Anycubic Photon S vs Anycubic Photon Mono 4K

Which of the three would you recommend? I don't necessarily want the most expensive one if it's not much of an improvement from the cheaper models.

ANYCUBIC Photon Mono X $759\* - No parts available anywhere. Elegoo Saturn $499 if lucky on Amazon - No parts available anywhere, but have been told their online service is good. The EPAX seems like the best choice, but it’s over my price range once I factor in other stuff like the curing station. The 4K printers seem to be underproduced and only one of the companies even has parts for sale

I had nearly 10 failed prints, each time the print not sticking to the build plate. Luckily I purchased extra resin, and after swapping out the resin, I finally found the source of my issue. This product shipped with expired resin. After changing out the resin my prints seem to be a lot less error prone

Checked it out for flatness on the CMM again and wow, almost 4x better flatness. Replaced the plate I have and prints stick to it like glue because of the textured laser etching. Shipping wasn't bad at a couple weeks for the replacement. Still a little sore about the initial one being so poor but have to give credit where it's due since they were quick to replace it with no hassle

PROS- 1. Easy set up compared to a lot of the printers on the market 2. Amazing print quality 3. Comes with a flash drive that has the slicing software for windows and mac (I have tried it on both my windows and mac pcs and it works) 4

4. Downloaded and unzipped to my USB and read the "read me" text which give directions. Its pretty simple only took about 5 mins to update. The reason for only giving it 4 stars is it should be plug and play

(The white lattice structure was printed on the Photon and the green on the Photon S) Accessories: Both printers come with identical tool sets and power supplies. However, the Photon S also includes 500mL of that beautiful green resin while the old Photon doesn’t include any resin. In conclusion, this printer is quite impressive for its price. However, after using both the Photon S and original Photon, I would recommend that you buy the Photon

The touch screen is old tech, its not capacitive (sensing your body's electricity) but resistive (like pressing an air bubble, a tech from the first touch devices in the 90s). And changing the resin bath is super expensive (I hope cheaper alternatives become available soon, cause the price Anycubic demands for a framed sheet of plastic is just ridiculous). Overall my experience was good, and for the price it's really a steal.

The AnyCubic Photon seems to have really set the bar so very high for affordable quality resin printing and has been a solid contender for a while now, and has a lot of community support. The "S" model takes it to the next level and with the solid reputation of the Photon and the AnyCubic's service and support, my decision was easy. I was surprised also at how good their liquid resin is. I've tried others and see no reason to switch

There are plenty of comprehensive reviews on the Internet, and I'll echo their praises. Build quality is superb, which helps justify the price. The screen and film will eventually wear out, but the rest of this machine feels like it is built to keep going for at least the next decade.