Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max Review: Bigger, Faster Resin

Anycubic’s newest Photon Mono M7 Max is a lot like the M7 Pro we’ve reviewed, but with a much bigger build plate and a bit less resolution – not that you’ll miss it. It’s super smart, fast, and has enough pixels to deliver the details you crave. Its large size means you can either print very large models or buckets of gaming miniatures all at once. If you’re into big prints, this is an excellent 3D printer and one of the best resin 3D printers we’ve reviewed.

Printers have been getting so big that I’ve become somewhat blind to their size. My husband recently bought a furniture dolly to move review units into my workshop. The Mono M7 Max is a 52-pound behemoth with a print volume that not only rivals FDM printers but surpasses many of them. With a 300 mm build height and 298 mm width, its X and Z dimensions are bigger than the Prusa CORE One, a Creality Ender 3, or any Bambu machine.

The M7 Max proves an interesting point: you don’t need an insane number of pixels to deliver high quality details. This machine only has a 7K resolution screen with a 46μm pixel accuracy. Compared to its little brother, the Photon Mono M7 Pro, it has half the resolution. But when you do a side-by-side comparison, those extra details are difficult to see with the naked eye.

Anycubic brags on the machine’s 4-second-a-layer total print speed, which I can’t quite square up with its confusing array of slicer settings. Don’t get me wrong, the machine is speedy, but its fastest slicer settings require thin high speed resin and a twice as thick .1 mm layer height. The thin resin softens details and makes me question why anyone would print resin using anything less than top-notch settings. If you’re really concerned with speed, you can get a Core XY FDM printer like the Prusa CORE One.

The M7 Max has a lot of premium features, like a heated vat and sensors to detect failed prints, low resin levels and even tell you when it’s time to change the film on your vat. The auto refill system didn’t work for me, it merely sucked the bottles flat. I didn’t have the patience to fix the issue when it was so easy to dump an entire liter of resin into the massive vat.

The only real downside I can see with this machine is the price, which is expensive compared to average-sized resin printers. I personally don’t see the need for a nearly foot tall resin print, but if you’re into that sort of thing, be ready to open your wallet wide. With a retail price of $899, the Photon Mono M7 Max is a beast of a machine that will take a bite out of your budget.

Specifications: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

Included in the Box: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max includes everything you need to get started as soon as you unbox the printer. You get a metal scraper for the build plate, a plastic scraper for the release film, paper funnels, disposable gloves, disposable masks, a set of Allen keys, a power cord with adapter and a printed manual.

This machine also comes with a resin pump and a preinstalled screen protector. If you want to add ventilation, a spot for attaching a hose is provided.

In the box is a USB thumb drive loaded with Anycubic’s Photon Workshop slicing software and a PDF of the manual.

Printing Safety with Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max requires the same safety precautions as other resin printers. Uncured resin is dangerous, and the solvents used to clean your prints can be irritating to the skin. Use gloves and safety glasses when pouring resin and handling uncured prints.

Make sure the room you use your resin printer in is well-ventilated to avoid inhaling fumes. Spilled or dripped resin should be immediately cleaned with 99% isopropyl alcohol. After printing, make sure to wipe down your printer and bottles to remove smudges of uncured resin. Always keep your resin tightly sealed and safely stored out of reach of pets and children.

Assembling the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

The printer comes fully assembled. You only need to remove the LED screen protector used for shipping, then screw in the vat and build plate. The resin pump is already installed, so you just need to hook up the tubes and data cable, then place the contraption in a bottle of resin.

Calibrating the Build Plate on the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

Unlike older resin printers, the Photon Mono M7 Max ships factory-leveled. Simply put the build plate in place and you’re ready to go. Manual adjustment is available should you need it.

My unit had problems with prints sticking on one side, so I releveled the bed with the provided paper and that solved the issue.

Design of the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

The Photon Mono M7 Max is a large resin printer with a sophisticated black-on-black color scheme. The sleek black UV hood is hinged so you can tilt it back with one finger. Another convenient feature I want to praise right away is the built-in hook for hanging the plate at an angle, which allows excess resin to drip off more effectively. Resin is messy enough as it is, and having these small improvements makes the printing process smoother.

Like the smaller M7 Pro, I was happy to find this printer came with a standard plug and no power brick. The power switch has been moved to the front, which is a lot more sensible. The USB is still off to the side, but they probably expect people to use the Wi-Fi system to transfer files.

The printer weighs in at 52 pounds and not something you want to move often. The lake sized vat can hold a full liter of resin. Anycubic reduced the size of the heater – or at least the part that needs to be attached to the vat, compared to what I saw on the M7 Pro. This makes the vat much easier to handle when it’s time to dump the resin. I’m not sure if the pump can remove most or all of the resin, as mine didn’t seem to work.

The heater’s job is to speed up the print time, as warm resin is thinner and thus faster than cold. Like the M7 Pro, the heater circulates the resin around a channel on the edge of the vat. It pulls resin in, warms it, and then pumps it back out. This slowly circulates the resin around the vat as the printer works but doesn’t seem to interfere with layers as they cure. It provides a bit of stirring action, but if you leave resin in the tank for a few days, you’ll still want to manually stir it.

The heater pump works as a cleaning aid after you’ve emptied the resin and refilled the vat with a cleaning agent like isopropyl alcohol. In fact, you HAVE to use the cleaning cycle if you switch resin types or colors and don’t want contamination. The resin will get trapped in the pump and those channels, so cleaning it with just a paper towel is not an option. And of course, you can not clean the vat by submerging it in a bucket of IPA due to the electronics in the heater.

The big secret to the M7 Max’s speed is a little cheaty. The fastest mode uses a thicker 0.1 mm layer height and is designed specifically to work with a very thin high speed resin. We’ll get more into this when we look at the test prints.

The Photon Mono M7 Max has a very decent 7K resolution. This only sounds underwhelming because printer companies have been chasing higher and higher pixel counts over the last few years as a way to make each batch of printers “better” than the last. A human hair is about 70 microns wide, and this printer with it’s so-called-chunky 46-micron pixel is half that size.

The build plate on the M7 Max is laser-etched, which grabs onto prints to keep them safe but isn’t too difficult to scrape off. The top of the plate has enough slope to allow most of the resin to drain back into the vat.

This 3D printer can take files off a USB thumb drive or over WiFi – if you don’t mind running it through Anycubic’s phone app and Cloud system. I’m not a big fan of phone apps for my printers, so I didn’t test it out.

The touch screen is well thought out and easy to use, with large graphics to help you along the way.

Slicers Compatible with the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max

The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max ships with a copy of Photon Workshop, its custom slicer. The slicer has improved greatly over the years and I didn’t have any problems using it. It can add good supports automatically, has tools for hollowing the model, and adding drainage holes so you can conserve resin.

The M7 Max can be used with Chitubox and Lychee Slicer.

Washing and Curing Your Prints

Before you can admire your prints, you’ll need to wash them with isopropyl alcohol and cure with UV light. I like to give prints a 30-second hand rinse in a container of 95% isopropyl alcohol, then a 2-minute rinse in the Anycubic Wash and Cure, which is sold separately, and retails for $249 at Anycubic.com.

Completely dry the print with a hair dryer on cool – the IPA left on the print will turn white. You can also let the print air dry in a place away from sunlight.

Supports are easier to remove before curing because they are softer. Clip the supports off with side cutters and use tweezers to remove stubborn supports. Remember to always wear gloves while handling uncured prints.

Then place the print in a UV curing station for 15 minutes, or outside in bright sunlight for a few hours.

Your IPA should never be flushed down the drain, especially after being contaminated with uncured resin. Instead, keep using the resin until it’s too dirty, then leave the container open to evaporate. The remaining sludge can be cured with UV light or the sun before being thrown away.

Supports should also be cured before being thrown away.

Sample Prints on the Anycubic Photon M7 Max

One of the biggest problems with testing modern resin printers is deciding if the results should be credited to the printer or the resin itself. The high resolution “fast” resin I was given for testing is thin and a tiny bit translucent. When printing gaming miniatures, you have to squint and determine if the face lacks detail because the resin lacks contrast, if the printer didn’t capture it, or if the model itself didn’t have a lot of detail.

I will say that Anycubic’s high speed resin has improved, and is now capturing more details than previous formulas. It’s currently $45.99 for a 1kg bottle on Amazon, while Anycubic’s standard resin is $23.99 for the same size. It’s up to you if a few hours of your time is worth the extra expense.

The Anycubic Mono M7 Max has several print profiles, but two are the most interesting for this review:

High Speed/Fast Resin: 0.1mm layer and 3-second exposure

Normal Speed/Standard Resin: 0.05mm layer and 2.2-second exposure

Other settings, like lift speeds, have been adjusted and shortened to make high-speed mode about twice as fast as normal mode.

There’s less difference between models printed in fast and normal mode with Anycubic’s new fast resin formula. The high speed resin looks a bit softer and shows more layer lines if you look at it under magnification or with the light hitting it just right.

▶ Models by Wekster

I was pleased with both models (shown below), which showed crisp details in the teeth and the vine patterns on Baby Groot. The high speed resin took almost half as long to print.

▶ HeroForge Custom Models

Resin printers are often used for printing gaming miniatures, so I purchased a couple custom figures from HeroForge to test out. These are printed at 100% and are 1/60 scale, standard for Dungeon and Dragons type miniatures, and stand 35mm tall.

The figure on the left (without supports) is made with Anycubic’s Standard Resin, and the one on the right is Anycubic’s Fast Resin. The white specks are bits of support that I didn’t file down.

In this case, I feel the thinner Fast Resin made details too soft to stand out – the nose, the dog’s face, the belt buckle are all flat. You can also see the layer lines on the cell phone. For miniatures, I would definitely stick with normal mode and good resin that shows contrast.

▶ Zou3D dragon

I also printed a flexi dragon from Zou3D in Inland’s clear resin, using the standard mode. I tried it with and without supports, and both models printed great and stayed flexible. The dragon without supports had a nicer smooth bottom, but I had to be extra careful breaking it off the build plate.

The print is so smooth you can’t see the layer lines, even though they cause the clear resin to appear frosted. Applying a coat of Modge Podge seals the lines and returns the resin to a glass like finish. On the sample below, I only sealed the head. Inland’s resin wasn’t quite crystal clear, which was disappointing. This print took one hour and 58 minutes to print.

Bottom Line

The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Max is a massive resin printer with faster than normal speeds and excellent details while using normal materials. The build volume is similar, if not larger than an average FDM printer on the X and Z axis, and a bit smaller on the Y due to the rectangular nature of the LED light source.

The machine is easy to use and packed with features – and though the resin pump didn’t work on my test unit, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. The speed of this machine is surprisingly fast, but finer details are lost when you switch to the high speed settings. This is more due to the transparency of the thinner fast resin than a fault of the machine.

Don’t forget that you’ll need a Wash and Cure for post-processing your prints. I highly recommend the Anycubic Wash and Cure 3, which has one base for both the wash tank and the light system. Its compact nature really saves space, and it’s only $129 on Amazon.

If you don’t need quite as much print volume, the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro is even faster and with higher detail, and currently on sale for $499. If you’re focused on printing gaming miniatures, the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra is a 9K machine with smart features and a steal at $269.

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