Best toaster : The best toasters you can buy
We've tested all of the top models to find the toasters that deliver the finest, most perfectly-cooked toast
Toast truly is the food of the gods. These days, it's hard to imagine any kitchen without a toaster, and given that this appliance is an almost-essential kitchen appliance, it's worth making sure you buy the right one.
While most of us pick a toaster on looks and price alone, there's actually a huge difference between the different models. We've tested each and every model that we recommend (and a whole bunch that we don't), rather than just listing a bunch based on the manufacturer's information.
On this page, you'll find all of the models that have met our stringent toast expectations. You can pick up two-slice and four-slice models for under £40, but the very best toasters cost a lot more. If you're unsure which features you need, or should be looking for, then head over to page two where out buying guide will give you a crash course in buying the perfect toaster - and trust us, it's a little more complicated than it sounds.
The best toasters you can buy
1. Smeg 2 Slice Toaster review: The best 2 slice toaster under £100 - Stunning looks & great toast
A great-looking toaster, the Smeg 2 Slice Toaster delivers in both speed and power efficiency
Smeg is well known for its retro design on larger appliances, so it’s no surprise to find the same influences and attention to detail here on the imaginatively-named 2 Slice Toaster. As its name implies, we’re looking at the two-slice model here, which costs £100, but it’s also available in a four-slice version (our preferred size) for £130. However, with prices similar to that of the mighty Dualit NewGen, so can it live up to expectations.
Design
This is a great-looking toaster. Personally, I wish Smeg would tone down the branding, but this chrome version is quite something. You can see your whole kitchen reflected in its curvaceous shell, though you will have to give it a quick buffing every now and then to keep it looking its best. If that sounds like an effort, then there are six other colours available to choose from.
It’s not all looks, either. For starters, the outer casing is really sturdy with absolutely no flex, and simply tapping it tells you this is a thicker sheet of steel than what you'll find in most other designs. The lever feels robust and pops up with pleasing speed and force. Below that is a big stop button, around which is the browning control dial.
The action of the dial is a little sloppy compared to the rest of the design, it clicks as you turn it, but not with any conviction. The dial goes from one to six, but if you turn it right down there’s a reheat mode as well. On either side of the dial, you'll find frozen bread and bagel mode buttons that illuminate when pressed, with the latter just toasting one side so the other is left soft and doughy as intended. Around the back is the crumb tray, which pops in and out with a satisfying click.
As mentioned above, the Smeg also comes in a four-slice version. While most four-slice toasters these days have four individual slots (essentially a pair of two-slice toasters sat side-by-side), the Smeg has a more traditional design with just two longer slots.
On the upside, you can toast a whole pitta bread or long slices of bread taken from round loafs without having to turn them round halfway through. On the downside, there’s only one browning control, so a proper, four-slot toaster can be more efficient if you’re making a lot of toast for various people with different tastes.
Toasting
The Smeg toaster impressed me with its speed and power efficiency. Toasting two slices of thick white Hovis took an impressive two minutes and two seconds. That’s approaching Dualit speeds, and puts it among the fastest toasters I’ve ever tested. Speed usually means lots of power, but the Smeg drew just 0.031kWh. Again, that’s up there with the best toasters I’ve ever seen.
This combination is remarkable, and I had to retest it a number of times just to make sure the meter was displaying correctly. The toast itself is pretty good, too. It's not the most consistently browned I’ve seen from one side to the other, but it was crisp, hot right through, and a pleasure to eat.
The slots are among the widest I’ve seen on either a two-slot or a four-slot toaster, and they rank among the longest as well. Of course, if you need to toast really big slices of bread, you’ve always got the option of bigger slots on the four-slice version.
Conclusion
I'll admit that I thought Smeg's 2 Slice Toaster was going to be an exercise in style over substance, partly because it simply looks so good, but I have to eat ‘humble toast’ on this occasion, as this is truly a brilliant toaster. It's fast, power efficient, well made and has all the features you’d want.
At £100 for the two-slice, and £130 for the four-slice, it’s admittedly more expensive than most toasters, but both models are still less than a ‘proper’ Dualit NewGen. The extra long slots of the four-slice are another big bonus, and we're looking to get a sample of that variant to test as soon as possible. The two-slice version tested here, however, is a worthy winner of our Best Buy award.
More Detail For Smeg TSF01SSUK | 50's Retro Style 2 Slice Toaster in Chrome Click Here
2. Morphy Richards Aspect Toaster review
Lacks fancy features but the Aspect toasts well and is great for smaller items
The Morphy Richards Aspect is rather misnamed. A better name would be the Morphy Richards Monolith. It’s not exactly huge, but it still consists of a serious chunk of largely unadorned shiny black metal that wraps all the way round the main body. It's certainly striking, then, but will it provide equally impressive grilled bread products for our delectation?
Design
Controls are kept to minimum, with a just a browning control dial and a switch to cancel the current programme. That’s it. It’s surprising to see such a simplistic toaster these days, but then it's also debatable how many people actually use their frozen and reheat buttons. If you like that sort of thing, Morphy Richards simply suggests that you turn up the browning control by one for frozen bread and turn it down to one for reheating toast. In short, it’s a manual toaster.
Thankfully, then, the browning dial is a pleasure to use. It clicks clearly as you turn it and has enough resistance not to get moved by accident. I think that getting to know your toaster is essential these days, as we eat a much wider variety of bread than we did ten years ago, with much more of it being hand-sliced. Once you get your eye in, you should be able to adjust the timer to suit most bread types with a decent level of accuracy, rather than hovering about the toaster.
That said, it’s good to see lift-and-peek here, too. This means you can lift the handle up while toasting to check the progress without cancelling the programme, or wasting time and energy letting the elements cool down and then heat up again.
That said, regardless of whether you use lift-and-peek or simply wait for the browning to complete, the Aspect provides easy access to your toasted goods, with our standard bread sticking out a whopping 78mm above the toaster. With smaller items, such as crumpets, you still have a more-than-respectable 33mm protruding to get a hold of. No delving inside the toaster to pick things out here. The width, depth and length of the slots is decent, but unremarkable.
Toasting
Making two perfect pieces of toast using our standard Hovis thick-sliced white loaf took two minutes and 31 seconds - which equates to a setting of around 3.5 on the dial. That used 0.038kWh of power, which is a touch over average. You can see the results below, showing good consistency across both sides and both slices. With the bread placed upright, you can see there’s only a very small non-browned area at the top of both slices, but the slots are big enough to lie most bread types down horizontally as well.
With a pretty standard toasting time and power usage, the toast is, well, pretty standard. A good crunch on the outside and warm and soft on the inside, you won’t be disappointed.
There are two crumb trays, one for each pair of slots. These are tucked away around the back, which is less convenient than having them round the front, but keeps things neat-and-tidy. The 60cm cord can be partly stored in the base to keep that tucked away, too. It’s worth noting that there’s no bagel mode on this model, which toasts just the inside of the bagel, leaving the top soft and doughy. There’s no muffin rack either for heating.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a toaster that isn’t cluttered by (potentially) useless controls, then the Morphy Richards Aspect is a decent choice. Its main strength is ease of access, as it’s by far the best easy access toaster I’ve seen to date. Combine that with lift-and-peek, and you’ve got a very convenient appliance, particularly if you like to toast smaller items. Of course, if you want a bagel mode, reheat or defrost controls, then you’ll need to look elsewhere such as the De'Longhi Icona. For those who just want something simple, though, the Aspect is a good buy.
Where To Buy Morphy Richards 240004 Aspect Stainless Steel Four Slice Toaster - Titanium Click Here
3. De'Longhi Icona Vintage Toaster: The prettiest 4 slice toaster under £100
A good range of features from a good-looking toaster, but it could do with more lift from its levers
In terms of looks the De'Longhi Icona scored highly with us, we liked its curved lines and our 'Vintage' model comes in numerous colours with brown controls. It was remarkably fingerprint resistant too and cool to the touch after toasting. Standard and Vintage models total six colours, so you should find something you like, though internally they're all identical. From £45 they're not expensive either, though our model costs around £65. Unsurprisingly, there's a matching coffee machine from the Italian manufacturer.
The pleasing exterior is matched by a full range of controls. There are twin browning controls, with round knobs, which are stiff enough that they shouldn't be knocked accidentally. The indicator dials (curiously marked as Toast Colour) are tucked behind little windows, we think this is to match the pressure and temperature dials on the company's coffee machines. As well as the usual cancel, defrost and reheat controls, the Icona has a bagel mode - so you can just toast the insides, leaving the tops appropriately doughy. All the buttons have simple indicator lights next to them.
The slots are long at 140mm, easily swallowing typical sliced bread sidewise and so toasting the whole slice without it poking from the top. They're not very deep, just 107mm from the bottom to where the filaments stop, but that's not an issue as long as you can lie the bread down. It can be tricky to get out bread toasted this way, or other smaller items, as there's quite a lip between the top of the filaments and the actual top. The levers provide a rather pitiful extra 10mm of lift, which means that muffins, crumpets and bagels can be hard to retrieve.
The De'Longhi Icona isn't very quick and it's not great for smaller items. However, it looks great, is well priced in its non-Vintage form, has a bagel mode, is cool-to-touch and produces fairly consistent toast. It's a good buy if you want something more stylish than the practical-looking Philips Toaster, though that device has the edge when it comes to even toasting.
More Detail About De'Longhi CTOV4003.BG Vintage Icona Dolcevita 4 Slice Toaster - Cream Click Here
6 Best Toasters You Can Buy Part 2
