De'Longhi Primadonna Soul, Fully Automatic Bean to Cup, Espresso an Cappuccino Coffee Maker, ECAM610.75.mb, 2.2 liters, Black and Silver

The De'Longhi Primadonna Soul is undoubtedly an investment, but its performance and features make it well worth the price. As a coffee enthusiast, I have been searching for a machine that can deliver barista-quality beverages from the comfort of my home, and this model has exceeded all my expectations.First, the design is sleek and modern, fitting seamlessly into any kitchen decor. The intuitive touch display allows for effortless navigation through various drink options, from a robust espresso to a creamy cappuccino. The “Bean Adapt Technology” is a standout feature, automatically adjusting the grind, dose, and temperature to suit the specific beans you’re using. This ensures that every cup is tailored to perfection.Moreover, the milk frothing system is exceptional, creating a velvety foam that adds a professional touch to lattes and cappuccinos. The machine is also easy to clean, with a self-cleaning function that takes the hassle out of maintenance.While the De'Longhi Primadonna Soul is on the pricier side, the quality and convenience it offers are unmatched. It transforms the daily coffee ritual into an indulgent experience, making it a worthy addition to any coffee lover's kitchen.

This machine, although not perfect, is still amazing.Found myself drinking more coffee than I used to with my Dolce Gusto, not only cause it tastes much better but also cause it's so nice to use.Takes a bit of getting used to when you're setting it up for the first time, but after that, it's a breeze.The amount of customisation is incredible. Being able to change the settings for the coffees I like, or even to create your own to your taste is truly wonderful.The milk frother works perfectly, my capuccinos are night and day when compared to my old pod machine. Also like the fact that it gets cleaned every time you use it so the milk doesn't dry on the nozzle.It is also quiter than I thought it would be which was a pleasant surprise.Did not have as many issues with the app as a lot of reviews I read. Only failed to connect once.The few things I wish were better are (1 the amount of water it uses everytime it turns on or off to clean the coffee output (2 the cup tray at the top not warming up your cups, for the price you pay I think that should be a feature (3 not having two grinders, so you need to finish the beans you have inside first, before changing to a different type (4 it does notify when you need to refill the bean compartment but only when it's completely empty. Didn't find it to be too bothersome. If you run out, coffee doesn't come out and it asks you to refill.These don't change the fact that I think this machine is amazing. It even reminds you to store the milk back in the fridge so it doesn't go bad. Not only that, it advises you to empty the beans grinds, to refill the water compartment, to decalcify and to clean the whole thing.Never thought I'd get so excited to make my morning coffee everyday this way. Absolutely recommend. Although pricey, you end up saving on the beans if you were used to buying pods.

I've owned a fair few machines over the last 10 years my last was a sage nespresso barista pro but it started to leak and eventually it stopped perferating the pods I gave up on it and decided to go bean to cup and what a difference in taste, pod coffee is a thing of the past.fully recomend this machine its near perfect, my only quarms are :1) It would of been great if De'Longhi has created an alexa skill that integrates into the app.2) it can't seat tall latte glasses even if you move the slider top the top.Easy to setup, clean, looks great and most importantly makes fantastic coffee.

Had many Delonghi machines and this by far is the best. Coffee much hotter and froth amazing. The app is pretty cruddy and not great to use. That aside, worth buying this machine, albeit expensive.

EDIT - I happened to be browsing around the support pages for this machine and was surprised that I was told that a software update was necessary for my machine and this would be free of charge.When I contacted the relevant department I got this reply -*****"I am sorry to hear the issue with your coffee machineWe would like to arrange for your machine to be inspected by one of our engineers. To arrange this, please could you provide the following information:Long serial number from behind the water tankProof of purchaseYour full name and contact numberPlease confirm full address for collectionA convenient weekday to collect the machine. The earliest we can book collection would be in 3 working days. If you would like to arrange collection sooner, please contact us via telephone call or our live chat.Please note: the unit will need to be well packaged.Once received, we will then be able to validate the manufacturer’s warranty and book your repair."*****Well first of all I don't have an issue with the machine - they do for sending it out faulty! Also they already had my full details including proof of purchase when I registered it a soon as I got it.Depending on how Delonghi use serial number formats it looks as though there is at least several hundred, maybe thousands, of machines affected! I asked specifically what part of the system, functionality, reliability, performance or safety was affected by the erroneous software and got this reply-****"The machine is being called in for service and repair because there is a software error that has been detected by our Quality Control team. This software error could temporarily stop the operation of your machine and needs to be rectified by an engineer to prevent this happening in the future. "****So a brand new machine that I have used for about 10 days needs repacking and sending back for repair, I don't think so. Apart from any other consideration I am partly disabled and had to get help to unpack it and get it into the kitchen the first time. Funnily enough the Amazon courier actually knocked on the door, when it was originally delivered, and asked if I could come out to the van and carry it in myself as it was too heavy for her!So, please check your serial numbers - the first 6 digits on the second line of the little label behind the water tank and if they are between 220915 and 221020 OR between 230420 and 240201 then your machine needs an update/repair the same as mine.Just to add insult the reply from Delonghi when I told them I would likely return the machine for a refund was -****"If you do not wish to go ahead with this, then of course, you can return to Amazon for a refund or a replacement. If you do receive a replacement with the serial number within these dates the same process will apply. "****So they know any replacement is very likely to be faulty as well - nice!My original thoughts -I have had various Delonghi, Gaggia, Sage and semi-pro E61 coffee machines over the years and recently have been using a Siemens Q9 Plus Connect S700 which is very good but an absolute pig to clean properly and the minimum grind size is rather coarse so when I noticed this Prima Donna Soul and some of its glowing reviews I thought I would give it a try!Observations so far:Apart from all the marketing hype about Bean Adapt system it is in fact very basic - it merely asks you if your beans are Arabica, Robusta or mixed and what colour roast they are - it then sets the grind size and dose ("Aroma") to a suitable starting point for that coffee BUT you will almost always need to adjust this manually subsequently to suit your particular beans especially if you are using freshly roasted speciality quality coffee. This can be very time consuming and wasteful as the manual says it can take 5 coffees for the grinder to adjust to the new setting? Really? As there are only 7 settings and the software only allows you to select one "notch" at a time it would seem the electronic adjustment actually moves slower than a tectonic plate!The android app is a bit quirky and sometimes refuses to connect or actually synchronise your in app adjustments to the machine for a particular recipe. It is just about usable especially as the big advantage is it allows you to program the quantities of water and coffee output in ml. whereas on the machines touch screen you have to move the sliders along a linear scale with a few markers dotted next to it BUT NO actual relevant quantities shown so it is total guess work!I note the grind setting and temperature setting are global and do not change even if you switch profiles which is very disappointing.The bean hopper is huge, half a kilo capacity, which seems excessive as having all of those fresh beans sitting on top of a warm coffee machine for a week or three is not a sensible idea as they are not going to be nearly as fresh when you get half way down! To be fair the bean hopper does not seem to get too warm which is just as well. In any case, as this is a premium machine I would have expected it to have twin hoppers and grinders which would have made the profiles useful to set for different beans. As it is they seem a bit useless, merely a value added marketing feature.People often complain about the water used when the machine switches on or off whereas I think it is an essential function to keep the internals clean of coffee residue and any stale taste. However, inexplicably, Delonghi machines always seem to provide a very minimal turn off flush, which demonstrably does not actually remove all of the soluble residue from your recent brews whilst the internal plumbing is still hot BUT give a very long turn on flush when the internals are cold and harder to actually clean? Seems illogical to me.Talking of cleaning - the brew unit (infuser), waste box and drip tray are all very easy to clean and take only a few moments and if, like me, you use the turn on flush to warm your cup and then also keep a stainless steel mug under the spouts when turning the machine off you get virtually no water deposited in the drip tray anyway.Still on cleaning, I am always amazed how much coffee oil residue is removed when using a cleaning cycle combined with PulyCaf detergent or similar on other brands. Delonghi say their machines do not require this. They do, believe me and is actually enablled on some of their models. Unfortunately you cannot cheat the system by adding cleaner as pre-ground coffee and choosing an extra long brew because of the way the infuser tamping system works it knows you have not added coffee and aborts the process. I have formulated an easy work around for this which I am actually testing at the moment.Several of my previous machines, including much less expensive Delonghi's, have had very useful cup lighting - this premium Delonghi does not.So, does it make good coffee? Well, yes and no! With perseverance, some experimenting and a suitable coffee bean it will produce a brew pretty close to a proper espresso for body, mouth-feel, intensity and sweetness. Does it retrieve the flavour nuances from a premium medium roast single origin arabica - definitely not even close. The main problem being, that apart from all the marketing hype, you only have 4 different brew temperatures (actual temp NOT specified just arbitrary "low, medium, hot and max" ) and 5 different doses (Aroma!) to choose from along with an adjustable output in your cup. Once you have decided on the best grind setting for your coffee it is not actually convenient to adjust this on the fly unless you want to waste 4 or 5 brews whilst it fully transitions only to find that it does not give the result you wanted so another 4 or 5 cups to get back to where you were!Some of the multitude of built in recipes are ridiculous as they just result in a weak and watery output or an over extracted nasty taste. Even the Double espresso is a con as it brews it all in one extraction - grinds double the amount of coffee into the infuser then pushes double the amount of water though it into your cup - NOT anywhere near the taste you expect from 2 separate shots of espresso so why bother to include it - just brew one, then when it has done, press the button again for a PROPER double espresso! The only other recipes I have found that produce good results so far are the "long black" which is a measure of hot water topped off with an espresso shot and surprisingly the Doppio+ which grinds a huge amount of coffee into the infuser and obviously then takes quite a long time to push the water through but gave interesting results. I have not tried any milk based recipes yet as we generally only drink black coffee although I do have a carton of Barista Oat milk ready to experiment on our guests as and when!The build quality seems good although it is quite noisy - especially the grinder when the beans start to get a bit low. It does look a bit "industrial" rather than "modern domestic kitchen" to me but it's acceptable. It is extremely easy and convenient to fill the water tank - just slide it halfway out and pour the water into the inbuilt mini funnel in the lid of the tank.By comparison to my Siemens Q9 S700 machine (which is mothballed at the moment) I note the following differences:The Q9 has 2 bean hoppers and grinders and are individually selectable and memorised for each profile AND individual recipe!The temperature, dose and "intensity" ( pressure/flow?) are programmable per individual recipe/profile! The temperature is adjustable from 88° to 96°C, the output is specified in ml. and there are a multitude of available doses including 3 for a proper double shot!Main complaint is the grind size is not really fine enough, it is a chore to actually clean the internals and drip tray and the hot water function is very hit and miss and not available if the milk carafe is plugged in?It certainly has more of a design flair than the Prima Donna Soul.It includes a 6 minute cleaning function using suitable tablets.I am still making my mind up but the Prima Donna may me going back under their 100 day return offer yet - will have to pay for insured carriage but never mind.The Prima Donna to me is not a premium machine but a mid-range one that has been boosted up with useless functions and features whilst forgetting the basic adjustability of several parameters to qualify as "premium" As I think I mentioned - value added marketing feature hype!To be fair the Q9 has a higher rrp than the Delonghi but at the end of the day it's the amount you actually pay that counts.The Delonghi Prima Donna Soul is most definitely overpriced even at the temptingly lower offer prices that abound at the moment.