Philips 2200 Series: the entry model and what it leaves out

The shared Philips body, in numbers

Tank, hopper and grinder figures are the ones Philips gives for its dearer series, so choosing the 2200 costs you no capacity. The 1.8 l tank gives 15 cups of 120 ml per fill before rinse cycles: several days for one or two people, a day or two for a household of four. The 275 g hopper takes a 250 g bag with room to spare, a little more than the De’Longhi Magnifica models hold.

Philips gives 24.6 cm wide, 37.1 cm high and 43.3 cm deep. That is narrow but not low: of the bean-to-cup machines in our UK database, only the Siemens EQ.6 plus s300 is taller. Check the gap under your wall cupboards and allow for filling the hopper. If space decides it, our compact bean-to-cup comparison sorts the field by verified width and depth. At 7.5 kg it is the lightest bean-to-cup machine we list for the UK.

• Philips Series 2200 EP2220/10275 g
• De'Longhi Magnifica S ECAM 22.110.B250 g
• De'Longhi Magnifica Start ECAM 222.20.B250 g

Milk: a classic frother

The EP2220/10 has what Philips calls a classic milk frother. In our table it sits under “steam wand” because the principle is the same: the machine supplies steam, you hold the jug. No carafe to wash, no cappuccino button.

For occasional milk drinks that is perfectly reasonable. For a daily flat white habit it is the wrong tool, and the sensible step up within Philips is the 3300 LatteGo, which has the same body with an automatic milk system.

Better documented than its rivals

On the grinder, the 2200 is unusually well documented for its bracket. Philips states 12 grind settings and a ceramic grinder. What a grind setting changes, and when to touch it, is covered in our grind size guide. Two cautions: the number of settings says nothing about how evenly a grinder grinds, and Philips does not specify whether the burrs are flat or conical.

Controls are a touch-sensitive panel. It is a panel of keys, not a graphical screen. Philips lists 2 programmed drinks, espresso and coffee, plus hot water. There are no user profiles and Philips answers “no” on connectivity.

The brew group is removable according to Philips, so you can rinse it under the tap. See the cleaning guide and, for limescale, the descaling guide.

Variants and the rest of the Philips range

The data here describes the EP2220/10, which Philips lists as current in the UK. A few things to know:

• Colour variants. The EP2221/40 and EP2224/40 are the same machine in other finishes according to Philips’s data. We have not confirmed them for the UK.
• LatteGo versions. A 2200 with the LatteGo carafe exists (EP2230/10 in Germany and France, EP2231/40 in France). The EP2231/40 has been withdrawn from Philips’s UK catalogue. The milk system and drinks count on this page do not apply to those versions.
• Up the range. The 3300, 5400 and 5500 series share the 2200’s pump pressure, power, tank, hopper, grind settings, grinder material and width in Philips’s data. What changes is the number of programmed drinks, the interface, user profiles and the milk system. Our Philips range comparison lays that out series by series.

Its closest rival from another brand is the De’Longhi Magnifica S: same price bracket, manual frothing on both. The differences are in Magnifica S vs Philips 2200.

The gaps in Philips’s data

• Burr shape. “Ceramic” is all Philips says.
• Heating system. Not published for this series.
• Noise. No decibel figure. It is one of the measurements we plan to make ourselves; until then we make no claim.
• Maximum cup height. Not in the data we read, so our table shows not stated.

The warranty, for once, is not among the gaps: Philips’s UK product data gives two years. To see how the 2200 fits your own habits, try the machine finder; to see what a cup costs with your beans, the cost per cup calculator. For the other brands, start with the bean-to-cup comparison.