De’Longhi Magnifica Start vs Evo vs Dinamica Plus: which to buy?

Magnifica Start vs Evo vs Dinamica Plus at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on four weeks with each machine and the manufacturer specs. Rows where they are equal have no winner.

The tally is not my verdict. A touchscreen matters much less than one-touch milk if cappuccino is your daily drink.

How De’Longhi’s range works

De’Longhi’s names are confusing, so it helps to see these three as steps on one ladder.

All three are fully automatic✕Fully automatic (bean-to-cup)A machine that grinds, doses, tamps, brews and ejects the used coffee on its own. You press a button and it does the whole job inside the machine. machines built around the same family of parts: a removable brew unit, a 13-step steel grinder, a thermoblock heater and a 60 oz water tank you fill from the front.

What changes as you climb is the milk system, the number of drinks and the way you control the machine.

So the first question is not which machine is best. It is whether you want one-touch milk drinks at all. If you do not, the Start covers you. If you do, the choice is between the Evo and the Dinamica Plus.

Our tip: Count how many milk drinks your household made last week, because that number tells you which step of the ladder you need.

Design, size and build

From the front, these three are siblings. All are about 9.3 to 9.45 inches wide and 17.3 inches deep, so they slot into the same narrow gap on a counter.

The Magnifica Start is the shortest at about 13.8 inches and the lightest at about 19 lb. Its front has a few buttons, a grind dial and the steam wand on the right.

The Magnifica Evo adds a clean panel of touch icons and a slot for the LatteCrema carafe. The Dinamica Plus swaps the icons for a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, with a titanium-look finish that looked the most premium on my counter.

The Dinamica Plus’s 3.5-inch touchscreen makes it the most modern-looking of the three.

Height under your cabinets

All three fit under standard wall cabinets.

Build quality is similar too. All three are mostly plastic with a sturdy feel, and none of them flexed or rattled during my month of testing.

Our tip: Leave a little space on the right side of all three, because the brew unit comes out from the side door for its weekly rinse.

Controls, screen and app

The way you talk to each machine changes a lot as you climb the ladder.

The Start uses simple buttons and a dial. It was easy to learn, but changing strength or temperature meant a few presses and some guesswork from the icons.

The Evo’s touch icons are clear and responsive. One press for each drink, a bean icon for strength and a cup icon for size, with no menus to dig through.

The Dinamica Plus has a full 3.5-inch color touchscreen. It shows every drink as a picture, lets you adjust strength, size and milk with sliders, and remembers favorites for three users plus a guest.

The Evo’s touch icons are about as simple as a one-touch machine gets.

The Dinamica Plus also connects to De’Longhi’s Coffee Link app over Bluetooth. I could build drinks on my phone and send them to the machine, but I found the touchscreen faster for daily use.

Our tip: Set up a profile for every regular coffee drinker on the Dinamica Plus in the first week, because the saved drinks are where it really earns its keep.

The drink menu: 3 vs 7 vs 16

This is where the three really split.

The Start makes espresso, coffee and americano at one touch. Anything with milk is a manual job with the steam wand.

The Evo makes espresso, coffee, Over Ice, cappuccino, latte macchiato, MyLatte and hot water. That covers most households completely.

The Dinamica Plus adds a much longer list, including flat white, caffè latte, cappuccino mix, doppio, long coffee and hot milk, for 16 one-touch drinks in all.

One-touch drinks

Counted from each machine’s menu.

Sixteen drinks at one touch made the Dinamica Plus the easiest machine for guests.

Grinder and dose

All three use steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. Beans are crushed between them, and the gap between the burrs sets how fine the coffee is. with 13 settings, adjusted with a dial inside the bean hopper.

The Evo’s three dose levels measured about 9, 12 and 15 grams on my scale. The Start and Dinamica Plus felt similar at their strongest settings, which gives real body to a single espresso.

Each machine also has a pre-ground chute that takes one scoop, which is handy for an evening decaf.

Our tip: Turn the grind dial only while the grinder is running on all three, because adjusting it with the burrs stopped can jam beans between them.

Espresso quality

I ran the same medium-dark blend through all three machines on the finest practical grind and the strongest setting.

The Dinamica Plus pulled the best espresso. It had a full body, a thick hazelnut crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee. and a sweet, chocolatey finish with low bitterness.

The Evo was close behind. Its espresso was rich and smooth, with real sweetness at the 15-gram dose, and it was the most consistent from cup to cup.

The Start shares the same basic recipe and pulled rich espresso too, though it tasted slightly rougher at the edges next to the Dinamica Plus.

The Magnifica Start pulls a rich espresso that punches above its simple controls.

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 for body, crema, flavor and consistency.

Espresso temperature was good on all three in a warmed cup. On the Evo, I measured about 150°F on low, 154°F on medium and 163°F on high, and the other two landed in a similar range.

Coffee and americano

The Start has a true one-touch americano✕AmericanoEspresso topped up with hot water. Because the water is added afterwards instead of being pushed through the coffee, it keeps more sweetness and less bitterness., which became my favorite black coffee on it. It brews espresso first and then adds hot water, so it keeps sweetness and crema.

The Evo’s Coffee button makes a longer drink of about 100 ml by default, pushing more water through the puck. For a true americano, I used espresso plus its hot water function.

The Dinamica Plus has both, plus a long coffee and a doppio. It gave me the widest choice for black coffee and the fullest mug.

Our tip: Shorten the americano a little on all three, because about 3 ounces of water instead of 4 keeps more body and sweetness in the cup.

Milk drinks

Milk is where the three machines really separate, and where most buyers should make their decision.

Magnifica Start: a manual wand

The Start uses a Panarello-style steam wand. You hold a jug under it, let it froth and work the jug yourself. It also dispenses hot water for tea.

The foam was big-bubbled and loose compared with the others, even after practice, and it took me about two minutes per drink. I scored it 6.6 for milk.

The Start’s manual wand works, but it takes practice and makes looser foam.

Magnifica Evo: LatteCrema at one touch

The Evo uses the LatteCrema✕LatteCrema systemDe’Longhi’s automatic milk carafe. It draws milk up, mixes in air and steam, and pours foam straight into your cup, then cleans its own spout. carafe. Click it on, press cappuccino and walk away.

The foam was dense and creamy and held its shape to the bottom of the cup. Milk came out at about 140°F, and latte macchiato settled into three clear layers.

Dinamica Plus: thermal LatteCrema

The Dinamica Plus uses a double-walled thermal version of the carafe. It kept milk cold on the counter for my whole breakfast, and its foam was the silkiest of the three.

With more milk drinks on the menu, including flat white and caffè latte, it was the one my household reached for most.

Milk foam, my ratings

My scores out of 10 for texture, temperature and ease.

The Evo’s LatteCrema foam held its shape right to the bottom of the cup.

Our tip: Run the carafe’s Clean function right after every milk drink on the Evo and Dinamica Plus, because it takes seconds and stops milk drying in the spout.

Iced coffee

Both the Evo and the Dinamica Plus have an Over Ice drink. It brews a stronger, smaller coffee designed to be poured straight onto ice, so the drink does not taste watery as the ice melts.

It worked well on both and tasted clean and bright. The Start has no Over Ice option, so I brewed a strong espresso and poured it over ice by hand.

Our tip: Fill your glass right to the top with ice before an Over Ice brew, because more ice melts slower and keeps the drink stronger.

Cleaning and upkeep

All three share De’Longhi’s removable brew unit✕Brew unitThe part inside a super-automatic that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck.. It slides out from the side, and I rinsed it under the tap once a week on each machine.

The Start was the quickest to keep clean. With no carafe, my daily routine was emptying the drip tray and grounds drawer and wiping the wand.

The Evo and Dinamica Plus add the milk carafe. Both clean their spouts with a quick function, and the carafes come apart for washing. The Dinamica Plus’s thermal carafe has a couple of extra parts.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

With two drinks a day, not counting automatic rinses.

The Dinamica Plus’s thermal carafe takes a little more washing, but it keeps milk cold for longer.

Noise

All three use the same style of grinder, so they sound similar. The grinding burst is short and moderately loud, followed by a gentle whir as the brew unit moves.

The Dinamica Plus felt slightly more refined, with a softer pump sound. The Start’s steam wand was the loudest single moment, with a hiss that carries in an open-plan room.

How loud each felt, my ranking

Relative loudness from side-by-side use. Shorter bars are quieter.

Water, beans and long-term care

Because all three share the same core parts, they ask for almost the same care over the years. That is good news: whichever you buy, the routine is the same.

Each takes a water filter in the 60 oz tank and a water hardness setting with four levels. With the filter fitted and my moderately hard water, the descaling✕DescalingRunning a mild acid through the machine to dissolve the mineral scale that hard water leaves behind in the heater and pipes. prompt stayed well away during my month on each machine.

All three prefer fresh, medium to medium-dark beans. Very oily, dark beans can coat the grinder and chute over time, and the Start’s unsealed hopper lid lets beans go stale a little faster than on the other two.

Drinks per full water tank, rough maths

Allowing for rinse water. Your numbers depend on cup size.

All three load water from the front, so they can sit under cabinets without being moved.

Upgrading later is also simple to think about. If you buy the Start and fall in love with cappuccino, the jump to a carafe machine is the one that changes your mornings. Going from the Evo to the Dinamica Plus is more about comfort, choice and sharing than about a better basic cup.

One more thing I noticed over the month: the three machines age the same way. The parts that wear first are the small seals and the milk parts, not the grinder or the brew unit, and all of them are easy to reach from the front or the side.

That shared design is also why I would not let reliability decide between them. Pick the milk system and the controls you want, and the rest of the ownership experience will feel almost identical, from the weekly brew unit rinse to the descaling prompt every few months.

If you are buying for someone who is not a coffee enthusiast, that sameness is reassuring too. Whichever step of the ladder you pick, the daily routine will be short, predictable and easy to explain.

Our tip: Store beans in an airtight container and fill the hopper with only a few days’ worth at a time, especially on the Start with its unsealed lid.

Four weeks with each: my diary notes

These are the notes I kept as each machine settled into everyday life in my kitchen.

Magnifica Start

Week 1: The americano button became my morning default within two days. Simple, hot and sweet.

Week 2: I tried to master the steam wand for cappuccinos. The foam got better, but never close to the carafe machines.

Week 3: I stopped making milk drinks on weekdays and saved them for weekends.

Week 4: For black coffee, it was the least fussy machine of the three to live with.

Magnifica Evo

Week 1: Everyone in the house worked out the icons without instructions. Cappuccino was the most-pressed button.

Week 2: I saved a flat-white-style drink on MyLatte, which filled the one real gap in its menu.

Week 3: Over Ice coffee on warm afternoons became a small habit.

Week 4: The routine never changed: press, drink, clean the spout. It just worked.

Dinamica Plus

Week 1: Setting up three profiles took ten minutes and ended the morning queue for adjustments.

Week 2: The thermal carafe stayed on the counter through breakfast with milk still cold.

Week 3: I tried the app, built a drink on my phone, and then went back to the touchscreen.

Week 4: It was the machine the whole family missed most when I packed it away.

By week four, the Dinamica Plus was the machine my household missed most.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my testing.

For black coffee drinkers, the Start is the simplest machine to live with.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10, taken from my single reviews of each machine, plus drink range because it decides this ladder.

De’Longhi Dinamica Plus

De’Longhi Magnifica Evo

De’Longhi Magnifica Start

Overall, I rate the Dinamica Plus 8.6, the Evo 8.3 and the Start 7.8. Each step up buys better milk drinks and more choice, with a little more cleaning.

Which one should you buy?

Start with milk. If you rarely drink it, the Start is all you need. If you drink one-touch cappuccinos most days, the Evo is the sweet spot. If several people share the machine or you want the best foam, go for the Dinamica Plus. If none of these is quite right for you, my guide to the best De’Longhi super-automatic machines covers the rest of the range I’ve tested.

For deeper looks at each step, see my Magnifica Evo vs Magnifica Start and Magnifica Evo vs Dinamica Plus comparisons. My Rivelia vs Dinamica Plus comparison covers the next step up.

For most couples who love cappuccino, the Evo is the sweet spot of the range.

Specifications compared

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

Michael Reynolds here. I used each machine as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks, making espresso, americanos, long coffees, cappuccinos, lattes and iced coffee, and kept notes each week.

I weighed doses, measured espresso and milk temperatures with a probe thermometer, worked through the grind range and foamed whole, semi-skimmed and oat milk on each milk system.

I rinsed every brew unit weekly, ran every cleaning and descaling prompt, and compared my notes with De’Longhi’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature and drink range.
• Workflow: controls, profiles and daily routine.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, water care and footprint.