Sports car styling and price for a basic machine.

Love the looks. An attention grabber. Great for everything but making espresso for any more than 2 people at a time.

The x-1 has all the basic features you'd expect in a machine. Its selling points are the cool styling, analog temperature gauge, and industrial style lights and toggle switches that look like they came out of a hardware store...or a submarine. The red one is a real screamer. Chicks dig it because it's Italian and stylish. Dudes dig it because it has switches, lights, a gauge, and no text labels telling you what they do. You'll look like a real engineer running the thing.

But like so many things Italian, the form overtakes the function. My chief complaints are the small, and difficult to fill water reservoir, the machine plug placement and thick gauge of the power cord, the wimpy beveling that keeps the drain grate in place (hardly), and the dixie cup clearance between brewer spout and grate. So much for that famous Luca Trazzi design...or did he just skip school the day they talked about usability?

If you live IN a city, and have no problem paying inflated tax rates for second rate municipal services, then this is your machine. And a good one it is. It looks really cool on the countertop too. Even though I'm not a fan of the function, doesn't mean that someone else wouldn't mind it. And it DOES look REALLY cool.

But if you're more concerned about serving your 8 guest dinner party after dinner cap and espresso, look elsewhere.

This machine has a target market. I just don't think I'm in it. Check one out on the shelf at Williams-Sonoma, and make sure to pick it up and look at the back. You're going to have to slide that thing around on your counter to pour water into the reservoir.

Best deals on this and other francisfrancis! machines are had at www.illyusa.com where you bundle a machine with a year long espresso subscription. That's right, kick the Starbuck's habit and get a hip machine too.