Philips 3300 LatteGo: five drinks, one 0.26-litre carafe

The number to dwell on: 0.26 litres

The LatteGo container holds 0.26 l. If a cappuccino takes 100 to 120 ml of milk, which is our assumption and varies with the recipe, one fill covers about two drinks. For a couple that is fine. For four latte macchiatos in a row, expect to refill part-way.

The rest of the machine is sized like the 2200. The 1.8 l tank gives about 15 black coffees of 120 ml, and milk drinks draw less water per cup, though rinsing takes its share either way. The 275 g hopper takes a 250 g bag with room left over. The body measures 24.6 cm wide, 37.1 cm high and 43.3 cm deep, the same figures Philips gives for the 2200, and weighs 8 kg, half a kilo more.

How LatteGo differs from a hose

LatteGo is Philips’s automatic milk system. According to Philips the carafe is made of two parts and has no tubes, which is the company’s answer to the fiddliest job on any milk machine: cleaning the path the milk takes. We cannot tell you how that works out at the sink, because we have not used it; what the data does show is a different design from a hose-fed system such as the one on the Siemens EQ.6 plus s300.

Whatever the system, milk needs dealing with after every session. The cleaning guide covers the routine, and bean-to-cup machines with a milk system compares carafe, LatteGo and hose designs side by side.

Five drinks or six?

Philips’s spec data lists 5 pre-programmed drinks: espresso, coffee, cappuccino, latte macchiato and iced coffee. The product name says six because Philips adds hot water there. We use the spec figure, and we would not compare it too literally with another brand’s count.

The controls are a touch-sensitive panel, not a graphical screen, and there are no user profiles, so the machine does not keep one set of preferences per person. Philips answers “no” on connectivity.

The grinder is described as ceramic with 12 settings, as on the other Philips series. If you are new to adjusting grind, start with our grind size guide.

The brew group is removable: the manual for the 2300 and 3300 series tells owners to take it out every week and rinse it (Philips user manual, 2300 and 3300 series). That manual is the source for the line in our spec sheet.

Variants and neighbours

The figures here were read on the EP3347/90 (black chrome), which Philips lists in the UK.

• EP3341/50 (black) has the same capacities in Philips’s data but is not in Philips’s UK catalogue. EP3343/50 is the white version.
• EP3324/40 and EP3326/90 are 3300 machines with a classic manual frother instead of LatteGo. This page does not cover them: the milk system is different.
• Below it, the Philips 2200 has the same tank, hopper and grind settings with a manual frother and two programmed drinks.
• Above it, the 5400 LatteGo adds a display, more drinks and user profiles. We go through that step in Philips 3300 vs 5400 LatteGo, and the whole range is in our Philips comparison.
• From De’Longhi, the carafe versions of the Magnifica Evo are the nearest equivalent: seven one-touch drinks by De’Longhi’s count against five programmed here, but no published grind settings.

What the 3300 data leaves open

• Noise. SilentBrew is a name, not a number. Philips gives no decibel figure, so we make no claim; noise is on our list of planned measurements.
• Burr shape and heating system. “Ceramic” is all Philips says about the grinder, and the heating system is not published.

The warranty is on record: two years, in Philips’s UK product data.

One last point on price: this model sits right on the line between our mid-range and upper mid-range brackets. The button on this page shows the current figure. To check the machine against your own habits, use the machine finder and the cost per cup calculator.