The Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K… let’s give it a review.
Hey guys. I’ve been looking forward to reviewing this printer since I first told you about
it back in early October. So let’s crack on with it.
To begin with, yes it IS the Mini 8K, even though it’s considerably larger than the
Mini 4K. It’s not a massive printer, but it is a
nice, decent size. So Mini it is, but by name only. And first impressions are very good
– it’s a nice sturdy looking printer. The base is quite weighty and solid.
The Menu screen isn’t the biggest I’ve seen, but it’s far from the smallest and
is clear and easy to use. The USB port is located on the front, but
far enough away from the Menu screen as to not get in the way.
The power point and switch are located at the rear, along with a single fan, which seems
fairly quiet in operation. The dual linear rails seem chunky and firm.
The appearance and width alone suggest stability. There’s certainly no wobble here that I’ve
seen. The build plate also seems chunky. Lots of
thick metal smoothly engineered into something robust and quite large. This plate seems bigger
that on the Sonic 4K. It also seems bigger than the Mars 2 Pro – and you can begin
to see why I’m questioning the name “Mini” 8K now, can’t you?
But the shape of the plate is unusual. It’s wide but more narrow than we’ve typically
seen. It’s more of a letterbox shape. The surface has a frosted, laser cut finish
and trust me prints stick very well to this. I’ve actually destroyed a couple of prints
in the process of removal, so thicken up those rafts.
The resin tray is metal construction and held in place with removable bolts, so don’t
drop and loose these. But there’s a nice, clear max level indicator to avoid over filling.
And that, of course, leads us to the heart of this printer – the 8K LCD screen, capable
of delivering 22 micron of XY resolution, and that is really big deal. I believe this
is a world first and surpasses the resolution of any other home-grade printer with a staggering
1152 pixels per inch. And this, in essence, should mean the best quality prints we’ve
seen at this end of the printer market. So, I was genuinely excited to get printing
with the Mini 8K, but fate had other ideas. When I performed the LCD Test, something didn’t
look right. Adding a piece of paper made this even worse, and broke my little nerdy heart.
It was a dud. Something was wrong. But let’s be realistic – these things
happen. It happened to me and it could happen to you.
I got straight on the Phrozen Support and they were excellent. Through a couple of very
simple videos they were able to guide me through a quick diagnosis and sure enough, the mirror
inside my printer had broken. Now we can’t blame Phrozen for this. The
printer had been very well packed and arrived looking perfect. But look at the box. See
the crease line? Maybe, just maybe, that’s the result of being dropped. And good packaging
or not, a shock from a drop like that might well be enough to shatter a mirror. And these
things travel a long way and pass through many hands before arriving at our homes so,
again, I say, these things can happen. The good news is Phrozen responded quickly
and shipped out a new mirror in less than a week that I was able to replace with ease.
And that meant I could do some printing and I was lucky enough to have a bottle of the
new Phrozen Aqua 8K resin to test with, so life was looking good.
The Mini 8K comes shipped with ChiTuBox slicer as standard, but before any of you abandon
hopes of purchase on the strength of this, there is good news. I’ve spoken with our
friends at Lychee and they’ve already prepared a release for the Phrozen Mini 8K. So where
Lychee leads, other slicers will follow, which means you’ll have plenty of slicer options
very soon. I always start with the AmeraLabs Town Test
Print and look at this? It’s incredible. All my prints are at .05 layer height, but
this looks stunning. I took some stills to make this clarity more obvious, though this
unfortunately makes my world seem incredibly dusty, probably because of the paper towels
that I always use. But looking beyond that, and please look beyond that, it’s very impressive.
Next I decided to take a shot at Faun Girl, and frankly who can blame me. Sure enough
the results knocked my socks off. I posted a number of stills on my Instagram account
showing off this piece in great detail, and I can honestly say the Mini 8K does true justice
to the beauty of this piece. Of course I had to try some jewellery, and
this amazing ring design by Eric Keller from ZBrush Jewellery Workshop ticked all the boxes
for me. Based on the Jumping Spider, entomologist enthusiast Eric put some incredible detail
into this ring, and certainly the Mini 8K displays this well.
Finally, to really test the Mini 8K, I turned to this incredible design called Mephisto
by 3D Wicked. It took me 3 days of printing to get all the parts I needed, but it was
totally worthwhile. The results are stunning. It seems I have an excessive collection of
dust if anyone wants any, but the prints look great despite this. And before anyone complains
about layer lines, just remember how zoomed in these images are. In real life, they still
exist, but are beautifully subtle and easy to look past.
Now at this point I have to shake a fist at Phrozen for making this a very difficult review
for me to do. Typically I go out of my way to be balanced and point out all the good
and all the bad features I can find, but the Mini 8K has me stumped. There’s nothing
I can really gripe about. It’s all good. But, trying really hard here…
The plate surface bonds like stink, so you’ll need to thicken up your rafts perhaps. But
I dare say after a few uses this bond will lesson to a more acceptable level and after
all, I’ve done plenty of printing here without any issue.
The fully retractable bolts are a bit of a pain because they could be lost, but this
is hardly a design exclusive to Phrozen… and they’re just bolts.
And maybe, erm, erm, I dunno, er, mabe I don’t like the colour of the lid. Ha! There’s
a negative. I don’t care for that shade… but that would never stop me buying this printer…
it’s too damn good. The build quality is certainly up to the job.
The linear rails are wide and sturdy. The build plate is built to last forever.
But the screen… that incredible 8K screen… it gives us a clarity of print we haven’t
seen before on LCD printers. It’s simply excellent. And I know right now many of you
will be screaming at the screen, how does it compare with the Anycubic Photon Ultra
DLP? But all I can say at this moment in time is, well, that’s not an easy call to make.
I need more time to compare and for you guys and I will do that.
However, regardless of that outcome, I have to say that this is the best printing LCD
printer I have personally come across, able to produce excellent quality on a home grade
printer. In essence, it’s real a winner, and the new standard for others to attain.
And if you’re thinking seriously about this printer, check the link in the description
for a limited time 15% - $90 off discount. How long this will last, I really don’t
know… but if you want it, it’s there for you right now.
So that’s it for this review guys. If you have any questions, as always feel free to
drop me a line. So take care guys and thanks for watching.