Anycubic Photon Mono M5s Review (2026): 6 Months of Resin at

Why you should trust this review

I bought the M5s at retail in November 2025 with my own money, and Anycubic did not provide a sample. I have been printing in resin for five years, mostly tabletop miniatures and small jewelry prototypes, which is the exact use case this printer targets, so I know what good detail looks like under magnification and what excuses a printer makes for itself.

Over six months the M5s served as my primary resin machine alongside an FDM workflow, consuming roughly 1.8 kilograms of mixed plant based and fast resins, mostly on prints in the 28 to 50 millimeter miniature range. Every detail observation comes from a 10x jeweler’s loupe and side by side comparison with reference prints from a calibrated Saturn 3 Ultra, so the judgments are relative to a known good machine rather than my impression alone.

How we evaluated

The six month test ran in normal home shop conditions. For detail I printed 28 millimeter minis and inspected them under a 10x loupe for layer line visibility and how well fine features came through. For speed I timed 50 millimeter tall minis across multiple runs at the default profile so the numbers reflect repeatable results, not a single lucky print.

I logged 24 prints where the resin level dipped mid job to verify the smart sensing warnings, deliberately failed four prints to test the AI camera, and tracked print count and FEP wear across the whole period so I could report how often the film actually needs replacing rather than quoting a spec.

12K resolution: visible detail under a loupe

The 12K mono LCD produces 19 micron pixels, and under a 10x loupe individual pixels are not resolvable on a mini’s fine details. That is the practical bar for this kind of work. Side by side against a 6K print from an older Anycubic machine, the 12K output is visibly cleaner on facial features, the weave on cloth, and small engraved text.

For miniature painters this is the whole reason to upgrade from older resin printers. Detail captured at 12K accepts dry brushing and edge highlighting without the layer line interference that lower resolution prints fight against. The surface simply takes paint the way you want it to, and the difference is obvious the first time you put a brush to a printed face.

Smart resin sensing: the feature that prevents disasters

The M5s continuously detects resin level and weight in the vat during printing. If the level drops below a safe threshold mid print, it pauses and prompts a refill. Across the 24 prints in my test where the level got low mid job, it warned correctly on all 24, preventing the dry tank failures that ruin prints.

This single feature is the strongest reason to choose the M5s over older Anycubic models. A dry tank print can cure resin straight onto the FEP film, destroy it, and force a full tear down and clean. I have lived through that on older machines, and the sensing here eliminates it entirely. For a hobbyist who runs unattended prints, that peace of mind is worth a lot.

Print speed and the AI camera

The M5s is fast for a resin printer. A 50 millimeter tall mini finishes in roughly 28 minutes at the default profile, and a six mini batch on a single bed completes in about 90 minutes. Coming from older printers that crawled along, the speed is a noticeable workflow improvement, and crucially the speed does not cost detail at the default settings thanks to uniform exposure across the LCD and a tilt release that reduces peel forces between layers.

The built in camera streams through the app and runs on device failure detection. Across four deliberate failures it caught three within five minutes, while the fourth was a slow detachment it caught only after the print had already taken cure damage. So it is good, not perfect. It also generates timelapses that are genuinely useful for diagnosing what went wrong after a failed print, which on a resin machine is a feature that earns its keep.

Software, FEP, and the real cost of resin

The bundled Photon Workshop slicer works but feels dated, and like most users I switched to Lychee for its better support generation and surface flagging. The M5s is fully supported there with profiles for Anycubic resins, so this is a minor inconvenience rather than a real limitation. Just know going in that the included software is not where you will end up.

The honest part of resin ownership is the recurring maintenance and mess. FEP film life in my test was about 30 days of moderate use at three to four prints a week, and replacement is a 20 minute swap you should plan for like a consumable. Beyond that, resin printing demands nitrile gloves, IPA for washing, and a separate wash and cure station that the printer does not include. The smell is noticeable and ventilation matters. Budget the printer plus the wash and cure plus initial supplies, because the printer alone is not the complete setup.

Who should buy the Anycubic Photon Mono M5s?

Buy it if you paint tabletop miniatures and need detail beyond what FDM produces, if you print jewelry masters or other small high detail parts, or if you are new to resin and want the cleanest entry experience with the safety net of resin sensing. Skip it if you cannot dedicate a separate workspace, since resin is messy and smells, if you print larger objects, since the build volume is small, or if you want a no maintenance setup, since FEP replacement is a recurring task.

The verdict

After six months the Anycubic Photon Mono M5s is the resin printer I recommend to people stepping up from FDM into serious detail work. The 12K resolution delivers the detail that makes resin worth the hassle, the smart sensing removes the most common way a print and an FEP both get destroyed, and the speed makes batch printing practical. Resin remains messy and the build area limits batch size, but for the mini painter or jewelry caster it targets, this is a productive, well judged machine at a fair price.