Pod machine review · 7 min readNespresso Vertuo Pop review: a cheap machine with dear capsules
A small one-button machine that makes a full mug of black coffee. The catch is that it only takes Nespresso's own Vertuo capsules, the most expensive capsule system we track.
The Nespresso Vertuo Pop is a one-button capsule machine that reads a barcode on each pod and brews anything from an espresso to a 230ml mug, and at £98.98 on Amazon at the time of writing (September 2026) it is the cheapest way into Nespresso's Vertuo system. Buy it if you want a long black coffee with no effort and there are one or two of you, because the 560ml tank makes about two mugs before it needs refilling. Skip it if running costs matter. Only Nespresso makes Vertuo capsules, and the 13 we track have a median price of 85p a cup.
A tiny one-button Vertuo machine that makes a full mug of black coffee with no effort; the capsules, not the machine, are what it really costs you.
- Type
- Capsule machine (Nespresso Vertuo)
- Skill needed
- None: one button
- Best for
- Mugs of black coffee for one or two people
Buy it ifYou want a mug of black coffee at one press of a button, with nothing to learn.
Skip it ifCost per cup matters: Vertuo capsules have an 85p median on our prices, against 19p for the cheapest Nespresso Original compatible capsule we track.
Who is the Nespresso Vertuo Pop for?
Someone who drinks black coffee by the mug, wants it at the press of one button, and lives alone or with one other coffee drinker. Nespresso lists the Vertuo Pop at 136mm wide, 426mm deep and 250mm tall, 3.5kg, with a 30 second heat-up and an automatic switch-off after 2 minutes. You lift the lever, drop in a capsule and press the button on top. The machine reads a barcode printed on the capsule rim and sets the brew for that capsule itself, so there is nothing to choose and nothing to get wrong.
Reviewers agree on the appeal. TechRadar's Jennifer Oksien called it 'super-easy to use' and said that for the price she 'just couldn't fault it'. Expert Reviews' Danielle Amato described it as 'a tiny, stylish capsule machine that serves up great-tasting coffee'. Ideal Home's Molly Cleary, whose team kept one as its desk machine, called it 'a practical machine to its core'.
It is the wrong machine if you care what each cup costs, because the Pop only takes Nespresso's Vertuo capsules and Nespresso is the only company that makes them. It is also wrong for a busy household, and for anyone who wants milk drinks without a separate frother: it has no steam wand and no milk system.
How does Vertuo brewing work, and is the coffee any good?
It spins the capsule rather than forcing water through it at espresso pressure, and the result is a long coffee with a thick head of foam. James Hoffmann investigated an earlier Vertuo machine on video in 2021. He found it spins the capsule at several thousand rpm while pumping water through, reaching about 23% extraction on a mug capsule: thorough, but not what he would call over-extracted. He was less impressed by the head. He would not call it crema; he believes it is air whipped into the coffee, and he made something very similar by putting a cup of filter coffee in a blender.
On taste, the reviewers who used the Pop split. TechRadar found every cup 'delicious with a thick crema on top'. Ideal Home was struck by how bitter its first coffee was, and called the head 'more like foam'. Hoffmann's reading of Nespresso's patent offers a reason: the system is said to work better with dark roasts, and the mug capsule he tasted was much darker than he would choose. If you like a dark, heavy mug of coffee, the Pop suits you. If you like bright, light-roasted coffee, no capsule machine will give you much of it.
How long a mug takes is the one figure where sources disagree. TechRadar says under 30 seconds; Ideal Home timed 1 minute 38 seconds for a 230ml mug.
What annoys owners day to day?
The tank, first. Nespresso lists it as 560ml in one place on its UK page and 0.6 litres in another, and TechRadar and Ideal Home both found it good for two mugs before a refill. That is fine for one person and tiresome for a family. TechRadar's verdict was that 'for families this particular coffee machine won't be up for the demand'.
Then the gap under the spout. Expert Reviews measured 8cm of clearance with the drip tray in and 12cm with it out, and Ideal Home could not fit a standard mug without removing the tray, which meant risking spills. Measure your favourite mug before you buy.
- The used capsule container holds 8 espresso or 5 mug capsules, according to Nespresso. Ideal Home found it full at about seven.
- TechRadar measured 62 to 71dB while brewing, the top of that range comparable to a washing machine.
- Expert Reviews found the button sometimes flashes orange to signal a fault when there is none.
- The app is optional. TechRadar says you do not need it at all, and Expert Reviews found little practical use for it.
- The first-use rinse empties the whole tank through the spout, so have a jug ready, as TechRadar warns.
One oddity on Nespresso's own page: its key features say four cup sizes, while other sections of the same page say six, from a 25ml ristretto to a 355ml XL. TechRadar's 2023 review describes four: espresso 40ml, double espresso 80ml, gran lungo 150ml and mug 230ml. Ideal Home mentions 355ml cold brew capsules. The capsule sets the size, so the practical question is which capsules Nespresso sells, not which buttons you press.
Which capsules fit, and what do they cost?
Only Nespresso Vertuo capsules. Nespresso's UK page describes the Pop's pod compatibility as 'Nespresso Vertuo exclusive', and Nespresso Original capsules, the small ones you can buy compatible versions of in supermarkets, do not fit. Ideal Home puts the shortage of alternatives down to Nespresso's patents on the Vertuo design. Hoffmann was blunter: 'This whole technology is around locking you in.'
Our catalogue shows what that costs. All 13 Vertuo capsule products we track are Nespresso's own, with a median of 85p a cup and a range from 68p to £1.70. The median across all 129 pods we track is 52p. Nespresso's own Original capsules come out at about 52p, and the cheapest Original compatible capsule we track, by Amazon's Colombian, is 19p.
Hoffmann weighed the coffee inside: 7.5g in an espresso capsule, 10.6g in a gran lungo and 13g in a mug capsule. If you pay the 85p median for a capsule holding 13g, you are paying about £65 for a kilo of coffee. The median whole bean coffee we track works out at about £35 a kilo (63p for an 18g dose).
Two ways to soften that. Ideal Home points out that reusable Vertuo pods exist, which you fill with your own ground coffee. None of the reviews we read tested one in the Pop, so treat them as an experiment. And used capsules can go back through Podback, the free UK pod recycling service, which takes Nespresso capsules at more than 1,500 drop-off points, according to Podback.
What does a year of coffee cost through it?
About £620 in capsules at two mugs a day, if you pay the 85p Vertuo median. Two a day for a year is 730 cups. The table sets that against the other capsule systems at the same rate, using our catalogue's prices.
| Capsule | Per cup | Two a day for a year |
|---|---|---|
| Nespresso Vertuo, median of 13 | £0.85 | £620.50 |
| Nespresso Vertuo, cheapest we track | £0.68 | £496.40 |
| Nespresso Original, Nespresso's own | £0.52 | £379.60 |
| by Amazon Colombian, Original compatible | £0.19 | £138.70 |
| Coffee-shop flat white at £3.50 | £3.50 | £2,555.00 |
Add the machine and the first year through a Vertuo Pop comes to £719.48 at two mugs a day. A Nespresso Essenza Mini at £113.95 with by Amazon's Colombian capsules comes to £252.65, about £467 less. After two years the Vertuo capsules alone have cost about £1,241, more than twelve times the price of the machine. The Pop is cheap to buy and dear to run, and that is Hoffmann's point about lock-in, written in pounds.
Against a coffee shop it still wins easily, though the comparison flatters it: a flat white includes milk and the Pop makes black coffee. If what you would otherwise buy is a takeaway Americano, the gap is smaller but still large.
How do you look after it, and what if it fails?
Empty the capsule container and rinse the drip tray regularly, and descale on schedule. TechRadar quotes the manual's advice to descale every three months or 300 capsules, whichever comes first; Nespresso's UK page says every 3 to 6 months with its descaling kit. In a hard-water area, use the shorter interval.
If it develops a fault, your statutory rights run through the seller. GOV.UK's guidance says a retailer must repair or replace a faulty item returned within six months unless it can prove the fault was not there when you bought it, and that you have up to six years to make a claim (five in Scotland). Keep the Amazon order confirmation.
What are the alternatives?
If cost per cup is what matters, a Nespresso Original machine is the obvious switch. The Nespresso Essenza Mini is £113.95 on Amazon at the time of writing (September 2026). Nespresso lists a 19 bar pump, two cup sizes (40ml espresso and 110ml lungo), a 0.6 litre tank and a body only 8.4cm wide. It makes espresso-length drinks rather than mugs, but Original is the system with the most compatible capsules, as our pod compatibility guide explains.
If you want milk drinks from capsules alone, the Nescafé Dolce Gusto Genio S Plus is £95.99 on Amazon at the time of writing. Its cappuccinos and lattes use a coffee capsule and a milk capsule, and the Dolce Gusto capsules we track have a median of 21p, although the two-capsule milk drinks cost 38p to 42p a drink.
The three capsule systems compared side by side, with what each costs to run, are in our pod machine shortlist. The best pod coffee machine in the UK
- Nespresso UK, Vertuo Pop Coconut White product page136 x 426 x 250mm, 3.5kg, 560ml tank (also listed as 0.6 litre), 30 second heat-up, auto-off after 2 minutes, holds 8 espresso or 5 mug capsules, 'Nespresso Vertuo exclusive', four cup sizes in one section and six in another, descale every 3 to 6 months, £99.
- TechRadar, Nespresso Vertuo Pop review (Jennifer Oksien, April 2023)Four cup sizes, a 600ml tank good for two mugs, 62 to 71dB while brewing, a mug in under 30 seconds, descale every three months or 300 capsules, recycling through Podback.
- Expert Reviews, Nespresso Vertuo Pop review (Danielle Amato, updated December 2023)8cm of cup clearance with the tray in and 12cm without, a warning light that flashes orange when nothing is wrong, an app with little practical use.
- Ideal Home, Nespresso Vertuo Pop review (Molly Cleary, August 2024)Two coffees per tank, a standard mug only fitting with the drip tray removed, 1 minute 38 seconds for a 230ml mug, bitter coffee and foam rather than crema, capsules patented to Nespresso, reusable pods available.
- James Hoffmann (YouTube), The Bizarre And Surprising Coffee Of The Nespresso Vertuo (July 2021)Barcode reading and spinning extraction, foam he believes is aerated, about 23% extraction, 7.5g, 10.6g and 13g of coffee in the espresso, gran lungo and mug capsules, and a system he says is built to lock you in.
- Podback, the UK coffee pod recycling serviceFree to use across the UK, covers Nespresso and Nescafé Dolce Gusto among others, more than 1,500 drop-off points.
- GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds: the lawWritten for sellers: repair or replace within six months unless the seller proves no fault, and up to six years to claim (five in Scotland).
- We Try Coffee catalogue, October 2026Pods median 52p a cup across 129 products. Nespresso Vertuo capsules: 13 products, median 85p, range 68p to £1.70. Nespresso's own Original capsules about 52p. Dolce Gusto: 10 products, median 21p. Whole beans 63p and ground coffee 71p on an 18g dose.
- Amazon UK listing B0B8NN89VSPrice of £98.98 when checked on 29 September 2026.
Questions people ask
Is the Nespresso Vertuo Pop worth buying?
Yes, if you want a mug of black coffee at one press of a button and there are one or two of you. TechRadar, Expert Reviews and Ideal Home all rate the Nespresso Vertuo Pop as easy to use and compact. The cost is in the capsules: Vertuo capsules have a median of 85p a cup on our prices, and only Nespresso makes them.
Can you use Nespresso Original pods in a Vertuo Pop?
No. The Nespresso Vertuo Pop takes only Nespresso Vertuo capsules, which are larger and carry a barcode the machine reads to set the brew. Nespresso describes its pod compatibility as 'Nespresso Vertuo exclusive'. Nespresso Original capsules and Original compatible capsules from other brands do not fit any Vertuo machine.
How much does a Vertuo Pop cost to run for a year?
About £620 a year in capsules at two mugs a day, using the 85p median price of the 13 Nespresso Vertuo capsule products we track. With the cheapest Vertuo capsule we track, at 68p, it is about £496. A Nespresso Original machine with by Amazon's 19p compatible capsules costs about £139 a year at the same rate.
How big is the Vertuo Pop water tank?
Nespresso lists the Vertuo Pop's tank as 560ml on one part of its UK page and 0.6 litres on another. TechRadar and Ideal Home both found it makes about two mugs before you need to refill it, which suits one or two people better than a family.
Does a standard mug fit under the Nespresso Vertuo Pop?
Often only with the drip tray removed. Expert Reviews measured 8cm of clearance with the tray in place and 12cm without it, and Ideal Home had to remove the tray to fit a standard mug. Measure your mug before you buy, or plan to brew without the tray for the 230ml size.
Can you recycle Nespresso Vertuo capsules in the UK?
Not in your household recycling bin, but Podback, a free UK pod recycling service, accepts Nespresso capsules at more than 1,500 drop-off points, according to Podback. TechRadar used a Podback bag and a CollectPlus drop-off for the capsules from its Vertuo Pop.
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