Elegoo 3D Printers – Mars, Saturn & Neptune Lineup
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Introduction to Elegoo 3D Printers
If you’ve been exploring the world of 3D printing, chances are you’ve already heard the name Elegoo. Over the past several years, this Shenzhen-based manufacturer has carved out a well-deserved reputation as one of the most accessible and reliable brands in the hobby and prosumer 3D printing space. Whether you’re a complete beginner looking for your very first machine or an experienced maker wanting to upgrade to something with more print volume and precision, Elegoo 3D printers offer a lineup that genuinely covers all the bases.
Founded in 2015, Elegoo started its journey making Arduino-compatible electronic kits before pivoting decisively toward 3D printing. That pivot turned out to be a very smart move. Today, Elegoo is recognized globally for producing both resin (MSLA) and FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) machines that punch well above their price point. You can browse their full catalog directly at the Elegoo official store at elegoo.com, where they sell printers, resins, filaments, and accessories worldwide.
What makes Elegoo stand out in a crowded market? A few things come up consistently in any honest Elegoo review: competitive pricing, regular firmware updates, a strong community following, and a commitment to iterating their models based on real user feedback. The Mars, Saturn, and Neptune series are the clearest expressions of that philosophy — each one targeting a specific type of user with a specific set of needs.
In this guide, we’re going to walk through all three major product lines, look at the specs that actually matter, talk about pricing and value, and help you figure out which Elegoo printer might be the right fit for your workflow. Let’s dig in.
Elegoo Resin Printer Series – Precision Meets Affordability
When most people think of Elegoo, the first thing that comes to mind is resin printing — and for good reason. The Elegoo resin printer lineup, particularly the Mars series, is what put the company on the map and continues to be their most celebrated product category.
Resin printers work differently from FDM machines. Instead of melting plastic filament and depositing it layer by layer, resin printers use a UV light source to cure liquid photopolymer resin. The result is prints with dramatically finer surface detail, much smoother layer lines, and better dimensional accuracy. If you’re printing miniatures, jewelry, dental models, or any object where fine surface detail matters, resin is usually the way to go.
Elegoo Mars 4 – The Flagship Desktop Resin Printer
The Elegoo Mars 4 series represents the company’s current top offering in the compact desktop resin category. The Mars line has gone through several generations, and each iteration has brought meaningful improvements in resolution, print speed, and usability.
The Mars 4 Ultra, for example, features a 9.1-inch mono LCD screen with a 12K resolution (11520 × 5120 pixels), which translates to an XY resolution of approximately 19 × 24 microns. That is exceptional detail for a machine at this price point. The light source uses a COB (Chip on Board) LED system paired with a Fresnel lens, which provides more uniform light distribution across the entire print surface — reducing the risk of uneven curing that can plague cheaper machines.
One of the features that made a significant splash in the Elegoo 8K resin printer era was the shift to higher-resolution panels that could capture features previously only achievable on much more expensive professional equipment. The Mars 4 continues that tradition with its 12K panel, making it one of the most detailed consumer resin printers available today.
Print speeds on the Mars 4 Ultra reach up to 150mm per hour using the MSLA fast-printing mode, which is a substantial improvement over older Mars generations. The build volume sits at 165 × 88 × 165 mm — compact enough for a desktop but generous enough for most hobby applications.
From a usability standpoint, Elegoo has also made meaningful improvements to the Mars 4’s build plate design, incorporating a tilt-release mechanism that reduces suction forces during the peel process, which in turn reduces print failures and increases the success rate for larger, flat-based prints. The touchscreen interface is clean and responsive, and the machine is compatible with Chitubox and Lychee Slicer, two of the most popular resin slicing applications in the community.
Why Choose an Elegoo Resin Printer?
The core advantages of going with an Elegoo resin printer over competitors come down to a few key factors. First, the price-to-performance ratio is hard to beat — you’re getting industrial-level XY resolution at a fraction of what professional dental or jewelry printers cost. Second, Elegoo’s after-sales support and firmware update cadence have improved significantly in recent years. Third, the large and active Elegoo community means that finding slicer profiles, troubleshooting advice, and print settings for specific resins is relatively straightforward.
Elegoo Saturn 3 – Large Format Power
If the Mars series is Elegoo’s precision-focused desktop champion, then the Saturn series is its big-volume workhorse. The Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra represents the upper end of what Elegoo currently offers in terms of resin print volume, and it’s genuinely impressive.
Build Volume and Large Format Capability
The Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra ships with a 12K mono LCD (11520 × 5120 pixels) mounted on a significantly larger frame than the Mars. The build plate measures 218.88 × 123.12 × 260 mm, which makes it one of the largest resin printers Elegoo has ever produced. For context, that build height of 260mm means you can print objects nearly the size of a large figurine or a substantial mechanical component in a single run without any splitting or gluing required.
This positions the Saturn 3 Ultra firmly as an Elegoo large format printer — a machine designed for users who need the detail of resin printing but at a scale that smaller desktop machines simply can’t accommodate. Cosplay prop makers, tabletop gaming terrain creators, and small-batch product prototypers will find the Saturn 3’s build volume particularly attractive.
Elegoo Build Quality on the Saturn 3
One of the areas where the Saturn series has consistently received praise in community reviews is build quality. The Saturn 3 Ultra features an all-metal linear rail system for the Z-axis, which provides more stability and precision during the vertical movement of the build plate. This matters more than it might seem — Z-axis wobble or inconsistency is one of the leading causes of visible layer banding in resin prints, and a solid rail system effectively eliminates that problem.
The FEP film tension and the vat design have also been refined in the Saturn 3 generation. The nFEP film (a newer variant of the standard FEP release liner used at the bottom of resin vats) provides better release properties, which reduces the force required during each layer peel and helps prevent print failures — especially for larger, flatter cross-sections that generate significant suction.
The machine’s frame is predominantly aluminum, giving it a solid, premium feel. The touchscreen is color, responsive, and provides clear feedback during print progress. Wireless connectivity (WiFi) is also built in, allowing you to send print files from your slicer directly to the printer over your local network rather than fumbling with USB drives.
Saturn 3 Print Speeds
Like the Mars 4, the Saturn 3 Ultra supports accelerated printing modes. Using Elegoo’s recommended fast-print settings, you can achieve layer cure times that push overall print speeds toward 70–100mm per hour depending on the geometry of the print. While this is somewhat slower than the Mars 4 Ultra’s peak speed, that’s partly a function of the larger LCD panel requiring slightly longer cure times to ensure uniform light penetration across a bigger surface area.
| Specification | Mars 4 Ultra | Saturn 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| LCD Resolution | 12K (11520×5120) | 12K (11520×5120) |
| XY Resolution | 19×24 microns | 19×24 microns |
| Build Volume | 165×88×165 mm | 218.88×123.12×260 mm |
| Light Source | COB+Fresnel Lens | COB+Fresnel Lens |
| Max Print Speed | ~150 mm/hr | ~70–100 mm/hr |
| WiFi Connectivity | Yes | Yes |
| Release Film | nFEP | nFEP |
| Z-Axis System | Single Linear Rail | Dual Linear Rail |
Elegoo FDM Printer Line – The Neptune Series
While resin printing gets a lot of the spotlight, Elegoo’s FDM lineup — the Neptune series — deserves serious attention in its own right. FDM printing is the most widely used 3D printing technology in the world, and for good reason: it’s affordable, the materials are easy to handle (no liquid resin, no UV safety concerns, no washing and curing steps), and the range of printable materials is enormous.
Elegoo Neptune 4 – Fast, Reliable, and Accessible
The Elegoo Neptune 4 series has become one of the brand’s most popular FDM offerings, and the Neptune 4 Pro in particular has garnered strong reviews from the maker community for its combination of speed, ease of setup, and consistent print quality.
The Neptune 4 Pro features a CoreXY motion system — a more sophisticated motion architecture compared to the Cartesian systems used in older budget FDM printers. CoreXY setups move the print head in both X and Y axes simultaneously using two motors and a crossed belt arrangement, which allows for much faster acceleration and deceleration without introducing the vibration artifacts (called “ringing” or “ghosting”) that plague cheaper, heavier-carriage machines.
This directly translates to one of the Neptune 4 Pro’s headline stats: a rated maximum print speed of 500mm/s, with a recommended practical speed of around 250–300mm/s for general-purpose printing. To put that in context, a traditional budget FDM printer typically maxes out at 60–100mm/s. The Neptune 4 Pro is dramatically faster, which means prints that might have taken eight hours on an older machine can be completed in two or three.
Elegoo FDM Printer – Material Compatibility
One of the key advantages of FDM printing over resin is material flexibility. The Neptune 4 Pro supports a wide range of thermoplastic filaments including PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, and ASA. The all-metal hotend can reach temperatures up to 300°C, and the heated bed supports temperatures up to 110°C, which means even more demanding engineering-grade materials are within reach for experienced users.
The Elegoo FDM printer lineup also supports Klipper firmware on the Neptune 4 series, which is a significant advantage for users who want to fine-tune their printer’s performance. Klipper is an open-source firmware that offloads processing tasks to a companion computer (in this case, a built-in processor), enabling faster input shaping calculations, more responsive resonance compensation, and greater overall tuning flexibility compared to traditional Marlin-based firmware.
Elegoo Print Speed and Reliability
Elegoo print speed claims are often a point of discussion in the community. The rated 500mm/s maximum on the Neptune 4 Pro is technically achievable, but like most high-speed FDM printers, real-world printing at that speed requires careful tuning and is generally reserved for simple geometries and draft-quality prints. For most users, 200–300mm/s represents the sweet spot where speed and quality are well balanced.
That said, even at 200mm/s, the Neptune 4 Pro is substantially faster than most of its similarly priced competitors. Combined with automatic bed leveling (via a CR Touch probe), a PEI spring steel magnetic print surface, and a direct drive extruder, the overall out-of-box experience is genuinely impressive for a printer in this price bracket.
Technical Specifications & Performance
Understanding the technical side of Elegoo specs helps you make a smarter buying decision. Here’s a broader look at how the Neptune FDM line compares internally, and what the key specs actually mean for your printing experience.
| Specification | Neptune 4 | Neptune 4 Pro | Neptune 4 Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build Volume | 225×225×265 mm | 225×225×265 mm | 420×420×480 mm |
| Motion System | CoreXY | CoreXY | CoreXY |
| Max Print Speed | 500 mm/s | 500 mm/s | 500 mm/s |
| Firmware | Klipper | Klipper | Klipper |
| Hotend Max Temp | 300°C | 300°C | 300°C |
| Bed Max Temp | 110°C | 110°C | 110°C |
| Auto Bed Leveling | Yes (CR Touch) | Yes (CR Touch) | Yes (CR Touch) |
| Extruder Type | Direct Drive | Direct Drive | Direct Drive |
| Print Surface | PEI Magnetic | PEI Magnetic | PEI Magnetic |
Elegoo Slicer Settings – What You Need to Know
Regardless of which Elegoo printer you choose, the slicer is a critical part of your workflow. For resin printers (Mars, Saturn), Elegoo officially supports both Chitubox and Lychee Slicer, and they publish recommended exposure settings for their own resin formulations on the elegoo.com product pages. Community resources like the Resin Exposure Finder wiki also compile user-tested settings for third-party resins.
For FDM printers (Neptune series), Elegoo has developed their own slicer — Elegoo Cura — which is based on the widely used Ultimaker Cura open-source platform. Printer profiles for the Neptune 4 series are preloaded, which means you can get from installation to first print relatively quickly without manually entering build volumes, nozzle diameters, or temperature recommendations. Cura-compatible profiles also work with standalone Ultimaker Cura if you prefer that interface.
Key slicer settings to pay attention to for optimal results on Elegoo machines include layer height (0.05–0.2mm for resin, 0.1–0.3mm for FDM), exposure time (critical for resin, varies by resin brand and color), support density, and infill percentage for FDM parts. Elegoo’s product pages often include downloadable .ctb files (sliced resin files) for test prints, which is a helpful way to verify machine performance before you start your own projects.
Pricing & Market Position
One of the most consistent themes in any Elegoo review is value for money, and the Elegoo price points across their lineup reinforce this reputation strongly.
Resin Printer Pricing
The Mars 4 series sits in a range that makes high-resolution resin printing accessible to a much broader audience than was possible even three or four years ago. The Mars 4 Ultra typically retails in the $300–$400 range depending on region and current promotions on the Elegoo official store. For a 12K resolution machine with COB lighting and fast-print capability, that pricing is genuinely competitive.
The Saturn 3 Ultra, being a larger machine with greater build volume and a more robust frame, sits at a higher price point — generally in the $600–$800 range. That might seem like a significant step up, but when you consider the build volume increase and the dual linear rail Z-axis system, the price jump is well justified for users who regularly need to print larger objects.
FDM Printer Pricing
The Neptune 4 sits at the entry point of the series, typically priced around $200–$250, making it one of the most affordable CoreXY Klipper printers on the market. The Neptune 4 Pro adds additional refinements and typically comes in at $300–$350. The Neptune 4 Max, with its massive 420×420×480mm build volume, is the flagship of the FDM lineup and generally retails around $500–$600.
| Model | Type | Approx. Price (USD) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mars 4 Ultra | Resin (MSLA) | $300–$400 | Miniatures, jewelry, fine detail |
| Saturn 3 Ultra | Resin (MSLA) | $600–$800 | Large props, terrain, batch printing |
| Neptune 4 | FDM | $200–$250 | Beginners, general purpose |
| Neptune 4 Pro | FDM | $300–$350 | Speed, engineering materials |
| Neptune 4 Max | FDM | $500–$600 | Large FDM prints, functional parts |
Resin vs FDM – Which Should You Choose?
This is honestly one of the most common questions new users ask, and the answer genuinely depends on your use case rather than any objective “better” technology. Here’s a quick breakdown to help frame the decision.
Resin printing (Mars 4, Saturn 3) gives you significantly higher surface detail and smoother finishes, but it comes with a more involved post-processing workflow: parts need to be washed in isopropyl alcohol or a dedicated washing solution, then cured under UV light before they’re fully hard. The liquid resin itself requires careful handling — gloves are recommended, and good ventilation is important. The materials cost is also higher per kilogram compared to FDM filament.
FDM printing (Neptune 4 series) is messier in a different way — stringing, layer lines, and support removal are all part of the experience — but the materials are inexpensive, easy to store, and the range of filament types available is enormous. If you’re printing functional parts, enclosures, tools, or anything that needs to be large and structurally sound, FDM is usually the more appropriate choice.
Many experienced makers eventually own both — a resin machine for detail-critical work and an FDM machine for structural or large-format printing. Given Elegoo’s competitive pricing across both categories, that combination is more financially accessible than it’s ever been.
Final Elegoo Comparison & Verdict
After walking through the full lineup — from the precision-focused Mars 4 Ultra to the large-format Saturn 3 Ultra and the speed-optimized Neptune 4 Pro — it’s clear that Elegoo has built a genuinely cohesive product ecosystem that serves a wide range of users effectively.
What stands out most in any comprehensive Elegoo comparison is how thoughtfully differentiated the products are. This isn’t a brand that releases the same machine with slightly different badges — the Mars, Saturn, and Neptune lines each have a distinct identity and target user. That product clarity makes buying decisions easier, and it reflects well on the brand’s understanding of what their customers actually need.
For absolute beginners, the Neptune 4 FDM printer is probably the most forgiving entry point. It’s fast, uses familiar and easy-to-handle filament, and has a strong community around it. The Klipper firmware might seem intimidating at first, but Elegoo has done a reasonable job of pre-configuring it so you don’t need to dive deep into the command line just to get your first print going.
For anyone interested in resin printing, the Mars 4 Ultra is an exceptional starting point. The 12K resolution puts it in a league that was unimaginable at this price even a few years ago, and the COB lighting system means you’re getting consistent curing results across the entire print area. If you need more build volume and are willing to invest a bit more, the Saturn 3 Ultra delivers that without meaningful sacrifices in resolution or print quality.
For those who need high-volume FDM capability, the Neptune 4 Max’s enormous build plate opens up possibilities that simply aren’t available on standard-sized printers. Full-sized costume pieces, architectural models, large enclosures — all within reach on a single print.
Elegoo continues to iterate rapidly, and their track record of listening to community feedback and pushing firmware and hardware improvements through the product lifecycle is a genuine differentiator. When you buy an Elegoo 3D printer today, you’re not just buying a machine — you’re buying into an ecosystem that tends to improve over time.
For detailed model-specific pages, you can explore the Mars series, Saturn series, and Neptune series directly through the Elegoo official store. Comparing current pricing, reading user reviews, and downloading test print files are all possible there before you commit to a purchase.
Whether you’re just starting your 3D printing journey or looking to upgrade to something faster, larger, or more precise, Elegoo has built a lineup in 2024 and beyond that deserves serious consideration at every price point.