Pixi

The Pixi makes a great first impression. It's packed in a thick cardboard box and tightly packed with foam in every nook and cranny. The pixi includes everything you need to get going so long as you've considered fume extraction or exhaust, and even then the pixi packs a handy little bayonet exhaust adapter for getting a hose on there nice and tight - but we'll touch on that later. In addition to the flip around shield you also get a keyed magnetic shield for the diode module itself, which is awesome of them to include as it helps with jobs that require the door to be open. Also the focal stick they include is extremely cute and can hang on the backside of the unit on a little shelf made just for it. That's it. Just remove the foam and plug it in and you're rocking and rolling. Seriously. There’s really no assembly here. You open the box, set the machine down, plug it in, and because the touchscreen OS is already built in, you can literally be engraving within minutes. For beginners, that matters.

This is where the Pixi starts punching way above its weight class. The work area is 100mm x 100mm, the top speed is 6000mm/m, or 100mm/s per second, and the entire system weighs just 3.75kgs, or around 8lbs. Let me tell you, for something this compact, it packs a surprising punch. It’s a tight little unit with just enough metal in the frame to keep it stable and nothing extra. That minimalist design pays off immediately, because it gives you an incredibly wide viewing window — almost 270 degrees of visibility into the workspace. Most enclosed Class 1 machines this size feel like you’re trying to watch your job through a tunnel. The Pixi is the complete opposite. You can actually see what’s going on inside. The top lid is magnetic and keyed, so you don’t have to fight with it. You pull it off, drop it back on, and it seats perfectly every time. And even when the lid is closed, it lets in far more ambient light than what you typically get on small enclosed lasers. It seems like a tiny detail, but being able to monitor a job without slapping a flashlight against the window is a legitimate quality-of-life upgrade. Inside the machine, there’s a small fan that pushes smoke out of the work area. On its own, it doesn’t do much, but it’s actually designed to be used with the included bayonet-mount exhaust adapter which connects directly to a fume extractor or an external vent. It’s a real exhaust path. Compare that to something like the Ortur R1, which has a fan that blows smoke... nowhere? The Pixi’s approach is miles better and much closer to what's expected on modern machines. Around the back, you get a 24V barrel power jack, a physical power switch, the bayonet-style exhaust connector, a rotary expansion port, and even a little hook that holds your focal gauge so you don’t lose it. The frame only uses the amount of metal required to stay rigid — nothing is overbuilt — and because of that, the machine stays lightweight but still stable. One thing I really appreciate is that the Pixi can handle larger objects. If you remove four screws on the back, you can lift the entire gantry to a new height and lock it in place. It’s simple, but it’s also genuinely useful, and that’s a phrase you’re going to hear a lot in this review. Here’s my favorite part of the hardware: the removable metal grid bed flips over. Out of the box, it’s a standard flat grid, just like any other mini-engraver. But if you remove four screws and flip it, the underside has a built-in cutting bed. You don’t need to buy a separate accessory. You don’t have to deal with a loose drop-in plate. It’s integrated right into the machine. It’s clever, it’s practical, and it shows that someone actually thought about the user experience when they were designing this thing. Even the interlock system is practical. The door uses a simple switch, which means that if you really need to defeat it - for example, if you’re engraving an object that sticks out the front, a little tape will do it. Now, I never recommend bypassing interlocks, but the Pixi’s laser module has a keyed magnetic shield that blocks reflections at the nozzle. So even with the lid off, you aren’t staring directly into exposed diode emitters like you would on more expensive systems. I still recommend goggles rated for 455nm wavelength emissions, but this gives you flexibility that Class 1 machines usually don’t offer. If you’re using the onboard OS, the Pixi will warn you when the door is open and give you the option to override. If you’re running jobs through LightBurn, LaserGRBL, or the mobile app, there’s no software override, which means you’ll have to defeat the switch physically. Overall, this is smart hardware design. It’s not flashy - just thoughtful, simple, and effective.

The Algo Pixi available in three configurations with different laser modules - a 3W version at $179, a 5W version at $229, and a 10W version at $329, which is the version Algo was kind enough to send over. The 10W module claims a 0.08mm spot size, and in testing we actually measured exactly that (or less!). The lower-watt variants are even tighter. That good optical performance turns into sharp engraves, clean edges, and solid detail, especially on small text. The 10W module isn’t just a marketing number, it’s a real 10W of optical output. That, combined with the beam quality, gives the Pixi actual cutting capability beyond simply engraving. We measured the same 0.08mm spot size that the company advertises, and that small, sharp profile makes a noticeable difference in detail work and material response. Algo did something clever with the cooling system. The diode’s fan doesn’t just cool the module. It pushes air down past the lens and through the shaped magnetic shield. That air focuses right onto the surface of your substrate. It’s not a traditional air assist, but it behaves like a pseudo-air assist, and it actually works. Cuts are cleaner. Soot stays off the lens. Combustion is more controlled. For a machine this small and inexpensive, that’s a huge advantage. The focal adjustment is on top of the laser, and once you pop the lid off, it’s right there. You don’t have to reach into a cramped enclosure to adjust it. Again - small detail, big usability improvement. Is this the most advanced diode module on the market? No. But it’s consistent. It’s accurate. And it doesn’t suffer from the sloppy beam quality you see in a lot of sub-$400 machines. It performs exactly to spec so it gets points for being responsibly advertised. Overall I'm super content with the kit here and just glad they sent over the 10W to play with. Having that power in this package has been a lot of fun.

For a tiny Class 1 machine, the Pixi performs shockingly well. We pushed the Pixi to it's limits while judging performance. 3mm plywood? No issues, clean edges. 5mm acrylic? It took multiple passes, but once we dialed in the settings, it cut all the way through, cleanly and consistently. The fact that you can get away with this on a $300 laser is freaking awesome. It's not just cutting performance either, details are sharp and bold, especially when executed with Lightburn. I loved the tones the Pixi was able to produce even when faced with limited space for raster images when working with photos. The max speed is 100mm/s, technically slow in the modern market, but for a tiny 10W diode, it’s perfectly reasonable. Detail engraving stays clean, text holds its form, and overall output looks significantly better than the hobby-class machines the Pixi is competing with. In short, this isn’t just a cute demo engraver. The Pixi is a legitimately capable micro-engraver with real cutting ability and a beam profile that punches way above its weight.

Software and usability are where the Pixi genuinely separates itself from the rest of the market. The onboard operating system, AlgoOS, isn’t a gimmick. It’s a full interface that lets you actually run the machine without a computer. There’s a project library built right in, on-screen job prep, editing tools for images, sketch-to-engrave drawing mode, a basic text editor, a job history, a full file browser with real storage management, Wi-Fi with over-the-air firmware updates, and even a self-test function. Algo Sketch is honestly a blast. You grab the stylus, draw something on the screen, press start, and the Pixi engraves your drawing in real time. With a feature like this, I'd argue it’s not about production, it’s about the experience. Kids can doodle on their belongings, clients can sign their work, and you can produce personal engravings instantly. It’s fun, and it makes the Pixi feel like a living tool instead of a dumb machine. Plus with all the hardware required for this functionality already in place, why wouldn't you just include it? It makes sense and I like it. Algo Type, on the other hand, is limited. You only get two fonts and one serif and one handwriting font. You can type multiple lines of text, but formatting one line affects all of them with no way to make targeted changes. I even tried to import a TTF font through the file transfer utility hoping the system might see it and offer some way to install it. No dice, unfortunately. Any kind of additional font control, even just a small handful of additional options, would make this feature dramatically more useful. As it stands, for very basic text, it’s fine, but anything more advanced is better done in LightBurn or a proper editor like Inkscape. There is U-Disk support, but I wasn’t able to get it working. Plugging in a USB stick crashed the system for me multiple times. I tried a few different file systems in my mission to get udisk functionality working but just kind of ended up frustrated. Hopefully that’s something they’ll address in a software update down the road because it would be nice to expand the machines storage externally while being able to leave the laptop at home. The good news is that importing artwork is straightforward. JPGs, PNGs, and BMP files work well in what they call dot-matrix mode, their name for "raster" photo images. SVGs import correctly, but the laser can only mark them in what they refer to as vector mode (line mode for the lightburn users out there. You can’t tell the machine to treat a vector as a raster fill, which is a little annoying and something I hope gets updated - especially since a lot of makers design in vector but engrave as a filled scan. Running jobs directly from Lightburn won't save that work to your job history, but there are workarounds to that. If you export an SVG from LightBurn, you can import it directly into the Pixi’s storage. I like how when using the Pixi in file transfer mode it will respect any new directories you add which makes it easy to organize your assets however you want. Just remember those exported SVGs are going to work in line mode only so if you want a raster fill you'll have to rasterize your work before sending it over. Photo engraving inside AlgoOS is fine. It’s not perfect, but the fact that this tiny enclosed machine can edit, process, and engrave photos with no computer at all is genuinely impressive. That said I think it's best to run those kinds of jobs directy via Lightburn anyway which will yield much better results.

Now let’s talk about value, because this is where the Pixi becomes a really easy recommendation. The pricing is straightforward. The 3W model comes in at $179. The 5W version is $229. And the 10W version, the one I’ve been testing, is $329. For that price, you’re getting a legitimate Class 1 machine with a touchscreen, an onboard operating system, real exhaust routing, a flip-over cutting bed, rotary support, over-the-air firmware updates, and a beam quality that actually matches the spec sheet. If they cut corners to hit this price point I can't find them. Maybe they're just charging what this machine is actually worth and not marking it up into the stratosphere. Either way, the value proposition makes sense and I'm here for it. At $300, most of the competition is flimsy hobby hardware or unsafe junk from Amazon. The Pixi is the opposite. It’s engineered, it’s consistent, and it does exactly what it claims to do. If you want to run it like a traditional engraver with LightBurn, it works great. If you want a standalone engraver with no laptop, no phone, no internet, great for that too. And if you’re buying something for a classroom, a workshop, a family space, or a small business that needs a compact engraver for small parts, this is one of the safest and most capable options in its price class. Everything missing here is minor and fixable in software. Nothing in the design feels like a corner was cut just to hit the price. That’s rare, especially today, and especially in the entry-level laser world. The Pixi delivers real value, without compromise, at a price that makes sense.