Cafe Aromis 8000 Series (EP8757)

It does. It have a new brew unit.  They just updated the look to it to make it more appealing to the ladies.  Everything else about it is the same. 

11g max. 

Do you work for Philips?  Their burr grinder is a toy and Philips limits the grind adjustment too much.  A ceramic burr grind doesn't mean it's quite, it isn't.   

Your Philips 5500 also has the flat ceramic burr, same as the 800 . A lot of Philips machines have the ceramic flat burr. They are not special and they are quite small. The kitchenaids are quite but the whole machine is insulated for sound. My jura has flat burr ceramic discs, they are not quiet and need a thick towel to muffel them. You want a ceramic flat disc for a certain flavor profile and they tend to stay cleaner. Grinds on a super auto are not that great anyway so I think it would be difficult for anyone to pickup the nuances between a flat disc or conical grinder. The Jura z10 has a conical grinder while the Giga 10 has flat discs for example. The quietness of it is Philips marketing team getting way over their skiis.

i mean, 12G is better than 9 but yeah 15-16 would be ideal but i'm not sure it makes a huge difference since it's essentially just a pressurized basket so shots are never going to have the texture of real espresso

My machine does 12 and i tastes ok as long as it's on the finest setting and as long as i use the hottest water setting and 40ml shots other wise 35ml makes them sour

The ability to adjust the strength on the fly isn't really a main selling point and other machines have similar features now. The Saeco models has had it for a while now. In functional use, your quantities are so limited anyway you dial in what you want and never touch it as minute adjustments are usually unnoticeable especially with black. Philips Machines in general have smaller adjustment ranges than Gaggia and Saeco and there are not many adjustments you can do with a 11g dose. I can be handy if you get new beans like a robusta blend and wanted to try a tad more water on a espresso and forgot to make the adjustment prior to hitting start. Again, i wouldn't buy the machine for this future.

Jura E6, unless you really want to automate the different milk drinks E8. E6 has same internal guts that make the coffee further up the line. So for me it was what's going to make the best espresso & a few others on occasion. If you don't mind twisting a nob on/off for the milk part E6 is enough fire power. I had a secco for 12 years, purchase the Phillips 8800 and returned it the espresso was SO bad

I felt it was a bit stronger flavor than the 5500 but I wouldn't describe the flavor as "good" it's possible the machine I sampled from at a trade show wasnt dialed in but you'd kinda expect it to be set up pretty well yeah? truly bad tasting, harsh and over extracted with a burnt lingering finish. it's honestly a shame saeco was bought out by phillips. you can see the design lineage of the Xelsis in the 8000 but the quality is just gone.