I tested the De’Longhi Linea Classic — it’s a ‘one-trick pony’, but it could be the pony your barn is missing

The De’Longhi Linea Classic is a bit of a conundrum. It’s attractive, well-priced, and compact, ideal for beginners and coffee enthusiasts alike. Is this enough to make it one of the best espresso machines, though?

Well, it depends on what kind of home barista you are. Are you happy with a steam wand that can only do one thing: froth? Personally, I love making velvety microfoam and pouring barista-worthy latte art. If this isn’t your bag, then the Linea Classic might be fine for you.

Although it doesn’t come with premium accessories, I expect this from sub-$250 espresso machines, so I’m not overly perturbed. But should you spend a little extra on the Breville Bambino, get the even-cheaper De’Longhi Stilosa, or stick with the one-trick-pony Linea Classic? To find out, read my De’Longhi Linea Classic review.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? Beginners or non-fussy coffee lovers
• How much does it cost? $229 / £159
• What does it do well? It’s very easy to use
• What are its weaknesses? I don’t know why you wouldn’t just get the $149 De’Longhi Stilosa
• What should you use it for? Quick-hit coffees, no finesse

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Specs

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Price & availability

The De’Longhi Linea Classic is $229 / £159 from Amazon. This makes it a mid-range affordable espresso machine — not the cheapest, but also not as pricey as the $499 Breville Bambino Plus or $299 Breville Bambino.

You can get an espresso machine of similar performance for much cheaper. The Casabrews 5418 Pro is $199 and comes with a PID controller; the Casabrews CM5418 will set you back just $139, and the super-cheap Casabrews 3700 Essential costs just $129.

If you have a bit of brand loyalty, though, you’re still in luck. The De’Longhi Stilosa is my personal favorite budget espresso machine. At a mere $149, you’d save $70 over the Linea Classic and get better performance.

I don’t think the Linea Classic is a terrible espresso machine, but I do think serious baristas would be better off with the Stilosa. The Linea Classic is easier to use straight out of the box, but its resulting coffee doesn’t taste as fancy as those made on the Stilosa (+practice).

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Design

Even though the De’Longhi Stilosa makes better coffee than the Linea Classic, the latter takes the medal for best-looking budget machine. At 8.9 inches wide, it’s a little larger than the Stilosa’s 8.1-inch width, but this is negligible unless you’re super tight on space.

While the Stilosa has a shiny plastic exterior, the Linea Classic sports a reflective metal-plastic chassis instead. Although both are predominantly plastic, the Linea Classic certainly looks more premium.

As with the Stilosa, the Linea Classic has a knob on the side to control steam, which I love to see on budget machines. I don’t know why, but having a physical steam knob makes the machine feel that much fancier. Turning that knob is fun. Prove me wrong.

Another premium-feeling design feature is the “pressure gauge” on the front of the machine. Now, I put speech marks there for a reason. This is not a manometer, and is not a scientifically accurate display of actual, physical PSI. This is merely a visual guide for new users. More seasoned baristas will be able to gauge pressure from simply looking at the espresso flowing.

The Stilosa doesn’t have a faux-manometer, so I’d recommend the Linea Classic over the cheaper version if you really want this feature.

Unfortunately, the Linea Classic comes with a flimsy tamper, dual-walled portafilters, and no milk jug (just like the Stilosa), so I’d recommend purchasing a proper tamper, a bottomless portafilter (Casabrews’ 51mm model works), and a milk jug. Depending on quality, this additional equipment would run you back around $50-$150.

Seeing as the Breville Bambino ($299) comes with all this as standard, it might be worth just grabbing that machine instead.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Espresso

As the De’Longhi Linea Classic comes with dual-walled/pressurized portafilters rather than single-walled/unpressurized portafilters, it’s physically incapable of making ‘real’ espresso. If you’re not sure of the difference between these, here’s a photo.

On the left, you’ve got the dual-walled/pressurized portafilter. On the right, you can see the single-walled/unpressurized portafilters. Ideally, you want to make espresso with unpressurised portafilters.

Pressurized portafilters basically force the espresso through a tiny little hole, therefore ruining delicate flavors in the coffee. This process also aerates the crema, which destroys a lot of the aromatic coffee oils.

However, if you’re using pre-ground store-bought coffee, dual-walled portafilters can help create a crema that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Even so, pre-ground store-bought coffee also won’t impress serious coffee lovers.

So, the absence of a single-walled portafilter may bother you, or it may not. Are you concerned about becoming the best home barista this side of the millennium? Then you need a single-walled or bottomless portafilter.

Do you just want coffee, and you want it with little stress? Then this performance would be just fine. It’s all relative.

Anyway, here’s a photo of the Linea Classic’s espresso. This pulled at a 1:2 ratio in 20 seconds, which is way too fast. However, when I adjusted the grind size finer, the machine struggled to pull anything at all.

As you can see, the crema is very thick and aerated. The coffee tasted weak with a little bitterness at the back of the flavor profile, but was drinkable and pleasant. Again, this won’t impress coffee aficionados, but beginners or less picky drinkers would be fine.

As I have a drawer full of various coffee accessories, I whipped out my Casabrews bottomless portafilter and puck for the next part of my testing. If you want to get these same results, unfortunately, you’ll need to spend $40 or so on additional accessories. Ensure your machine is compatible before purchasing!

Here’s a photo of the espresso I managed to get with the Casabrews bottomless portafilter.

Just look at the difference between these two shots. It’s like night and day. Apples to oranges. Monkeys to fish. The bottomless portafilter espresso tasted much better, with no bitterness at all, and a well-rounded nutty finish.

In general, the Linea Classic doesn’t make ‘technically’ correct espresso. However, if you’re a beginner or aren’t concerned with perfection, this could be a worthy trade-off for an affordable espresso machine.

The Casabrews CM5418 ($139), the Casabrews 5418 Pro ($199), and the Casabrews 3700 Essential ($129) only offer dual-walled portafilters, so the Linea Classic isn’t alone in this. However, the Linea Classic is $30 pricier than the 5418 Pro, which has a PID controller.

If you’re looking to seriously save your money, I would recommend purchasing the De’Longhi Stilosa or the Casabrews 3700 Essential instead. At just $149 and $129 respectively, you’d get better performance for even less.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Milk

The milk performance is one of the weakest aspects of the De’Longhi Linea Classic. This steam wand — if you could even call it that — just baffles me. It’s physically incapable of making barista-quality microfoam.

You can tell this steam wand is subpar just by looking at it. It’s weirdly wide — half an inch thick — and has a “collar” for ‘hot milk’ and ‘cappuccino’. Basically, you’re supposed to flip the collar up if you want steamed milk, and pull it down if you want frothy milk. When pulled down, this collar releases more air into the milk.

However, you can achieve the same texture by… simply aerating the milk manually. I’ve been able to get very dry cappuccino milk on my Breville Bambino Plus and Bambino ($499 and $299). With just a little practice, you would be able to do this, too.

The current iteration of this steam wand means you cannot physically make soft, velvety milk. It’s impossible. The steam wand cannot create the all-important ‘vortex’ to make microfoam, and the milk goes from wet to too-frothy in seconds.

Here’s a photo so you can see what I mean.

This was with 2% milk. As you can see, there’s still latte art, but it’s incomparable to the milk texture I was able to achieve even on the $149 De’Longhi Stilosa.

Don’t even get me started on non-dairy milk. Here’s a photo of the best oat milk texture I managed.

As you can see, the milk is both too frothy and too wet at the same time. There’s no structural integrity to the foam; it’s overly bubbly on the top and thin on the bottom. This simply isn’t good enough for an espresso machine of $229. $99, and I might be able to have an attitude of “some sacrifices were made to keep the price low.”

But when the $129 Casabrews 3700 Essential makes milk ten times better than this, it’s unacceptable. I don’t think you should get this machine if you want to make barista-quality milk drinks. It’s not possible.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Storage & maintenance

As the De'Longhi Linea Classic has a deep drip tray, you don’t have to empty it after each use. Even so, I’d recommend cleaning at least every day. Do you want nasty stagnant water hanging out in your kitchen? I know I don’t.

The water tank is also easy to clean as the opening is wide enough to get a sponge in. Some compact machines are really tricky to clean deeply here.

A benefit for being a compact machine, though, is it’s easy to fit pretty much anywhere. The Linea Classic is a small machine, so would work best in a small kitchen. Although you can get other compact machines for cheaper — the Casabrews 3700 Essential and De’Longhi Stilosa are my top recommendations — the Linea Classic has a certain je ne sais quois that’s missing from the Stilosa’s all-plastic construction.

As with other De’Longhi machines, the Linea Classic comes with a one-year limited warranty, which is the same as Breville, Ninja, and Casabrews.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: How does it compare?

As I’ve said many times throughout this review, the De'Longhi Linea Classic is a good, standalone espresso machine. However, it struggles to keep up with other machines in its price range.

Spend just $70 extra, and you can get the $299 Breville Bambino, which is the only espresso machine I’ve ever awarded a 5-star rating to. The Bambino has a PID controller (to ensure coffee is never burned or weak), a powerful steam wand, and a gorgeous, all-metal design.

If you want to spend even less, then the Casabrews 3700 Essential ($129) and De’Longhi Stilosa ($149) offer similar performance. You can make a much better milk texture on both of these budget options — although you’d also have to buy an additional bottomless or single-walled portafilter if you want to make ‘technically’ correct espresso.

De'Longhi Linea Classic review: Verdict

Overall, the De'Longhi Linea Classic is a bit of a conundrum. Yes, I’d recommend it for beginners or those who just want quick coffees and don’t really care about nuance in espresso or making latte art.

However, if you’re after a little finesse in your morning brew, then you’d probably be better off elsewhere. I’d definitely check out the Breville Bambino, which is seriously the best affordable espresso machine I’ve ever used. It might be $70 pricier than the Linea Classic, but it definitely won’t disappoint you. If you’re on a tighter budget, the $149 De’Longhi Stilosa or $129 Casabrews 3700 Essential will suit you better.

At the end of the day, if you want an easy-to-use espresso machine that looks a little fancier than the De’Longhi Stilosa, and don’t mind subpar milk texture, the De’Longhi Linea Classic could be a worthy option. Me, though? I’d save up an extra $70 for the Bambino. You might actually end up saving money with the Bambino, as you won't have to buy additional accessories.