5.0 out of 5 stars A countertop oven that let's me have complete control! I was initially attracted to this oven because it has air fryer and dehydrate functions and due to its high ratings from Consumer Reports. Yes, it is a little pricier than the others, but worth it!I haven’t had it that long yet and have much more to discover, but I have tried out a few features like toast, bagel, bake, air fry and roast. I couldn’t be happier with the results: The large 6-lb chicken I recently roasted came out perfectly and evenly browned all over – even on the bottom! Nice and juicy inside, too – without any red rare spots. Plus the imported European bread I buy 80% par-baked and finish out in the oven came out fragrantly delicious with a crisp and chewy crust and soft moist center – ideal!The bagel setting, by the way. is also ideal for hamburger buns or other specialty breads that you want toasted more on one side. Just like the toast setting, you can dial to your preference of light or dark and enter the number of slices you want toasted.What I especially like about this oven is that I feel like I am the one in control of the cooking – not the oven. For example, a previous countertop oven I’ve owned always had the convection fan running on certain cooking functions, and you couldn’t ever turn the convection fan off if it was pre-programmed or hard-wired to run in that function. You just had to live with it. With this Breville Smart Oven, I can turn the convection off if I want, or turn it up a notch to super convection if I desire. The Breville may start the pizza function with the convection fan on, but if I don’t like it, I can always turn it off! There’s a button for that!You can always change cooking temperatures with digital precision – even as you like in the middle of cooking (I haven’t tried “phase cook” yet, where you can program things to switch between cooking functions). The oven’s controls and digital display screen look intimidating in the advertisement pictures, but they are easy to use and rather intuitive once you try them out.The oven is roomy, especially due to its width. It is a little bit lower in height than my previous countertop ovens, but quite a bit wider. I have no problems at all getting my long 9″ by 13″ Pyrex casserole dish in there, handles and all, with plenty of room around it for airflow! If you have a big roast, or bread to proof that rises very high, make sure to use the lowest rack.The middle rack auto-eject feature is very nice. When you open the oven, the rack gently pops out about a third of the way for you to inspect the doneness of what you are cooking. This won’t work if you have anything very heavy on those racks though, weighing them down.Some other reviews has described not being able to turn on the oven light when they wished. I have not experienced that. Maybe my oven comes with a product update, because I can turn the oven light on or off at whim from the little oven light button on the front of the unit. Otherwise, the oven light comes on automatically when you open the oven door and stays on for 30 seconds. It also comes on a few seconds before it alerts you of the end of a cooking function cycle.One reviewer lamented that no cookbook is included with the unit. However, if you go to the manufacturer’s website at Breville.com and look up this oven model, you will find two full-color PDF eBooks- one with recipes and another one for bread “recipe cards.”As I write this review in Jan. 2021, this Breville unit seems to be in high demand. The oven and many of its accessories are temporarily sold out at the Amazon Warehouse and even at the manufacturer’s website. The going price right for this model is about $399 when in stock, so don’t be tempted by Amazon storefront sellers who may charge a lot more. I see the sole seller who has it available to ship out now has it priced at their linked “available from these sellers” Amazon storefront for $699. Wait for this to be restocked at a reasonable price!During the current “sold-out” season for the new oven, I bought my oven for $300 as a “Used-very good” unit from Amazon. Apparently it was returned due to some damaged packaging. It only had a little bit of exterior damage to the box it came in that did not penetrate the styrofoam inner packing. The oven was pristine, had never been used (still had that stinky new smell!) and all the accessories were there, too. I really don’t think anybody ever opened the box before I did. I couldn’t be happier with this deal!Variation: Color: Brushed Stainless Steel

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Little Wonder of the Kitchen In case the Consumer Reports #1 rating didn’t convince you yet to buy this great toaster oven here’s my 2 cents. I previously had the smaller Smart Oven version without the air fryer. Two things you need to know are this uses a quartz heating element and that it is big for a toaster convection oven (TCO). You’ll see other TCOs that use infrared but there is a difference. TCOs are more energy efficient but at the cost of increasing the heat transfer at the surface and if you look closely at their photos you’ll see a lot of burned pastry and very well-done skin on chicken. Quartz ovens like this one cook more like a regular oven by not concentrating heat at the surface so it cooks without burning and they last 6x longer provided you follow the care instructions. As I said, this TCO is a beast and you won’t want to put it under a cabinet unless you have the required 6 inches of clearance that it needs for airflow and it will overheat. If you make the mistake of cramming it under a cabinet you will fry the electronics and it won’t last or will at least have some functions break, which is why I replaced my hand-me-down smart oven. However, if you put it in a good spot with adequate airflow clearance you will have the perfect TCO and it cooks much tastier food than the cheaper infrared models and saves you money because the convection cooks food in about 1/2 the time with superior taste vs a regular oven. The good thing about it being bigger is that you can cook or dehydrate more volume of food which is great. Be careful about the glass door and don’t close it too hard as the metal guideplate doesn’t engage when you use the upper racks. I also think the extra dehydration racks are a waste as you can just buy a set of fiberglass nonstick mesh mats and lay them on top which is much cheaper and last years provided you buy a decent brand. After cooking in this you will be amazed at how much better food tastes using roasting or air fry vs baking in a standard oven. It will transform your cooking capabilities. One note, there is an even better version of this oven called the Joule that has Bluetooth and an app with thousands of professional recipes with guide throughs. If you can spare the extra $100 and want to enjoy your oven a bit more I would definitely get that version. However, if you don’t cook that much and are on a budget you can do almost everything with this one if you get a decent cookbook for the unit and do it manually. Another side purchase I recommend would be a teflon nonstick mat for the crumb tray to make cleaning easier as baked on grease does stick to it and can be difficult to clean, especially if you aren’t meticulous about cleaning up after every use. This oven costs more but is well worth it provided you are willing to put in some effort to learn how to use it properly.Variation: Color: Brushed Stainless Steel

5.0 out of 5 stars Have had this for over two years and I am VERY HAPPY with it. I hesitated to buy this oven because of its larger size and because it was more expensive than other options, but after almost two and a half years of use, I can say I am so very glad that I chose the Breville. Of course, it gets a great deal of use as a toaster and does a great job at that. If a toaster was all it was used for, it would have been much too expensive and way larger than necessary–but this oven gets used for almost everything that used to be done in my full-size oven. So now, my full-size oven conveniently stores some larger, heavier cast iron cookware in my starved for storage kitchen. The Breville can handle all but the largest of items I bake and do it faster and with greater ease. It preheats so much quicker and I can easily monitor the food as it cooks. When preparing larger meals, Thanksgiving dinner for example, pie, biscuits etc were baked in the Breville, while the larger oven baked the main courses of ham and poultry. This oven easily accommodates a half sheet baking pan and bakes as well as my larger oven. The crumb tray goes in and out so easily for cleaning too. I seldom use the air fry setting but because the Breville air fries too, I have been able to get rid of my old air fryer. It’s one less thing to have to drag out, then clean and store. If warm cookies are your love language, you can keep some cookie dough in the refrigerator and bake up a small batch quickly, and with very little effort. I also love that I can now enjoy baking in the hot summer months because it does not heat up the kitchen. The only thing that has not produced really good results is the pizza setting–but then the full-sized oven has not done much better on that count so maybe the frozen pizza is the real problem, LOL! The oven is on my countertop tucked under a cabinet with a glass door. I worried about the heat so close under the cabinet, so I also purchased the cutting board that fits on top of the oven to use as a kind of heat shield. I have had no problems. The board may not have been necessary. I think the Breville is one of the better-looking toaster ovens too.Variation: Color: Brushed Stainless Steel