Philips 4300 vs 5500: which premium LatteGo should you buy?

Philips 4300 vs 5500 at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my testing and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the machines are level have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on what you drink.

Design, size and build

From across the room, these two are almost twins. Both are slim, upright bean-to-cup✕Bean-to-cupA machine that grinds whole beans, doses, tamps and brews the coffee for you, all in one box. You press a button and fresh coffee comes out. machines about 14.6 inches tall and 17 inches deep.

The Philips 4300 is about 9.6 inches wide, and the Philips 5500 about 9.7 inches. Neither needs more counter space than a large toaster.

The 5500 weighs about 17.6 lb. It feels a little more finished, with a full-color display, a cup light and a hopper lid with a rubber seal that turns out to matter for noise.

The 4300 is slim and simple, with a color display that shows real volumes in milliliters.

Both have the water tank at the front, so nothing needs to come off the top except beans. Under standard wall cabinets, both fitted with a few centimeters to spare for the hopper lid.

The housings are mostly plastic on both. After 20 minutes of back-to-back drinks, the 5500’s case was still cool to the touch.

Width on the counter

Both fit a standard 24-inch-deep counter with room to spare.

Our tip: Measure your cabinet clearance and leave a few extra centimeters for the hopper lid, because you will open it every couple of days.

Setup and the first week

Setup on the 4300 was the easiest of any Philips machine I have tested. My first latte macchiato came out about 20 minutes after I opened the box.

The 5500 took about 10 minutes, including the water hardness test, fitting the AquaClean✕AquaClean filterPhilips’ water filter cartridge. It sits in the tank, softens the water and, if you change it when the machine asks, Philips says you can go up to 5,000 cups before you need to descale. filter and priming it.

On both, early cups were thinner while the grinder and brew group✕Brew groupThe removable part inside the machine that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then drops the used puck in the drawer. bedded in. The 5500 got noticeably better after about a dozen brews.

The 5500 walks you through water hardness, the filter and priming in about 10 minutes.

Our tip: Set up every person’s profile on day one on either machine, because the factory defaults run long and everyone tunes their drink differently.

Display, buttons and profiles

Neither machine has a touchscreen. Both use a color display with soft-touch buttons around it, and nobody in my house needed instructions.

The 4300 has one feature I wish every machine had. When you adjust coffee or milk, it shows the real volume in milliliters, such as 40 ml for an espresso or 150 ml for a coffee.

That made it easy to write down favorite recipes and repeat them. On the 5500, you adjust in size levels instead.

Profiles

The Philips 4300 has two user profiles plus a guest slot. Each saves strength, coffee volume and milk volume for every drink, but you can’t rename them or add more.

The 5500 has four color-coded profiles in blue, green, red and yellow, plus a guest profile that doesn’t overwrite anyone’s settings. Each stores settings for every recipe.

With two of us testing, the 4300 was enough. When friends stayed for a weekend, they all landed in the 4300’s single guest slot and kept changing each other’s drinks.

The drink menu: 8 vs 20

This is the headline difference. The 4300 makes eight one-touch drinks: espresso, ristretto✕RistrettoA very short, concentrated espresso made with less water. It is sweeter and thicker than a normal shot., coffee, americano, caffè crema, cappuccino, latte macchiato and café au lait.

The 5500 adds espresso lungo, caffè latte, flat white and a whole iced menu, for 20 recipes in total. It also does hot water and frothed milk on their own.

One-touch drinks per category

Counted from each machine’s menu. Hot water is not included.

The extra shot is the quiet difference. On the 4300, it only works on black coffee drinks, so you can’t strengthen a cappuccino beyond the top strength level.

On the 5500, the strongest setting plus Extra Shot made my milk drinks taste noticeably more of coffee. If you drink cappuccinos, that alone is a good reason to step up.

With 20 drinks, the 5500 covers everything from ristretto to iced cappuccino.

Grinder and dose

Both use 100% ceramic burrs✕Ceramic burrsGrinding parts made of ceramic instead of steel. They stay sharp for a long time and produce less heat, which helps protect the coffee’s aroma. with 12 grind settings, adjusted by a dial inside the bean hopper. Philips rates the 4300’s grinder for about 20,000 cups.

The factory setting is medium on both. With my medium-dark blend, I ended up two steps finer for espresso and ristretto on both machines.

On the 4300, I went one step coarser than my espresso setting for caffè crema. On the 5500, dark, oily roasts worked better a step or two coarser, and they tended to cling in the hopper.

Espresso quality

Both make a smooth, easy-drinking espresso rather than a thick café shot. That is normal for this kind of machine, and I measured how normal.

On the 5500, my refractometer read 4.5% to 5.5% TDS✕TDS (total dissolved solids)How much coffee is dissolved in the drink, measured with a refractometer. A café espresso from a portafilter machine usually reads between 8% and 12%.. A typical portafilter espresso sits between 8% and 12%, so the shot is about half as concentrated.

At the hottest setting, the 5500’s espresso measured about 176°F at the spout. It tasted smooth and clean, if a little light on its own.

The 4300’s ristretto, at the strongest setting and smallest volume, was my favorite morning shot.

The 4300’s best drink was its ristretto. At the strongest strength, the smallest volume and a warm cup, it was sweet and chocolatey with my blend, and it became my morning shot.

My partner preferred the 4300’s medium temperature for long coffees. I kept espresso and ristretto on high, and the three temperature settings made that easy.

Espresso strength compared

Refractometer readings on the 5500 against a typical café espresso.

My espresso ratings

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

Our tip: Choose the strongest strength with the smallest volume for espresso on both machines, because it was the fullest, sweetest shot either one could make.

Americano and long coffee

Both have a real americano button, which pulls an espresso and then adds hot water instead of pushing a whole mug of water through the grounds.

That matters, because too much water through too little coffee tastes bitter and drying.

On the 4300, the americano with an extra shot became my afternoon favorite. I set it to strong with a medium amount of water and saved it to my profile.

On the 5500, a double espresso topped with hot water beat the longest coffee setting every time. Its caffè crema is the better choice if you want a long, mild cup with a little crema on top.

Our tip: Use the extra shot on the americano rather than the coffee button on the 4300, because a second short shot tastes fuller than one long extraction.

Milk drinks

Both use Philips’ LatteGo✕LatteGoPhilips’ tube-free milk jug. Milk is pulled up and mixed with steam and air inside the jug itself, so there are no tubes to clean. The parts snap apart and go in the dishwasher. jug. You fill it with cold milk, clip it to the front, press a drink and steam froths the milk straight into the cup.

There are no tubes. The 4300’s jug has three pieces, and the 5500’s comes apart in two, and both go in the dishwasher.

Temperature: the real difference

The 4300’s milk drinks stayed in the 60 to 65°C band, or 140 to 150°F, in my testing. That is the range where milk tastes sweetest.

Research from the University of Camerino found the best-distributed bubbles in milk foam at around 60°C, which matches what I tasted.

The 5500 runs hotter. Its frothed milk measured about 75°C, or 167°F. That is great if you like a piping hot cappuccino, and a touch less sweet if you don’t.

My probe readings and a general guide to milk temperature.

Foam and drinks

Both make thick, airy foam rather than fine microfoam, so neither is a latte art machine. Whole milk gave the richest results on both, and barista oat milk foamed almost as well.

The 5500 adds a one-touch flat white and caffè latte. Its milk spout is fixed and can’t be angled, so I had to sit the cup further forward on the drip tray, and wide mugs were easiest.

The 4300’s three milk drinks are cappuccino, latte macchiato and café au lait. Its latte macchiato scored best of the three in my notes, and its foam control scored lowest, because you can’t change the foam texture.

The 5500’s milk comes out hot, at about 167°F, with thick, airy foam.

My milk drink ratings on the 4300

My scores out of 10.

Our tip: Keep the LatteGo jug filled and lidded in the fridge on either machine, because cold milk foams thicker and the jug is ready for the next drink.

Iced drinks

The 4300 has no iced button. I made iced lattes by brewing a ristretto into a glass, letting it cool for a minute, then adding ice and cold milk.

The 5500 has five iced recipes: iced coffee, iced latte, iced cappuccino, iced americano and iced espresso. It tells you how much ice to add, then pours the coffee and, if needed, cold-frothed milk.

It is not a cold brew machine, though. The coffee for iced drinks is brewed at about 60°C, or 140°F, and poured over ice, so it dilutes.

In my testing, iced americanos and iced espressos held up best. Iced lattes and cappuccinos were the most diluted, and cold milk foams less than hot.

My iced drink ratings on the 5500, out of 10, by how well they held up.

Our tip: Use large ice cubes and the maximum strength for iced drinks on the 5500, because warm coffee melts small cubes fast and waters the drink down.

Speed and warm-up

The 5500 is the faster machine to get going. With QuickStart, it was ready about 20 to 25 seconds after I switched it on, and it skips the hot water rinse at power-up.

On the 4300, black coffee from switching on took about 1 minute 56 seconds. A cappuccino including handling and cleanup took about 2 minutes 57 seconds.

Stopwatch times from my testing.

For multi-drink mornings on the 5500, the bottleneck wasn’t the machine. The jug needs a refill every one or two milk drinks, and the drip tray and grounds container fill up fast.

Cleaning and upkeep

Both are easy on the coffee side. The brew group comes out of the side, you rinse it under lukewarm water with no soap, and you grease the rails with food-grade lubricant every couple of months.

The 4300 wants that rinse weekly. The 5500 only needed it every two weeks, which is one fewer job a month.

The 5500 skips the start-up rinse but still rinses when you power off. The 4300 rinses both ways.

The milk side

This is where the 4300 caught us out. There is no prompt to rinse the milk system after a drink, so you start it from the menu yourself, and my partner and I both forgot twice in the first week.

On the 5500, rinsing meant separating the two-part jug and holding it under the tap for about 10 seconds. The jug isn’t airtight, so rinse it straight after use.

The 5500’s two-part LatteGo jug rinses clean in about 10 seconds.

My estimate of hands-on time per day, not counting automatic rinses.

With the AquaClean filter replaced on time, Philips says both can go up to 5,000 cups before descaling✕DescalingRunning a mild acid through the machine to dissolve the mineral scale that hard water leaves behind in the heater and pipes.. Without it, very hard water means descaling roughly once a month.

Our tip: Do the brew group rinse on the same day as a filter change or descale, so the whole maintenance routine happens in one go.

Noise

The 5500 is the quieter machine, and I measured it carefully. With the hopper lid sealed, the grinder read 59 to 60 dB at about a meter, which is roughly normal conversation.

With the lid off, the same grind jumped to 71 dB. The rubber seal on the lid does real work, so close it properly every time.

Milk frothing on the 5500 measured about 60 dB and the pump about 58 dB. Nobody in my house woke up to it during the whole test.

The 4300 makes a short, firm burst when grinding and a steady hiss when frothing. It never felt harsh, but it was clearly the louder machine at 6 a.m.

5500 readings with a decibel meter at about 1 meter. About 60 dB is a normal conversation.

Water, beans and supplies

Both have a 1.8-liter tank and a 275-gram hopper and use the same AquaClean filters, so running costs are almost identical. The filter takes up a little of the 5500’s usable tank volume.

On the 4300, one tank gave me about 35 espressos or ristrettos, about 28 latte macchiatos or about 13 mugs of coffee. For our household, it lasted about two days on both machines.

Rough maths from my 4300 testing, allowing for rinses.

The 5500’s grounds container holds about 12 pucks before it alerts you, and its 260 ml jug holds enough milk for one or two drinks.

Medium, dry-looking roasts gave the most consistent results on both. Avoid oily or flavored beans, which can clog ceramic burrs, and put the spent grounds in the compost.

Same tank, hopper and filters, so running costs are almost identical.

Our tip: Close the 5500’s hopper lid firmly after every refill, because the seal is what keeps its grinder at conversation level.

Real-life scenarios

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

For two people with a few favorite drinks, the 4300 does everything you need.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10 from my single reviews of each machine.

Philips 4300

Philips 5500

Overall, I rate the 5500 8.5 and the 4300 8.3. The 5500 wins almost every row, and the 4300 is the simpler machine for a smaller household.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: how many people, and how many different drinks? Two people with a few favorites will be happy with the 4300. Anything more, and the 5500 earns its place. Still weighing other options? I rank every model I’ve tested in my guide to the best Philips espresso machines.

For the rest of the range, see my Philips 3300 vs 5500 comparison, or read my full Philips 4300 review and Philips 5500 review.

For families and iced coffee fans, the 5500 is the easier machine to share.

Philips 4300 vs 5500 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, ristretto, americanos, long coffee and cappuccinos on both, latte macchiatos and café au lait on the 4300, and flat whites, caffè latte and the full iced menu on the 5500.

I measured espresso and milk temperatures with a probe thermometer, espresso strength with a refractometer, noise with a decibel meter at about a meter and drink times with a stopwatch.

I foamed whole, skimmed and barista oat milk, worked through the grind range with three roasts, ran every cleaning and descaling routine and then compared my notes with Philips’ specifications and owner documentation.

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