Bosch 300 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine vs Philips Series 5500 LatteGo EP5544/90

One-touch milk drinks with a ceramic grinder and a brew unit you can actually take out

Twenty drinks including six iced, from a two-part milk system that rinses in seconds

Scores higher on drinks & milk system, grinder & grind control, ease of use.

• +$399.50 against a $1,049 median, the least expensive bean-to-cup here
• +A ceramic burr grinder, which Bosch says grinds without overheating the beans
• +One-touch espresso, cappuccino and latte macchiato with an adjustable auto frother
• +A front-access removable brew unit, so the part that gets dirtiest can actually be cleaned

• −A 1.33 litre tank, small for a machine meant to run without attention
• −No pump pressure, wattage or weight is published
• −No warranty term is published

• +Twenty drinks, all named by Philips, including six iced ones and a travel mug setting.
• +LatteGo is two parts with no tubes, and Philips states both go in the dishwasher.
• +A removable brew group, which is what lets you rinse the part that does the work.
• +AquaClean, which Philips says means no descaling for up to 5000 cups.
• +Four user profiles plus a guest, so a household is not re-setting strength every morning.

• −Philips publishes no price, and its own retailer list runs from $699.00 to $1,299.95.
• −The SKU most shops sell, EP5544/94, has no page on Philips' own site at all.
• −Philips' two pages for this series disagree on voltage and country of manufacture.
• −The AquaClean claim assumes eight filter replacements, which is a running cost to price in.