Nespresso Vertuo Plus XN903140 Coffee Machine by Krups - White
The Amazon Exclusive limited edition white Vertuo Plus, built by Krups. Barcode-read Centrifusion capsules, four cup sizes to 230ml, a 1.2 litre movable tank and a 40 second heat-up. Now scarce, with one marketplace seller at £269 and no Amazon offer.
Features
What the Vertuo Plus XN903140 actually is
This is the Amazon Exclusive limited edition white version of the Nespresso Vertuo Plus, built by Krups. Mechanically it is the same machine as the standard Vertuo Plus, but the white finish was a limited run and it is no longer in general distribution. At the time of writing there is no featured Amazon offer at all, and a single marketplace seller is listing it at £269.00. Amazon itself flags the price as higher than typical. If you want a Vertuo machine to make coffee rather than to match a particular kitchen, the Vertuo Next and the standard-colour Vertuo Plus do the same job for roughly half of that.
Centrifusion, and why you do not choose the cup size
Vertuo machines do not work like the Original line. Each capsule has a barcode printed around its rim. The machine reads that barcode, then spins the capsule at up to 7,000 rpm to extract, and the barcode tells it how much water to use, how fast to spin and how long to brew. That is why there is only one button: you pick the coffee, not the size. It is also why Vertuo produces a thick crema even on a long black, which is the main thing it does better than Original.
The trade-off is real. You cannot pull a short 40ml shot from a mug capsule, and you cannot use Nespresso Original pods or any of the cheap third-party Original-compatible pods in it. If pod choice and pod price matter more to you than crema, this is the wrong system to buy into.
Cup sizes
- Espresso, 40ml
- Double espresso, 80ml
- Gran Lungo, 150ml
- Large mug, 230ml
The Vertuo Plus stops at 230ml. The 414ml Alto size that some Vertuo capsules are sold for needs one of the larger Vertuo machines, so if you drink big American-style mugs this will not fill one in a single brew.
Living with it
It heats in about 40 seconds from cold, which is quick for a machine that pre-heats a tank rather than flash-heating on demand. The head opens and closes on a motor rather than a lever, and used capsules eject automatically into a container holding around ten. The 1.2 litre tank sits on a swivelling arm and can be moved to the back, the left or the right, so it tucks into a corner or under a wall cabinet better than most pod machines manage.
Measure before you buy. The body is 34.9cm deep, 22cm wide and 32.5cm tall with the head shut, and the motorised head needs clearance above that to open. There is no milk system either, so cappuccino and latte need a Nespresso Aeroccino frother as a separate purchase.
What owners actually complain about
Across 1,139 Amazon UK ratings it averages 4.4, but the distribution is not the usual shape: 75% five star and 7% one star, with very little in between. The one-star reviews cluster on reliability rather than on the coffee, including machines failing inside the first month. The other recurring gripe comes from buyers who assumed it would take the larger Vertuo pods. The coffee itself, the crema and the brew speed are praised consistently.
Is it worth £269?
Only if you specifically want the white limited edition and are content paying a collector's premium to a marketplace seller with no Amazon Buy Box behind it. For everyday use, buy a current Vertuo machine instead, or step outside the pod system altogether. A De'Longhi Dedica gives you ground coffee and a steam wand for similar money, and the Breville One-Touch CoffeeHouse makes milk drinks without needing a separate frother.