exciting: the tank is held at 30 °C.

Owners and reviewers repeatedly single out the heated vat as the feature that makes cold-room printing practical, though it does add a warm-up wait before each job.

In an unheated room over winter, that heater is the difference between the quoted layer time and a much longer one. What slows this machine in practice, though, is not the machine.

A recurring account of large-format resin printing on this machine is that suction on wide flat layers, not the printer, is the usual cause of a failed print — and that angling the part and supporting it better is the fix, although the right angle depends on the model.

A failure at hour four is the slowest outcome available.

Buy this if you print detailed work and refuse a slow machine for it, or the printer will live somewhere cold.

Skip this if your parts are large and simple, where the finer pixel earns nothing, or you need the biggest plate here — the Jupiter 2.

Most plate per hour for the money: ELEGOO Saturn 4 Ultra

Throughput is rate multiplied by area, and this is where the two meet at the lowest price. It matches the 150 mm/h of the rest of the tilt-release group across 218.88 × 122.88 × 220 mm — fractionally more plate than its own 16K sibling, for a band that starts lower.

This is the machine the guide reasons from, because ELEGOO states both halves of its layer: 5.5 seconds on general parameter settings, of which 2.5 seconds is the default exposure. The mechanism is tilt release, tied directly to the 150 mm/h figure. Light comes from a 405 nm COB source through a Fresnel lens, levelling is hands-free, and the pitch is 19 × 24 μm — coarser than the 16K, invisible on anything primed and painted.

The omission to think hardest about: no tank heating or resin temperature control is listed on this model.

Owners of the 12K version often cite cold resin as a cause of failures, whereas 16K owners praise the built-in vat heater but note it must be switched on each session.

In a heated room the saving costs nothing; in a garage it is a false economy. Plan the bench either way — the chassis is 327.4 × 329.2 × 548 mm, the same body as the 16K.

Buy this if you want maximum finished models per pound and the printer will live somewhere heated.

Skip this if the room is cold, or you need the finest detail on offer — both point to the 16K.

Fastest compact: ELEGOO Mars 5 Ultra

The most surprising line in the comparison is this one. The cheapest machine here, in the £210–£260 band, carries the same 150 mm/h rating as models at twice the money — because it has the same tilt release, tipping the tank so each layer peels from one edge rather than being pulled off the film.

The rest holds up: 18 × 18 μm square pixels, finer in both axes than either 12K machine above, layers from 0.01 to 0.2 mm, one-click levelling, and 8.8 kg on a 260 × 268 × 451.5 mm footprint — a shelf, not a bench.

A recurring account across independent reviews is that cold, thick resin is what defeats this machine's automation — the levelling sensor triggers early and the first layer stays on the film — and that warming the resin or the room is what fixes it.

With no heated vat, the automation works against you in a cold room: it is quick to start a job that was never going to stick. The second limit is geometry. At 153.36 × 77.76 × 165 mm this plate is roughly a third of the Saturn's area, and since a layer costs the same however many models it holds, a small plate is a direct tax on throughput.

The most consistent criticism in independent reviews is the plate itself: reviewers repeatedly describe the Z height as the machine's one real limit, with taller pieces needing to be angled or split.

Buy this if you want the top speed tier for the least money, print small parts, and have a warm corner for it.

Skip this if you print in batches, where the plate costs more time than the tilt release saves.

Fastest by batch: ELEGOO Jupiter 2

Last on paper, first in practice for one specific job. The quoted maximum is 90 mm/h, the lowest here — on a plate of 302 × 162 × 300 mm, roughly four times the area of the Mars 5 Ultra's. If the work is a batch rather than a model, that trade is not close.

Experienced users consistently treat plate area as throughput on a resin machine, filling the plate rather than printing singly, since a layer is exposed in one pass however many models sit in it.

Run that comparison and the ranking inverts. Three jobs on a small plate at 150 mm/h finish later than one job on this plate at 90 mm/h, because two of the three repeat the same layers — and somebody has to clear the plate between them.

The supporting hardware matches the intent: levelling on four force sensors, resin fed and recycled automatically through a heated quick-lock tank, enclosed behind a double door with a chamber camera. The costs are mostly physical: 28.9 kg in a 465 × 508.1 × 648.1 mm body, drawing 300 W.

Reviewers repeatedly warn that this printer needs far more desk space than its own width suggests, because the doors swing wide and access is from the rear.

ELEGOO's UK store is effectively the only route, as 3DJake cannot deliver this model to Great Britain, in the £650–£800 band.

Buy this if you print batches and have a dedicated bench with rear access.

Skip this if you print one model at a time, or this would be a first resin printer — the Mars 5 Ultra is where to start.

What actually decides when a print finishes

Once the machine is on the desk, four things move the clock, and only one is the number you bought it for. Layer height has the longest travel: doubling it from 0.05 mm to 0.1 mm, both inside the 16K's published range, roughly halves the layer count. Plate area is throughput, because a whole cross-section cures in one exposure. Temperature decides whether the quoted layer time is real — two machines here hold the tank warm, the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K at 30 °C and the M7 Pro through dynamic vat control, and on the other three the job is yours. Orientation decides how often you print twice.

Then there is the half no rating covers. Every model comes off the plate wet, and the wash, support removal and UV cure take the same time on the cheapest machine here as the dearest.

Reviewers consistently describe reaching a first print quickly, with the harder learning arriving afterwards in the washing, curing and resin handling rather than in the printer itself.

If detail rather than speed is the real priority, our guide to resin printers for miniatures ranks much the same pool against a tabletop figure instead.

UK running costs at speed

Electricity is the small number. At the capped unit rate of 26.32p per kWh applying from October to December 2026, a six-hour job costs roughly 38p on the 240 W M7 Pro and around 47p on the 300 W Jupiter 2. Treat both as estimated ceilings: a rated figure is what the supply can deliver, not what a machine averages while the LED sits dark between exposures. The three ELEGOO desktop machines publish no printing wattage, so no figure is offered for them.

The part specific to buying on speed runs against intuition. Printing faster barely changes the electricity, since the energy goes into the same number of exposures. What it changes is how quickly you consume the panel — a wearing part in the ultraviolet path for every second of every print, which ELEGOO rates at up to 2,000 hours on the 16K.

Independent technical sources and forum threads consistently treat the mono panel as a consumable rated in the low thousands of hours rather than a permanent part, which is why a replacement screen belongs in the running-cost sum, although reported working lives vary with how hard the machine is used.

Those hours are the real budget. A machine finishing twice as many models per hour reaches its replacement screen in half the calendar time. UK panels run around the £110 to £130 mark for the 16K, about £111 for the Mars 5 Ultra and about £120 for the M7 Pro; films come five to a set for around £37. On a machine in the £210–£260 band that screen is a meaningful fraction of the purchase price — the line most speed comparisons leave out.

Buying in the UK: stock, warranty and spares

Four of the five have two UK routes — the brand's own store and 3DJake UK, which ships to Great Britain from a European warehouse. The Mars 5 Ultra was in stock at 3DJake when checked in September 2026, while warehouse stock on the M7 Pro stood at zero with more inbound — so for the fastest machine here, the timing of the order may matter more than the speed of the printer.

The Jupiter 2 is the exception to plan around. ELEGOO's UK store is effectively the only route, because 3DJake cannot deliver that model to Great Britain, and ELEGOO UK excludes Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man for certain oversized products — worth checking against your postcode first.

Warranty is not in the buyer's favour on the part that wears. ELEGOO covers the machine for twelve months but the LCD for three, tank and plate at six — the same split on the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K, the Saturn 4 Ultra, the Mars 5 Ultra and the Jupiter 2. Anycubic covers main components for twelve months and the LCD for six. On a machine bought to run hard that difference is worth more than it looks, because the screen is the component your throughput consumes.

Owners on UK review sites more often than not describe Elegoo's support as quick to respond, with the recurring complaints being transit damage and slower progress once a case needs a physical replacement.

Spares are well covered at the ELEGOO end: screens, tanks, plates and film for the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K are listed individually by the ELEGOO UK store, 3DJake UK and Neill's Materials in Bury St Edmunds. If speed is one requirement among several, our wider guide to the best resin printer uk ranks this pool on overall merit instead.

Mistakes buyers make when shopping on speed

Comparing headline figures across brands. A 170 mm/h rating that needs high-speed resin and a 150 mm/h rating that needs nothing are not fifteen per cent apart; they are different kinds of claim.

Assuming a quick resin 3d printer shortens the evening. It shortens the print. On a full plate of small models, a wash-and-cure station does more for the clock than another notch of rated speed.

Underestimating the room. None of these machines filters its own air: the Saturn 4 Ultra 16K has no built-in filtration, nor does the Mars 5 Ultra, and the M7 Pro's purifier is an optional accessory.

Reviewers consistently advise siting this printer in a well-ventilated room or pairing it with a separate air purifier, since it has no built-in charcoal filtration.

If the only space available is a bedroom with a closed window, the honest answer is that a resin machine of any speed is the wrong purchase, and an FDM printer is the one to look at instead.

Specialist reviewers stress that uncured resin should be cured before disposal rather than washed away, and that resin-contaminated alcohol is hazardous waste.

Buying large before buying competent. The biggest plate here is also the least forgiving.

Several reviewers describe the Jupiter 2 as less forgiving than current rivals and suggest it suits owners who already have resin printing experience.

The verdict

One number to take away: at a fine layer height the 5.5-second layer ELEGOO publishes for its own machine works out nearer 33 mm/h than the 150 mm/h on the box. Choose on plate size, resin temperature and release mechanism; the speed follows.

How this article was researched

This is a research-based comparison. No machine here was bought, opened, printed with or measured by us, and nothing is presented as a first-hand result. Every specification figure carries a citation to a manufacturer page or manual; price bands and UK stock were checked on UK retailer listings between 8 September and 3 October 2026 and are given as bands rather than live prices.

Throughput figures are manufacturer maxima, labelled as such; where this guide converts them into build rates, the arithmetic is ours and is shown so you can check it. Owner-experience passages summarise recurring patterns in our own words, with no review quoted and no rating reproduced. Figures that could not be confirmed from a primary source were left out — including printing wattage for the three ELEGOO desktop machines, and any independent timing of these machines on a common test file.