De'Longhi Dinamica Plus review: syrupy espresso, a thermal milk carafe, three profiles and an app in a slim body

Dinamica Plus at a glance

First impressions of the De'Longhi Dinamica Plus

Some automatic espresso machines feel like appliances. The Dinamica Plus feels more like a small café that lives on your counter.

The De'Longhi Dinamica Plus has a bright 3.5-inch color touchscreen, a stainless steel thermal milk carafe, user profiles and an app.

On paper, that's a lot of features to go wrong.

In practice, after four weeks of daily use, most of them earned their place.

My unit came in a titanium finish with a heavy brushed stainless drip tray cover.

It looks and feels a step up from entry-level machines, which tend to be wrapped in shiny plastic.

The drip tray cover in particular feels solid. It didn't warp, scratch or rattle all month.

My first drink was a cappuccino straight from the factory settings.

The milk foam was dense and hot, but the coffee was too long and a bit weak for my taste.

That turned out to be the pattern with this machine. The hardware is excellent, and it rewards ten minutes of tuning.

Once I'd set the grinder and shortened the shots, my espresso had a thick, hazelnut-colored crema and a heavy, chocolatey body.

From then on, the Dinamica Plus was the machine I reached for first.

The Dinamica Plus with the thermal LatteCrema carafe attached, ready for a morning cappuccino.

What the Dinamica Plus actually is

The Dinamica Plus is a fully automatic, bean-to-cup espresso machine with an automatic milk system.

It grinds the beans, doses and presses the coffee into a puck, brews and drops the used puck into a drawer.

For milk drinks, its LatteCrema system draws cold milk from the carafe, mixes it with steam and air and pours the foam straight into your cup.

The connected version adds Bluetooth and De'Longhi's Coffee Link app.

What's inside

A high-output thermoblock✕ThermoblockA compact heater that warms water as it flows through, instead of keeping a whole boiler hot. It heats up fast and uses less standby energy. heats water on demand and switches quickly between brewing and milk temperatures.

The pump is rated at 19 bar, but what matters is that it delivers steady pressure through the coffee.

The brew unit✕Brew unitThe chamber inside an automatic machine that receives the ground coffee, presses it into a puck, pushes hot water through it and then ejects the used grounds. is De'Longhi's familiar removable design, so you can take it out and rinse it under the tap.

The grinder uses steel conical burrs with 13 settings.

Who it's built for

The Dinamica Plus is aimed at households where people drink different things.

One person wants a short, strong espresso. Another wants a big flat white. A third wants iced coffee in summer.

Profiles let each person save their own versions of every drink.

If you live alone and drink one espresso a day, you'll pay for features you won't use, and the Magnifica XS is the smarter buy.

Dinamica Plus design and setup

The Dinamica Plus measures about 9.3 × 17.3 × 14.2 inches (W × D × H) and weighs around 21 pounds.

It's surprisingly narrow for a machine with this many features.

At just over 14 inches tall, it fits under most wall cabinets, though you'll want to slide it forward to fill the bean hopper.

Front access and a solid drip tray

The water tank slides out from the front, so the machine can stay pushed against the wall.

The tank also hides the door to the brew unit, which I'll come back to in the cleaning section.

The drip tray has a heavy brushed stainless cover and a large grounds drawer that held plenty of dense pucks between emptying.

The coffee spouts slide up and down on their own carriage, from short espresso cups to tall latte glasses.

The thermal milk carafe

The carafe is double-walled stainless steel.

It keeps milk cold on the counter while you make several drinks, which matters when you're serving guests.

It plugs into a connector on the front left of the machine.

When you're not making milk drinks, you swap it for a small hot water spout.

First-time setup

Setup is guided on the touchscreen.

You choose a language, set the water hardness on a four-level scale with the included test strip, decide whether to fit the water filter and let the machine rinse its circuits.

On a cold start, it runs an automatic rinse of about 30 seconds to warm the pipes and flush stale water.

The first few drinks will be weaker while the grinder beds in, so don't judge anything until about the fifth cup.

Our tip: Put a cup or small jug under the spouts every time you switch the machine on. The automatic rinse sends warm water through the coffee outlets.

At about 9.3 inches wide, the Dinamica Plus is slimmer than its feature list suggests.

The built-in grinder

The grinder uses steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsA cone-shaped cutting part that turns inside a ring. They grind evenly at fairly low speed, which keeps heat and noise down. with 13 settings.

The adjustment knob sits inside the bean hopper.

Lower numbers are finer, higher numbers are coarser.

My sweet spot: setting 3

Out of the box, my machine was set in the middle of the range.

I moved it to setting 3, one click at a time, over a couple of days.

At setting 3, the grinder made fine, even grounds that pressed into a tight, high-resistance puck, much closer to what you'd expect from a manual espresso machine.

The used pucks came out dry and firm instead of wet and crumbly, which is a good sign of a proper extraction.

Only adjust while grinding

Turn the knob only while the grinder is running.

Turning it toward fine with the burrs stopped can jam bean fragments and strain the mechanism.

After each change, give it two drinks before you judge, because some old coffee is still in the chute.

Dose and grind time

The strength setting controls how long the grinder runs.

A single shot takes about 5 seconds of grinding. The double-strength options run for about 10 seconds.

At the highest dose, the dry puck weighed roughly half an ounce, around 15 grams.

Our tip: Set the strength to Extra Strong for espresso and milk drinks. The extra coffee makes far more difference than any other setting.

Dinamica Plus espresso performance

Espresso is where the Dinamica Plus surprised me most.

With a little tuning, it made some of the most concentrated, syrupy espresso I've had from a one-touch machine.

My espresso recipe

I set the strength to Extra Strong, the grinder to 3 and cut the espresso volume down to about 0.7 fl oz.

That gave me roughly a 1:3 brew ratio✕Brew ratioThe weight of dry coffee compared with the weight of liquid espresso in the cup. A 1:2 or 1:3 ratio gives a short, concentrated shot. Higher ratios give a longer, lighter drink., a little longer than a classic café shot but very close in character.

The crema was thick and hazelnut-colored and lasted for minutes.

The body was heavy, with rich chocolate notes and low acidity.

Back-to-back shots stayed consistent. The fourth espresso I made for guests tasted the same as the first.

Doppio+ double shot

The Doppio+ runs a longer grind, about 10 seconds, for a bigger dose of around half an ounce of coffee.

The default volume is about 2.7 fl oz, which I found too long.

I stopped it manually between 1.35 and 1.6 fl oz and saved that setting.

The result was thicker crema, more sweetness and a heavy body that made a great base for a flat white.

Temperature

The thermoblock brews at roughly 190 to 200°F, which is the right range for espresso.

It held that temperature well across consecutive drinks.

I set the coffee temperature to high and warmed my cups, which made a noticeable difference for small espressos.

Long coffee, Coffee and iced drinks

The Dinamica Plus has two different ways to make a bigger black coffee, and the difference matters.

Long

The Long drink grinds and brews twice.

It pulses water through the first dose, ejects that puck, then grinds a fresh dose and repeats.

The result tasted like a mild, clean filter coffee, with low bitterness and very little crema.

Because each puck only gives up part of the total water, it avoids the harsh, over-extracted finish of a single long pour.

Coffee

The Coffee button pushes a medium-pressure, continuous brew through one dose, producing a taller cup with a deep head of crema.

I set mine between 3.4 and 3.9 fl oz on Extra Strong. It made a balanced, satisfying morning mug.

Iced coffee

The Over Ice drink brews a concentrated coffee at a lower temperature, designed to be poured over a full glass of ice.

It held its flavor much better than simply pouring hot espresso over ice, which melts too fast and goes watery.

On warm afternoons, I added a splash of cold milk and it became my default.

Our tip: For iced coffee, fill the glass all the way with ice before you start the drink, so it chills instantly instead of melting.

LatteCrema milk drinks

The thermal LatteCrema carafe is the best reason to buy this machine.

It's a step up from the standard carafe on the Magnifica Evo, mainly because the double-walled steel keeps milk cold on the counter.

How it works

A pickup tube draws cold milk up into the carafe lid, where steam and air mix with it in a small Venturi chamber✕Venturi effectWhen a fluid speeds up through a narrow opening, its pressure drops. In a milk frother, fast steam creates suction that pulls milk up the tube and draws in air..

A dial on the lid sets how much air goes in.

How the foam came out

On the right-hand setting, the foam was dense, glossy and stable, with very fine bubbles.

On the left, the milk was smooth and silky, closer to proper microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can't see them. It feels silky and blends into the coffee instead of sitting on top like froth., which made a genuinely good flat white.

Because the carafe is insulated, the milk stayed cold through several drinks in a row.

Cappuccino vs Cappuccino Mix

This is a small detail I ended up loving.

The standard Cappuccino pours milk foam first, then the espresso, so you get clear layers of milk, coffee and white foam.

Cappuccino Mix does it the other way round. Espresso goes in first, then the milk, so everything blends into a smooth, sweet, caramel-colored drink with brown-flecked foam.

I preferred the Mix for taste and the standard version for looks.

Milk types

Cold whole milk gave the richest, most stable foam.

Barista-style oat milk foamed well. Thin plant drinks made bubbly foam that collapsed quickly.

The thermal carafe kept milk cold on the counter through a round of drinks for guests.

The drinks I saved in my profile

By the end of the month, my profile had settled into a handful of drinks that I made almost every day.

These are a good starting point if you're setting up your own.

How long it took to dial in

The Dinamica Plus gives you so many options that it's easy to change too much at once.

I made one change per day for the first week and wrote down what I liked.

How my espresso improved over the first week, rated out of 10.

A week-by-week look at living with it

In the first week, I spent most of my time in the app, building recipes and comparing drinks side by side.

In the second week, I stopped opening the app and used the touchscreen only.

By then, Smart One Touch had moved my favorite drinks to the front.

In the third week, I had guests over for a long weekend.

The guest profile meant nobody overwrote my settings, and the thermal carafe kept up with a round of six milk drinks without the milk warming up.

In the fourth week, the machine simply disappeared into my routine, which is the best compliment I can give any appliance.

Serving guests and busy mornings

Busy mornings are where the Dinamica Plus pulls ahead of simpler machines like the Magnifica Start.

I made six cappuccinos in a row for a family breakfast.

Each one took around a minute and a half, including the automatic carafe rinse between drinks.

The milk in the thermal carafe was still cold by the last drink, and the foam on the sixth cappuccino was as dense as on the first.

The espresso held its temperature well too, which tells you the thermoblock recovers quickly.

What slowed me down

The machine can only make one milk drink at a time.

If you need two cappuccinos at once, you'll be waiting for the second one.

The water tank also emptied faster during a big round, so I topped it up halfway through.

Our tip: Before guests arrive, fill the water tank to the top and pour a full carafe of cold milk, so you can make a whole round without stopping.

Six cappuccinos in a row for a family breakfast, and the milk in the carafe was still cold at the end.

Who will appreciate it most

If your mornings involve more than one coffee drinker, the time you save adds up quickly.

Nobody has to remember their settings, nobody has to steam milk by hand and nobody has to wait for someone else to finish fiddling.

For a single espresso drinker, all of this is pleasant but not essential.

Build quality and long-term ownership

The Dinamica Plus feels sturdier than entry-level automatics where it matters most.

The drip tray cover is heavy-gauge brushed stainless steel, and it didn't flex or scratch after a month of cups sliding across it.

The grounds drawer is roomy, and the pucks come out dense and dry rather than as a wet mess, which makes emptying it less unpleasant.

The housing is still largely plastic, but it's well finished and the panels fit tightly.

What helps it last

The removable brew unit is the same proven design De'Longhi has used for years, and parts are widely available.

Because you rinse it with water instead of running chemical tablets through it, there's less to wear out.

The most delicate part is the milk carafe, with its small air passages and silicone tube.

Keep those clean and replace worn seals when needed, and the foam should stay as good as it was on day one.

Software

The touchscreen menus were fast and never froze during my test.

The app connection was the only part that felt slow, and it doesn't affect daily brewing at all.

Touchscreen and user profiles

The 3.5-inch color touchscreen is bright, sharp and easy to read from across the kitchen.

Each drink has its own picture, and side arrows scroll through the pages of the menu.

The machine also learns which drinks you make most and moves them to the front, which De'Longhi calls Smart One Touch.

After the first week, my four most-used drinks were all on the first screen.

Profiles

You can save three personal profiles plus a guest mode.

Each profile stores its own volume, strength and temperature for every drink.

In my house, that meant my short Extra Strong espresso and someone else's long, milder coffee lived side by side.

Nobody had to change settings back after someone else used the machine.

Settings menus

The maintenance and settings menus are clear and written in plain text, not symbols.

You can set the water hardness, start a rinse, check the filter and start descaling from the screen.

The auto-off timer runs from 30 minutes up to three hours.

There's even a statistics page that counts coffees, milk drinks, total water used and filter and descaling history.

I found it oddly satisfying to watch the count climb past 150 drinks by the end of the test.

Our tip: Set the auto-off to 30 minutes if you only make coffee in the morning. The machine heats up fast, so a long standby is wasted energy.

The Coffee Link app

The connected Dinamica Plus pairs with the Coffee Link app on your phone.

Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi

The symbol on the screen looks like a Wi-Fi icon, but the connection is Bluetooth.

That means you need to be in or near the kitchen.

You can't start a coffee from the office or the car.

The first connection after the machine had been off took up to about a minute.

What the app is good for

The app is where the deeper settings live.

You can adjust grind time, water volume and the length of the pre-infusion✕Pre-infusionA short, gentle soak of the coffee before full pressure. It lets the puck swell evenly so water doesn't rush through weak spots. for each drink, then save them to a profile.

It shows the brewing stage live: grinding, pressing, pre-infusion and extraction.

It also keeps the manual and troubleshooting guides in your pocket.

Where I ended up

I used the app heavily in week one to build my recipes.

After that, I rarely opened it. The touchscreen was simply faster for daily drinks.

Think of the app as a setup tool rather than a remote control.

Pre-ground coffee, hot water and decaf

A small chute next to the hopper takes one level scoop of pre-ground coffee✕Pre-ground bypassA separate chute that sends already-ground coffee straight to the brew unit, skipping the grinder. Handy for decaf without emptying the bean hopper. for a decaf.

For hot water, you swap the milk carafe for the small hot water spout.

It's useful for tea or topping up an espresso into an Americano, but it does mean unplugging the carafe each time.

Our tip: Keep the hot water spout next to the machine, not in a drawer. You'll swap it in more often than you expect.

Cleaning and maintaining the Dinamica Plus

Daily care is mostly automatic, but the milk system asks for discipline.

After every milk drink

When a milk drink finishes, the screen asks you to turn the carafe dial to Clean.

The machine then blasts hot water and steam through the carafe's milk path, without diluting the milk left inside.

Then you can put the whole carafe back in the fridge.

I did this after every single milk drink. It takes about 15 seconds and it's the reason the foam stayed consistent all month.

Daily and weekly

Each evening, I took the carafe lid apart: the pickup tube, the Venturi✕Venturi effectWhen a fluid speeds up through a narrow opening, its pressure drops. In a milk frother, fast steam creates suction that pulls milk up the tube and draws in air. piece and the dial.

The parts are dishwasher-safe, but I mostly washed them by hand in warm water.

The brew unit

The brew unit sits behind the water tank.

You need to switch the machine off completely, take the tank out and open a small door to reach it.

Never try to remove it while the machine is on. The mechanism can end up out of position.

Once it's out, you rinse it under warm water, let it dry and slide it back.

There are no cleaning tablets to run through it.

My estimate of hands-on cleaning time per day.

Our tip: Run the carafe Clean cycle straight after each milk drink. Dried milk in the small air passages is the main cause of weak, sputtering foam.

What daily use is really like

My mornings went like this: tap the power icon, let the 30-second rinse run into a cup, tap my profile and pick a drink.

An espresso took well under a minute. A cappuccino took about a minute and a half, including the clean cycle.

The tank and the drawer

The 1.8-liter tank lasted about two days for two people drinking a mix of espresso and milk drinks.

The grounds drawer held enough dense pucks that I emptied it every two to three days.

Noise

The grinder gives a short, firm burst. It's noticeable, but not harsh.

The pump and the milk system are quieter, with a soft hiss while frothing.

By week two, my favorite drinks sat on the first page of the screen every morning.

Beans, water and milk

The Dinamica Plus is sensitive enough that bean freshness shows up clearly in the cup.

Freshly roasted medium-dark beans gave the thickest, most viscous crema.

Light roasts needed the finest grind and the highest strength to avoid tasting sour.

Avoid very oily beans, which can stick in the hopper and clog the grinder.

Water and milk

Use fresh, cold water and the filter if your water is hard.

Keep milk at fridge temperature, around 38 to 40°F, until it goes into the carafe.

Common mistakes to avoid

The Dinamica Plus is easy to live with once it's set up, but these habits will hold it back.

What I would change

I'd like true Wi-Fi so the app works from anywhere, and a faster connection.

Easier access to the brew unit would help too, without taking out the tank.

And a built-in hot water outlet would save swapping the carafe for the spout.

Is the Dinamica Plus worth the money?

For a household with different tastes, yes.

You get excellent espresso, one of the best automatic milk systems I've used, a clear touchscreen and profiles that keep everyone's drinks separate.

If you only drink espresso, a simpler machine with the same brew unit will make a very similar shot. And if you want one-touch milk drinks without profiles or an app, the Magnifica Evo uses the same LatteCrema technology with simpler controls.

Ask yourself three questions before you buy.

Does more than one person use the machine? Do you drink milk drinks most days? And would you use iced coffee or deeper settings?

If the answers are yes, the Dinamica Plus justifies its place on the counter.

How it compares with other De'Longhi machines

The most useful comparison is with the rest of De'Longhi's own range, which all share the same core brew unit.

The full package: color touchscreen, thermal carafe and adjustable spouts.

Other De'Longhi machines I tested

For one-touch milk drinks with simpler controls, see my Magnifica Evo review.

If you mostly drink black coffee, my Magnifica XS review covers the same great espresso in a simpler machine.

For a beginner-friendly touch panel, read my Magnifica Start review.

Dinamica Plus specifications

From manufacturer data and my own testing.

How I tested and scored the Dinamica Plus

For four weeks, I used the Dinamica Plus as my everyday machine for espresso, Doppio+, Long, Coffee, iced coffee, cappuccinos, Cappuccino Mix, flat whites, latte macchiatos and hot milk.

I worked through the grind range, tuned volumes and strength for each drink, built three profiles and tested the Coffee Link app for setup and live brewing.

I made milk drinks with whole, semi-skimmed, skim, barista oat and almond milk at all three dial settings, ran the carafe clean cycle after every milk drink and rinsed the brew unit weekly.

I then checked my notes against De'Longhi's specifications and owner documentation.

• Espresso (8.8): body, crema, flavor and consistency, before and after tuning volumes.
• Milk drinks (8.9): foam at all three dial settings, milk temperature, layering and the thermal carafe.
• Ease of use (8.3): touchscreen, profiles, Smart One Touch, app setup and connection.
• Cleaning (7.9): carafe clean cycle, daily lid wash, brew unit access and maintenance prompts.

The overall score of 8.6 is an editorial rating that reflects those four areas.