The Maker’s Toolbox: 2025 LaserPecker LP5 Portable Laser Cutter/Engraver Review

Major updates marked in bold below

For years now, I’ve been getting ads across social media for LaserPecker machines and they’ve always intrigued me. So, when the LaserPecker team reached out and asked if I’d like to test their top-of-the-line LP5 machine, I jumped at the chance. But this portable laser cutter/engraver ended up testing my patience. Read on to find out why...

The unique LaserPecker design

The main “LP” line of LaserPecker machines stand out for two big reasons. The first is that they’re portable, handheld machines. So, they’re much easier to bring to places like craft fairs and, in theory, you can use them to engrave on vertical surfaces or big things — even walls.

The second reason is that they use mirror galvanometers. The vast majority of consumer and prosumer laser machines on the market use gantries. Those move either the entire laser module (usually in the case of diode lasers) or a system of fixed-angle mirrors on a gantry. Mirror galvanometer lasers, on the other hand, have a stationary laser module and tilt/pivot mirrors to direct the beam across the work piece.

Mirror galvanometer lasers have the advantage of being incredibly fast. Their mirrors only need to tilt a very small amount (which is quick) to move the beam across great distances.

It isn’t uncommon for a mirror galvanometer laser machine to be capable of moving the laser across a surface 20 to 40 times faster than even a quick gantry laser machine. I’ll come back to the practical applications of that later in this review.

The LP5 and its predecessors

As you probably guessed from the model name, the LP5 is the fifth release in the “LP” line. But if you head over to the LaserPecker website, you’ll see that they still sell the LP1 Pro, LP2, LP3, and LP4 alongside the LP5. Why is that and what are the differences?

There are many, but here is a basic overview:

LP1 Pro: very small, not handheld, very inexpensive, 500mW blue-violet (405nm) diode laser

LP2: smallish, handheld, affordable, 5W blue (450nm) diode laser

LP3: smallish, handheld, a bit pricey, 1W (average) infrared (1064nm) laser

LP4: a bit bigger, handheld, pricey, 10W blue (450nm) diode laser and 2W infrared (1064nm) laser

LP5: a bit bigger, handheld, very pricey, 20W blue (450nm) diode laser and 20W fiber (1064nm) laser

It is worth noting that laser power specifications can get a little weird and that is particularly true when comparing different kinds of lasers. A 40W CO2 laser, for example, is going to perform very differently than a 40W diode laser.

In the case of the LP5, they’ve attempted to give users the best of both worlds: a blue diode laser and an infrared fiber laser. Some materials are better suited to one than the other — though transparent materials, which CO2 lasers tend to handle better, still don’t work well with either blue or infrared.

Accessories galore

One of the cool things about LaserPecker in general and the LP5 specifically is the accessory system. The main laser unit is small and “handheld,” but the accessories make it more versatile.

The Slide Extension lengthens the effective X axis, so you can engrave much longer things. The Rotary Extension lets you engrave on cylindrical things, like mugs.

There is also an Air Purifier, a PowerPack Plus battery unit, a Batch Engraving Button, and an LP5 Safety Enclosure. For my review, LaserPecker provided me with the Slide Extension, Rotary Extension, and Air Purifier.

What about the LP5 Safety Enclosure? Well…

Safety and the “Dog Cone”

I normally have a policy against reviewing laser machines that don’t have enclosures. I enacted that policy after seeing (and reviewing) too many hobbyists machines without enclosures, which I believe is dangerous. There is too much potential for beam reflection, which can blind people (or pets) or start fires.

Therefore, I was a little torn when it came to the LaserPecker LP5. It’s distinctive “dog cone” protective shield isn’t really an enclosure. But the LP5 is also a portable unit and so a true enclosure isn’t even possible in several of the common use scenarios.

I asked about the LP5 Safety Enclosure, but apparently that isn’t available in the US. It exists to meet EU regulations — I guess European regulators have a similar philosophy to mine.

5/18/25 Update: The LP5 Safety Enclosure is available in the US and LaserPecker sent me one. See my update at the bottom of this article for my thoughts on this.

Because the LP5 Safety Enclosure wasn’t an option, I decided to proceed with testing using just the dog cone and I’ll make my feelings about that known shortly.

Side note: at one point the software warned me that I didn't have the Safety Enclosure connected correctly, even though I had never connected it (because I didn't receive one).

First impressions

I had high hopes when the LaserPecker LP5 arrived at my door and I was pleased with the packaging. It looked nice — packed more like a tech gadget than a tool and with lots of foam protection.

That impression only grew when I unboxed everything. The LP5 itself and all of the accessories looked fantastic. They feel very well-made and have an attractive design. Everything is solid metal with some kind of lightly textured navy-gray coating that feels great to the touch. Every component has a high-end and almost elegant quality that screams “this is expensive.”

But sadly, it didn’t take long for my impression to begin turning.

That started when I noticed that the LP5 doesn’t have a power button. There is an emergency stop and a couple of control buttons, but not an actual power button. To turn off the power, you literally have to unplug the power cable.

5/6/25 Update: LaserPecker has informed me that holding down the "pause" button acts as a soft power button.

That struck me as simply odd. It is a very strange design decision and I can’t think of any reason for it. Unfortunately, my impression of the LP5 only degraded further from there when I dove into the software.

The software

When working with the LaserPecker LP5, you can use either the LaserPecker Design Space (LDS) desktop software (available for Windows and macOS) or the LDS smartphone app (Android and iOS).

But to state that more accurately: you have to use the LDS desktop software and the LDS smartphone app. By that, I mean that to anything useful, you have to switch back and forth between them — something I found to be deeply irritating.

To illustrate what I mean, let me give you an example.

LaserPecker advertises a thumb drive feature that, in theory, would be very handy. You can put design files on a USB thumb drive and stick that in the LP5. Then, when you’re ready to go (at a craft fair, for example), you can use the app to load and start one of those files.

Sounds great, right? And you might think it works something like this: you use the LDS desktop software to create a design, then put the thumb drive in your PC’s USB port and save the files. Then you take that USB drive to the LP5 and use the app to run the file.

That would be sensible. But it isn’t how the process actually works.

Why? Because the LDS desktop software won’t let you create and save a new design unless you have the LP5 connected to the PC with a USB cable.

Here’s what you actually have to do: connect the LP5 to your PC. Plug the thumb drive into your PC. Create your design in LDS and save it to the thumb drive. Put the thumb drive back into the LP5. Go somewhere, then use the LDS app to load and run the file.

5/6/25 Update: When doing this, you can connect the LP5 to the PC via WiFi—a USB connection isn't necessary.

In my opinion, that eliminates half the appeal of the thumb drive function. I would have liked to leave the LP5 in my garage, taking the thumb drive inside into my office to load new files from my PC whenever I need to. But that isn’t possible, because the LP5 has to be connected to the PC to create the files! Why? I have no idea — I can’t think of any reason why that would be necessary.

It is bad enough when the LP5 is in a room nearby. But what about if you want to create a file to use with LP5 at your friend’s house? Or send a new file to a colleague to run on an LP5 at work?

Both the LDS desktop software and app are full of these absolutely bizarre quirks. You can figure out how to work around most of them, but they’re annoying and I don’t understand why they didn’t do better. It would be one thing if LaserPecker were brand new, but the company has been around for several years and they should have this sorted out by now.

It wasn’t at all surprising that the LDS app only has 2.5 stars on the Google Play Store and 1.7 stars on the Apple App Store. People hate the app and the desktop software isn’t any better.

You can use other software, like LightBurn, but I didn’t try it. The setup process is pretty convoluted and you seem to lose a lot of functionality.

The LP5

My experience was so soured by the awful software that I wasn’t sure how I could even evaluate the hardware on its own merits. So, I simply started running jobs.

Here’s the good stuff:

The lasers are really fast, thanks to the mirror galvanometer operation. If you’re doing a light engraving on an easy material (like cardboard), you can blaze through at incredible speed and finish a job in just a few seconds.

The ability to switch between lasers is also nice. Between the two, you can handle a huge range of materials. Being able to stainless steel and also wood with a handheld laser machine is very cool.

The preview functionality is super neat. Because the lasers can move so fast, they can create a persistence of vision effect (like at a laser show) to give you a preview outline of your design. If that is vector art, it can even show the actual shape of your design. And you can move the design on the virtual canvas in the app and the preview will move on the workpiece to match. Really awesome!

You can also remove the window of the dog cone to access the work, which is pretty handy.

Here’s the bad stuff:

Apparently, the laser can reflect off of some materials and melt the dog cone. Yes, that happened to me (in two places). And it happened with material that LaserPecker supplied for testing. I thought that was a very thin sheet of stainless steel with a black coating, but I think it must have actually been aluminum.

It is really easy to accidentally leave the lens cap in place, thus burning a hole in it. Ask me how I know...

Adjusting focus is a huge pain. It is set to be exactly the same distance away as the edge of the dog cone. Need it closer or further? You have to grab an Allen key and start cranking.

My LP5 kept stopping me and saying that the dog cone window was removed — even when it was securely in place. That was annoying, so I ended up disabling that check, thus making it unsafe.

It is way too bulky and heavy to hold up to something vertical if you’re want to take advantage of the handheld functionality. And if you aren’t steady, you’re going to ruin the job. Unless the job only takes a few seconds (which only applies to a few very specific scenarios) you aren’t going to be holding it. You’re only going to use it on horizontal surfaces.

I remember seeing videos of people using these for rust removal and decided to try that. Not happening... I would have had to hold it there for several (many dozens) of hours just to "clean" this relatively small drill press table. I gave up very quickly.

The LP5 occasionally lost its connection to the LDS app, both through Bluetooth and WiFi.

Now let’s quickly run through the accessories.

Electric Stand

This is the “main” accessory for the LP5. I’m not sure we should even call it an accessory, because it is so integral to core functions.

Its job is to hold up the LP5, since you aren’t actually going to want to hold it yourself. It raises and lowers the LP5, and can tilt it when working on material at an angle.

The motor movement is very smooth. And the base has a bunch of threaded holes for attaching jigs and fixtures. Those things are good, but the rest of the functionality is bad.

For instance, there isn’t any sensor to detect when the cone hits the workpiece. So, it will just keep moving and pushing into the material until you yell “oh crap!” and stop it.

And the tilt mechanism only let’s you move in increments of about 15 degrees, meaning it comes down to luck whether or not you’ll be able to match the angle of the workpiece.

Even the LP5 attachment point is bad. There is a thumbscrew to secure the LP5 to the stand, but it was surprisingly difficult to get it started and hard to rotate.

Air purifier

This is fine. Looks just as nice and feels just as nice as everything else. The hose attachments are actual purpose-built plastic ring clips, rather than the standard spring clamps you find on every other air purifier.

And it is compact, which suits the overall LaserPecker design philosophy. It even has an air outlet, if you want to blow the exhaust air out of a window or something.

No complaints about the air purifier!

Slide extension

This lengthens the X axis of the working area to 300mm, which is a great option to have on a machine this small. It works by moving the material beneath the dog cone, so the laser can reach more of the material.

The software recognizes it properly and there is a nice feature where it “scrolls” with the preview, showing you the area the design will cover.

It moves smoothly and quietly. My only real complaint is that there isn’t a way to lock the Slide Extension onto the Electric Stand, which means the two won’t be square to each other unless you take the time to use a speed square or something. In a similar vein, you’d have to break out the tape measure to center it beneath the laser. Together, those two factors can easily result in crooked and off-center engravings.

Rotary extension

I hate it so much, y’all.

Laser machine rotary extensions have been done a million times. It really shouldn’t be hard to make something functional. But this isn’t.

The most glaring example is the tail support. Even at its lowest position, it is too high for anything with a diameter great than like an inch. So, how do you compensate? You tilt the chuck base. Which then forces you to tilt the LP5 on the Electric Stand, which you can only do in ~15-degree increments and so matching the angle of your material is a huge challenge.

This was another thing that baffled me. It would have been so easy for them to have the chuck sit higher or for the tail support to move lower (ideally both). Instead, it is such that you’d have to tilt almost anything you’d want to engrave on the Rotary Extension.

On top of that, there were other annoyances, like the chuck jaws being somewhat flexible — making it impossible to grip anything with acceptable force.

Oh, and it doesn’t actually fit under the dog cone, even when the LP5 is raised all the way up on the Electric Stand. That also forces you to tilt at an angle just to reach your material.

Here’s a fun challenge: go to LaserPecker’s website and see if you can find an image of the LP5 being used with the rotary extension, with dog cone on. I could only find one:

And yep, it was edited to make it look like that water bottle fits, when it really doesn’t.

It is almost like they expect you to use it without the dog cone. Which leads me to my final point…

Safety

Remember when I said that I usually have a policy against reviewing laser machines without enclosures? I should have stuck to that.

Enclosures are important because the laser beam can reflect off of the workpiece (or whatever is underneath) and go in an unpredictable direction. That’s particularly true when the material is curved, like the water bottles you might want to use with the rotary extension.

LaserPecker even shows the LP5 and rotary extension being used without the dog cone on the product page. That’s just insane to me, because the reflected beam could go anywhere.

Even in my testing, in which I always kept the dog cone on, I was pretty nervous using the rotary extension. Because I had to tilt the LP5 and material, there was a lot of room on the sides for the laser to reflect and go outside the protection of the dog cone.

I saw how the reflected laser melted the dog cone before and I really didn’t want that to happen to my face. Or the ceiling of my garage.

For those safety reasons alone, I think it would be irresponsible of me to recommend the LP5.

Conclusions

I was really excited to start testing the LaserPecker LP5, but I’m so glad I’m done now.

This isn’t something I’m happy to say, but I think this is genuinely one of the most disappointing products I’ve ever reviewed. From the laughably bad software to the plethora of poor design choices, I’m genuinely surprised LaserPecker has made it to their fifth model and still failed to resolve so many fundamental issues.

Add to that my opinion that it is legitimately dangerous in some situations and I’m not just going to avoid recommending a purchase. I’m going to go so far as to recommend that you don’t buy LP5.

The use cases for the LP5’s form factor are pretty limited. But if it were cheap, many of the machine’s faults could be overlooked.

However, the LP5 Ultimate Bundle that I received currently costs $3,799 and that is way too much money to spend on something so frustrating to use.

Unless you have a pressing need for this form factor, I would recommend a more traditional enclosed desktop laser machine. It will cost significantly less, will be far more capable, and won’t put you in danger.

Safety Enclosure Update

This is a big update!

The LP5 Safety Enclosure is available in the US. After reading my review, LaserPecker sent me one to test out.

In my opinion, it makes a major difference. It solves most of the safety concerns I had and makes the LP5 much more pleasant to use.

Of course, it does make the LP5 effectively a desktop machine (rather than a portable unit) and that may defeat the purpose for some people. But you can still use the LP5 in the normal handheld/portable manner.

Unlike all of the other LaserPecker accessories, the Safety Enclosure is mostly plastic. But the aesthetics match and it doesn't feel cheap by any means.

The LP5 Safety Enclosure provides a few key benefits:

• Safety, of course. It is a full enclosure and that addresses my biggest complaints in my original review.
• Autofocus. The platform inside the enclosure is motorized and moves up and down. Just set your material thickness in the software and it will move to the correct height for proper laser focus.
• Camera preview. This is always a handy feature, as it lets you line up your designs visually on the material.

Setup was a bit of a pain—once again, the software proved to be a real annoyance. But after getting through that and doing the camera calibration process, I was off to the races.

Using the Safety Enclosure really improved my opinion of the LP5. The camera preview is pretty darn accurate after calibration and there is a port to connect the air purifier unit.

Because I wasn't worrying about safety anymore, I was able to appreciate the LP5's strengths. In particular, how speedy it is. The galvanometer can blaze through engravings really quickly—small designs on basswood take just a few seconds.

And you can use the Rotary Extension with the LP5 Safety Enclosure, which takes care of most of my concerns about that.

The software is still bad, but the Safety Enclosure makes me much less hesitant to recommend the LaserPecker LP5. If you want a speedy galvo laser, the LP5 might actually fit the bill if you purchase it with the Safety Enclosure and Air Purifier.