Nespresso Vertuo Pop Review: Cheap Machine, Locked-In Pods
The Vertuo Pop is the smallest and cheapest way into Nespresso’s Vertuo system, and it is still on sale in the UK in October 2026 — the Magimix version was £54 at Argos when we checked. Reviewers and buyers agree it makes good, consistent coffee with no effort. The catch is not the machine, it is the pods: Vertuo capsules only come from Nespresso, so the real price is paid one cup at a time.
Where the reviews line up
The evidence comes from three places: two UK editorial tests, from Trusted Reviews and Tech Advisor; owners talking among themselves on r/nespresso; and 620 customer ratings across Argos, AO and John Lewis. On the machine itself they barely disagree.
Three things come up everywhere. The coffee is good and identical every time — the machine reads a barcode on each pod and sets the brew itself, so there is nothing to learn and nothing to get wrong. It is small: 13.6 cm wide, which is why people buy it. And it is quick, ready in about 30 seconds.
Two things count against it. The water tank is small at around 0.6 litres, good for two to four drinks, and there is only 86 mm under the spout by Trusted Reviews’ measurement, so a tall mug may not fit. Tech Advisor also found it noisy. None of that decides the purchase.
What decides it is the pods. Vertuo pods cost 47p to 99p each by Which?’s September 2026 count, and there are no cheaper compatible pods. A De’Longhi Dedica running on supermarket ground coffee makes a double shot for roughly 25–32p by our sums. If you drink two coffees a day, the Pop is cheaper to buy but dearer to run, and the Dedica wins back the difference in under a year.
The three reviews this summary is built from
- Trusted Reviews & Tech AdvisorTwo UK editorial tests. Measured coffee temperature and mug clearance; timed the heat-up.
- r/nespressoOwner threads on Reddit — 5 comments on the Pop, 21 on the different Pop+ model. Thin, but candid about pods.
- Argos, AO & John Lewis4.52/5 from 182, 4.4/5 from 46 and 4.1/5 from 392 — on pages that sell it.
Before the review: Magimix, Krups or De’Longhi?
Nespresso does not make its own machines. In the UK the Vertuo Pop is sold by Magimix (model 11729 in black, at Argos, AO and Costco), by Krups (XN920140 at John Lewis) and by De’Longhi (at John Lewis and others). They take the same pods and share the same body. The listings differ slightly on power and guarantee, which we show below. This page leads on the Magimix 11729, because it was the cheapest when we checked. Do not confuse it with the Vertuo Pop+, a different model sold in the US and some other countries.
Specification at a glance
| Spec | Figure | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Pods | Nespresso Vertuo capsules only. Barcode read by the machine; no third-party compatible pods exist | Which?, Sept 2026; Trusted Reviews |
| Cup sizes | Four: espresso 40 ml, double espresso 80 ml, gran lungo 150 ml, mug 230 ml | Argos and Tech Advisor. John Lewis’s Krups listing says six, adding ristretto and a 355 ml large mug — see below |
| Water tank | 0.6 litres (Argos, Which?, Trusted Reviews) or 0.56 litres (AO, John Lewis) | Disagreement; either way, two to four drinks |
| Heat-up | 30 seconds | Argos and John Lewis; Tech Advisor timed it at under 30 |
| Space under the spout | 86 mm | Measured by Trusted Reviews |
| Coffee temperature | 66°C in the mug | Measured by Trusted Reviews |
| Power | 1,260 W (Magimix) · 1,300 W (Krups) | Argos and AO; John Lewis |
| Dimensions | 25 × 13.6 × 42.6 cm (H × W × D) | Argos and AO; Krups listed at 13.5 cm wide |
| Weight | 3.63 kg (Krups) | John Lewis. Not published for the Magimix |
| Auto off | After 2 minutes (Argos) or 9 minutes (a Nespresso FAQ) | Disagreement — see below |
| Milk | None. Black coffee only, unless you buy a bundle with an Aeroccino frother | Which?, Tech Advisor |
| Pod prices | 47p–99p per pod (Which?) · 35–55p (Coffee Nerds) | Disagreement — see running costs |
| Recycling | Free: Royal Mail collection or drop-off, Podback kerbside in some areas, Nespresso boutiques | Nespresso UK |
| Guarantee | 2 years (Argos, Magimix; John Lewis, Krups) · AO lists 1 year | Disagreement — confirm with the seller |
| Typical UK price | £54–£99.99; RRP around £100 | Argos, AO, John Lewis, 5 Oct 2026 |
Trusted Reviews and Tech Advisor
Both are UK hands-on reviews, and both reach the same verdict: good coffee, good value, two practical compromises. Trusted Reviews took measurements, which is what makes it useful. It found the coffee at 66°C in the mug and 86 mm of space under the spout, and it calls the machine fancy to look at and well priced. It marks it down for the small water tank, good for two to four drinks, and for how hard it is to get a mug under the spout. It also confirms the two things a first-time buyer most needs to know: only Nespresso Vertuo capsules work, and used pods can go back to Nespresso for free recycling.
Tech Advisor’s Rachel Ogden tested the Magimix version and timed the heat-up at under 30 seconds. She found the coffee perfectly good — not too hot, always with a frothy crema, and flavourful. Her criticisms are a little sharper. It makes black coffee only. Everything runs through a single button, which makes things like descaling fiddly. It is noisy, and there is not much room for a large mug. Her summary is that it suits people who want consistent black coffee with no fuss, and nobody who wants versatility. Her review is from 2023 at £99–£100; the machine has not changed since, but the price has.
Watch: Nespresso VERTUO POP REVIEW - Pro and Cons
A pros-and-cons walkthrough that matches the editorial verdicts. Probably made outside the UK — we could not confirm which maker’s version it shows, but the body and pods are the same.
Watch on YouTube ↗r/nespresso
This is the weakest of the three sources, and we are saying so. We could not find a UK forum thread of any size about the Pop. The nearest owner discussion is on Reddit’s Nespresso community, which is mostly American. The one thread about the Pop itself is a five-comment exchange with someone asking whether it is a good first machine for iced coffee. Owners say yes. They make two points worth having: it is not a true espresso machine, because Vertuo spins the pod rather than pumping water through at espresso pressure, but Nespresso has done enough with the coffee to make the result “very acceptable”. And pods are less of a problem in the UK than in some places, because Nespresso has UK boutiques and Amazon UK sells them.
The same thread mentions reusable silicone lids, sold on Amazon, which let you refill used Vertuo pods with your own ground coffee. That is the only way round the pod lock-in that anyone mentions. We have not tested it, Nespresso does not endorse it, and we could not find out whether it affects the guarantee. The bigger thread, with 21 comments, is a complaint that every pod tasted bitter. It is about the Pop+, a different model from the UK Pop, so we give it little weight. The repeated advice there — that the cheaper Vertuo machines brew hotter and thinner than the dearer VertuoPlus — is opinion we could not check.
Watch: Nespresso Vertuo Pop Coffee and Espresso Machine - Honest Review
An owner-style “honest review”, which fits next to the Reddit threads. We could not confirm which country’s version it shows.
Watch on YouTube ↗Argos, AO and John Lewis
These are customer ratings on pages that sell the machine, so we quote the numbers, not the verdict. Together that is 620 ratings, and the pattern is steady rather than glowing: the Magimix scores higher at Argos and AO than the Krups does at John Lewis. We cannot tell you why. The ratings sites did not show us enough review text to compare the two.
AO’s review summary does show text, and it matches the editorial tests. Buyers praise the compact size, the speed and the crema, and say it gives the same coffee every time. The complaints are the ones you would expect: “coffee pods are expensive”, and one owner finds the coffee “a bit underwhelming”. Nobody on any of the three pages complains about reliability.
The listings themselves disagree on details, so check the one you are buying from. AO lists a one-year manufacturer’s warranty on the Magimix where Argos says two years. AO and John Lewis give the tank as 0.56 litres where Argos says 0.6. John Lewis’s Krups listing claims six cup sizes, including a 355 ml large mug, where every other source says four.
Price, 5 October 2026: Argos £54 (Magimix 11729, black); AO £83, down from £100; John Lewis £99.99 (Krups). PriceSpy’s lowest prices were £50 for the Magimix and £73.95 for the De’Longhi. Which?’s listing showed it from £98.99 at Lakeland. The Pop is often discounted, so do not pay full price.
Watch: Nespresso Vertuo POP Review: Pros and cons and how to use it!
Covers the how-to that the retailer pages skip: water in, pod in, one press. We could not confirm which maker’s version it shows.
Watch on YouTube ↗Pods or a proper espresso machine? The running costs
This is the question the Pop really raises, so here are the sums. They are our arithmetic, not anyone’s published figure, and they cover coffee and electricity only.
| Per drink | Vertuo Pop | Dedica or Bambino Plus, supermarket ground coffee |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee | 47p–99p per pod (Which?, Sept 2026); 35–55p, double espresso about 37p (Coffee Nerds, Sept 2026) | About 32p for a 14 g double shot of Lavazza Crema e Gusto at £5.75 per 250 g; 25p at Morrisons’ £4.50; about 14p from the 2 × 500 g pack |
| Electricity | Under 1p | About 2p (Dedica) to 4p for two milky drinks (Bambino Plus) |
| Machine price, 4–5 Oct 2026 | £54–£99.99 | Dedica EC685 £125–£149 · Bambino Plus £368–£399.99 |
The two pod-price sources disagree. Which?, a consumer body, puts Vertuo at 47p to 99p, with the top price for the largest capsule. Coffee Nerds, a coffee retailer’s guide, puts most pods at 35–55p. We show both because the gap matters. At Which?’s lowest price, a pod costs about 15p more than a supermarket double shot. At two drinks a day, that is about £110 a year. If you mostly drink mug-sized pods near the top of Which?’s range, the gap grows past £400 a year.
So the Pop is the cheaper machine and the dearer habit. A Magimix Pop at £54 against a Dedica at £125 saves you £71 up front. At £110 a year, the Dedica has paid that back in about eight months. The Bambino Plus costs about £314 more than the Pop and takes about three years to recover it at the same rate. It only pays back faster if your pods are the big, expensive ones. These sums assume pre-ground supermarket coffee in the espresso machines. Freshly ground speciality beans cost more and narrow the gap — but then you are buying a grinder too.
Electricity hardly matters for any of them. If the Pop drew its full 1,260 W for a 30-second heat-up and a minute’s brew, which it does not, that would be about 0.03 kWh: under 1p at the 26.32p/kWh price cap figure used on our Dedica review. The Dedica and Bambino figures come from those reviews.
The short answer: buy the Pop for convenience and space, not to save money. If you want espresso-based drinks every day and are happy to spend two minutes on each one, the Dedica is cheaper within a year. If milky drinks are the point, the Bambino Plus does something the Pop cannot do at all.
Strengths and weak points
What holds up
- Good, consistent coffee with a proper crema, every time, with no skill needed.
- Very small: 13.6 cm wide, the narrowest Vertuo machine.
- Ready in about 30 seconds, and it ejects the used pod by itself.
- Cheap to buy, often under £60 on offer.
- Free pod recycling by Royal Mail collection, drop-off, Podback kerbside where available, or at a boutique.
- Body made from 35% recycled plastic, according to the retailers.
What people complain about
- Pods only come from Nespresso. There are no cheaper compatible pods.
- Pods cost 47p–99p each by Which?’s count, much more than ground coffee.
- A small tank, around 0.6 litres: two to four drinks before refilling.
- Only 86 mm under the spout, so tall mugs may not fit.
- Black coffee only. No milk frother unless you buy a bundle.
- Noisy, according to Tech Advisor, and not a true espresso machine.
Who it actually suits
Buy it if you drink one or two black coffees a day, want them with no effort or mess, and have very little counter space. It also suits a second machine, an office or a holiday let, where convenience matters more than cost per cup. Buy the Magimix or Krups version, whichever is cheaper on the day, and confirm the guarantee.
Look elsewhere if you drink several coffees a day, most of them milky, or if you want to choose your own coffee. Look elsewhere too if being tied to one pod supplier bothers you. A De’Longhi Dedica costs more up front, is cheaper within a year, and takes any ground coffee.
What we could not check
- The videos. We confirmed all three by search listing, not by opening them. Each watch link and its title appeared in two differently worded searches. Only one listing named its channel, A2B Productions. We could not confirm which country or maker’s version any of them shows.
- Exact Nespresso UK pod prices. Nespresso’s UK capsule pages did not give us prices, so the pod costs come from Which? (47p–99p) and Coffee Nerds (35–55p). They disagree, and we show both.
- Cup sizes. Argos and Tech Advisor say four, up to a 230 ml mug. John Lewis’s Krups listing says six, including a 355 ml large mug. A Nespresso FAQ lists a 25 ml ristretto as well. We could not open Nespresso UK’s own spec page to settle it.
- Tank capacity: 0.6 litres or 0.56 litres, depending on who you ask.
- Auto-off time: 2 minutes according to an Argos listing, 9 minutes according to a Nespresso FAQ. Other figures in that FAQ, including a 1,200 ml tank, do not match this machine, so we do not trust either figure.
- Guarantee: 2 years at Argos and John Lewis, 1 year at AO. We could not find out whether registering with Nespresso, Magimix or Krups extends it.
- Noise in dB. Tech Advisor calls it noisy, but nobody published a measurement. Which?’s quietness rating is behind its paywall.
- Which?’s test score is paywalled, so nothing here depends on it.
- Magimix weight. Only the Krups figure, 3.63 kg, is published.
- Reusable refill lids. We did not test them and could not find out whether using them affects the guarantee.
- A UK owner forum thread of any size. The community source is a small Reddit thread and a larger one about a different model.
- Our running-cost sums assume a 14 g double shot and supermarket ground coffee. They are arithmetic, not a test.
Sources last checked 5 October 2026. The Vertuo Pop is discounted often, and pod prices change — check both, and the guarantee term, before ordering.