De’Longhi already makes one of my favourite coffee machines, so I tried the Magnifica Evo Next to see if it can compete

If you’re reading this review of the De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Next, then you probably fall into the group of people for whom coffee is a non-negotiable morning ritual. A bean-to-cup machine is definitely the way to go if you value good coffee. There’s just no beating the flavour you’ll get from freshly ground coffee beans.

This particular bean-to-cup coffee machine is automatic, so you’re just one button away from a coffee shop style drink at home. These machines require very little input, you don’t have to go to barista school, weigh out coffee grounds, or steam your own milk for the perfect brew.

I’ve reviewed plenty of coffee machines in my two decades of writing product reviews. A couple of years ago De’Longhi stole my heart with what I believe to be one of the best all round automatic bean-to-cup machines currently on the market; the De’Longhi Rivelia. So can this model live up to it?

About this review, and the reviewer

Helen McCue

After completing a Home Economics degree, Helen went on to work for the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been reviewing home appliances ever since. She lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire in the UK, where she reviews all sorts of home and garden appliances using her wealth of experience.

Helen used this coffee machine in her own home for a week. She is a coffee fan and drinks two cups daily, favouring a flat white or a long espresso. During testing her husband was also roped in to taste and critique the coffee served up by this machine.

In a nutshell

Despite its hefty £650 price tag, in the context of De’Longhi’s other automatic bean-to-cup coffee makers, the De’Longhi Magnifica Evo Next is one of the cheapest on offer from the brand. It sits firmly at the entry level end of the price scale.

Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t make it entry-level when compared to the wider coffee machine market. On the contrary, its colour display screen and sleek touch controls are far from basic. Plus the customisable coffee length and intensity give you the scope to adjust drinks and then save your preferences into a personal profile.

There are several drink options on the menu; 10 in total, but I’d debate whether options like hot water, or hot milk should really be counted here. The main coffee choices are espresso, long black, coffee, cappucino, latte macchiato, and then variations on these options. In reality it’s quite a limited menu especially in comparison to what’s available from other De’Longhi machines such as the Rivelia.

I found it easy to set up, easy to use, and generally speaking it ticks a lot of boxes by creating decent tasting coffee from freshly ground beans, at the touch of a button. If you’re looking for a coffee machine that’ll do the work for you, it ‘ll deliver your morning brew without requiring any thought or effort, perfect for coffee fiends who don’t have the time, or headspace, to faff around with an espresso machine before rushing out the door.

De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Next specs

• Machine type: bean-to-cup
• Control type: automatic
• Water tank capacity: 1.8 litres
• Pressure: 15 bar
• Drinks: espresso, doppio+, 2 x espresso, cappuccino, cappuccino mix, latte macchiato, coffee, long black, hot milk, hot water
• Dimensions: H36cm x W24cm x D44cm
• Weight: 9.4kg
• Colours available: silver black or titanium black
• RRP: £649.99

Unboxing and setting up

Of all the kitchen appliances I review, coffee machines often require the most setup and ongoing fine tuning. This is partly the machines themselves, but the other big variable is the type and quality of coffee beans you choose, as well as tweaking it to produce coffee that’ll match your personal preferences.

When unboxing this model, I was impressed with the eco-friendly cardboard that’s used instead of polystyrene. There was a small amount of plastic wrap but it was minimal for such a delicate and expensive appliance.

There’s not any assembly required, it comes out of the box set up and ready to go, with just a small box containing additional bits and pieces, like the water filter and the milk carafe.

There are a few booklets and leaflets including a very basic quick start guide. I scanned the QR code, which didn’t lead me to an online instruction manual as I was expecting. But rather, a selection of very helpful videos covering everything from the setup, to brewing coffee, as well as maintenance.

I followed the guidance in the videos and washed all the removable parts, such as the drip tray, water container and milk carafe. Then, once everything is back in place, the colour touch screen guides you through the next few stages of setup.

It walks you through adding beans, performing a rinse cycle, and lastly, adding the water filter. There are a few steps to complete but it’s all made very straightforward by the easy-to-follow instructions on the screen.

Before you can start enjoying that first delicious coffee, you’ll need to brew a few espressos and adjust some of the settings along the way. There’s a dial inside the beans container to adjust the grind size. My first espresso came out pretty watery with no crema, so I immediately turned the dial to create a finer grind size.

My advice is to just accept that you’ll be wasting a few coffees in this setup stage. I ended up brewing about 10 espressos before I was truly happy with the results. Admittedly though, I went a bit too far on reducing the grind size and had to brew a few extra coffees while dialing it back again, so if you stick to small adjustments you might not need to waste as many espressos as I did.

There are further adjustments you can make using the touchscreen, including the strength, drink size, and temperature. I spent my first few days playing around with these. Thankfully, every time you change a setting, once the drink has been poured the screen prompts you to save the setting for next time.

Most drinks are available in small, medium, large, and extra large, so it takes a few goes to figure out which one will work for your favourite mug. Additionally, you can make it bespoke by using the ‘my’ function to set the volume of milk and coffee to your exact preferences. And with three profile options, you can have personalised settings for three different members of your household.

The coffee spout slides up and down to accommodate different cup heights, there’s space for cups up to 14cm tall. Frustratingly though, if your cup is this tall, it’s not possible to angle the milk nozzle into it, which feels like an oversight.

When it’s first switched on in the morning, the machine takes around 35-40 seconds to heat up and perform a quick rinse. And after use it’ll automatically switch off. The auto-off time is adjustable in the settings and can be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 3 hours.

Brewing coffee in the De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Next

During the machine setup, I knew I would be wasting several espressos while I fine tuned the settings, so initially I opted for a supermarket coffee bean that was slightly cheaper than my usual favoured brand. It still produced an enjoyable espresso, but the quality of the drink was noticeably elevated when I upped the coffee bean quality.

My preferred brand is a freshly roasted bean that I get delivered via a coffee subscription. When these beans were loaded in, the machine made espressos that were not only richer, but fruitier, with a thicker crema. That’s all to say, that the better the quality and the more freshly roasted the beans you choose, the better the coffee you’ll get from the machine. And while this is true for all coffee machines, it’s absolutely worth the reminder.

With five espresso sizes to choose from you’re spoilt for choice. The medium size delivered about 35-40ml which is roughly a standard single espresso. It came out at around 71C when the machine was set to the low temperature setting, or 75C when set on the high temperature setting, so not a vast difference.

While there is a large or even XL option for espresso volume, I’d suggest choosing the ‘Doppio’ instead of ‘Espresso’ from the menu if you’re a double shot fan. The Doppio uses more coffee grounds so it’s better suited to a double shot volume of coffee.

When it comes to Doppio, the volume of coffee also differs. If you select a medium size Doppio, it delivers a shot that’s about three times the volume of the medium sized espresso, at 120ml. When deciding between espresso and Doppio, it takes a little while to figure out which is right for you. That said, it’s great to have plenty of options to explore.

In terms of crema and flavour, once I’d nailed the settings and was using a good quality coffee bean, I found the espresso to be well-rounded and flavoursome. The crema was rich and thick, and the great thing about a machine like this is that it’s reliable, delivering the same results every time.

Once I was happy with the quality of espresso, I started experimenting with the drinks menu, to see which one would be my preferred choice. Usually I would order an oat milk flat white, or a simple double espresso in a coffee shop.

Since a flat white isn’t an option, I tried out the cappuccino first. The default was a medium size with an intensity setting of 3 (out of 5). This proved to be a bit small and also too weak for my liking. I settled on a large cappuccino with the intensity set to 5. This selection delivered a crowd pleasing cappuccino with plenty of flavour.

Ultimately, over the week of using the machine my preference evolved into creating my own version of the cappuccino by dispensing the stronger Doppio shot and then topping up with frothed milk. This gave me the punchier flavour that I was craving.

The latte macchiato is similar to a standard latte. It has a distinct layered appearance that you’ll only see if you drink it from a glass, and the layering disappears immediately when stirred anyway. There’s also a touch more foam than a standard latte, but in terms of flavour it’s not dissimilar.

I wasn’t clear on the difference between a ‘coffee’ and a ‘long black’ on the drinks menu, in my head they are pretty much the same. I selected the ‘coffee’ in the large size and it gave me enough black coffee to fill about ⅔ of a standard mug, so if you like a decent glug of milk in your coffee, it’ll be perfect. Though black coffee fans would probably opt for the XL version.

This ‘coffee’ menu option served up a tasty, flavourful mug of coffee that is easily drinkable, I would liken it to your everyday mug of filter style coffee. The machine was set to the medium temperature setting when I brewed this one and it came out at 74C, so I didn’t have to wait long before it was the perfect drinking temperature.

The large ‘long black’ on the other hand delivered slightly less in terms of volume, but much more of a punch of flavour. At 68C it wasn’t quite as hot, and it took an extra minute to dispense, but that’s because half way through the process, it stopped to grind more beans, hence delivering a stronger brew.

The ‘long black’ has a crema and a richer depth of flavour. The two coffee options are distinctly different and ultimately I enjoyed both for different reasons. And once again, I could see the value in having the different options to choose between.

Hot milk/milk frother

The milk frother is automated, so you really don’t need to do anything other than top it up with milk and point the wand at your cup. When filled up to the max level, the milk carafe holds more than enough milk for two large cappuccinos. And the hot frothy milk it produces is ideal for a cappuccino.

The milk dispensed is always frothy, there’s no option to adjust the foam or eliminate it entirely. If you prefer your milk hot with no foam, or you’re looking for a more silky microfoam that’s required for a flat white, you won’t be able to get it from this machine.

A slight annoyance for me was that for taller cups in particular, it’s not always possible to get the wand angled into the cup. Certainly for my insulated travel cup, I had to hold it to the milk wand as it wasn’t possible to fill it any other way.

The milk temperature didn’t really vary, regardless of whether the temperature settings on the machine were set to low, medium, or high. The cup of hot milk was usually around 62C.

If the carafe runs out of milk while it’s dispensing, it doesn’t stop. Instead, steam is dispensed out of the milk wand, which is quite noisy and noticeable. When this happened to me I was able to run over and hit the stop button. But it would have been preferable if they’d been able to incorporate a shut off feature when it runs out of milk.

Hot water

If you plan to ditch the kettle and use the hot water function on this machine instead, here’s what you need to know. At first I selected the XL option, but this dispensed around 400ml of hot water, which is too much for a standard mug.

The large size is around 300ml which is the ideal volume for a decent sized mug of tea and takes around 1 minute 20 seconds to pour. The temperature adjustment in the settings menu doesn’t appear to affect the temperature of the water dispensed. I took the temperature of the water in the mug at the end of pouring and it was around 82C regardless of the setting.

The water is technically a little cooler than recommended for black tea, but I brewed a decent cuppa with it. It’s ideal for fruit and herbal teas or green tea. However, I have one big issue with this hot water dispenser that would put me off using it.

It spits and splutters a lot during pouring. I was writing this with my laptop next to the coffee machine, but had to move it away for fear of all the water splatters heading in the direction of my keyboard. Even standing in front of the machine, I could feel the odd droplet of hot water hit my bare arms. It’s not ideal at all.

Cleaning and maintenance

The coffee machine automatically completes daily rinses every time it's switched on as well as when it shuts down. If you want to avoid the drip tray filling up too fast, it’s advisable to leave a container under the coffee spout to collect the water from these rinses.

There’s a red float in the drip tray that rises when it’s full, and the screen will notify you when the used coffee grounds container needs emptying. Emptying these two is the most frequent thing you’ll need to do when it comes to maintenance and cleaning.

If you use the milk carafe, the machine will prompt you to rinse it after use. This is simply a case of selecting the button and the coffee machine will automatically rinse out the spout, without impacting any milk that’s still in the carafe. Afterwards you can remove it and pop the carafe into the fridge until you need it next. Though you should empty the milk out and give it a thorough clean every few days.

Descaling is an automated process. You’ll be prompted by the screen when it needs to take place, and you’ll need to use the De’Longhi descaling product. You can’t wander off and leave it to descale, but you don’t need to do much other than follow the prompts on screen to empty and refill various water containers as required.

How does it compare?

I’ve made no secret of my love for the De’Longhi Rivelia and given that they’re made by the same brand, it’s a natural comparison. For me, the Rivelia wins hands down, not just when compared to the Magnifica Evo Next, but in comparison to all other automatic bean-to-cup machines I’ve ever reviewed. However its RRP of £750 means you might have to wait for a deal to bring the price closer to the £650 price tag of this machine.

If you’re happy to get a bit more hands on, I’d also highly recommend the Sage Barista Express. This espresso machine might require you to learn a few barista skills, but it opens up the possibilities in terms of the drinks you can create, as well as the degree of customisation. However, if you’re time poor in the mornings and want coffee delivered at the touch of a button, this will not be the one for you.

Should you buy the De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Next?

If you’re in the market for an automatic bean-to-cup machine the De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Next will definitely tick a lot of boxes. For me, its simplicity is a big draw. The colour screen and intuitive touch control panel make it super straightforward to use. Having an uncomplicated coffee machine is a big win on busy mornings.

The drinks are always consistent and it can create a good flavoursome espresso. Some of the drawbacks include the slightly limited drinks menu, some households would benefit from a machine with more options. Likewise for milk texturing which is limited to frothy milk. And as I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t impressed with the splashy hot water dispenser.

But taking everything into account, it does a good job delivering decent coffee without overcomplicating your morning brew.