After wanting an espresso maker for so long, and not really wanting to drop $700 on a grinder/lever machine, lukaski bought me one of these for christmas.
http://www.handpresso.com/
This video shows a pretty good idea of the shots.
http://www.handpresso.fr/products/wild-domepod-EN.html
$115 CAD, Pumps up to pressure like a mini bike pump. Very portable.
The shots that come out of this are consistent. Very smooth, taste is bright.
Like, "
Holy shit! This is coffee?! It tastes like fresh juice from a coffee bean!" bright.
I'd say a medium to high complexity (I have a pretty sharp palate for wines, coffees, schotches, chocolates, etc...). Complexity is kind of like when you taste a grape (regular french press coffee with a your favorite brand) versus tasting wine (same bean in the handpresso).
Crema is definitely there, but not like when you see some of these guys pulling shots from lever machines, where 3/4 of the shot is crema. I'd say if you get 1/8 to 1/4 of the shot as crema from the handpresso, you're doing well. The crema is smooth, but not complex with coloured gradations/spots/stripes like you get from a lever machine. The video above gives a good idea of the crema colour, consistency, and amount.
Very happy with it so far and am starting to experiment with water temps, grinds, etc... I have to build a tamp as it doesn't come with one and I've been tamping the grinds with a spoon, as in the video.
I've had espresso from a variety of machines and machine types. Most has come from Rancillo Rocky and another $3500 Italian machine (all steel, copper, and ceramic two chamber machine, that I can't remember the name of right now).
I'd put the quality of the espresso from the handpresso at about the $600 to $800 machine. Definitely not entry level, but not a $5000 machine either. I've had worse shots from a Rancillo Silvia Rocky machines.
IMHO the hanpresso puts out better shots than the Rancillo Rocky on a pretty regular basis.