Elegoo Jupiter 2 review: "Impressive volume and quality, but a little fussy"

I felt like I was experiencing deja vu with the Elegoo Jupiter 2. While it offers a litany of impressive advancements you often see in modern 3D printers, it also reminded me of old-school machines from when I first started testing way back when – in short, it can be picky. That means you'll need to lay in the groundwork first, and newcomers may want to steer clear as a result. However, you're in for a treat once all is said and done.

Elegoo Jupiter 2 features & design

As you may be able to tell from its sheer size, the Elegoo Jupiter 2 is all about volume – it has a build area of 302 × 162 × 300mm. That means it's a shoe-in if you want to print larger models, a lot of projects at once, or simply want to give yourself the option.

It's got many of the amenities you'd expect from a 3D printer in 2026 as well; there's a heated resin vat to keep the goods toasty even when temperatures drop outside and 16K resolution, not to mention automatic leveling. However, the cherry on top is a resin auto-fill/remove feature that reduces the mess of swapping out material.

Next, the design has gone from strength to strength. Something I like about recent Elegoo machines (like the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2) is that they feel as though they belong in a sci-fi starship from the Alien universe, ready to churn out anything frontier colonists could need. That's certainly the case here thanks to a metal case with doors that swing outward. It's so much nicer than the usual plastic front or box lid, and I can see it being much less messy long-term.

Just one word of warning: this thing is incredibly heavy. Go careful when getting it into position.

Elegoo Jupiter 2 performance

If you want the maximum number of models being printed at once, or are printing out enormous projects, the Elegoo Jupiter 2 is an excellent choice. It can fit a small army of miniatures onto the build plate and has a sizeable volume for taller projects, so go wild.

Still, a word of caution: it'll take a while, especially if you choose particularly big models. This printer lacks the speed of predecessors like the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K (90mm/h at maximum compared to the Ultra 16K's 150mm/h), and having tested a handful of faster machines in recent months, I noticed the difference. Sure, this isn't a problem per se. I suspect there's a technical reason for that more conservative pace too. But it's a little disappointing nonetheless.

Fortunately, the results are good enough to pave over any cracks. That 16K resolution is doing good work here, producing handsome prints you'll be proud to show off.

Getting to that point will require some patience, though. While it's crucial to have your settings dialled in and test prints finished with any 3D printer, I found it especially important here. This might not be the case for everyone, but in my experience, you can't get away with as much when it comes to the Jupiter 2. Whereas the likes of the Anycubic Photon P1 feel idiot-proof and allow for some margin of error, you must follow the letter of the law here. Yes, my choice of water-washable resin could be to blame, and environmental factors may have played their part as well (I was testing during a particularly strong heatwave, so maybe the material wasn't reacting as it normally would), but I experienced more failures with the Jupiter 2 than any other 3D printer I've tested recently. Things only started paying off once I really examined my settings under a microscope, and that sort of tweaking – not to mention the frustration of "arg, why isn't it working?!" – took me back to the old days.

Luckily, your patience is gonna be rewarded. Once you're locked in, you can produce everything from prop masks to a small army of wargaming models (for Malediction, say) at once. The high level of detail means you aren't compromising to achieve that aim, either.

And oh boy, but that resin auto-fill feature is fantastic. So long as your machine is level, it'll fill up the vat with as much resin as you need right off the bat. Once you're done, you can then click a button to suck most of it back up again. While it's incredibly handy at the best of times and avoids having resin just hanging around in the vat, I found this to be a life-saver during failures – it meant I didn't have to break out a funnel and messily try to pour away the resin so I could retrieve ill-fated prints. Throw in a camera for tracking progress remotely and a heated vat for the perfect garage or shed printer.

Should you buy the Elegoo Jupiter 2?

The Elegoo Jupiter 2 reminds me of old-school 3D printers; it's not as forgiving, so you'll need to make sure you've crossed the 'T's and dotted the 'I's in terms of settings. That said, it makes up for any fiddliness by offering an enviable volume and bringing modern advancements like a heated resin vat and a high-resolution screen to bear. The results are great.

However, I'd recommend it only for those who are already familiar with 3D printing – I think it'd be a bit of a headache for newcomers to figure out.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Elegoo Jupiter 2

I spent two weeks printing off a variety of models with the Elegoo Jupiter 2 in my shed, ranging from smaller miniatures for D&D to larger terrain and monster models. This allowed me to see how it managed across a range of projects.

You can learn more about our process via the GamesRadar+ hardware policy.