Breville built a $2,000 machine to automate the fiddly parts of espresso, then shipped an auto-tamper that spins the puck and distributes unevenly, forcing you to manually stir and re-tamp anyway. The grinder insists on 22g doses when most recipes want 18g, the oversized bean hopper lets coffee go stale and jam the tamping mechanism, and software bugs trigger random reboots mid-shot. The espresso itself is excellent when you fight past all that, and the dual boiler with instant ThermoJet heat is genuinely impressive, but you're paying flagship money for automation that still demands manual fixes at every step. If you enjoy troubleshooting expensive gear, you'll get great coffee eventually; if you wanted one-button simplicity, the older Oracle Touch or a separate grinder will save you both money and frustration.
A $5,000 bean-to-cup machine that makes genuinely excellent espresso but ships with smart features so poorly executed they're best ignored entirely. The coffee itself justifies serious consideration: rich extraction, dual bean hoppers, quality microfoam, and the kind of drink customization that separates premium machines from pretenders. The connectivity, though, is a flop that barely functions and adds nothing to daily use. Buy this if you want automated café-quality drinks and can treat the app as nonexistent. Walk if you're paying five grand expecting seamless smart control.