Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking When we review a coffee machine like the Sunbeam Barista Max, we don’t just spend serious time using the machine. We do in-depth research to get a sense of the context around it. By taking stock of what the larger coffee machine landscape looks like, and how a given product fits into it, we’re better able to understand the ways in which it succeeds or fails and why. Even if there are clear differences between home espresso machines, fully automatic ones, and cheaper pod-based solutions, many of these divergences can be bridged by a thorough assessment of how successful both approaches are when it comes to solving the core problem that all coffee machines are trying to solve: delivering the best homemade coffee experience at the best price with as much consistency and as little effort as possible. The short version: by getting a better sense of both the type of coffee drinker the review machine is best suited to, and what their other options are, we’re able to offer insights that go far beyond just regurgitating a spec-sheet. Our review process incorporates practical considerations like like how much bench space that a product takes up relative to the alternatives, how many pre-programmed buttons it boasts, whether the overall layout is friendly to larger containers like mugs and jugs. Whether a coffee machine has features like automatic cleaning or a built-in steam wand or frother - and whether they work and actively add value to the end user experience - is another thing our review process covers. Some of the other questions we consider as part of our review include but are not limited to:
Does the coffee machine have a descaling alarm? Does the coffee machine have a foam wand? Does the coffee machine have precision temperature control, and if so, how precise is it? Is the coffee machine designed to work with a companion app? What value does this add? Does the coffee machine ship with support for a dedicated power-saving setting or other energy consumption related features?
How long does it take to make a cup of coffee? How noisy is the process? How long does the machine take to clean? How frequently does the coffee machine need to be cleaned? How much warm-up time is needed before usage?
Does it have a built-in grinder? Is it a conical burr grinder? How precise is this grinder? What’s the bean capacity like? How do the above specs compare to the competition?
This covers practical details like cable length and pump pressure, as well as more ancillary factors like how much electricity a given machine consumes and whether or not the size of the water tank is competitive or comparable to similarly-priced machines. These aspects of the product don’t influence our final score as much as some of the other stages of our review process, but they’re still an important part nevertheless. The assumption here is that any accessory included with a coffee machine is one less accessory that a given consumer will have to track down and spend money on later down the line. Freebies are nice, and the more the better. Examples of value-add accessories when it comes to coffee machines include the following:
Milk mug Group handle Tamper Free pod coffee Additional filters Cleaning kit
