I just tried out Ninja's new filter coffee machine – but I think the best thing about it by far is the pod coffee function

The Ninja Prestige Dualbrew System is a rare combination of a filter coffee machine and an espresso capsule machine.

I used this coffee machine for a week to see if it lives up to the hype. After testing every function, I think this is a great option for busy families, though it might not work if you need a good cappuccino.

In a nutshell

American brands have tried to introduce filter coffee to the British market for years, and they've almost always failed. Filter coffee tends to taste a little weak against the British appetite for espressos, lattes and cappuccinos. On top of that, many achieve a similar result to filter coffee by just using cheaper instant coffee.

So I was skeptical when I received this product to test. I've tried lots of different filter coffee machines over the years and they've never quite hit the spot; the coffee usually just tastes like a weak Americano, like someone's just described a cup of coffee to a glass of water.

But this machine has changed my mind. It makes nearly the best filter coffee I've tried and it makes a lot of it, so it's great for busy homes with several work-from-homers who need plenty of strong coffee.

On top of that, the espresso capsule function blows similar machines like the best Nespresso machines and Tassimo machines out of the water. It makes genuinely good ristretto and espresso.

However, while it has a milk frother, the lack of a true steam wand means it might not be a great option if you like lattes, cappuccinos, or flat whites.

Ninja Prestige Dualbrew product specs

• Water capacity: 1.6 litre
• Hotplate: Yes
• Weight: 6.18kg
• Size: (H) 41.1 x (W) 27.4 x (D)32.6cm

Unboxing and first impressions

This machine is very easy to set up. Like most Ninja products, it arrives without plastic packaging. Everything is packaged in paper and cardboard. It's mostly assembled, so it's almost ready to go out of the box.

It comes with a quick start booklet and a QR code that takes you to an instruction video, both of which are easy to follow. It's simple to set the clock and prime the machine by flushing water through the filter and espresso functions without coffee grounds.

The only real hassle is washing the accessories before you prime the machine, which is a simple if time-consuming task. Apart from that, however, it's easy to set up this machine; I had it ready to go in half an hour.

It comes with a filter jug and a very handy measuring scoop, as well as ten filter papers. These are a welcome addition, but unlike some other coffee pod machines it does not include any coffee pods or ground coffee.

It also comes with a milk frother, which is not included on most filter coffee machines, but it's a little frustrating that this isn't a true milk steamer. As a first impression, I thought I could make some pretty good milk coffees but they wouldn't be as good as if I had made them with proper steam wand.

However, a slight issue is that the frother sits on an arm which swings out to the left. It's not exactly difficult, but it's a little clumsy to use right handed, and depending on the layout of your kitchen, a little inconvenient. If you don't have room on the left hand side of the appliance – my sample backed awkwardly against my fridge – it can feel cramped to use.

It's also very large. I had to move around some appliances to make space for it, and it's a very deep machine. It takes up more than half the depth of my kitchen counters, so in the evenings I found it was tricky to prep food for dinner on the same countertop.

On top of that, a quirk of the American design also means it's slightly too big for a British kitchen. The average distance between a kitchen counter and the cupboards above is 18 inches in an American kitchen. In British kitchens, however, this is 15 inches. Even in my kitchen, which has 20 inches of clearance, there wasn't enough room to flip up the top of the filter basket, so when I wanted a filter coffee, I had to slide out the whole machine.

There are three filter coffee settings; classic, rich, and over ice. The classic filter coffee is a straightforward filter coffee, the rich setting uses a stronger ratio of coffee to water, and the over ice setting pulls lukewarm water through the coffee rather than hot water, so you can make an iced coffee without one of the best iced coffee makers.

The espresso side has four settings; ristretto, espresso, lungo, and over ice. For the uninitiated, ristretto is a smaller, more intense espresso, lungo is a larger shot of around 80-100ml, and over ice, as on the filter side, is a slightly stronger coffee for pouring over ice.

What is it like to use?

The machine is easy to use. You just fill up the water tank to the desired level and slot if back into the machine. One side has an ergonomic grip and obvious contours so you never have to faff around with getting the tank to fit. I found I had to fill it up every three brews or so.

For a filter coffee, put a filter paper in the brew basket, then use the included scoop to measure and add your ground coffee. The scoop is embossed with helpful measurements to help you get the right amount of coffee, so it's really easy.

On the espresso side, the machine takes classic Original (not the new Vertuo) Nespresso pods. It's incredibly easy – put a pod in the machine, close the lever, then select the strength you want. It's completely foolproof.

The only tiny quibble here is that the way you toggle settings varies from either side. On the filter side, you select your coffee by pressing the coffee bean button to toggle through the settings, then use the dial to select the size of your filter coffee, which ranges from 175ml to 1.6L.

Ninja does some slightly sneaky marketing here – the advert copy on Ninja's website says that you can 'brew a 1.8L carafe of filter coffee'. The carafe can certainly hold that much, but the machine and the water container top out at 1.6L. It's still a huge amount of coffee (as I found out after drinking it all and losing the ability to sleep) but not quite what they claim.

Filter coffee

I first tested this machine by brewing the maximum amount of classic coffee.

It takes a lot of coffee; the guide says a maximum 1.6L carafe needs 4-7 of its big scoops, which almost halved the amount of coffee of a 230g bag of ground coffee, but this is to be expected.

It's not the fastest filter coffee machine I've tried but it's far from the slowest. It brewed 1.6L in 6 minutes. It has a decent power draw but nothing that will crater your energy bills. It ran at 44p an hour according to my smart meter, but for 6 minutes that only cost around 4p.

The best feature is that it's incredibly quiet when brewing filter coffee. These machines are never loud but this one is noticeably quiet. It topped out at 45 decibels, which is around the noise of a computer or games console humming in the background. I live in a pretty small flat and I could barely hear it from my desk about two metres from the kitchen.

Most importantly, it tastes very good for filter coffee. I have to admit that I am not usually a fan of filter coffee but this is delicious. It's on a different planet to equivalent filter coffee machines like KitchenAid, Smeg or Bodum. Unfortunately, it can't touch my (and Ideal Homes') all-time favourite, the Moccamaster, but it's much better than I was expecting. There's a tiny hint of grounds, which you don't get with the Moccamaster, but for the price, this is a great filter coffee.

This flavour deepens with the ‘rich’ mode. It's a lot different to the classic mode. It’s earthier, and you can definitely taste more of the grounds. However, this was by far my favourite of the filter coffee modes. It’s not as smooth or watery as other filter coffees I’ve had; it's more like a long black than filter coffee.

The over ice mode is great too, making for a delicious drink for summer that's much less watery than the usual method of adding water to espresso and ice.

On top of that, the keep-warm function is great, too. I went out to do some errands for a couple of hours after brewing a carafe and it was still warm when I got back, even though the warm plate had long since shut off, which is a good safety feature.

Espresso

Brewing espresso is a little louder than filter coffee, but it still tops out at 59 decibels, which, though noticeable, is far from the loudest machine I've tested.

Either way, this machine is also a standout for its espresso function. To keep it fair, I tested it with pretty ordinary Sainsbury's coffee capsules, but they still tasted great.

Don't get me wrong; it's pod coffee, so it can’t touch what you can make with a proper espresso machine. However, it tastes pretty good. It's far better than most Nespresso, L’Or, and Tassimo machines I’ve tried. There’s only a tiny hint of the wateriness and metallic bitterness you get with pod coffee machines, which is very impressive.

You’d be fairly happy to this espresso in a cafe. It’s definitely not a world beater but it's very far from bad. It's a decent-to-good espresso, and it tastes better than most Nespresso machines I've tried.

This was also true of the ristretto function. The higher intensity took away the tiny amount of wateriness and metallic taste in the espresso. The standout coffee from this side of the machine, the ristretto is genuinely cafe-quality .

The over-ice function is fun too, pulling a slightly more intense shot of espresso through the machine. It tastes good but has a slight acidity that hints to over-extraction.

However, it's not as nice as the filter coffee over ice function, and it's a little inefficient, as the over ice function on the capsule side only makes one cup at a time, whereas the over ice on the filter side can make a huge amount of coffee.

The only weak point here was the lungo function. It was by far the least successful of the pod coffees. It has the classic pod coffee metallic, watery taste, though that’s perhaps be expected due to the higher water content.

It tastes similar – though slightly worse – to Nespresso Vertuo Americano pods; I found you're better off pulling a shot of espresso and topping it up with hot water.

Milk frother

As covered above, this machine has a frother, not a steam arm, which is a little disappointing. It means you have to heat up milk in the microwave or in a pan. It means it’s tricky to make anything other than a latte, because you can’t really make proper foam, just frothy, steamed milk. This is much more faff than other machines with steam wands.

However, the frother is definitely effective. It made good milk foam, but it doesn’t last for very long. You can make a serviceable latte with it, but it’s not as simple as other machines, and it doesn’t taste as good. It doesn’t taste as good as a proper cappuccino, latte, or flat white.

Frothing is much easier with a barista oat milk, and you can make something much closer to a proper cappuccino, but it’s not as good as you can achieve with a proper milk wand.

You don’t get a smooth, uniform drink, but an odd separation of milk foam and milky coffee. This is definitely a machine for people who like black coffee. If you want a good cappuccino – or even just a speedy one – this isn’t the machine for you.

What's it like to clean?

Cleaning is relatively easy. Both the capsule and filter drip after you use them, but you can close the line from the filter, and it's very easy to clean the drip tray on the espresso side.

It's easy to remove old coffee grounds because you can lift the whole unit out of the cone in one go. All the parts can be washed in the dishwasher, too. Handwashing the jug is slightly harder as you have to reach in to clean it and drying it without marks is a bit tricky, but it's hardly difficult.

The frother drips a lot after you use it but it’s very easy to clean by rinsing it under a tap, and it's much less faff to clean than milk lines in bean-to-to-cup machines.

Descaling is simple, too. On both sides of the machine you just add descaling solution or white vinegar to the water tank and flush it through as if you were priming the system.

The only tiny issue is that the stainless steel finish on the capsule lever and the handle of the filter jug pick up fingerprints, but again, this is straightforward to clean.

How does it compare to similar models?

It tastes as good if not better than machines like the OXO Brew or the Breville Precision, though I think it’s just about beaten by the Moccamaster. However, none of those machines also have a built in coffee pod function, and none of them can froth milk, so it's much better value for money, especially considering that it's cheaper than both.

A fairer comparison would be to the Nespresso Vertuo Latissma, which offers similar functions. I think the Ninja is the better appliance for black coffee drinkers, as it makes more and better tasting coffee. Unlike the Vertuo Latissima, you don’t have any faffing around with cleaning milk tubes and keeping the milk tank topped up. However, the obvious drawback there is that you can't use this machine to make true lattes and cappuccinos, or at least not easily.

The fairest comparison is to the Ninja Luxe Cafe Premier Series, which lets you make filter coffee and proper espresso, and it also has a steam wand. If you're a coffee fanatic, this is by far the better option; it's not as fast or as easy to use, but you get better tasting coffee.

Should you buy the Ninja Prestige Dualbrew System Coffee Machine?

This machine definitely isn’t for coffee obsessives, who need either a proper espresso machine, a bean-to-cup machine, or a dedicated filter coffee maker. It also won’t work for smaller kitchens. I tested it out of a mid-size kitchen in a flat and I found I that had to give up a decent amount of room for this appliance.

However, this machine will work well for big, busy families. If you and your partner or older kids work from home and need a steady supply of coffee throughout the day, this will efficiently deliver a huge amount of good filter coffee and (depending on the capsules) excellent pod coffee. It’s not about to win any awards for quality, but it more than does the job.

About this review, and the reviewer

Alex has tested coffee machines for years at a variety of publications, including Ideal Home's sister publication Homes & Gardens. Not only does he drink coffee every day, but he has tried dozens of appliances to help you find the very best.