Gaggia Magenta Plus vs Prestige: steam wand or one-touch milk?

Magenta Plus vs Prestige at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and Gaggia's specifications. Rows where the two machines are identical have no winner, and there are a lot of those.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. This matchup really comes down to one row: how you want to make milk.

Design, size and build

Put these two side by side and you need a second look to tell them apart. They share the same slim Magenta body, the same matte finish and the same layout.

Both measure about 8.8 inches wide, 14 inches tall and 17.1 inches deep. At under 9 inches, the Magenta Plus slid into a gap between my toaster and the wall that no other bean-to-cup machine I have tested would fit.

The difference is on the front. The Plus has a steam wand on the right side, while the Magenta Prestige has a milk carafe that clips onto the front.

The Prestige's carafe sits in front of the machine, so add an inch or two to the depth.

That carafe changes your counter planning. With it attached, the Prestige needs an extra inch or two in front, and most days I stored the carafe in the fridge anyway.

Both have the water door and bean hopper on top. To open them fully, you need about 17 and a quarter inches of vertical room, so under standard wall cabinets I had to slide each machine forward or lift the tank out.

Width of common super-automatic machines

The Magenta body is one of the slimmest I have measured.

Our tip: Lift the 60-ounce tank out and fill it at the sink, because under most wall cabinets the top water door only opens if you slide the machine forward.

Setup and the first week

Setup is the same on both. You fill the tank, add beans, run a rinse and let the machine prime its circuit.

The first couple of shots were weaker than they should be on both machines. The grinder needs a few cycles to settle, so I didn't judge anything until about the fourth espresso.

On the Prestige, there's one extra step. You attach the carafe, run a Quick Clean to rinse the milk path and check that the drink buttons for milk light up.

The Plus is ready for espresso in minutes; the steam wand takes a little longer to master.

The real difference in week one was the learning curve. My first Prestige cappuccino was good straight away. My first Magenta Plus cappuccino was, honestly, a bubbly mess.

By the end of week one I was steaming reasonable microfoam on the Plus, and by week three I was pouring simple hearts. The Prestige foam on day 28 was the same as on day one: consistent and pleasant, but fixed.

My milk drink scores across the month

Rated out of 10 for foam texture and taste. The Plus line is my own steaming progress.

Our tip: Practice steaming on the Plus with water and a drop of dish soap first, because it behaves like milk and you won't waste a carton learning the whirlpool.

Display and controls

Both machines use a flat touch display on the front, and both are easy to read. Each drink has its own icon, and a strength and size setting sits next to it.

The Magenta Plus keeps it simple: espresso, coffee, Americano, hot water and steam. There's a two-cup mode for doubling espresso and coffee.

The Magenta Prestige uses a color touch display with 11 one-touch drinks plus hot water. That means 12 buttons' worth of choice, which sounds like a lot but stays tidy because each drink has a clear icon.

The Prestige's color touch display shows 11 one-touch drinks plus hot water.

Both let you set strength in five levels and adjust the volume of each drink. Both save your changes until you reset them.

Neither has user profiles or an app. For a couple who drink the same few drinks, that didn't matter. For a family of four, the Prestige's bigger menu made up for it.

Our tip: Set the strength first and the volume second on either machine, because a shorter drink at strength 4 tastes far better than a long one at strength 5.

Grinder, dose and brew group

This is where the two machines are identical, which is why their espresso tastes the same.

Both use ceramic flat burrs✕Ceramic flat burrsTwo flat grinding discs made of ceramic. They stay cooler than steel and keep their edge for a very long time. with five steps, from 1, the finest, to 5, the coarsest. The adjustment knob sits inside the bean hopper.

Ceramic stays cooler than steel under load and keeps its edge for a very long time. Gaggia rates the grinder for around 15,000 shots, which is about 20 years of two drinks a day.

With a medium-dark blend, step 2 gave me the best balance of body and sweetness on both. Light roasts worked too, but needed step 1 and strength 4 or 5.

The Plus and Prestige share the same ceramic grinder and removable brew group.

Both use a removable brew group✕Brew groupThe part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck. On Gaggia machines it slides out for rinsing.. It slides out from the side and rinses under the tap in a minute.

The hopper holds a little over half a pound. That's enough for roughly 25 to 30 single shots, which means beans don't sit in the machine for weeks going stale.

Our tip: Only turn the grind knob while the grinder is running, because turning it with the burrs stopped can jam beans and stress the gears.

Espresso quality

With the same beans on the same settings, I could not tell the two machines apart in a blind taste. That makes sense, since everything that touches the coffee is the same.

Both run a 15-bar pump. Once the puck creates resistance, the coffee sees roughly the classic 9-bar espresso target.

With a medium-dark blend at strength 3 and grind step 2, my 1-ounce shots ran in about 25 seconds on both. The espresso had a thick, hazelnut-colored 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, cocoa finish.

Same grinder, same brew group, same espresso: I couldn't tell them apart blind.

There was none of the sour edge some machines give on day one. Both were consistent shot to shot, with crema that held for several minutes.

My espresso ratings

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

Americano and long coffee

A proper Americano is espresso plus hot water. Running a whole mug of water through the coffee tends to over-extract it and taste bitter.

Both Magentas do it properly. They keep the extraction short and add water afterward through a separate path, so a 10-ounce mug still tastes clean.

I pressed Americano and about 50 seconds later I had a 10-ounce mug. I saved mine at strength 4 with a medium roast and never went back to the Coffee button for large cups.

A 10-ounce Americano took about 50 seconds and tasted clean to the last sip.

The one difference: the Plus has a two-cup mode for its Americano, while the Prestige doesn't. For two Americanos on the Prestige, you simply run it twice.

On High, long coffees came out between about 175°F and 190°F in my cup, depending on how warm the cup was. That is hot enough to drink right away without scalding.

Our tip: Warm your mug with a splash of hot water before an Americano, because a cold mug can drop the drink by 15 degrees in a minute.

Milk drinks: steam wand vs carafe

This is the whole matchup in one section.

Magenta Plus: a real steam wand

The Plus has a commercial-style steam wand. Press Steam on the display, then Start, and the boiler needs about 30 seconds to reach steam temperature.

Four ounces of cold whole milk took me 40 to 50 seconds to texture and heat. That's slow enough to give you plenty of control, which is great when you're learning.

A cappuccino took about three minutes from start to finish, including wiping the wand. Here's the routine that worked for me:

Milk tastes sweetest around 140°F, because that's where we notice its natural sugar most. Push much past 160°F and the sweetness fades.

Magenta Prestige: a smart carafe

The Prestige carafe holds about 16.9 ounces, enough for four or five cappuccinos. You fill it, clip it on and press a drink.

The clever part is the order. The Prestige pours milk first for a latte macchiato and espresso first for a cappuccino, the way a barista would.

The Prestige pours milk first or coffee first, depending on the drink.

Its foam was fine and creamy, with small bubbles and a gentle sweetness. The flat white uses a true double shot, and I saved mine at strength 4 with slightly less milk than the factory setting.

Time to a finished cappuccino

From pressing start to the first sip, including cleaning. Shorter is better.

Hot water and tea

Both machines dispense hot water at one touch, and both are handy for tea and topping up Americanos.

On the Plus, hot water comes from the steam wand. On the Prestige, it comes from a dedicated spout, so tea never picks up a trace of milk.

The water was hot enough for black tea on both in my use. It's cup-sized, so filling a big teapot means pressing the button a few times.

Our tip: On the Plus, run a few seconds of steam through the wand before pouring tea water, because it clears any milk left in the tip.

Cleaning and upkeep

On the coffee side, they're the same. Both rinse when they switch on and off, both have a 15-puck drawer and both have a brew group you slide out and rinse once a week.

The milk side is where the Plus wins. You wipe the steam wand with a damp cloth and run a second of steam through it, and you're done.

The Prestige carafe needs more care. After a milk session, you run Quick Clean, which took about 20 seconds, and then the carafe goes back in the fridge.

The Prestige carafe needs a Quick Clean after each session and a full wash every day or two.

Once a day or two, the carafe needs a full wash by hand. It comes apart into a handful of pieces, and it took me about three minutes.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

My estimate for two milk drinks and two black coffees a day.

The puck drawer was the more surprising chore on the Prestige. Every flat white uses two pucks, so the 15-puck drawer filled in a few days.

Our tip: Empty the puck drawer every morning on the Prestige, because double-shot drinks fill its 15 slots twice as fast as you expect.

Spent coffee pucks make a useful addition to a compost pile in small amounts, so the drawer doesn't have to go straight in the trash.

Noise

Both machines are quiet for super-automatics. The grinder runs briefly, and the brew group movement is soft rather than clunky.

Neither one woke anyone in my house at 6:30 a.m. The Plus steam wand was the loudest sound of the month, with the classic hiss of a commercial wand.

How loud each felt, my ranking

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

Water, beans and supplies

Both use the same 60-ounce tank, the same filter and the same descaler, so running costs are equal for coffee.

For two people, the tank lasted about three days on both machines. The puck drawer, not the tank, set the pace of refills on the Prestige.

Drinks per full tank

Rough maths allowing for rinse water. Your numbers depend on cup size.

Use fresh whole beans within a few weeks of the roast date. Medium and medium-dark roasts worked best on both.

Avoid very oily or flavored beans. They can clog ceramic burrs and the dosing chute over time.

The slim body leaves room on the counter for a milk pitcher.

Real-life scenarios

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

For daily milk drinks in a shared kitchen, the Prestige was the easier machine.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10. The first four come from my single reviews of each machine, and I added drink range and upkeep because they decide this matchup.

Magenta Plus

Magenta Prestige

Overall, I rate the Magenta Plus 8.0 and the Magenta Prestige 8.4. The espresso is a tie; the milk system, and how much effort you want to put into it, decides everything else.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: do you want to make your milk, or have the machine make it? Answer that honestly and the choice makes itself.

If you're comparing the wider range, my best Gaggia super-automatic guide ranks every model I tested, from the Brera to the Accademia.

For espresso lovers and would-be latte artists, the Plus earns its place.

Magenta Plus vs Prestige specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday coffee maker for four weeks, making espresso, Americanos, long coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, flat whites and tea water.

I timed shots, Americanos and full milk drinks, measured cup and milk temperatures with a probe thermometer, steamed whole, 2%, skim, oat and almond milk, and tracked how long the tank and puck drawer lasted.

I ran every cleaning routine and then compared my notes with Gaggia's specifications and owner documentation. Michael Reynolds wrote up the notes from both test periods.

• Coffee: dose, shot time, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature, speed and learning curve.
• Workflow: display, drink menu and daily routine.
• Ownership: noise, cleaning, water care and footprint.