Breville Barista Touch vs De'Longhi La Specialista Arte EC9155
Buy the La Specialista Arte ($699) if you want to learn hands-on espresso craft — manual steaming, real dialing-in with a pressure gauge — at $500 less. Buy the Barista Touch ($1,199) if you want automatic milk texturing, saved drink profiles, and a lower-effort daily routine. The Arte is a better teaching machine; the Touch is a better convenience machine.
Spec face-off
Bars scaled to the higher value. Coloured = wins that spec.
Full specifications
Strengths & weaknesses
Full comparison
The $500 price gap between the Barista Touch and the La Specialista Arte separates two machines that share a grind-to-cup format but aim at different users. Both have built-in conical burr grinders and PID-assisted temperature control. The Arte adds a visible pressure gauge and a genuine manual steam wand capable of real microfoam, signaling it is aimed at users who want to develop barista skills. The Touch replaces those manual elements with an automatic steam wand and a touchscreen recipe system, signaling it is aimed at users who want results without the learning process.
The Arte's grinder is limited to 8 coarse settings and tests at around 80 dB — noisier and less precise than the Touch's 30-setting grinder. The Arte uses a 51mm portafilter, which limits aftermarket basket and accessory options compared to a 58mm standard. The Touch uses a 54mm portafilter, also non-standard, but with a broader Breville accessory ecosystem. Both machines are single-boiler, meaning you brew and then steam in sequence, not simultaneously.
The Arte ships with non-pressurized baskets only and includes a barista accessory kit — tamper, dosing guide, milk jug, mat — worth roughly $40-50 retail. This signals that De'Longhi expects Arte buyers to engage with technique. The Touch ships ready to produce automated results; it is harder to learn real espresso craft on a machine that automates the most skill-dependent steps.
If budget is a constraint or espresso craft is the goal, the Arte at $699 is a strong value. If convenience and time savings are the priority and the $500 premium is not a blocker, the Touch's automatic milk system and saved profiles justify the extra cost for users who do not want to master manual steaming.