TechSmart News sponsored by the Huawei Global Developer Programme

We’re big fans of bean to cup coffee machines here at the office – how can one not love the convenience and taste of having the machine grind your favourite beans and brew it directly? Philips South Africa recently launched two of these machines to the market and we had the opportunity to see (and taste) the 3200 Series and Saeco Xelsis in action.

The 3200 Series (pictured at top) is set to be released in SA this coming Black Friday and serves up five different types of coffees. This includes the most important ones in our books - latte macchiato, cappuccino, coffee, espresso, and americano. The machine offers a touch-screen, while you can also adjust the aroma strength, amount of coffee and the frothiness of your choice. If you’ve ever used one of these units that contains a milk carafe, you know that cleaning it can be a pain. The LatteGo system on the 3200 Series pops off and can go into the dishwasher, plus there’s no tubes to clean. The Philips 3200 Series coffee machine will be available at Hirch’s, Makro, Expert, Takealot and Yuppiechef at an RRP of R8 999 from this coming Friday.

Moving on to the big boy – the Philips Saeco Xelsis, retailing for a bit more at R32 999. Although still taking up relatively small amount of real estate, the Xelsis is meant more for smallish SME’s or the executive boardroom. As such it provides a number of impressive features, including the ability to create 15 different types of coffees, plus eight user profiles that can remember the exact types of coffees based on personal tastes. This is key since with the Xelsis you can basically tailor your brew to your heart’s content, with the ability to adjust milk foam amount, cup volume, temperature of the water, coffee taste and strength, and finally if you prefer your milk first and then coffee, or the other way around. All this can be done via the touchscreen on the machine’s titanium stainless steel body. If ever there was a perk to offer your workers, this coffee machine is it.

With the Xelsis coffee machine, @PhilipsSAfrica offers a premium service to help with installation and demo, plus gifts like chocolates. Yum. #PhilipsCoffee pic.twitter.com/FKPfSG7F41

— TechSmart (@TechSmartZA) November 21, 2019

Philips includes the Xelsis Premium Service on purchase which includes a VIP installation, full demo on how to use it, as well as a premium gift package. The Philips Saeco Xelsi is available from Hirch’s, Takealot, Makro, Expert and YuppieChef from an RRP of R32 999.