Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For some time I've had the minipresso espresso maker because I wanted to start making my own lattes. After awhile it became tedious to make two shots with that thing and quite the cleanup, so I started looking for an espresso maker. My wife likes to make regular drip coffee, and I thought it'd be nice to find a machine that makes both drip and espresso, alas we come across this machine. Now we're both super big on reviews, and the 3.5 stars kind of made us hesitant, but we said screw it, let's give it a try. Let me tell you, this machine is wonderful. The 1-4 cups feature that strengthens the coffee and makes it more aromatic REALLY WORKS. My wife says she hasn't had better coffee, and she's even had it black (which she never does) ((We use the Lavazza Caffe Espresso ground coffee if anyone's interested)). On the espresso side, it works and makes great espresso with nice crema and is very easy to load in two shots. Despite what people say, the instructions really are straightforward if you just READ THEM. I use the steaming spout as well and it works as planned if you just follow the instructions. I've since made some very delicious cappuccino's/lattes and everything is quite easy and quick to use. Now I've only had for a couple days, and I can't speak for the durability part. Everything works as expected so far, and I'm worried based on other reviews about the fragility of the pieces. But if anything happens to break I'll have to come back and update my review. TL;DR - if you want to feel like you have barista skills but really don't and want to make delicious fancy drinks, 5 stars. - if you want the capability of making drip coffee that tastes better than normal and espresso at the same time, 5 stars. - if you're already a pro barista and want to complain that it doesn't "meet up to standards," probably 1 stars. UPDATE: Have had it almost 4 months. NOTHING has broken, NO leaks, and everything works exactly as when we got it. Still making coffee that I like better than Starbucks and several other local coffee shops.