Read the model number first
De'Longhi's range is the largest in home espresso, and the names do almost nothing to tell the machines apart. The model numbers do. Anything starting EC is a manual pump machine you operate yourself: EC260 is the Stilosa, EC685 is the Dedica, EC9155 and EC9665 are La Specialista models. Anything starting ESAM, ECAM or EXAM is a bean-to-cup automatic that grinds, doses and brews on its own.
That single split matters more than any feature list, because it decides whether you are buying a hobby or buying a machine that removes one. Everything below sits on one side of it. Prices here are US street or list figures as of July 2026 and move around a lot, particularly on the automatics, which are discounted heavily and often.
The manual machines, and the 51 mm ceiling
The Stilosa (EC260) is the cheap way in at roughly $100. It runs a 15 bar pump into a pressurised basket, has no grinder, and exists to answer one question: do you want this as a hobby? We reviewed it and still think it does that job honestly.
The Dedica DeLuxe (EC685M) is the same idea in a better body at $279.95. It is 6 inches wide, holds 35 oz, uses a 1300 W thermoblock, and is ready about 40 seconds from cold. If your counter space is the binding constraint, this is the machine to look at.
La Specialista is where De'Longhi gets serious. The Arte (EC9155) adds a built-in grinder and non-pressurised baskets at around $450 to $600. The Maestro (EC9665M) is $1,299.95 with a 19 bar pump, eight grind settings plus digital micro-adjustment, a 67.6 oz tank, five bean-dependent temperature profiles, and both a manual steam wand and an automatic milk carafe. It weighs 35.3 lb, which tells you something about how it is built.
Here is the thing nobody puts on the box. Every La Specialista, from the EC9115 up to the EC9885, uses a 51 mm portafilter, and so does the Dedica Maestro. Fifty-eight millimetres is the commercial standard, and it is what the aftermarket is built around: the good baskets, the tampers, the distribution tools. At 51 mm you are limited to what De'Longhi and a handful of third parties make. On a $450 machine that is a reasonable trade. On a $1,300 one it is the reason a Gaggia Classic Pro or a Breville Barista Pro will take you further, even though both cost less.
The Magnifica family, including the Duo that just landed
Magnifica is the volume seller and the name most people mean when they say they want a De'Longhi. The original ESAM3300 is still on sale at roughly $600: 15 bar, a burr grinder with 13 settings, a 60 oz tank, an 8.8 oz bean container, and a panarello wand you froth with yourself. Our review covers where it lands. The short version is that it is unglamorous and it lasts.
The Magnifica Evo (ECAM29043SB) is the modern replacement at around $750. Conical steel burrs, still 13 grind settings, still 60 oz and 8.8 oz, a capacitive touch display, and six or seven one-touch drinks depending on the variant. Watch the variant carefully, because some Evo models ship with a manual frother and others with the automatic LatteCrema carafe, and retailers list both under the same Evo name.
The Magnifica Duo (ECAM33080SXB) arrived on 22 July 2026 at $999.95. It carries two milk carafes rather than one, hot and cool, and brews espresso, drip coffee and cold brew through three separate methods, with cold extraction rated under three minutes. There are 20 preset hot and iced recipes and three user profiles. Grind settings stay at 13.
We would not rush at the Duo. It is a week old, it costs $250 more than an Evo, and what it adds is iced drinks and a second carafe to wash. If your household drinks cold coffee half the year, that is a real answer to a real problem. If it does not, the Evo does the hot half for less, and the ESAM3300 does it for less again.
Above the Magnifica: Eletta, Rivelia, PrimaDonna
The Eletta Explore (ECAM45086S) lists at $1,999.95 and is regularly discounted toward $1,500. Flat ceramic burrs with 13 settings, a thermoblock, a 60 oz tank, a 10.6 oz hopper that does not come out, LatteCrema Hot and Cool, over 50 recipes, Bean Adapt, app connectivity, 24.7 lb, two-year warranty. It is the cold-drink machine of the range and has been since before the Duo existed.
The Rivelia (EXAM44055B and colour variants) is $1,499.95 and solves a genuinely different problem: two removable 250 g bean hoppers you swap in seconds, so a decaf drinker and an espresso drinker can share one machine without emptying it. It has a 3.5 inch touch display, 16 one-touch drinks, LatteCrema Hot and Bean Adapt. If your household runs two beans, nothing else at this price does it as cleanly.
The PrimaDonna Aromatic tops the range at $2,499.95, launched 16 April 2026 and sold through De'Longhi and Williams Sonoma. It is the first De'Longhi to combine Bean Adapt with Adaptive Grinding, so it identifies the beans and adjusts grind, dose and brew temperature on its own, across 38 hot and iced recipes. It won a Red Dot and an iF Design award in 2025.
We will be blunt about the top of this range. Two and a half thousand dollars buys a machine that automates decisions, not one that raises the ceiling on what ends up in the cup. Spend $1,000 on a Breville Barista Pro and a decent grinder and the espresso is better. The PrimaDonna wins when nobody in the house wants to think, and it is worth saying that plenty of households genuinely want exactly that.
What we would actually buy
Under $300, take the Dedica and put the difference into a grinder. It is the only manual De'Longhi we would recommend without a caveat, because at that price the 51 mm portafilter costs you nothing you were going to use anyway.
Around $600 to $750, the Magnifica or the Magnifica Evo is the sensible bean-to-cup, and the older ESAM3300 has a repair record the newer machines have not earned yet. Owners routinely report a decade out of them and replace pumps and valves themselves.
Above $1,000 the picture changes. If you want the best coffee, leave the brand: a Gaggia Classic Pro or a Breville Barista Pro with a Baratza Encore beats anything De'Longhi sells at that price, because of the 51 mm limit on one side and the automation tax on the other. If you want the least work, stay: the Rivelia for two-bean households, the Eletta Explore for cold drinks, the PrimaDonna if the budget genuinely does not matter.