The full story
By the Espresso Rated editors · Published Nov 13, 2026
The 5400 sits at the top of Philips' LatteGo range, with a ceramic grinder, a colour display and the tube-free milk container. Almost all the praise is for how easy it is to use and clean. The disagreements are about the strength of the coffee, the texture of the foam and the plastic it is made of.
A button for each of 12 drinks, and profiles that keep the household's settings7.9/10
Ease of use is the 5400's strongest suit, and it is consistently praised. The 12 drinks sit as fixed icons around a colour display, and one press starts any of them. Craft Coffee Spot calls the control panel "very high quality and intuitive"1.
“you can literally just push this button and it will make that drink no fuss no mess”
The profiles are what separate it from simpler machines. Each person adjusts strength, coffee volume and milk once, and the machine remembers the result under their profile.2 Coffee Kev likes that volumes are set in millilitres and come out consistently. The 1,8 l tank slides out from the front, so the machine can stay under a cabinet at refill time.
There are catches. The drink icons are printed on the panel and only the navigation is touch-sensitive, so you cannot rearrange or swap the drinks on show.3 The setup instructions leave out a few steps, and TechRadar warns that getting started "can be frustrating"4. There is no app, and oily, shiny dark beans should stay out of the hopper.
A milk container that rinses in seconds, and a drip tray the rinse cycles keep filling7.6/10
Cleaning is widely liked, and the LatteGo container is the reason. It is two pieces with no tubes, so it pulls apart, rinses under the tap or goes in the dishwasher.5 Chris Stead points out that the lid simply sits loose on top with no hinge to scrub around.
The rest of the upkeep is prompted from the screen. A clean menu offers a quick rinse, a normal clean and a full descale, and the brew group lifts out for a rinse about once a week. Philips' water filter pushes descaling a long way into the future if you keep it fresh.
The cost of all that automatic rinsing is water in the tray. The machine flushes itself each time it switches on, and the drip tray fills quickly as a result.6 Stead wishes a sensor told him when to empty it. Coffee Kev tired of the machine's repeated requests to fit a filter, and Homes & Gardens notes there are plenty of small parts to keep track of at the sink.
Full-bodied and aromatic in some cups, weak espresso and americano in others6.6/10
Drink quality divides opinion, and the split is about strength. Coffeeness has no complaint about the espresso, calling it "complex, full-bodied and aromatic"7. TechRadar, Chris Stead and RJB Picks are all happy with what ends up in the cup. Coffee Kev is not.
“The espresso it makes appears to be among the weakest I've had from a beans cup coffee machine.”
His americano was weak too, even at the highest strength and lowest volume. Craft Coffee Spot points to a cause: the holes in the brew head are too large to let the grounds extract properly.8 Homes & Gardens wanted more punch even from an intense double shot, and Coffeeness finds the longer coffees thin.
There are ways to help it. Set the grinder finer than it arrives, run the strength at maximum and use the extra shot option where a drink offers it. Golf Sky found the shots very consistent once the grinder had broken in. If you want manual control over the espresso, this is the wrong kind of machine.
Thick cappuccino foam at a button press, with large bubbles and a channel to wash promptly6.9/10
The milk system suits some drinkers and not others. It makes creamy foam with almost no effort, and Homes & Gardens could barely tell its oat milk cappuccino from the dairy one. The foam is thick and well suited to a cappuccino, but you cannot control its texture, and it is not the microfoam latte art needs.9 Coffeeness judges the bubbles large and the creaminess mediocre.
The container needs washing soon after use. RJB Picks found that milk left sitting in the channel can curdle, and the machine ends up "spitting out chunks of half-curdled milk"10. Treat it as something you fill for the drink in hand, not a jug to leave standing.
The smaller complaints are about fit. The milk spout does not turn, so the cup has to sit carefully between it and the coffee spout. It makes one milk drink at a time, a tall latte glass will not fill to the top, and the level markings on the container are hard to read.
Tidy plastic that feels solid to some, with a wobbly tray front and hairline cracks on record5.8/10
The build divides opinion, mostly over the plastic. TechRadar credits it with "fantastic build quality"11, and Golf Sky finds it solid despite the lack of metal. The ceramic grinder is singled out as the durable part of the machine.
Coffee Kev's first impression was the opposite: "slightly flimsy and clumsy in some ways"12, with a wobbly plastic piece in front of the drip tray. ECS Coffee, a store that sells the machine, thought the water tank felt a little flimsy. Myles Off-Grid, after long daily use, shows "micro cracking in the plastic from all the heat cycling"13 on the milk container.
Evidence on the long run is thin, so treat both the praise and the cracks as early signs. Measure the counter before buying. At 37,2 × 24,6 × 43,3 cm it is deeper than it looks, and TechRadar found it can sit close to the worktop's edge.
Fair for the display and profiles, with cheaper Philips siblings that brew the same coffee7.6/10
Value is widely liked. TechRadar calls it "fantastic value for what you get"14, and Homes & Gardens judges the upgrades over the cheaper models worth the step up. The ceramic grinder is unusual at this level.
The caveat comes from inside Philips' own range. Craft Coffee Spot notes that the 5400 shares its internal components with the brand's other automatics, so the extra money buys the display, the longer drink list and the profiles, not better coffee.15 A household of one or two that drinks the same thing every day may not need any of them.
Prices also vary a good deal by country and by season. Coffee Kev finds it a bargain at one market's price and unconvincing at another's, so check what the simpler LatteGo models cost on the day you buy.
Our verdict
Buy the 5400 LatteGo if several people will use it, most of the drinks have milk in them and easy cleaning matters more than espresso strength. Skip it if you drink short black coffee and want it bold, or if latte-art foam is the goal. Before paying for the top model, ask whether you will use the profiles and the longer drink list, since the cheaper Philips machines share its internals. In the shop, pull out the tank and the drip tray and judge the plastic for yourself.
8 sources quoted in this story (15 notes)
- 1craftcoffeespot.com · written review “This is the really nice highlight of the 5400, as the control panel is very high quality and intuitive.”
- 2Golf Sky · 1:56 “Once you've dialed in your preferred coffee strength, milk amount, and temperature, the machine remembers everything.”
- 3Coffee Kev · 2:43 “It's very intuitive. It's bright and quick and it's really easy to set up.” but “With the screen being printed, you can't switch around the drinks that are on the screen. And I think some people will find this annoying.”
- 4techradar.com · written review “Its easy-to-use LCD display lets you control the amount of coffee, water, and milk you want” but “Setting up the machine can be frustrating, as the instructions omitted a few important points”
- 5ECS COFFEE Espresso & Coffee Gear · 2:23 “two-part milk uh container system that has no tubes that you have to worry about cleaning”
- 6craftcoffeespot.com · written review “There aren’t any tubes, so cleaning and maintenance is extremely easy.” but “It does fill up quite quickly given the additional rinsing cycles.”
- 7coffeeness.de · written review “However, I have nothing at all against the espresso from the Philips. It’s complex, full-bodied and aromatic.” but “Still, even with this trick, I find the café crema and its relatives once again too thin.”
- 8craftcoffeespot.com · written review “the brew head (the main part holding coffee in the machine) has too big of holes that don’t allow proper extraction of the coffee grounds”
- 9craftcoffeespot.com · written review “The coffee machine created a nice, thick froth that’s especially good for cappuccinos.” but “However, you don’t have any control over the froth, and it can’t create the microfoam needed for latte art.”
- 10RJB Picks · 3:37 “for cleaning out any uh old milk residue, it is just a case of giving that a wipe or chucking it in the dishwasher.” but “the milk that does sit in that channel can curdle a little bit, and then the milk is trying to draw through, and it ends up spitting out chunks of half-curdled milk.”
- 11techradar.com · written review “The Philips 5400 LatteGo has fantastic build quality with a breadth of choice in what it can make”
- 12Coffee Kev · 1:20 “My first impression was that it's slightly flimsy and clumsy in some ways. This wobbly plastic piece sitting in front of the drip tray.”
- 13Myles Off-Grid · 3:57 “you can see some micro cracking in the plastic from all the heat cycling”
- 14techradar.com · written review “Despite these minor setbacks, the 5400 LatteGo offers fantastic value for what you get, making it an easy recommendation.”
- 15craftcoffeespot.com · written review “The ceramic grinder is high quality and hard to find at this price range.” but “The Philips 5400 has the same internal components as other Philips super-automatic machines, so ask yourself if it’s worth the additional price for the display.”
