Poco is expected to unveil the Poco F7 this month, and while its launch date is yet to be confirmed by the brand, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has revealed some details about the Poco F7's battery.
The promo page set up by Flipkart on its website reveals that the Poco F7 will pack a 7,550 mAh battery, making it the smartphone with the largest battery in India, unless another brand launches a phone with a bigger battery before the Poco F7 arrives. Currently, the iQOO Z10 and vivo T4 are smartphones with the largest batteries in India, packing 7,300 mAh cells.
Flipkart reveals...
Poco is expected to unveil the Poco F7 this month, and while its launch date is yet to be confirmed by the brand, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has revealed some details about the Poco F7's battery.
The promo page set up by Flipkart on its website reveals that the Poco F7 will pack a 7,550 mAh battery, making it the smartphone with the largest battery in India, unless another brand launches a phone with a bigger battery before the Poco F7 arrives. Currently, the iQOO Z10 and vivo T4 are smartphones with the largest batteries in India, packing 7,300 mAh cells.
Flipkart reveals...
You're shopping for a mid-range phone in the €200–€300 range, and the Redmi Note 14 series clearly offers solid value. The problem? The lineup is packed with confusingly similar models -some even limited to 4G.
We can also understand how comparing the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G (Global) and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G (Global) may be a tough choice. The price gap is minimal, and their spec sheets are nearly identical.
We’re here to help you figure out whether spending an extra €50-€60 for the Plus version is actually worth it - or if the standard Pro meets your needs just...
The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally arrived, and along with it, so have a handful of launch games. Some old, some new, and some, well, they land somewhere between those two categories.
Meet Survival Kids, a cooperative platformer, built on the bones of the 1999 Konami Game Boy Color game of the same name, and developed by the minds behind the wildly popular game engine Unity. Its inception is a mouthful, and yet when it comes to the reality of the game itself, it’s very simple – perhaps too simple.
Review info
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2 Available on: NintendoSwitch 2 Release date: June 6th, 2025
In Survival Kids, you play as a (you guessed it) kid who, after being capsized in a mythic storm, must craft their way across an ancient archipelago in the hopes of escape.
The twist on this classic survival set-up is that the islands themselves aren’t static and are, in fact, living turtles that can cause the islands to flood. While it’s an interesting premise, Survival Kids commits to a more casual play style, and the submerging occurs only when the player is ready. It’s a reasonable choice for a game built for a younger demographic — I only wish there were multiple game modes for players of all ages, or those who may be more adept.
As you progress, you’ll uncover new biomes and take on chaotic environmental hazards like purple-goo firing turrets and body-barrelling wind tunnels, using earnable tools like fishing rods, trampolines, and comically large leaf fans to best them. Much like the premise, the levels are similarly straightforward and offer an occasionally moreish workload of mindless tasks to complete with friends or by yourself.
Rinse and repeat
(Image credit: Konami)
Every level in Survival Kids begins with a capsizing, and players wash up on the shore of a new island. From this point on, the aim of the game is to consolidate resources and move your base camp to the highest point, where you’ll construct a raft and start the cycle all over again.
The parts you need to complete this objective range from easily-accessible vines and stones (which can be harnessed by chopping down trees or mining rocks) to hidden aeroplane wings and half-buried propeller parts. It’s not as complex as something like Astro Bot by any means, but the diversity of islands and the platforming challenges embedded in them were varied enough to keep me entertained as I continued to explore.
In place of any towering challenges or punishing mechanics, the biggest antagonist you’ll face here is your stamina, which dictates how far you can climb on a climbing net and whether you can unearth objects. To increase your stamina, you need to find and cook food, making sure not to burn your precious meal in your camp’s cooking pot by leaving it on the castaway-hob too long. The more food you load into the pot, the better the quality of the meal, providing you with extra precious stamina.
Beyond staying fed, there aren’t really any stakes to speak of. Sure, you can fall off a cliff and lose your items or fail to wrangle a fish. But you can simply go back and pick them up again or just cast your line at the same fish a second time.
(Image credit: Konami)
You’re never really punished for your mistakes in any meaningful way, which has its pros and cons. By keeping the workload accessible and forgiving, Survival Kids feels like a great introductory game for kids who may not be familiar with the Survival genre. Still, at times, it feels as though it’s underestimating what younger players are capable of, especially when you consider the alternatives on the market like Nintendo’s own appropriately challenging Super Mario Odyssey.
Upon completing a level, you’ll earn stars depending on how quickly you escaped the island or how many collectables — called Treasure Stones — you found in the process. Early on, these stars mean very little, and you can breeze through the game - no questions asked. However, as you near the end, there’s a good chance you’ll need to revisit an island to collect a few more to surpass some star-based progress gates.
With little else to latch onto, Survival Kids often feels a bit dry and lacks the personality to really make its mark. It says something that not even a quirky British narrator can lift the tone. In fact, their chatter quickly started to grate.
Play nice
(Image credit: Konami)
Between island hopping, you’ll also get a chance to customise your cartoon avatar with a selection of kitschy castaway garb. There isn’t a great deal of diversity at first, but it’s plenty to set you apart from your co-op collaborators, and it’s good fun to tweak your hair colour, skin tone, and ocular scenario before hopping into a level. Thankfully, this small pool of outfits is just a jumping-off point, and you can unlock more by completing challenges layered throughout the game.
Alongside meeting the essential crafting criteria, you can complete optional tasks like fishing ten times in a row or cooking with a certain number of ingredients in your pot. By achieving these optional objectives, you can unlock themed outfits to jazz up your mini-me. Many will be achieved automatically as you play, but at the very least, I was pleased to have something else to shoot for outside the confines of the repetitive campaign.
Best bit
(Image credit: Konami)
Survival Kids is at its best when played with friends. Between the simple control scheme and the plethora of comfortably mindless processes to complete, I could chat to my heart's content without needing to maintain an intense back-and-forth to complete objectives.
Survival Kids can be played in single-player mode, however, it’s just not nearly as much fun as it is when you’re playing with friends. Aside from helping collect loot, the most fun I had was antagonising, and subsequently being antagonised by, my co-op partner. On one occasion, I led my fellow-survivor into a wind tunnel where they were gust into oblivion.
The repercussion was that after spending ages fishing and cooking up a delicious meal, they threw it off the edge and out of my reach. When playing solo, these kinds of light-hearted interactions aren't possible, and instead, you’re just left with the workload.
It’s clear there’s been an effort to scale things back in solo mode and make the levels more approachable, like reducing the stamina needed to pull up objects. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t make up for the tedious nature of completing the same tasks alone.
When playing through the later levels in the game, I found myself frustrated, not by the turrets shooting me off the map, but rather the boring nature of carting materials back and forth with no help. It’s admirable that the team at Unity wanted to give solo players a chance, but it doesn’t do justice to the obviously communal aspects at the core of Survival Kids' gameplay loop.
Should you play Survival Kids?
(Image credit: Konami)
Play it if...
You want a silly co-op game to play with friends The simple nature of Survival Kids makes it a great backdrop for chatting with friends and cracking jokes, as you don’t need to focus too hard when solving puzzles. View Deal
You want Nintendo Switch 2 features like GameChat and GameShare Survival Kids makes great use of both GameChat and GameShare, so it's a good game to pick if you want something that uses those console features.View Deal
Don't play it if…
You want a complex platformer Survival Kids does offer a decent variety of platforming puzzles, though many repeat over time. View Deal
Accessibility features
In Survival Kids, you can access the settings menu from the main menu or anytime in-game by pressing the pause button and selecting the Options button.
From here, you can toggle on and off subtitles and a level timer, as well as level objective arrows and banners. In the Controls submenu, you can toggle between two layout options. Where audio is concerned, you can use incremental notches to tweak Music, SFX and Narration Volume.
How I reviewed Survival Kids
(Image credit: Konami)
I played Survival Kids' main campaign over twelve hours in a mixture of single-player, local co-op, and online co-op.
I used a Switch 2 console in both handheld and docked modes. When docked, I used an LG OLED C2 55-inch TV, with no additional soundbar or external speaker system.
Samsung UK is running a promotion dubbed “Shine Bright” (ends June 24), which offers cashback on multiple Galaxy devices – from phones to the Ring – and even some freebies. Check out details on the promotion here (click View Terms & Conditions to see a PDF with all the cashback amounts).
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy A56 are both £500 – getting either will net you a free Galaxy Watch7 and £100 cashback from Samsung. The A56 has more base storage – unfortunately, the 256GB S24 FE doesn’t get a discount (it still gets £100 cashback, though).
...
Samsung UK is running a promotion dubbed “Shine Bright” (ends June 24), which offers cashback on multiple Galaxy devices – from phones to the Ring – and even some freebies. Check out details on the promotion here (click View Terms & Conditions to see a PDF with all the cashback amounts).
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy A56 are both £500 – getting either will net you a free Galaxy Watch7 and £100 cashback from Samsung. The A56 has more base storage – unfortunately, the 256GB S24 FE doesn’t get a discount (it still gets £100 cashback, though).
...
The vivo Y400 Pro, which we've been hearing about for the past few days, is "coming soon." This revelation comes from vivo's Indian branch, which dropped a short video clip that corroborates previous design leaks by showing the Y400 Pros' rear side.
You can see the vivo Y400 Pro in white color with a circular ring and two cameras on the back. vivo didn't divulge anything else about the Y400 Pro, but Amazon.in had listed the smartphone on its website a few days ago, along with its specs and images.
For those who don’t just dream—but dare, do, and dominate. 💫 This is for the ones who...
To misquote Futurama’s robotic delinquent Bender, you’re in for “Earfun on a bun” if you take the plunge on the Chinese brand’s latest budget cans. Assuming I still have a job to take this review any further [only just – Ed.], I’ve been taken aback by the quality of the Earfun Wave Life. Seeing as they only cost around $50 / £50, these over-ear headphones are far better than I was expecting.
The Earfun Wave Life pack in enough features and sufficiently robust audio performance to make them absolutely worth considering if you’re on the hunt for a new pair of cheap over-ear cans. Sturdily built, extremely easy on the ears thanks to their lush foam cups and sporting an app that’s both intuitive and comprehensive with its EQ options, there’s a lot to like about these competitively priced noise cancelling headphones.
It’s a pity the Wave Life’s ANC features don’t fully convince. For the price Earfun are selling them, I was never expecting these over-ears to rival the best noise-cancelling headphones out there. Still, when it comes to snuffing out distracting ambient noise, ANC performance with these cheap cans is almost aggressively average.
On the flipside, if you’re lucky enough not to have to endure regular noisy commutes, the Earfun Wave Life have more than enough plus points to make them worth recommending if you’re on a tight budget.
Bolstered by stellar software, a dedicated game mode and 40mm drivers that hand in convincingly deep bass levels, Earfun’s affordable headphones are thoroughly enjoyable. They might be cheap, but they certainly don’t feel it.
Not only are the Wave Life some of the most comfortable cheap cans I’ve ever worn, they’re also great for hands-free voice calls. During one of my least glamorous chats in recent memory – one that involved asking a plumber pal of mine about a broken toilet seat – I was reassured my voice was clear during the entire abode-centric chinwag despite me being in a different room than my phone during the call. Thank you very much, Bluetooth 5.4.
Will these cans' soundscape blow you away (even after you tweak frequency settings with Earfun’s fantastic EQ software)? Probably not. Yet for the price, these supremely comfortable headphones, which also boast staying power of up to 60 hours if you switch ANC off, deliver more than they disappoint even they may not quite make it into the best over-ear headphones available.
If you want a pair of budget over-ears that will be comfortable on your cranium while (mostly) delivering satisfying sounds, you could do a whole lot worse than the Earfun Wave Life.
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Earfun Wave Life review: Price and release date
Release date: February, 2025
Price: $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$105 (approx.)
The Earfun Wave Life are priced super-aggressively at just $59.99 / £49.99 / AU$105 (approx.). They can often be found even cheaper than their official retail price courtesy of Amazon sales, too.
Though they’re obviously not as premium as the $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$167 (where sold) Earfun Wave Pro that impressed us big style early last year, they still deliver a satisfying sonic experience.
Sure, they’re not going to make audiophiles’ socks roll up and down. Yet considering their budget price point, I reckon most folks will be pleasantly surprised by these over-ear headphones’ pleasingly deep bass and relatively convincing trebles. The Earfun Wave Life are also far more comfy than I was expecting from such an affordable pair of cans.
In terms of alternative options, if you’re looking for some of the best cheap headphones for under $/£100, you’ll struggle to do better than the superb 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 (catchy moniker, right?). The Sony WH-CH520 are another great option if you’re in the market for a budget pair of noise-cancelling cans.
Earfun Wave Life review: Specs
Weight:
264g
Drivers:
40mm Composite
Battery life:
37 hours (ANC on); up to 60 hours (ANC off)
Control:
app; physical/touch; voice
Connectivity:
Bluetooth 5.4; USB-C
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Earfun Wave Life review: Features
Up to 60 hours' battery life
Intuitive app improves sound quality
Two devices can be paired simultaneously
Aside from their stellar battery life – more on which shortly – the Earfun Wave Life feature that impresses me most is their excellent software. The Earfun Audio app is available on both Android and iOS, and I’d consider it an essential download if you want to squeeze the best sound out of these cheap over-ear cans.
Easy to use, sporting an uncluttered design and with intuitive custom EQ calibration tools, the Earfun app can significantly improve the Wave Life’s already decent out-of-the-box audio.
I’m a big fan of the software’s custom equalizer that allows you to adjust the headphones’ soundscape across a variety of frequencies via a set of sliders. It’s a doddle to use, as you simply tweak each frequency until the app’s repeating ‘drip’ sound fades away.
After a couple of minutes of adjustments, I found the customized results to be significantly more satisfying than any of the 30 preset EQ profiles Earfun’s software offers. These span various musical genres, while various bass and treble boost presets are also provided.
The wide variety of profiles the firm serves up may be impressive, but I found the majority to be a little too quiet. And not to be overly nitpicking, but flicking between these presets on both my iPhone 14 Pro and iPad Pro (2024) is painfully sloooooow.
Earfun’s app also lets you switch between the Wave Life’s four ANC modes. First up, there’s ‘normal’, which somewhat confusingly turns noise cancelling off. There’s then ‘ambient sound’, ‘wind noise cancellation’ and ‘noise cancelling’; with the latter two options snuffing out sounds most effectively.
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Sadly, Earfun hasn’t really cracked the ANC code with its cheap cans and I could still easily make out passing traffic when going out for strolls. Next to my Apple AirPods Max, noise cancelling on the Wave Life isn’t up to scratch. That said, comparing $60 headphones to Crew Cupertino’s $500 over-ear cans is like pitting a Morris Minor against a Lamborghini Aventador in a drag race.
Another selling point of the Earfun Wave Life that thankfully proves more effective is their multi-phone connectivity that lets you pair two devices simultaneously. During my testing it proved largely reliable, with the headphones syncing to my tablet and smartphone with little hassle. The only slight hitch I’ve encountered is when I enter the app on my duo of Apple devices, which often requires me to unpair one gizmo before I can tweak software settings on the other.
The Earfun Wave Life are battery beasts. On a full charge, they’ll last for 60 hours, with that number dropping to a still-impressive 37 hours with ANC enabled. During my fortnight of testing these cans, I only had to charge them twice, which is super-commendable considering how kind these headphones are on your change purse.
However, there’s no getting around the fact the bundled-in USB-C charging cable is comically short. I’m talking Smurf short. Still, I’m not going to grumble too much when I can get the Wafe Life to 100% juice in less than 30 minutes on my GaN charger.
As mentioned in the two-minute review, the four-mic, AI-assisted algorithm also makes hands-free calling a breeze. With a 49ft range, you don’t have to worry about being cut off when wandering around your apartment/house, either.
Features score: 4 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Earfun Wave Life review: Design
Incredibly comfy to wear
Easy-to-reach on-cup controls
Materials feel premium for budget cans
No-frills is the name of the ultra-plain game when it comes to the Earfun Wave Life. With an inoffensive yet entirely forgettable design, these cans won't keep you from hitting the hay and dreaming about how alluring they look.
Crucially, though, they don’t feel cheap. The quality of the plastics used in the construction of these over-ears feels far more premium than I’d expect from $60 headphones. I also appreciate the brushed metal that appears when you extend the Wave Life’s headband.
In terms of comfort, Earfun has absolutely nailed it with its latest budget cans. I wore them on a three-hour walk with my husky on an uncommonly warm Scottish afternoon recently and never once did they cause me any discomfort. That’s mainly due to their super-comfy foam cups which rotate 90 degrees, making them both easy to fold up and an absolute pleasure to wear.
The Earfun Wave Life weigh a relatively breezy 264g, which also means you don’t have to worry about neck strain or earache. Every time I put these cans on, it feels like giving my lobes a big fuzzy hug. I’ll take comfort over style all the livelong day.
The on-cup controls are also enjoyable to interact with. A soft plastic power button is wedged between equally squishy and easy-to-locate volume up/down controls, while I also had no problems switching between noise-cancelling controls thanks to the dedicated ANC button. My only slight beef? You have to hold down the power button a little too long for my liking.
There’s also a USB-C slot for both wired play and charging. As I stated previously, the cable that comes in the box is way too short, so you’d be better off investing in a longer third-party one if you want to go down the wired listening route.
As for colors, you’re limited to a single shade of black. If you like your headphones to be unfussy and not make you stand out on, say, a crowded train or bus, the Wave Life’s bog-standard noir won’t bother you. Personally, I like both white and colored cans, so I would have appreciated more than one hue.
Design score: 4 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Earfun Wave Life review: Sound quality
A touch quiet without app tweaks
Software EQ adjustments save the day
Well-judged bass levels
Considering how affordable the Wave Life are, I don’t want to overly dunk on their sound shortcomings, and there are few glaring weaknesses with these cheap cans’ audio quality. There are, though, some that warrant mentioning.
My biggest bugbear is the default sound profile when you first unbox these over-ears. This is subjective, but the Wave Life were a tad too quiet when I first clamped them around my skull. Although initially underwhelmed by their audio, I calibrated a custom EQ via the Earfun Audio app to produce a listening experience that felt far more well-balanced and punchy.
Without software tweaks, vocals during my favorite tunes and dialogue on some of the best Netflix movies on my iPad felt muted and flat, so I definitely recommend downloading Earfun’s app. Considering the firm’s software is both robust yet never feels daunting to interact with, it would be uncharitable to slam the Wave Life’s default soundscape when it’s so simple and quick to make it appreciably better through minor app adjustments.
Within minutes of fiddling about with its frequency sliders, I landed on a custom profile that delivered a soundscape with decently weighty bass that dovetailed well with the treble levels I settled on. Yes, mids on the Wave Life get lost in the sonic shuffle somewhat, but overall, I’ve had far more enjoyable audio sessions with these cans than disappointing ones.
When testing headphones for the first time, I’ve got a small clutch of go-to bangers I always fire up. The almost hymn-like electronic stylings of Death in Vegas’ Girls sounds way more impactful than I was expecting from sub-$100 cans, while the pulsating trance beats of F*ck Buttons nine-minute The Lisbon Maru delivered all the bass my eardrums craved – thank you, Wave Life.
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
I was less taken with my favorite live performance ever when listening to The Verve’s astonishing rendition of Sonnet from their spellbinding 1998 home concert from Wigan’s Haigh Hall, though. This classic Cool Britannia tune sounds amazing on my Sony Inzone H9 – surprising, considering it’s a gaming headset first and foremost. But on the Wave Life, Richard Ashcroft’s normally haunting vocals lack the audio oomph my Inzone cans drum up.
Speaking of which, Earfun’s budget over-ears come with a low-latency Game Mode that automatically kicks in if you fire up a title on either your Android or iOS device. Not that I actually noticed much difference when I disabled the feature when playing some of the best iPad games.
That’s not to say the Wave Life don’t do a more than passable job at being a decent gaming headset. Even though gamers aren’t Earfun’s target market, their latest over-ears' ability to pick out subtle sounds during gameplay is admirable. I was particularly impressed (and oh so flustered) by how effectively they conveyed the constant nearby Xenomorph screeches in the nerve-shredding Alien Isolation. The Resident Evil 4 remake’s undead-slaughtering gun battles also popped in an impactful way I wasn’t expecting from such cheap cans.
It’s best to go in with low expectations regarding the Wave Life’s noise cancelling, though. Even the most effective of its modes isn’t great at kiboshing ambient sounds, so if quality ANC is important to you, look elsewhere.
Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Earfun Wave Life review: Value
Great value for money, given the features
Sound quality expectations met for the price
No carry case
Considering the amount of features and general build quality, there’s zero doubt the Earfun Wave Life represent fantastic value for money.
Overall sound quality also surpasses the expectations I’d generally go in with when it comes to reviewing such a cheap set of headphones. Unless you’re a real elitist audiophile, you’ll be pretty smitten with what your $60 / £50 / AU$105 (approx.) outlay serves up sound-wise.
While a carry case would have been appreciated, that’s a bit too much to ask for such affordable cans. Earfun deserves a lot of credit for selling its Wave Life over-ears at such an attractive price point.
Value score: 4.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)
Should I buy the Earfun Wave Life?
Section
Notes
Score
Features
Bluetooth 5.4; excellent 60-hour battery life; simultaneous device pairing
4 / 5
Design
Incredibly comfy; easy-to-reach on-cup controls; another color would be nice
4 / 5
Sound quality
Optional app essential to overcome limited EQ presets; a touch quiet; ANC could be far better
3.5 / 5
Value
Fantastic value for money; sound quality to be expected at the price point
4.5 / 5
Buy them if…
You want strong sound on a budget For $60 / £50 / AU$105 (approx.), you’re going to struggle to find a better all-round, feature-packed set of cans than the Earfun Wave Life. They’re awesome value for money.
You value comfort Reasonably lightweight and with lovely foam earcups, these budget headphones are so comfortable, it’s often easy to forget you’re wearing them.
Don't buy them if…
You need strong ANC The Wave Life’s noise-cancelling features are merely adequate at best. If you regularly deal with noisy environments, there are far better options out there.
You don’t want to tweak settings Straight out of the box, these headphones’ audio performance underwhelms. To get the most out of them, tinkering with Earfun’s app settings is essential.
Earfun Wave Life review: Also consider
Earfun Wave Life
1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51
Sony WH-CH520
Drivers:
40mm composite
40mm dynamic
30mm
Active noise cancellation:
Yes
Yes
No
Battery life:
60 hours (37 hours ANC on)
100 hours (65 hours ANC on)
50 hours
Weight:
264g
246g
137g
Connectivity:
Bluetooth 5.4; USB-C
Bluetooth 5.2; 3.5mm
Bluetooth 5.2
Waterproofing:
N/A
N/A
N/A
1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 The current king of cheap headphones offer granite-strong battery life, effective ANC and a super-sleek design. See our full 1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51 review
Sony WH-CH520 If noise cancelling isn’t a deal-breaker for you, consider these well-balanced Sony cans that boast a great app. See our full Sony WH-CH520 review
How I tested Earfun Wave Life
Tested for nearly three weeks
Tested at home, on long walks and in ride shares
I tested the Earfun Wave Pro in a variety of conditions spanning songs, streaming content and video games over roughly a three-week period. This gave me the chance to get to know how versatile these over-ears can be.
Most of my time with these budget headphones was spent listening to music and podcasts on my iPhone 14 Pro. Away from revisiting my favourite tunes, I also used the Earfun Wave Life for Netflix and Disney Plus streaming, plus playing several games on my iPad Pro.
While most of my background centres around covering the best TVs and almost 20 years writing about video games, I’ve owned an absurd amount of headphones and earbuds in my life – from $500 Apple Airpods Max to budget buds from brands you’ve probably never heard of.
Currently, I have more sets of cans in my apartment than I do meals in my fridge. I should perhaps adjust my priorities in life, but hey, what can I say? I really love the best headphones.
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: two-minute review
If you want to make sure you’re getting the best possible flavor from your coffee beans, the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction will help you achieve it with minimum fuss and zero mess. It guides you through the process of dialling in the grinder and preparing exactly the right amount, so that each shot of espresso is extracted in optimum time for a well-rounded flavor. It isn't the quickest way to make coffee (for that, look for a fully automatic espresso machine), but if you want to do justice to your beans, this is a great option.
The Impress Puck System is my favorite feature, letting you pull down a lever to tamp your freshly ground coffee without having to remove the portafilter handle from beneath the grinder. You never have to move a filter basket full of loose coffee and risk spilling it, and the tactile feeling of the lever is very satisfying.
The lever-operated tamping system is satisfying to use, and produces a neat, even bed of ground coffee (Image credit: Future)
Once you’ve got your basic espresso just right, you’ll unlock the whole menu of 14 hot and cold drinks. Some popular coffees are conspicuous by their absence (flat white and macchiato, for example) but everything in the list is easy to customize, so you can tweak a preset to create your own creation quite easily.
Cold brewing involves allowing the bed of ground coffee to infuse in cold water (a process known as blooming) before it’s extracted at high pressure. The result is a smooth-tasting drink that’s a good alternative to traditionally made cold brew, in a fraction of the time.
For me, the only real disappointment was the AutoMilq system, which struggled to create a smooth microfoam with dairy milk. The plant preset worked much better, particularly with oat milk, and using the steam wand manually was a piece of cake. The angle of the wand and shape of the pitcher make it easy to create a good whirlpool, and steam pressure remains consistent.
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: price and availability
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is available direct from Sage for £1,199.95 (about $1,600 / AU$2,500). That’s the same price as the original Barista Touch Impress, so you’re essentially getting the cold-brew option thrown in for free.
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction is currently only available in the UK. When it does launch internationally, it will be under the "Breville" brand rather than Sage.
If you’re looking for something more affordable, take a look at the Ninja Luxe Café. It's also a semi-automatic espresso machine, meaning it grinds beans directly into the portafilter basket, and guides you through the process of preparing different drinks. Like the Sage machine, the Ninja also has a cold-brew option for chilled drinks. The Ninja Luxe Café is available for$499.99 / £499 (about AU$750).
Value score: 3.5/5
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: specs
Name
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction
Type
Semi-automatic espresso machine
Dimensions (W x H x D)
14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm
Weight
24.18lbs / 10.97kg
Water reservoir capacity
2.1 quarts / 2 liters
Milk frother
Automatic and manual
Bars of pressure
9
User profiles
a
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: design
The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction comes in four colors: stainless steel (shown here), black stainless steel, black truffle, and sea salt. When it comes to size, it’s one of the biggest home espresso machines I’ve tested to date, measuring 14.2 x 13.4 x 16.3 inches / 36 x 34 x 41.5cm. For comparison, the similarly specced Ninja Luxe Café is 12.99 x 13.39 x 14.57in / 330 x 340 x 370mm.
When you’re measure your work surface to see whether you have enough space, it’s also worth bearing in mind that the water tank slides onto the back of the machine, so you’ll need enough room to pull it away from the wall when it’s time for a refill. The tank is easy to remove thanks to a robust carry handle on the top, and has a hinged lid that snaps into place to keep the water clean.
The machine comes with a full set of cleaning products, plus a brush and needle tool for the steam wand (Image credit: Future)
The machine is supplied with a water filter to remove impurities, which can affect the taste of your coffee. The package also includes a water hardness testing strip, so you can configure it to suit your tap water. If your water is particularly hard, Sage recommends using pre-filtered water instead.
You’ll also need to make sure there’s sufficient space on the left-hand side of the machine to use the manual lever that compresses your freshly ground coffee. The grinder and tamper (together known as the Express Puck System) mean you’re never handling a portafilter handle full of loose coffee grounds, making the process of brewing espresso much less messy.
The Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction has a large power button on the front of the case, but everything else is operated via its bright touchscreen. This feels smooth and responsive – and, unlike the screens on some other coffee machines, it isn’t prone to fingerprints.
A handy drawer behind the drip tray offers a place to store accessories (Image credit: Future)
Something I particularly like about the Sage Barista Touch Impress is the number of accessories included in the box. You get a stainless steel milk pitcher with a fine spout that’s ideal for latte art; the usual set of single-wall and pressurized filter baskets; a cleaning pin tool for the steam wand; a barista towel; a water filter; and a full set of cleaning products. Open the Eco Starter Kit and you’ll find enough descaler, group head cleaner, grinder cleaner, and milk wand cleaner to keep you going for several months.
If you’re wondering where you’ll keep all that, don’t worry – pull out the machine’s drip tray and you’ll find a handy little accessory drawer. It’s a thoughtful touch.
The bean hopper is tinted plastic, helping keep light away from your beans while still allowing you to see how many are left (Image credit: Future)
The bean hopper is tinted, which reduces the amount of light reaching your beans (something that can cause the flavor to degrade) while also letting you see how many are left – a smart compromise. The hopper also has a good rubber seal to help keep unused beans fresh.
The grinder offers 30 settings, and can be adjusted using a dial on the left-hand side of the machine, near the tamping handle. The dial isn’t marked with numbers, but each time you switch between grind sizes you’ll hear a small beep, and the display will show the new setting. This is far easier than having to peer round the side of the coffee maker.
Design score: 4.5/5
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: performance
The Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction guides you through the process of brewing a well-rounded espresso, handling the more complicated tasks for you to turn the usually tedious process of choosing the correct grind size into something fun.
The first time you use the machine, you’ll be guided through the process of configuring it for your particular coffee beans. This involves calibrating both the grind size and the dosage.
Usually this process (known as dialling in) involves brewing several shots of straight espresso, but the designers at Sage have acknowledged that people have different tastes, so you can pick from a short menu of different drinks right from the start: espresso, long black, latte, cappuccino, and flat white. You’ll unlock the more extensive menu of hot and cold beverages once the initial setup is complete.
You don't need to remove the portafilter handle from beneath the grinder for tamping, so there's no risk of spilling loose coffee (Image credit: Future)
Pick a grind size by turning the large dial on the left-hand side of the machine (near the lever), then follow the onscreen instructions to grind the beans into the filter basket. You’ll then be instructed to pull down the tamping lever to create a nicely formed puck. This is the most pleasing part of the process, and the machine recommends doing it twice for the best results. It doesn’t take much pressure, but you get some satisfying resistance with the right dosage.
If you don’t have enough ground coffee in the basket, the machine will offer to grind a little more, then let you try tamping again. If there’s too much coffee, you can use the trimming tool provided in the box to remove a little without creating cracks in the puck.
The tamping lever is extremely satisfying to use (Image credit: Future)
Once the machine has worked out the optimum amount of coffee, it will save it for future use. Don’t worry if you want to use different beans later on, or your coffee’s properties have changed as the beans age – the Barista Touch Impress will check each time you make a drink and make adjustments on the fly.
Once your coffee is nicely tamped, it’s time to insert the handle into the brewing group and start making your first coffee. The Barista Touch Impress will time how long it takes for your shot of coffee to pour, and warn you if it’s taking a long time (and is likely to be over-extracted and sour) or has poured too quickly (making it watery). I like the fact that the machine won’t insist that you discard over- or under-extracted shots, recognizing that some coffee-drinkers have different preferences.
After a little experimentation, you'll be able to brew consistently well-balanced shots of espresso to enjoy alone, or as part of a longer drink (Image credit: Future)
Once the machine is dialled in, you’ll have access to the full menu of 14 hot and cold presets. It’s a pretty impressive list, but some (such as hot chocolate, shakerato, and espresso martini) are recipes rather than drinks you can prepare using the machine alone. It’s also worth noting that unlike the Jura J10 and the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic, there’s no way to foam cold milk.
The options are:
Flat white
Latte
Cappuccino
Espresso
Long black
Babyccino
Café crema
Hot chocolate
Tea (ie. hot water)
Cold brew
Cold espresso
Espresso shakerato
Latte shakerato
Espresso martini
I was a little surprised that Sage chose to forego some popular coffee drinks (such as caffe latte, flat white and macchiato) while including so many esoteric options such as shakeratos; but all drinks are editable, so you can easily create your favorites by tweaking the presets. The original Barista Touch Impress offered just eight options.
There are recipes for some uncommon drinks in the menu, but a few classics such as the trusty flat white are absent (Image credit: Future)
When you select a cold brew drink, the machine will pulse cold water over the bed of freshly ground coffee in the filter basket and wait a moment to let it bloom before passing cold water through at high pressure.
The result isn’t quite as full-bodied as that from the Jura J10, but it's still noticeably sweeter and smoother than coffee brewed hot, and a very good alternative to traditionally made cold brew when you don’t have hours to spend steeping grounds in the fridge.
The only feature I found lacking was the Sage Barista Touch Impress’s AutoMilq system, which is designed to heat and froth dairy and plant-based milk automatically.
During tests, AutoMilq seemed to struggle, in particular with full-fat dairy milk. This is surprising, because this is usually the top choice for creating a silky microfoam. Rather than creating a fine foam with the texture of emulsion paint when preparing a latte, the steam wand pumped in too much air, creating a lot of large bubbles, which were unstable and burst as it switched to heating the milk. The result was nicely heated milk, but barely any foam.
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The AutoMilq system created a lot of large bubbles in dairy milk, and the foam was unstable (Image credit: Future)
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Even foam created using the thickest setting turned out thin (Image credit: Future)
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Oat milk produced much better results, with thick and creamy foam (Image credit: Future)
I had more success with oat milk, with the machine creating smooth and pourable microfoam for lattes, or thicker and "dryer" foam for cappuccinos. You can choose between milk texture options when making your drink, and the machine will incorporate different amounts of air to suit.
I had no problem using the machine to steam milk manually, though, and the angle of the raised wand made it easy to position the jug correctly to get a good whirlpool going.
If you want to steam dairy milk, use the wand manually (Image credit: Future)
Cleaning the machine after use proved straightforward. The machine rinses its brew head when powered on, the steam wand purges automatically after each use, and tapping the "settings" button at the top-right of the screen will let you access step-by-step instructions for descaling, using the blank disc and cleaner to refresh the brewing group, and cleaning the milk wand.
However, it won’t explain how to use the grinder cleaner, and the manual only explains how to dismantle the grinder and use the brush to remove debris. There's no explanation about how to use the sachet of milk wand cleaner, either.
Performance score: 4/5
Should you buy the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction?
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction score card
Attribute
Notes
Score
Value
Well made and feature packed, but over twice the price of the Ninja Luxe Café, and closer to the price of machines that can also foam cold milk.
3.5/5
Design
Easy to use, with clear instructions on displayed on the bright touchscreen. Lever-operating tamping system is satisfying to use. Large footprint won't fit some kitchens.
4.5/5
Performance
Excellent hot and cold coffee brewing and smart guidance for dialling in grinder, but AutoMilq system seems to struggle with whole dairy milk. Plant milk foams better and wand works fine manually.
4/5
Buy it if
You want optimum flavor from your beans
This machine guides you through the process of dosing coffee and choosing the ideal grind size for a perfectly extracted shot. It might take a while to get it just right, but it’s worth the time, and there’s zero mess involved.
You want tasty cold brew without the wait
The latest version of the Barista Touch Impress does a good job replicating the smooth taste of traditionally made cold brew by allowing the coffee grounds to bloom before pulling a shot.
Don't buy it if
You don’t want to steam dairy milk manually
Sage’s AutoMilq system struggled to create a good texture with fresh whole dairy milk, although it worked much better with oat milk. Raising the wand and using it manually yielded good results.
You just want coffee as fast as possible
The Barista Touch Impress is all about perfecting your espresso, and getting the optimum extraction for the best flavor. If you don’t have time to spend making multiple shots and configuring the grinder, a fully automatic espresso machine might be a better option for you.
Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction: also consider
Ninja Luxe Café
Like the sound of the Barista Touch Impress, but don’t have the space? The Ninja Luxe Café is a more compact alternative, and it can make filter coffee as well. You don’t get the tidy tamping system, though.
If you like cold brew but want more variety, this superb espresso machine not only creates great-tasting coffee, it can also foam cold plant and dairy milk for iced lattes. It works brilliantly; the iced latte macchiato was my personal favorite during testing.
If you want a well-extracted coffee but don’t have the time to spend configuring a grinder, this is easily one of the best fully automatic espresso machines I’ve tested. This version has a preset for plant milk, but if you only drink dairy then you can save a little cash by opting for the KF6 instead.
How I tested the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction
I used the Sage Barista Touch Impress with Cold Extraction for two weeks in place of my usual coffee machine, and brewed coffee using a blend of freshly roasted Brazilian and Colombian arabica beans. I spent time dialling in the grinder for the beans to begin with, and followed the directions to tweak the grind size each time I made a new drink.
I went through the whole drinks menu, and tested the steam wand using full-fat dairy and oat milk. I used the AutoMilq system, and steamed milk manually.
Once I’d finished testing, I ran through all of the machine’s cleaning and maintenance programs.
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