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.
The Gaggia Anima is a super-automatic espresso machine we can't responsibly recommend or warn against because we found zero owner discussion of it. Every mention in our community sources turned out to be about the Gaggia Classic Pro, a completely different machine. Without real-world data on reliability, repair costs, or daily performance, you're flying blind. If you're serious about this model, find a retailer with a strong return policy or seek out forums where Anima owners actually gather.