Philips 4300 vs De’Longhi Dinamica Plus: feature by feature

Philips 4300 vs De’Longhi Dinamica Plus 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 two machines are effectively equal have no winner.

The tally is not my verdict. Some rows matter far more than others, and which ones matter depends on who uses the machine.

Design, size and build

On the counter, these two take up almost exactly the same space. Both are a little under 10 inches wide, about 17 inches deep and just over 14 inches tall.

The Philips 4300 has a silver-painted front and a stainless steel drip tray. The body is mostly plastic, but nothing creaked or rattled in four weeks.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus came in a titanium finish with a heavy brushed stainless drip tray cover. That cover didn’t warp, scratch or rattle all month, and it is the most premium-feeling part of either machine.

The 4300’s silver front and stainless drip tray look smarter than Philips’ entry models.

Both load from the front. The water tanks slide out without moving the machine, and both drip trays and grounds drawers come out the front too.

The milk systems change the footprint slightly. The LatteGo jug clips onto the front of the 4300, while the Dinamica Plus’s thermal carafe plugs in on the front left.

Height under your cabinets

Both fit under standard 18-inch wall cabinets, but slide forward to fill the bean hopper.

The Dinamica Plus’s heavy stainless drip tray cover felt the most solid part of either machine.

Our tip: Put a cup under the spouts every time you switch either machine on, because both run a warm rinse through the coffee outlets.

Setup and the first week

Setup is guided on screen on both, and the Philips 4300’s was the easiest Philips setup I have done. The display walked me through filling the tank, adding beans, fitting the AquaClean filter and setting water hardness, then the machine primed and rinsed itself.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus was similar. I chose a language, set water hardness on its four-level scale with the test strip, fitted the filter and let it rinse its circuits.

On both, the first few drinks were weaker while the grinder bedded in. I didn’t judge anything until about the fifth cup.

The biggest difference in week one was how much tuning each needed. The 4300 was good almost straight away, while the Dinamica Plus went from ordinary to excellent once I shortened its default volumes.

We had a latte macchiato from the 4300 about twenty minutes after opening the box, and by the first evening we had each saved a profile and tried every drink.

Our tip: Switch on the eco auto-off on both machines during setup, so they don’t sit hot all morning after your first coffee.

Display, profiles and the app

The Philips 4300’s control panel is its biggest strength. All eight drinks have their own button, and when you press one, the display shows strength, coffee volume and milk volume right away.

Better still, it shows real volumes in milliliters rather than abstract bars. I knew I was getting a 40 ml espresso, which made drinks easy to repeat exactly.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus uses a bright 3.5-inch color touchscreen with a picture for each drink. Its Smart One Touch feature moved my four most-used drinks to the first screen within a week.

Profiles

The 4300 has two profiles plus a guest. The Dinamica Plus has three plus a guest. Each saves its own version of every drink on both machines.

For a couple, two profiles is enough. For a family, the third profile on the Dinamica Plus makes a real difference.

The Dinamica Plus app

The Dinamica Plus pairs with the Coffee Link app. The icon looks like Wi-Fi, but the connection is Bluetooth, so you need to be in or near the kitchen.

The app is where deeper settings live: grind time, water volume and pre-infusion length for each drink. I used it heavily in week one, then barely opened it.

The Dinamica Plus’s touchscreen learns your favorite drinks and moves them to the front.

Our tip: Set up every profile on day one on either machine, before anyone gets used to changing the shared default drinks.

The drink menu: 8 vs 16

The Philips 4300 makes espresso, ristretto, coffee, Americano, caffè crema, cappuccino, latte macchiato and café au lait, plus hot water.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus adds Doppio+, a two-dose Long coffee, flat white, Cappuccino Mix, an Over Ice iced coffee and hot milk, for 16 drinks in all.

One-touch drinks per category

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

My favorite small detail on the Dinamica Plus is Cappuccino Mix✕Cappuccino MixA De’Longhi drink that pours espresso first and milk second, so it blends into a smooth, caramel-colored cappuccino instead of sitting in layers.. It pours espresso first, then milk, so everything blends into a sweet, caramel-colored drink.

The standard cappuccino does it the other way round for clean layers. I preferred the Mix for taste and the standard version for looks.

Grinder and dose

The Philips 4300 grinds with 100% ceramic flat burrs and 12 settings, which Philips rates for about 20,000 cups. It has five aroma strength levels.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus grinds with 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. and 13 settings. Its strength setting controls how long the grinder runs, and at Extra Strong the dry puck weighed about 15 grams.

On the 4300, I ended up two steps finer than the default for espresso and ristretto, and one step coarser for caffè crema.

On the Dinamica Plus, I moved from the middle of the range to setting 3 over a couple of days. The pucks came out dry and firm instead of wet and crumbly, a good sign of a proper extraction.

How my Dinamica Plus espresso improved in week one

Rated out of 10. One change per day.

I set the 4300 two steps finer than default for its best espresso.

Our tip: Turn the grind knob only while the grinder is running on either machine, one click at a time, and judge the result two drinks later.

Espresso quality

This is where the Dinamica Plus pulled ahead, but only after I tuned it.

Straight from the factory, its espresso was long and a bit weak. I set the strength to Extra Strong, the grinder to 3 and cut the espresso to about 0.7 fluid ounces, roughly a 1:3 brew ratio✕Brew ratioThe weight of coffee grounds compared with the weight of liquid espresso in the cup. A 1:2 ratio means 15 g of coffee makes about 30 g of espresso..

After that, the crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. It forms when pressure pushes oils and gases out of the coffee. was thick and hazelnut-colored and lasted for minutes. The body was heavy, with rich chocolate notes and low acidity.

On the Philips 4300, the strongest setting with a small volume made a smooth, pleasantly rich espresso. The ristretto button gave a shorter, more concentrated shot that suited my taste better.

Neither matched the Dinamica Plus’s thick body, but both were a clear step up from Philips’ entry models.

My espresso ratings

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

Milk drinks

The two milk systems take opposite approaches, and this is the decision that matters most for daily latte drinkers.

The Philips 4300 uses the LatteGo✕LatteGoPhilips’ milk jug with no tubes. Steam and air spin the milk in a small chamber inside the jug, and the foam pours straight into your cup. jug. You fill it with cold milk, clip it on and choose cappuccino, latte macchiato or café au lait. Steam spins the milk in the jug’s chamber and pours foam straight into the cup.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus uses a double-walled stainless steel LatteCrema✕LatteCremaDe’Longhi’s automatic milk system. A tube draws cold milk into the carafe lid, where steam and air mix with it in a small chamber before it pours into your cup. carafe. A tube draws cold milk up into the lid, and a dial on top sets how much air goes in.

How the foam turned out

The 4300’s cappuccino had a thick, creamy cap, and its latte macchiato poured in clean layers. The foam is automatic and consistent, but there is no way to change its texture.

The Dinamica Plus gave me three textures. On the right-hand setting, foam was dense, glossy and stable; on the left, the milk was smooth and silky, close to real microfoam, which made a genuinely good flat white.

My ratings out of 10 for texture, stability and flexibility.

The thermal carafe is a quiet advantage. I made six cappuccinos in a row for a family breakfast, and the milk was still cold and the sixth drink as dense as the first.

The 4300 can’t add its extra shot to milk drinks. For a stronger cappuccino, I raised the strength to the top level and lowered the milk volume, or brewed a ristretto into the cup first.

The thermal carafe kept milk cold through a whole round of drinks.

Our tip: Keep milk at fridge temperature, around 39°F, on both machines, because warm milk makes big bubbles that collapse fast.

Long coffee, Americano and iced drinks

On the Philips 4300, the coffee button makes a long, mellow cup with a light crema, and the Americano adds hot water to an espresso. Its extra shot works on black coffees, and an Americano with the extra shot became my afternoon favorite.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus has two ways to make a bigger black coffee. Its Coffee button brews through one dose for a tall crema head, while its Long drink grinds and brews twice, ejecting the first puck before the second.

That two-dose Long tasted like a mild, clean filter coffee with low bitterness, because each puck only gives up part of the water.

My ratings out of 10 for flavor and balance in a mug.

Iced coffee

The Dinamica Plus has an Over Ice drink that brews a concentrated coffee at a lower temperature for a full glass of ice. It held its flavor far better than hot espresso poured over ice.

The 4300 has no iced button. I brewed a ristretto, let it cool for a minute and poured it over ice with cold milk, which worked well enough.

An Americano with the extra shot was the 4300’s best long drink.

Our tip: Fill the glass all the way with ice before starting an iced drink on either machine, so the coffee chills instantly instead of melting the ice.

Cleaning and upkeep

The Philips 4300’s LatteGo jug comes apart into three pieces with no tubes or hidden channels, and they are dishwasher-safe. It is the easier milk system to clean.

But the 4300 doesn’t clearly prompt you to rinse the milk system after a milk drink. You go through a few menu steps yourself, and in the first week we forgot it twice.

The De’Longhi Dinamica Plus prompts you after every milk drink to turn the carafe dial to Clean. It flushes the milk path with hot water and steam in about 15 seconds, and then the carafe goes in the fridge. Each evening, I washed the lid parts by hand.

My daily hands-on cleaning time

My estimate of hands-on time per day.

Both have a removable brew unit✕Brew unitThe part that compresses the ground coffee, holds it while water passes through and then ejects the used puck. you rinse under warm water. The 4300’s comes out from a side door. The Dinamica Plus’s sits behind the water tank, so you switch the machine fully off, take the tank out and open a small door.

The Dinamica Plus prompts a carafe clean after every milk drink.

Speed and noise

From switching on, the 4300 made a black coffee in about 1 minute 56 seconds. A cappuccino took about 2 minutes 57 seconds including fitting the jug, the rinse and putting the jug back in the fridge.

The Dinamica Plus ran a 30-second rinse on start-up, then made an espresso in well under a minute and a cappuccino in about a minute and a half, including the clean cycle.

Measured with a stopwatch.

Noise was similar: a short, firm grinder burst on both and a steady hiss while frothing. Neither woke anyone in my apartment.

Water, beans and supplies

The 4300’s 61-ounce tank lasted about two days for two of us, and so did the Dinamica Plus’s 60-ounce tank. Both use a water filter, and Philips says the AquaClean filter, replaced when prompted, can stretch descaling to 5,000 cups.

Drinks per full tank

Rough maths allowing for rinses. Your numbers depend on cup size.

Medium to medium-dark beans suited both grinders best.

Our tip: Choose barista versions of plant milks for both machines, because the added protein and fat make the foam far more stable.

Real-life scenarios

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

For families and milk drinkers, the Dinamica Plus earned its place.

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 milk flexibility because they decide this matchup.

Philips 4300

De’Longhi Dinamica Plus

Overall, I rate the Philips 4300 8.3 and the Dinamica Plus 8.6. The 4300 is the easier first machine; the Dinamica Plus makes the better coffee and milk once it is set up.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: is this a simple machine for two, or a café for the whole house?

For two people who want something easy, the 4300 is hard to beat. For a family that drinks milk drinks every day, the Dinamica Plus is worth the extra setup. For the wider picture beyond this matchup, see my guide to the best Philips espresso machines.

If you’re weighing options, my Philips 3200 vs Dinamica Plus comparison covers the cheaper LatteGo model, and Magnifica Evo vs Dinamica Plus shows the simpler De’Longhi.

For couples and first-time owners, the 4300 is the easy choice.

Philips 4300 vs De’Longhi Dinamica Plus 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 every drink on both menus, from ristretto and caffè crema to Cappuccino Mix, flat whites and iced coffee.

I timed black coffee and cappuccinos, tuned grind, strength and volume, built profiles, used the Coffee Link app for setup, foamed whole, semi-skimmed and oat milk and ran a full guided descale on the 4300.

Michael Reynolds and a second HouseholdMe tester each used their own profile on both machines and wrote the notes together, then compared them with the manufacturers’ specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body and consistency.
• Milk: foam texture, temperature and flexibility.
• Workflow: display, profiles, app and speed.
• Ownership: cleaning, reminders, water care and footprint.