Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro Review

The Smart Oven Air is the very best of the air fryer, dehydrator, and toaster oven combos we've tested. Its outstanding combination and performance make it our top recommendation for those seeking a workhorse countertop appliance that can expand their cooking options in many different directions.

Performance Comparison

Cooking Performance

While it is not without its flaws, the Smart Oven Air is a worthy adversary. We appreciate the versatility and believe it outweighs its shortcomings in the air frying department. However, when compared to the less versatile, more specialty air fryers, it does not offer the same performance. All that to say, if you singularly want the best air-frying outcome, this may not be it. But if you want an appliance that can run your entire kitchen, the Smart Oven Air is hard to beat.

The Smart Oven Air absolutely nailed some of the foods we tested. The tater tots came out near perfect, with a nice crispiness on the outside without compromising the inside. The chicken breast remained juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside, which is what we were going for. It also excelled in making doughnuts, with a nice crunch on the outside, giving way to a delightful cakiness.

Where the Smart Oven Air fell slightly behind its single-function counterparts was with sweet potato fries. Its sweet potato fries (the bane of many an air fryer) only had slight hints of crispiness. In both of these cases, the more dedicated but less versatile models performed slightly better.

We also found it had a very long preheat time that cannot be bypassed. This isn't a total dealbreaker, but if you want the fastest option, the Breville isn't it. Where it really shines, though, is in versatility. No other air fryer packs as much into a single appliance as the Smart Oven Air.

User Friendliness

When you switch from a dedicated air fryer to a more versatile device, you automatically leave behind a few conveniences. Overall though, the Smart Oven handles the air frying process with ease.

Like many of the Breville products we've tested, the Smart Oven Air's controls are incredibly well-designed and a pleasure to use. Despite offering more features and cooking options than any other appliance we've tested, it manages to make selecting your desired cooking mode, temperature, and time downright intuitive. Not only can you use it as an air fryer and a convection oven, but it also has the ability to dehydrate, proof bread, slow cook, and much more.

The oven door also has helpful markers, which show the ideal rack heights for every cooking style; this way, you'll never be left wondering which slot is the best placement for the air frying tray. We appreciated all of the careful design considerations in the Breville.

Since the Smart Oven Air is an oven, you must slot a special air frying tray into it to air fry foods. This is quite easy and actually provides a greater capacity than most dedicated air fryers. However, you do sacrifice the handle present on most other models, ensuring the need for a potholder to remove the tray or shake your food around. The Oven Air's opening is large enough that it is still quite easy to do this with one hand, but it certainly is a little less convenient than the experience offered by most of the single-function devices.

The large capacity of the Smart Oven Air means you can make some serious meals with it. From baking a pizza to cooking a whole chicken, this handy appliance has the size and capability to do it all.

Overall, it is a very well built and durable option that we found very intuitive to use.

Ease of Cleaning

The Smart Oven Air basket is top-rack dishwasher safe and has a profile that fits much more easily into a dishwasher than most air fryers. But the air frying trays often require a bit more manual scrubbing and don't clean up all that easily. We like how easy it is to wipe down the non-stick interior walls.

We found that crumbs can easily get stuck in the crack between the base and the door. It's such a tiny space that you'll need a very small brush or q-tip to clean it out. It doesn't affect the function, but it can quickly become dirty.

If anything drips down onto the heating elements, cleaning becomes more difficult. In that case, you have to wait for the whole thing to cool down and reach in there with a rag, which can feel a bit cumbersome. However, most air fryer-friendly foods don't have drippy batters, so this isn't an issue we run into all that often.

Temperature Accuracy

We found the Smart Oven Air runs a bit hot but is overall very consistent. This is true of both the baking and air frying settings.

In our tests, the Smart Oven Air often deviated as much as 15 degrees, though it did always correct itself and came back down to the set temperature during the course of cooking. The Smart Oven Air reached an outside temperature of 236 degrees, which is well over our desired 140 degrees.

Should You Buy the Breville Smart Oven Air?

Anyone looking for a single appliance that can act as both a toaster oven and an air fryer will be very happy with the Smart Oven Air. It is not the cheapest option available, but it did well in our cooking tests, cleans up easily, and offers the convenience of multiple high-quality appliances in one.

What Other Air Fryers Should You Consider?