Review of the Philips Saeco SM5573/10 coffee machine: an elite barista in your kitchen

Philips Saeco PicoBaristo Deluxe: a matter of taste

When buy­ing an expen­sive cof­fee machine with a large num­ber of pre-installed recipes, you expect the cof­fee to taste great. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Philips Sae­co did not please us in this regard. The drink, frankly, is not tasty: espres­so turns out to be rel­a­tive­ly sour and bit­ter.

Our edi­to­r­i­al col­leagues did not like the espres­so either. Some praised the cap­puc­ci­no from the cof­fee machine, but oth­er tasters called it too watery. What else dis­ap­point­ed us: if you pre­pare a drink with milk, then the cup will have to be placed very pre­cise­ly under the cof­fee out­let and the cap­puc­ci­na­tore, oth­er­wise some of the liq­uid will spill by.

Rich equipment and a huge selection of recipes

With all the short­com­ings in the taste of cof­fee, the machine is very well equipped. There are a total of 12 pre­set drink options. The amount of cof­fee and milk can be deter­mined based on per­son­al pref­er­ences and stored for lat­er use. In total, up to 75 own recipes can be stored in the machine’s mem­o­ry. The warm-up time is 74 sec­onds, which is, frankly, quite a long time. It will take anoth­er 40 sec­onds for the machine to make one cup of cof­fee.

At Philips Sae­co Pico­Baris­to deluxe well-read dis­play

The cof­fee machine is easy to oper­ate. The dis­play is col­or­ful and intu­itive, how­ev­er, if it were a lit­tle larg­er, it would be much more con­ve­nient. The water tank is volu­mi­nous — 1.7 liters, the grain con­tain­er is also quite large — 250 grams. A water fil­ter can be installed in the machine, which will allow you to avoid or delay the time-con­sum­ing descal­ing pro­ce­dure.

If you want to drink cof­fee from a large cup, you will run into a prob­lem. Under the noz­zle, you can put a mug with a height of no more than 10.5 cen­time­ters. Also, the machine is rel­a­tive­ly noisy, but we con­sume lit­tle pow­er in stand­by mode — only 1.9 watts.

Difficult maintenance and cleaning

The Philips Sae­co Pico­Baris­to Deluxe does not have a cof­fee grounds con­tain­er full sen­sor. If you notice late that it is full, you will have to work hard to clear it. If we recall all the prob­lems that arise dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion of drinks with milk, then it can be argued that the Philips Sae­co Pico­Baris­to Deluxe auto­mat­ic cof­fee machine in terms of oper­a­tion is not the eas­i­est device.

The sit­u­a­tion is saved a lit­tle by two self-clean­ing func­tions, with the help of which the cof­fee machine can get rid of part of the used cof­fee. But the time to clean the device is still above aver­age.

Should I buy Philips Saeco PicoBaristo Deluxe?

Philips Sae­co Pico­Baris­to Deluxe has a large selec­tion of ready-made drinks and the abil­i­ty to save your favorite cof­fee recipes. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we did not like the taste of this cof­fee, and the process of clean­ing the device seemed too labo­ri­ous. In addi­tion, the Philips machine is not a bud­get device at all, which means it can only be rec­om­mend­ed for instal­la­tion in offices or homes of avid cof­fee lovers who can appre­ci­ate the taste of her cof­fee.