REASONS TO BUY
Relatively easy to use and clean
Good air cooking performance
Toaster oven functionality
Flips up for easy storage
REASONS TO AVOID
Expensive
Exterior gets very hot
Poor temperature accuracy
Ninja Foodi Digital Oven Review
An ideal model for those wanting to add both a toaster oven and air fryer to their kitchen collection
The Ninja Foodi consistently cooked up great food.
Credit: Laura Casner
RELATED: Best Air Fryers of 2024
Our Verdict
In our tests, the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven managed to perform quite well as both a toaster oven and an air fryer. It also costs less than buying a top notch air fryer and toaster oven separately. If your kitchen is in need of both of these devices, the Digital Oven is both a space and money saving option. In fact, it takes up less space on a counter than a normal toaster oven, as it can be flipped up when not in use. Yes, having to remove the fry basket form inside the oven requires using pot holders and is less convenient than just grabbing the handle of the fry basket of a dedicated air fryer. However, like most high-quality multifunction devices, we think this small downside is outweighed by the overall performance and versatility of the Digital Oven. Get the scoop on how it stands up to the competition in our air fryer review.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product Ninja Foodi Digital Oven | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  Best Overall Air Fryer |  An Excellent Mid-Volume Model |  Best Air Fryer on a Budget | Two Drawers for Simul-Frying | |
| Price | $280 List $186.99 at Amazon | $140 List $79.99 at Amazon | $130 List $69.99 at Amazon | $70 List $69.99 at Amazon | $180 List $139.95 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | The best toaster oven and air frying combination in our fleet | A high-performing and multi-functional device with an outstanding design | Its versatility allows it to cook a wide variety of foods well and it's quite easy to use | Good cooking performance for a reasonable price | An air fryer with intuitive controls, great temperature accuracy, and two baskets for simultaneous cooking |
| Rating Categories | Ninja Foodi Digital... | Instant Vortex Plus | Ninja Air Fryer | Ultrean Air Fryer | Instant Vortex Plus XL |
| Cooking Performance (35%) | |||||
| User Friendliness (25%) | |||||
| Ease of Cleaning (20%) | |||||
| Temperature Accuracy (20%) | |||||
| Specs | Ninja Foodi Digital... | Instant Vortex Plus | Ninja Air Fryer | Ultrean Air Fryer | Instant Vortex Plus XL |
| Measured Dimensions | 19.7"L x 7.6"W x 15"D | 11.5"L x 13.3"W x 12.8"D | 13.6"L x 11"W x 13.3"D | 13.2"L x 11.3"W x 12.4"D | 15.9"L x 12.5"W x 15.1"D |
| Capacity | 4 qt | 6 qt | 4 qt | 4.2 qt | 8 qt |
| Accessories | Wire rack, air fry basket, sheet pan | None | None | None | None |
| Power Consumption | 1800 watt | 1700 watt | 1550 watt | 1500 watt | 1700 watt |
| Max Outside Temperature | 246 | 146 | 160 | 154 | 180 |
| Measured Cooking Area | 144 sq in | 87.8 sq in | 53.5 sq in | 59.2 sq in | 113 sq in |
| Time to Preheat to 400F | 2:25 | 2:31 | 4:25 | 2:37 | 4:49 |
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Our Analysis and Test Results
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven is one of the most effective air fryer/toaster oven combos that we've ever come across. It can even dehydrate as well.
Performance Comparison
The Foodi earned high marks across the board and is an exceptional option.
Credit: Laura Casner
Cooking Performance
Throughout our air frying tests, the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven produced above-average results. Overall, we don't think you're making a sacrifice in using the Digital Oven to air fry over using a dedicated air fryer.
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven excelled in air frying almost every dish we threw at it. It produced field-leading results when making chicken breast, donuts, and tater tots. Its only weakness in this arena was that it took a bit longer than some other fryers to get the tater tots completely crispy.
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven manages to air fry just as well as other top models on the market while also offering all the functionality of a full-sized toaster oven.
Credit: Laura Casner
We've found that getting sweet potato fries truly crispy is a big challenge for most air fryers, so we've used it as our torture test. The Digital Oven did struggle a bit in this area, with the results tasting more like slightly crispy potato wedges than sweet potato fries.
The before and after results of our sweet-potato fry test.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
User Friendliness
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven offers a great interface and some unique features that make it quite easy to use. The fry basket is a bit less convenient to handle than those of most dedicated air fryers, but we see that as a small tradeoff.
The interface on this device is simple, straightforward, and fast. A single dial lets you quickly scroll through settings. By pressing the dial, you can switch between selecting cooking modes, times, and temperatures.
The Digital Oven is fairly short and wide, allowing for a large cooking capacity. When not in use, you can flip the oven up on its end. In this configuration, it is just under 15 inches tall, 20 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. In most kitchens this will be able to slide against the wall underneath the cabinets and almost disappear.
When flipped on its end, the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven barely takes up any counter space.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Like all multifunction air fryers, the Digital Oven has to make some sacrifices when it comes to air frying convenience. Namely, the air frying basket is all metal and is placed inside the oven chamber, meaning it must carefully be handled with oven mitts when shaking or removing the food. In comparison to dedicated air fryers that generally have exterior handles that don't get hot during cooking, this is a bit more challenging. However, it's well worth it if you value the machine's added functionality.
Ease of Cleaning
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven isn't particularly difficult to clean but fell behind some of the dedicated devices in our cleaning tests.
The fry basket itself is quite easy to clean. Its square shape and lack of a handle make it easier to scrub in the sink. It is also completely dishwasher safe. The slight problem comes with the oven chamber. If an air frying recipe splatters or pops at all, the interior of the oven gets dirty, which requires some elbow grease to clean and some careful wiping to dry.
If a dish makes a big mess there is easy access to clean off the heating elements.
Credit: Laura Casner
Temperature Accuracy
In our tests, the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven's temperature fluctuated much more than those of other air fryers, likely due to the much larger cooking chamber and the inherent challenge of keeping the extra space evenly heated. However, it never wavered more than 20 degrees from the set temperature, and we didn't see any negative impacts of this slight fluctuation in the recipes we prepared.
Measuring the outside temperature of the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Should You Buy the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven?
The Ninja Foodi Digital Oven has a lot of versatility and cooked food well during our test. That said, it was a bit more challenging to clean than others we tested, and it was also not as user-friendly. Lastly, the temperature accuracy is abysmal, though we didn't notice that this affected its cooking performance too much.
When flipped down, the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven takes up a decent amount of counter space, but that's what gives it the capacity to fry up larger meals.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
What Other Air Fryers Should You Consider?
For a lot less, you could get the Ninja Air Fryer, which had much better temperature accuracy. And for almost half the price of the Digital Oven, you could get the Instant Vortex Plus. It has a 6-quart capacity and some of the best cooking, ease of use and cleaning, and temperature accuracy of any air fryer in our lineup.
—
Lesley Robinson, Max Mutter, and Michelle Powell
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