Very good looking, rather quite when brewing and most important of all it makes very good espresso. The grouphead and boiler are all brass
Negative Product Points
it does not have a 3 way solenoid valve.
Detailed Commentary
We have this baby for 3 months now and we're very pleased with it. It brews irresistible espresso with groundcoffee. It works great with Illy pods the results are great and you get consistent results (My lady loves it). I prefer the groundcoffee method, the results are way above those you get from the pods, but it takes some more time. The grind MUST be very fine, think of the 20 to 25 sec range to get the results that you want (The crema is abundant).TIP: use a good grinder. Keep in mind that this is a espresso machine not made of plastic except for the steam knob and water reservoir. That means, the machine needs some time to heat up properly +- 15 min, the first shot must be a blank to heat up the portafilter some more. Heat, is realy that important when it comes to espresso. We don't use the steam function, but we do use the hot water function. In my opnion you can't go wrong with the X5. There are many people who are complaining in the reviews about FFX series (leaking, not hot, materials inside etc...). I think that Françis Françis has it all sort out with the X5. Hoping that the next model will have a 3 way solenoid valve and an auto refill function for the boiler.
