De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart review - Super Smart and Easy to Use
If you are wondering how De’Longhi has managed to serve up a Smart bean-to-cup machine for less than 500 dollars, then wonder no longer – the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart is not smart in the modern Wi-Fi contented sense at all!
What this is, however, is a smart purchase. Once you have added fresh and neat coffee beans and got the settings just so, this is a machine that produces a fine – if not magnificent – coffee with minimal fuss.
What do you need to know about De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart?
The De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart is a standard bean-to-cup coffee maker. Pop espresso beans in the hopper up top, fill the tank with water & it’ll deliver espresso or longer back coffees at the touch of a button.
Milk frothing is a manual affair but the steam wand is made for beginners. There is no expertise required here at all, and even a complete novice can make a serviceable latte of cappuccino with little effort.
If you do not want to take some time to master a manual machine, the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart is one of the finest automatic choices under the 5 hundred-dollar mark.
Grab yourself a bargain and see our Delonghi Factory Seconds
Price and major competitors
If you want to invest in a fantastic bean-to-cup machine, then our go-to option is the Delonghi Dinamica, which is an automatic coffee machine. Retailing at around 1499 dollars, we are selling these as factory seconds for $675 it is the cheapest bean-to-cup machine we recommend.
The coffee quality out of these machines is just perfect, even if the design is now a little dated, the quality is top notch
Upgrade to the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart, though, and you get a far solid and more handsome option. The strength dial is a very good touch – it makes it simple for anybody in the household to adjust coffee strength without needing to digest the manual beforehand.
If, however, you want a machine that can serve up a milk-based coffee, latte, or cappuccino at the touch of the button, then you will need to spend nearer 7 hundred dollars.
If that's what you are after, then you’d consider Melitta Barista TS Smart. It delivers supremely smart features thanks to the connect app and serves up hassle-free-milk based coffees on demand.
Design and Important features
Compared to some major models we have seen at the price, the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart is a cut above the average. It is moderately stylish and does not take up too much space on the kitchen counter, compared to a few models we have discussed at a price; this is a cut above the average.
It is moderately stylish, does not take up too much space on the kitchen counter and the build quality seals the deal – the drip tray, water tank, and the grounds bin all slot home with a reassuringly solid feel.
The controls are simple and nice too. There’re buttons for espresso, coffee, and long coffee and you can adjust the strength of each with the rotary dial in the centre. Crank it to eleven for a stronger morning brew, or dial it down for an afternoon cup – it is up to you.
Once you have decided, a prod of a button efficiently brews, grinds, and delivers coffee to your cup. The manual milk frothing adds a bit more effort but the flip side is there is no carafe or milk delivery system to faff around with and clean.
The bean hopper out back holds 250 grams of beans – just enough to hold a full of bags from most roasters – and you can always resort to ground coffee by pouring one scoop of coffee into the one serving chute.
The 1.8ltr water tank is big enough for a fine few coffees, too, and comes with a water filter in the box. For the money, these machines have all most people need.
Performance
Straight from the box, Delonghi coffee machines and in particular, to this review the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart did not impress. I added some fine quality medium roast beans, the signature blend from Black cat coffee, but the 1st few espressos were watery, bitter, and more like small cups of unpleasant filter coffee.
I slowly increased the strength dial turn by turn and pulled some more espresso just to give the machine a bit time to settle in, but that did not remedy matters completely – I also had to adjust the grind size some steps finer.
Thankfully, it is simple to adjust grind size on this machine, whereas a few rivals need a fiddly tool; the De’Longhi permits you to simply turn the dial with your fingers.
The only proviso is that it can only be adjusted when the grinder is running, and the manual advises users to set it 1 step at a time, offering the settings time to wear in.
When it’s done, the outcomes were much improved. The espresso will still be too watery and thin, however, so I used the option to manually adjust how much water the machine uses for every espresso. Reducing it a bit helped matters immeasurably and the outcome was a tasty espresso with a pleasant texture and flavour.
It is vital to adjust the grind size and tweak the strength dial to suit different coffee beans, but it is simply done once you get the hang of it and, in my case, it is something you would need to do on any coffee machine to obtain the finest outcomes.
If you are after a longer coffee, though, you might not always find that the coffee and long coffee presets are to your taste. Where pricier machines pour espresso and then add hot water to create a longer coffee, De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart simply passed more water through the ground coffee.
The upshot is that it tends to flavour bitter. For the finest outcomes, pouring a single or durable espresso separately, then placing the cup under the steam wand and manually using the warm setting to top it up produces better outcomes.
Taking of which, the steam wand is far cry from those found on better manual coffee machines. Instead, it is made to be as foolproof as possible. Slide the collar on the wand to Cappuccino and all you need to do is pop it into a jug of cold milk and turn it on – the outcome is warm, frothy milk.
You do not get the deliciously silky micro-foam that you can coax out with a right manual wand – or automatic milk frothing options on Sage’s manual espressos for that matter – but it is good.
If you want warm milk without the froth, you just slide the collar to the warm milk position, turn on the steam and wait. The outcomes mightn’t be top drawer, but it is consistent and simple to use.
Wrapping up
For the price tag of under 6 hundred dollars, this is as perfect as a bean-to-cup machines get, you would have to almost double your budget to get significantly better outcomes.
Take a little time to get used to the settings, and the De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart rewards with consistently tasty coffee with the bare minimum of fuss.
Factor in the handy strength dial, smart looks, and top-quality builds, and De’Longhi Magnifica S Smart is the winner.
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