Testing 19 Toasters to Find Which One Toasts Best ($24 to $400)

My name's Dave Arnold and I develop, teach,

and write about culinary technology.

The toasters we're testing ranged from 23.99

all the way up to $400

and we're gonna see if that extra money

really makes better toast.

Some of you might like it blonder,

some of you might like it darker, and while we'll test that,

we're gonna, I don't know what to say.

I have so many opinions on toast that it's hard for me

to decide what's best, what's best?

There is no best.

There's just differences.

That said, we're gonna try to give you all the information

that you need to see whether these things make

the kind of toast that you want.

Amazon Basics toaster, $24.

Lightweight, black plastic, basic functions.

Oh, now look at that, huh?

Went down too fast and it gripped

before it went all the way down.

So I'm gonna now be less me and more gentle

and see what happens.

Our standard test is gonna use the medium setting

with good old Wonder Bread

to see how each performs as a baseline.

Baseline toast should be evenly colored

all the way across the bread.

It should be crispy on the outside,

it should still have moisture on the inside,

have a good bite to it

and hopefully doesn't stale out too quickly.

We're gonna rate each one.

The good ones are a buy, return for the bad ones,

and keep your receipt for those

that are somewhere in the middle.

[bell pings]

Oh, there it is.

This is the toast from the middle set of elements

and that's the toasted side from the other.

And I have to say they're not a hundred percent the same.

So, it's a little bit darker on the interior side

than on the exterior side.

That's toast.

For each toaster, we immediately started a second round

after our first toast.

The goal being to see how consistent the toasters were

across multiple rounds of toast.

Oh, here we go.

Second round looks pretty much like the first.

It's a little darker on the inside.

It's not gonna win any awards,

but for $24 it seems to do

kind of what it says it's going to do.

So I think it's fine.

Do I feel any great affection for it?

I do not.

But for the price and the fact that it made decent toast

consistent across rounds,

I'm gonna rate it as a buy overall.

A decent benchmark for the very cheapest toaster of the day.

The Bella two-slice toaster, $25.

Costs the same as our previous toaster

and its unique selling proposition, AKA, it's USP,

is that it will take up less space on your counter.

It's two slot width, which means that what it can do

that no other slot toaster can do

is handle these kind of wider sourdough bulls

that are extremely popular right now.

Let's see how it does with our standard Wonder Bread toast.

Here we go.

[bell pings]

Oh, there it is.

This section where this came from is not maybe as good

as this front section, so maybe not a hundred percent even.

Let's do this.

I'm not noticing between this

and the other toaster I've tried, any miracle of difference

in the taste of the toast.

The Bella was one of the only toasters

that did not reduce the toasting time on the second round,

resulting in a much darker toast.

That means it just uses a simple timer mechanism

rather than the temperature sensor.

This was really shocking to me how uneven it was,

same time in the same slot from front to back.

The fact that it also didn't adjust the toast time

depending on whether it had just been used.

That means your second slice of toast

is gonna be a appreciably darker

than your first slice of toast.

The Bella might be the perfect solution

for someone desperate for counter space,

but it wasn't the toaster for me.

I put it on the return shelf.

Cuisinart two slice toaster, 39.95.

As I expected from a brand of Cuisinart's good reputation,

the build quality on this model felt a little better

than the previous toasters with a nice chunky lever

and a wide carriage to keep it cool touch.

And I liked that the labels weren't on the buttons,

which means they wouldn't wear off over time with use.

One thing I didn't love was the slot size,

which was too short for artisan breads,

but fine for our standard Wonder Bread.

[bell pings]

Don't love this, it's not wall to wall.

Remember, what we're looking for in life

is wall to wall toast.

Sometimes that can be difficult

because the bread actually changes even on Wonder Bread,

which is renowned for being uniform.

It's always you notice a little bit denser

around the outside.

For bread that is not gonna have

a lot of internal difference, a Wonder is pretty good

and that's a little bit blonde around that side

a lot bit blonde around that side.

Of the three toasts I've had so far,

I like that one the best, taste wise.

Could just be a setting for me though.

This is slightly blonder.

Second batch came out 30 seconds faster than the first.

So while it was good to see that it was compensating

for the warm start, it was still a pretty uneven toast.

It's a little more even, but there's still some

real light spots there.

Once toast starts getting this level of darkness,

it tends to get dark kind of exponentially faster

as they go from being not brown,

brown, brown, brown, burn, so you gotta be careful,

but when you have this level of brown

and this level of white, it's not awesome.

I was already a little disappointed in the Cuisinart,

but at this point, one of the producers on set

who actually owned this toaster

told me something that shocked me.

What? Hold on, gimme a bagel.

Gimme a bagel, hold on.

Newsflash, this is a fake bagel setting I'm told.

The bagel function on a toaster

is meant to toast one side of the bread only.

Only one heating element comes on.

So you're meant to toast just the cut side of the bagel,

but according to the Cuisinart instruction manual,

all that the bagel function does is increase the toast time.

Son of the, oh my God, yes, the outside is heating up,

the outside is heating up.

So if all this does is add some extra time,

I already have a knob for that.

I put the cut side of the bagels facing in

because that's always the way you're supposed to do it.

And it did look like it was slightly more toasted

on the cut side, but it could just be

that it is harder to toast the outside of a bagel

and I was not able to get a consistent result

from test to test.

So it's just really hard to tell

what the point of this bagel function is.

What I really want in a bagel setting

is for the outside elements to never come on at all.

Overall, Cuisinart with their entry level toaster,

not nearly as consistent a toast product

as I would've expected out of a brand

that I've trusted for a long time.

Unfortunately it went to the return shelf.

Continental Electric Professional Series, $40.

Our first metal body toaster,

but still quite a lightweight device,

not a lot of metal in there.

And this kind of stainless is a smudge-tastrophe.

I did like the clicky knob,

although who knows about the longevity of it.

And again, the slots weren't gonna fit anything wider

than our standard Wonder Bread.

All right. [bell pings]

We're definitely looking at not even toast

all the way across.

In fact, completely blonde here, completely blonde here.

Not the greatest toast performance of all time.

What I realized at this point

was that whenever I didn't perfectly center my toast

in the slot, I was getting raw outside edges.

Since the same thing happened in the Amazon Basics test,

I thought I'd take a look inside of that one just to compare

how the heating elements were distributed in both.

It was then that I made a crucial discovery.

They look almost identical like they could have been made

and probably were in the same factory,

but like looking at them, even like the pattern

of indentation in the insulator is almost identical.

Both the same width relative to where the toast is.

So the $40 toaster was basically the same piece of equipment

as our $24 model,

but it was wearing a different outfit.

For that much more money, I choose the cheaper toaster

and put this one on the return shelf.

Drew Barrymore two slice toaster, 49.96.

This was our first model

with any kind of electronic smart stuff.

When I looked inside,

what I saw was the exact same internal structure

as the Continental Electric and the Amazon Basics toasters.

Not just the same heating elements,

but the same stampings, same mechanism.

[toaster beeps]

So it does that when it starts up.

Be be aware if that's gonna be something that bothers you.

So I'm guessing what's gonna be different here,

and this is important to a lot of people,

so I'm not trying to poo pooh it, is the is the look, feel

and how the the controls are gonna work.

Let me see whether it operates with a towel.

Yeah, see, it's not using pressure,

it's using capacitive sense.

Capacitive buttons detect touch by sensing changes

in electrical charge or capacitance on their surface.

They don't require pressure,

just a light touch from your finger to activate.

That means this toaster is actually sensing human contact

like your fingers on an iPhone.

It's a highly sensitive interface,

but that means it might not work well if your hands are wet

or if you're wearing an oven mitt,

or if you accidentally turn everything on

when you're trying to clean it with a damp towel.

I also noticed that the contrast wasn't great

on these lighted indicators.

For those with lower vision or just on a sunny day,

they might not be that visible.

[bell pings]

And lo and behold, it's more uneven here.

So this toasting mechanism, which for lack of a better word,

is the Amazon Basics.

Just be aware that you need to get the toast

in the center of the slot

in order to get an even slice of toast.

[bell pings] And just like the previous models,

I found that the second round of Drew's toast

was more even than the first.

It makes sense because on the second toast,

the whole toaster is hotter.

There's fewer cold spots.

So your piece of bread is just going to be

more evenly heated overall.

You know what the, it's like the first pancake

is always bad, so you know you're gonna throw it away.

Toast shouldn't be that way.

First slice of toast should be perfect.

This is $50.

So it's roughly twice what the cheapest one

that we've tested that has the same heating element

has in it.

It's gonna come down to whether you like

this kind of interface, but this is not for me.

But that is a design and a personal choice standpoint.

Not a bad good choice.

Unfortunately I was forced to add Drew's toaster

to the return pile.

Hello Kitty toaster, $50.

It's unique selling proposition?

Singe Hello Kitty's face directly into your toast.

It's lightweight and doesn't feel like a substantial thing,

but I have to say I love this thing.

It's got an interesting grip mechanism.

I think they were trying to not have any lines go through

Hello Kitty's face.

It's like just don't mess with her face.

Don't mess with her face.

And that's why it's $50,

'cause you had to pay for that person

customizing that thing.

[bell pings]

Here we go.

Oh yeah, look, I love Hello Kitty,

but this is woefully under toasted and this is over toasted.

I just think it would be easier

to get Hello Kitty on the toast a different way.

I truly wanted to love the Hello Kitty toaster.

I don't know what I was hoping for

that this would be some sort of magical device,

but alas it was not.

It was going to have to go on the return shelf.

Toastmaster four slice, 49.99.

This is the first four slice unit that we've tried,

which might account for the jump in price.

Otherwise it didn't feel like a particularly premium unit.

I really can't tolerate that.

I can't, I can't.

I just can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do that.

I would not be able to tolerate that.

Clearly not the best build quality,

but let's see how it toasts.

[bell pings]

I wouldn't say it's the most even toast ever.

It's not the worst that we've seen all day,

but not the best either.

This is darker than the first go around by a good chunk.

This is definitely a better second slice toaster.

It's a little dry actually.

Now with a four slice toaster,

you should be able to get one half toasted very light

and one half toasted dark.

Otherwise, why would you be able to control

these two sides separately?

Let's set this one to two and a half, so that's very light.

And this one to four and a half, that's on the dark side.

Oh, okay.

I, that is, that's warm.

But the inner slice of light toast was actually quite dark

and the outer light slice was too light.

So while there are independent controls here,

they don't really work

to make two different styles of toast at once.

Admittedly, this toaster did make relatively even toast

provided you are just trying to make one level of brown

across all four slots.

But for me, the knob was a real issue, a deal breaker.

It was gonna have to go on the return pile.

Antique toaster, $60.

We got this 1920s toaster off eBay

from a nice lady in Colorado.

She charged us $60.

Clearly this model is no longer on the market,

but what's useful about this is that much like an old car,

when you look at an old toaster,

all of its parts are exposed

and you can really get a feel for how they work.

I can't tell you how much I love this little,

this little function.

I'll do it with the bread.

If you are plugging in an old piece of equipment,

just be a little careful.

When you plug in this toaster,

electricity starts flowing through these coils,

which are made of a nickel chromium alloy called nichrome

that has a very specific electrical resistance.

That resistance turns the electrical energy

into radiant heat.

Modern toasters use essentially the same technology

but with thinner strips of a cheaper alloy

that degrades a lot faster than these beefy nichrome wires.

That's why most modern toasters last about five years

as opposed to a century.

It's starting to red up

and I think it's starting to brown up.

It's probably gonna look lighter than it is.

No, man.

So that's one level.

What do you want, more, less?

It's a little uneven here.

Let's see what, let's see how we are on this side

and I'm gonna call it.

Actually, I don't mind the crisscross applesauce.

I haven't had toast yet

that did something different other than make toast.

This toast is as good as most of the toast

I've already eaten today.

For a hundred and change year-old device,

I like this vintage toaster.

I love the cool mechanism and also that it looked like

a weird, medieval torture device.

So that's always a plus.

It's definitely not the most practical toaster

or even the safest,

but I had to put it in the buy pile.

The General Electric two slice toaster, $60.

The metal was still thin,

but it seemed better constructed overall

than the Toastmaster.

Nice clickiness on the knobs

and the buttons separate from the writing and go.

That felt good.

That did feel good.

The toast itself [bell pings]

again was toast.

The middle setting on this model was quite blonde,

but that might not bother you.

It seems to be a common flaw with all of these toasters

is not being a hundred percent edge to edge

depending on where it is in the slot.

As we've noticed with other toasters,

the second toast is more even than the first toast.

Do you want your first set of toast

to not be as good as a second set of toast?

Not really.

I don't know that it warrants its larger size.

It is quite a bit beefier than some of the other two slices

for the quality of toast.

I didn't hate it, I didn't love it.

For the General Electric two slice, I'd say,

man, keep the receipt.

The Haden Dorset toaster, 74.99.

It's major selling point appeared to be its retro design.

It's some sort of a like enamel on steel.

The steel actually feels pretty sturdy.

This knob, which is meant to look like

I'm in some sort of steampunk airplane situation.

I mean, it's not for me just because

I think it's gonna break.

It seems like a lot of designy things, right?

But is there a reason for it to not really,

it's not helping it toast.

Who knows, could be wrong.

Could be God's toast coming outta this thing right now.

[bell pings]

So this is, oh, this is a little darker

than some of the other ones on the first toast,

but it is relatively even

compared to some of the other toast that we've made.

That's decent toast.

Second slice is more even and also darker.

That's actually better toast.

Again, we have a second slice problem,

but I would say the difference between slice set one

and set two is maybe not as bad as what we've seen

in some of the other models.

You get some points back, my friend, some.

The design was not for me at all,

but I was relatively impressed by the actual toast.

And because of that, I put it in the middle shelf.

The Breville A Bit More, 109.95.

Our first model breaking the a hundred dollars mark

and there were signs of a more premium product here.

The stainless was a lot less fingerprinty

than on the budget model we looked at.

The heating elements were also more densely spaced,

giving me hope for a more even toasting.

Now let's make sure so, oh ooh,

it's like Battlestar Galactica.

It's like a Cylon Raider back in the day.

That's goofy as hell, but I kind of like it.

[bell pings]

The toast itself was on the blonde side,

but fairly even like many of the other toasters,

it was more even on the second round of toasting.

But this toaster was one of the first we tried

that had truly unique functions

that were designed specifically

to help you make better toast.

First there's the lift and look function.

Oh, most of the other toasters that we've used so far,

if I lift the lever, I'd have to pop it

past its down point and end the cycle.

This one, you can look at it kind of midway

and keep it toasting.

I like that and that makes its a bit more function

also make more sense

because I can wait until it's near the end of its cycle,

check it, say nah, and then be like, you know what?

The bit more button added about 20 more seconds

to the cycle.

And I could definitely see how this might help someone

make better toast.

And overall it was the fastest toaster

that we'd tested so far.

I liked that it had a true bagel function.

Toasting one side only.

Downsides? It takes up a lot of room for a two slice toaster

and it still doesn't fit artisan breads.

But overall, a good toaster, it goes on the buy shelf.

The Ninja Flip, 149.95.

And with that we moved on

to our first toaster oven of the day.

It's called the flip because you can flip it up

when you're not using it.

But we are just here to find out

whether it makes good toast.

When you're choosing the number of slices that you're doing,

what that's gonna do is change

the number of heating elements that it uses.

I would say always go maximum,

not just because we're doing six slices,

but because I want evenness all the way across.

So I always use the maximum amount no matter what.

This is also the first toaster we're looking at

that uses quartz heating elements.

In a quartz heating element, the resistance wire

is inside of a sealed tube and because of that,

they can run it much hotter than exposed nichrome

because it won't oxidize.

Nichrome wire oxidizes a little bit every time you use it,

which is why eventually, they will break.

Essentially, this is exactly how light bulbs work.

So quartz elements are really long, skinny,

powerful light bulbs

that transmit infrared heat to whatever you're cooking.

So you see this tray, this is actually part

of the heating that you're gonna be using.

The performance of these kinds of ovens

is dependent on keeping the inside relatively clean.

[bell pings]

You see a lot of condensation.

Here's another thing on a toaster oven,

when you're toasting, open the damn thing

as soon as it's done

because it's gonna start steaming itself to death.

The top of the Ninja toast looks pretty even,

but when I turned them over, ah no.

Yeah, so the bottom was way overdone.

The second round had the same problem

and it also didn't adjust the timing

despite the fact that this oven was already hot.

Like this is some of the best toast we've seen all day.

Edge to edge.

Nevertheless, the toast wasn't bad,

but I wasn't sure about the general concept

of the Ninja Flip.

For that reason it went on the middle shelf.

The Our Place Wonder Oven, $185.

Now this thing is marketed

as a can do everything kind of an oven,

and I was hoping it could at least make great toast,

but there were some immediate red flags.

This is just one sheet of sheet metal,

so that is going to get phenomenally hot.

I would be careful putting this against

anything that was flammable.

I would keep it off of the back.

So let's see what the, so that's a decent knob,

but how do I make it go vroom?

Do I just set the timer?

So I gotta set the timer, that's how I set

how toasted it's gonna get, huh?

60 what?

60 seconds, 60 minutes?

What is it, 60 what?

How many minutes am I supposed to set it for?

Like yeah, I can set the exact number of minutes,

but 10 hopefully is far too long for toast.

We're hoping that it clocks in at like four minutes or so

and the difference between zero and four

is only this little thing here.

So there's just not enough increments of time

to adequately adjust a toast cycle, in my opinion.

One of the reasons people have moved away

from these click, click, click timers

is that they are inherently wonky.

They eventually go bad on you.

They stop, they don't do the ding,

they become less accurate.

I said it to what I thought was dot number four.

I thought it was dot four. Who knows?

I don't know what I set it to.

[bell pings] I'm gonna call it though

because it's getting dark.

Now I know I've been clowning on this unit.

That is even.

Oh snap.

Oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, okay.

Unsurprisingly, my toast was burnt.

I thought I set the thing to four minutes,

but it actually ran for six minutes and 25 seconds.

The toast was also woefully uneven on the top and bottom

because of the different sizes of the electrical elements

in the top and bottom of the oven.

Since this oven has a steam function

and since steam assisted toasting

is all the rage these days,

I decided to give it one more test

to see if it could make Wonder toast.

I'm calling it.

Ow, calling it.

That's good looking toast.

That's good looking toast.

Now, too dark and it was a lot shorter this go around,

but I added the steam, let's see.

This does not feel like I've reached

any sort of toast nirvana.

Okay, my review on this thing, don't touch the back of it.

Don't touch the underside of it.

Keep a stopwatch around

because who knows how long that timer's going.

The Our place Wonder Oven.

Not so wonderful.

Straight to the return pile.

$249, alright, we've now breaking the $200 mark,

so I feel like I need to give it

a little bit more of a fanfare.

This is the Magi, Magi, Magimix Vision toaster for $250.

This is $250 worth of toaster.

Now this toaster's unique selling proposition

is that it's the first ever toaster with clear glass sides.

It's also the first slot toaster we've seen

that uses those quartz heating elements

that you usually see in high-end toaster ovens.

Ooh, I'm a sucker for seeing it brown, I really am.

Listen, I know it's a gimmick.

I kind of like seeing the toast.

[bell pings]

That's pretty good.

That's good toast, that's good toast.

This is delicious toast.

And I have to say quite even,

I mean it's gonna burn a big old $250 hole in your pocket

and it's quite large.

I couldn't resist doing some further test.

The bagel setting worked great

and it drastically outperformed

our only other long slot toaster on toasting artisan breads.

Toast, oh wait.

Oh wait, yeah, this is gonna be fun.

Wait now.

Yeah, baby, look at that.

It's a little blonde here, but that's pretty good.

That's much better than our last go around.

Much better, much, ow hot.

Ow, ow, ow.

Oh, okay.

It's hard for me to recommend such a large expensive item,

but it made really good toast.

I kind of got a feel for being one with the toast

because I could see it just like I did

with the 1920s toaster.

Maybe it's a gimmick, but this is the kind of gimmick

that I don't not enjoy.

Magimix Vision goes on the top shelf.

The Breville Die-Cast, a four slice toaster for 249.95.

This thing is expensive,

but it also appeared to be built like a tank.

This thing is heavy.

Like the previous Breville,

it has the lift and look function

as well as the bit more function.

But there's no levers, which leaves me to believe

that this might be a motorized toasting element.

Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread.

That's weird.

I don't know how I feel about that.

Ooh, the slowness of it creeps me out

like it's like it's gonna murder me or something.

Anything that you add like that

is just one more thing to break.

That is good toast, though.

That is even toast.

That is also even toast.

Let's look at side two, almost no lines,

but of the non toaster oven ones that we've tested

other than the Magimix, I'm gonna say

that is even is all get out.

The second round toast also looked great,

but most importantly, the Breville Die-cast

had the very best first slice of the day.

And that's kind of what you want in a toaster.

If you're only ever gonna make four slices

and you have the money

and you don't mind the motorized mechanism,

it's a great toaster.

I rate the Breville a buy.

Breville Smart Oven, $270.

Pricey for a toaster,

but it is a multifunction device that is big enough

to cook a whole chicken.

It's two quartz units on the bottom,

so just look at it and look, it says toast.

So they are good at letting you know which rack to use.

I always set my Breville

to have the maximum number of slices of toast, always.

Alright, and as I expected a little lighter on this side

I thought, but pretty dang good job at toasting

very even across the board.

The timer tells me

it's gonna take a minute and 20 seconds less

for the second round of toast.

So it's really accounting

for the higher internal temperature of the oven,

unlike the Ninja Flip.

And the second round also looked really good.

Like with the other toaster ovens,

the toast in the center of the oven looked better

than the slices around the perimeter.

Of the toaster ovens that we've used so far,

I mean, that's good toast.

It didn't beat the best slot toasters,

but the Breville Smart Oven won the toaster oven category,

and I just know it's a Swiss army knife in the kitchen.

For that reason, I put it on the buy shelf.

If you only had space for a toaster oven,

you would not be mad at this toast.

The Balmuda Toaster Oven, $379.

That's over a hundred dollars more expensive

than the previous model.

And in spite of myself, I was super excited to try it

for the first time since word on the street

is that it is God's gift to toast.

It's heated by quartz units above and below,

and the rack is designed in this wavy pattern

to minimize unsightly grill marks on your toast.

But the Bermuda's main USP is its use of steam.

So you put your toast in and you fill the chamber

with one mini coffee cup's worth of water.

Balmuda started the steam toast trend.

For those of you that don't know, the theory is,

is that injecting a little bit of steam

into the beginning of the toast cycle

makes a super crispy outside, super soft inside

amazing toast that you can't get any other way.

I mean, people love this toaster.

Now that that's legitimately good looking toast.

Even that I can see the lines is good looking toast.

Yeah, yeah, I do like that more.

To my horror, the Balmuda toaster

was actually beginning to live up to the hype.

The second round was also exceptional toast.

That is good toast.

Here's what I'm gonna say.

Probably the best toast I've had today.

Finicky weird machine.

Very expensive thing

that can only make max two slices of toast.

If I had infinite money, I would own one for sure.

For the toast obsessed and for the toast obsessed only,

it goes on the top shelf.

The Dualit four slice, 379.99.

It's fancy, it's English

and it's one of the all time classic toasters.

In continuous production since the 1940s,

and Dualit makes their own proprietary heating elements,

which are meant to be extra even.

I'm gonna be gentle from now on.

Gently drop it down.

Another thing I'll say, unlike most of the other units

that we've looked at,

look boop, boop, boop, boop, boop screws.

You can replace any item on this.

So if you are a person who does not like to add to landfill,

this is an anti landfill device.

They intend for you to keep this thing operating

as long as you are operating, which I appreciate, frankly.

Another thing about the Dualit

is it doesn't auto pop you up.

It just turns off.

So this thing is sitting in here,

that could be an advantage or a disadvantage.

I tend to think that toast [bell pings]

wants to be lifted out of its toaster when it's done.

So to me that's a disadvantage.

Across both tests, the side of the toast that was closer

to the back of the machine was consistently less toasted

than the other sort of a weird design flaw for $400.

So if what you want to do is launch your toast

across the kitchen,

this is the only toaster you should look at.

No other toaster we've looked at can launch

a piece of toast over a lighting rig in a studio, none.

So if that's your goal, or if you have the money

or if you need to look like a fancy old British person,

this is the only toaster you can get,

but you will be sacrificing one side of your toast.

I really appreciate that the Dualit is built to last,

but at this price, frankly, I'd expect better toast.

Unfortunately, it goes in the return pile.

By the way, before I start, I will say

like, this is not my jam.

Like a telephone embedded in a toaster

is not my idea of a good time.

The Revolution touch screen, $400.

Our most expensive toaster.

It claims to toast bread without drying it out.

But there's no information specifying how

or what this revolutionary technology is.

Put two slices in.

I'm gonna read the rest of the manual

on making toast while it's toasting.

And this, I guess is gonna be

another one of those motorized things.

You know how I feel about that?

I don't know if you know this.

It's powered by Insta Glow technology.

We've had problems in the past with the bottom of the bread

not getting fully toasted, and the top being toasted.

The upper ones are starting to glow more,

but not nearly as much as the bottom is.

Okay, to be fair, it is even down to the bottom.

This is a $400 toaster with a goofy phone on the front.

But this is relatively even toast.

I'm not gonna lie and say it didn't make good toast.

In fact, it made some of the best,

if not the best toast of the day.

It even made good toast directly from cold.

The folks at Revolution designed

their own style of heating element

and they are doing something different with it

than the other companies.

At the end of the day, the folks at Revolution

do have a very good toasting system.

I would gladly take a more standard looking toaster

from this company with this heating technology.

But in its current form, as you see it here,

I'm not sure who wants this.

Guys that was a lot of toast.

I feel that most of the time I kind of wish

I hadn't eaten quite as much of the toast,

but I feel you can't test units

without actually tasting the toast.

Here's what I feel about the upshot.

What's the upshot?

On the return pile, the only toaster

actually incapable of making edible toast

was the Hello Kitty toaster,

which was unfortunate because I really wanted to love it.

The others could all make good toast,

but each had major issues either with build quality,

consistency, user experience,

or value for money.

The keep your receipt category,

it contained a toaster that made okay toast,

but was just middling and a couple others

that made pretty good toast,

but had some weird design quirks

that might really turn some people off.

In fact, the Revolution toaster is in this category

because even though it made my favorite toast of the day,

I just couldn't handle the iPhone screen.

At the end of the day,

some of my very favorite pieces of toast

emerged from expensive models like the Balmuda

and the Magimix Vision.

And while it's clear that overall spending more money

will probably get you a better toaster, the buy category

included the very cheapest toaster we tried.

A lot of these toasters turned out to have the same guts.

So at a lower price point, I just recommend

going for the least expensive option.

I can't recommend that anyone actually use this

in their house as their daily toaster.

But I mean, come on.

How do you not love that, right?

I mean, that's just, that's just cool.

But again, don't burn your house down.