A mid-tier superautomatic that promises convenience but delivers a troubling question mark: the one owner who stuck with it for 1.5 years only got decent coffee after removing Philips' own internal water filter, the part meant to improve taste. Whether that's a design flaw, a bad filter batch, or a water-chemistry edge case is impossible to say without more voices. If you're shopping this machine, treat the sparse feedback as a yellow flag and hunt down hands-on reviews or a retailer with a generous return window before committing your counter space and $800.
Philips' flagship super-automatic makes genuinely impressive milk drinks, the LatteGo system clicks together in two parts, cleans in seconds, and froths better than most machines twice the price. The touch screen is fast, the drink menu is deep, and when it works, it works well. O-rings fail and leak steam, solenoid valves dump water into the drip tray instead of your cup, and the water tank sensor needs coaxing to register; owners who've had good runs still plan to buy De'Longhi next time. If you want the easiest milk cleanup in the category and don't mind some maintenance quirks, the 5400 delivers; if you want a machine that just runs without the fussing, the enthusiast consensus points elsewhere.