Breville Smart Oven Pro Toaster Oven Review

The front control panel of the Breville Smart Oven Pro has two dials, an LCD screen, and multiple buttons that can seem overwhelming at first. However, after exploring it for a bit we came away impressed by how intuitive it is. The small LCD screen displays the selected cooking mode, temperature, and remaining cooking time.

Two dials offer further control: The upper dial controls temperature and darkness (for toast) and the lower dial cooking time and the number of toast slices (this increases or decreases the amount of the grill surface being used). The dials are easy to use and very responsive, almost a little too responsive. In fact, we found it tricky at first to set the precise temperature.

Besides the dials, there are a few buttons peppered around the control panel. These buttons switch the temperature display between °C and °F, turn on/off the convection fan, and turn on/off the Frozen setting which adds a little more time when toasting frozen bread.

About the Breville Smart Oven Pro

Dimensions: 15.75" x 18.5" x 11" Colors: Brushed stainless steel, Black Sesame, Cranberry Red Settings: Toast, Bagel, Bake, Roast, Broil, Pizza, Cookies, Reheat, Warm, and Slow Cook

How the Breville Smart Oven Pro performs

Here’s how the Breville Smart Oven Pro did in our barrage of tests. We tested the oven’s ability to toast bread and bagels, and cook pizza.

Toast

The Breville oven did an excellent job of evenly toasting bread. We toasted six pieces of toast at a time and the results were consistent using both the Medium and High darkness settings. The Low setting was lower than average. The toasting was even, but we found that the Low setting slightly under-toasted the bread.

Bagels

The bagel setting, which only uses one heating element, also did an excellent job of evenly toasting the cut side of the bagel. This setting resulted in a slightly darker toast than expected but this can be adjusted by removing the bagel a little sooner than normal.

Pizza

Toaster ovens are perfect devices for cooking store-bought pizza, and in this area the Breville did not disappoint. The Pizza setting was uniformly excellent. The underside of the pizza slices were evenly cooked and the crusts and toppings were similarly evenly cooked. The only issue we found was that the Pizza setting took considerably less time than suggested by the pizza manufacturer, so be sure to adjust your cooking times accordingly.

What we like

Design is attractive and modern

The Breville Smart Oven Pro is beautifully designed with a clean and minimalist aesthetic. The stainless steel exterior and brushed steel handle evoke the same design language of contemporary cooking appliances, so it won’t look out of place in most kitchens.

The Breville Smart Oven Pro has a 0.8-cubic-foot interior, which places it smack dab in the medium-sized category for toaster ovens. It can’t compete with the capacity of a regular oven, but it should have no trouble cooking all but the largest of meals.

Performance is good across the board

Despite some minor issues with cook times, the Breville Smart Oven Pro excelled in every performance test. Toast, Bagel Toast, and Pizza cooking results were all excellent, with perfect cooking uniformity across the board.

The slow cooker setting is a surprising, but welcome, addition

The Breville Smart Oven Pro isn’t only in danger of replacing your toaster and oven, it could also make your slow cooker redundant. That’s right, the Breville has a Slow Cook setting. The setting works as advertised and resulted in perfectly tender meat and veggies. It will never match the capacity of a full-sized slow cooker, but it’s great if you prefer smaller batches.

It’s easy to use and clean

Setting the oven and keeping track of the cooking process is an absolute breeze thanks to the combination of responsive controls and informative LCD. With its non-stick coating, cleaning is easy and only requires a quick wipe with a damp cloth after use.

We welcome the safety features

Beyond the well-designed and easy-to-use control panel, Breville has included a few welcome safety features that didn’t go unnoticed. The LCD and Start/Stop buttons are blue when the oven is not in use and switch to red when the oven is cooking. It’s a small thing, but it helps to prevent any safety mishaps. Unfortunately, the screen and button do turn blue as soon as the cooking cycle is completed, so there’s no way of knowing if the oven is still hot to the touch.

There are two magnets set into the door interior that will pull out the middle rack a few inches when opening the oven. This makes it easier to grab your toast without burning your hand on the heating elements.

Another addition that we appreciate is the easy-pull plug. The oven’s plug has a small hole that your finger can fit through that makes it easier to pull the plug from the wall socket without damaging the cable. It’s a feature that should add to the longevity of the appliance.

What we don’t like

The initial setup is over-complicated

The initial setup is more complicated than a toaster oven should be. Before you use the oven for the first time, you need to run the Pizza cycle to remove any protective substances on the heating elements leftover from the manufacturing process.

The Slow Cook mode has limitations

While we loved the Slow Cook mode, we had to scale down our recipes due to the smallish capacity of the oven. We were also disappointed that Breville didn’t provide any slow cooker recipes in the manual.

There are cheaper and more compact options available

If you have a smaller kitchen, the medium-sized Breville might take up more counter space than you can afford. It’s also more expensive than some toaster ovens with similar specs.

Warranty

The Breville Smart Oven Pro has a one-year limited product warranty.

What owners say

The Breville Smart Oven Pro has thousands of user reviews across multiple major retailer sites. It averages between 4.5 and 5 stars. Customers compliment its cooking abilities, versatility, speed, and ease of use. Some users found the manual a little confusing at first, while others encountered faulty fuses and a convection fan that died prematurely, but these seem to be very rare occurrences.

Should you buy this?

Yes. The Breville Smart Oven Pro is the best toaster oven you can buy and offers exemplary cooking performance across its versatile range of modes. The oven excelled in every one of our rigorous performance tests and the addition of a slow cook mode tilts the scales in its favor. The excellent performance, ease of use, and welcome safety features make it a valuable add-on to any kitchen. The only real downside to getting it is your main oven might feel a little neglected. If you’re still interested in shopping around, check out the best toaster ovens. And while we think the convection performance on the Smart Oven Pro is good enough to get your foods crispy, if you're determined to get a toaster oven-air fryer combo, Breville also offers the Smart Oven Air.