Breville Bambino vs Lelit Anna

It'll be a pain in the butt if you don't like the ritual of it. If you don't want manual, it's probably around $600 for true quality espresso with a Breville Bambino and Eureka Notte or Sette 270. That will give you good shots and also has the milk frother if you ever want it. A good chunk of change though

Grind quality for espresso seemed to be as good as the Niche but it's far cheaper...? The extra price is for switching back and forth between brews easily and zero retention and single dosing?

But having already returned one machine (the pathetic De Longhi Dedica) I simply was too demoralized by the experience, and, so far, my friend and I have simply tried to adapt to the inferior Bambino. Perhaps we'll change our minds, but I honestly suspect that the problem with the Bambino, as probably with the De Longhi Dedica, is that smaller machines simply DO NOT WORK due to a basic design problem: they end up being structurally incapable of generating the kind of steam pressure required. At least, this is what I suspect. Perhaps far more expensive, smaller machines don't have this problem

I'm pairing it with an Eureka Silenzio, so for less than €800 I have a pretty decent setup. The only thing that keeps bugging me is the design of the tray. For a few more cents worth of plastic it could hide the bottom metal sheet at least a little bit.

But if you like a great coffee in less than a minute then this device is for you. What ever you choose, make sure it has the heat sink technology this device has. You need a contestant temperature in 3sec , don’t get an older model that you have to wait 15 mins for the machine to heat up.

I'd rather get a Lelit Anna PL41TEM (the one with a PID temperature control) for about 420 euro and spend the remainder on a grinder. Temperature surfing (that is, flushing too-hot water from an imprecisely controlled boiler to get the temperature right before brewing) is frustrating to learn, and considering you'd need to learn everything else (grind size, tamping, dosing, and so on) it's nice to have at least one constant.

You can definitely find a less expensive unit, but you'll be compromising in key performance and construction areas, something I just wasn't willing to do. So, if you're looking for an aesthetically attractive, small-footprint, well-constructed machine that is simple to use and creates exceptional Espresso and Cappuccino, you will be truly pleased with this unit.

Looks good but I wouldn't call the build quality great. I guess it is expected for this price range. Overall I'm happy with the purchase.