The Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is a fairly small, high-end toaster oven. It includes many of the same features as Breville's larger models, like access to the Breville+ app with guided recipes and on-demand classes, and a range of cooking modes, including 'Air Fry,' 'Crispy Reheat,' 'Bake & Roast,' and 'Toast.' It also has Breville's 'A Bit More' button, so you can add a little extra time to the end of a cooking cycle.
Our Verdict
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact delivers decent mixed-use performance. Its cooking chamber can accommodate four slices of toast, a 12" pizza, or a small chicken, so you can use it to make a variety of dishes. It preheats quickly and maintains a uniform temperature throughout the cooking chamber, making it a satisfactory option for baking and reheating leftovers, but it tends to undershoot your selected temperature, which can dry out or burn your food. Toasting offers similar performance. It toasts the bread's surface evenly, but leaves one side much darker than the other, and it takes a while to produce golden-brown toast. This toaster oven's biggest strength is its air-frying ability. It makes mostly crispy, well-browned food, with only a small portion left undercooked or burnt, and its air-frying speed is acceptable for a toaster oven.
Decent capacity.
Air fries very evenly.
Toasts the bread's surface evenly.
Uniform temperature throughout the cooking chamber.
Only fits four slices of toast.
Toasts one side more than the other.
Undershoots selected temperature.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact offers satisfactory performance for leftovers. It has a decent cooking capacity, so while a full-sized casserole dish won't fit, most containers will. It preheats pretty quickly, so you don't have to wait long before popping in leftover pizza slices or last night's potatoes. The temperature is very uniform throughout the cooking chamber, but the toaster oven tends to undershoot your chosen temperature, which can lead to your leftovers drying out or burning.
Decent capacity.
Uniform temperature throughout the cooking chamber.
Undershoots selected temperature.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is alright for baking. Cupcakes, quick breads, and pastries cook at the same rate no matter which rack position you use, thanks to the uniform temperature throughout the cooking chamber. However, it struggles to reach the target temperature, even briefly, and instead, bakes at a much lower temperature. This variation makes it difficult to follow recipes accurately and can cause your baked goods to burn or dry out before they finish cooking.
Uniform temperature throughout the cooking chamber.
Undershoots selected temperature.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is a good choice for air frying. Using the dedicated 'Air Fry' mode and air frying basket, it cooks evenly, leaving most of each batch crispy and golden brown. While it doesn't cook as fast as many basket-style air fryers, its speed isn't bad compared to other toaster ovens.
Air fries very evenly.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is decent for toasting. It can only fit four slices of bread, and its toasting speed is mediocre. It toasts each face very evenly, but one side comes out much darker than the other.
Toasts the bread's surface evenly.
Only fits four slices of toast.
Toasts one side more than the other.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact has a decent cooking capacity. It offers three tray positions, with enough space for a 12" pizza or a 9" x 9" cake pan, and enough usable height to cook a small chicken. However, it only fits four slices of bread, and there's not enough room for a 9" x 13" baking sheet.
Decent capacity.
Only fits four slices of toast.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact comes in one color, 'Brushed Stainless Steel.' See the label for our unit.
If you come across another variant, tell us about it in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Toaster Oven Comparisons
The Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is a small toaster oven that stands out for its air-frying performance. Like the brand's larger model, the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro BOV900BSS, it cooks most of your food to a crispy, golden-brown. While it's not as fast as most basket-style air fryers, it's acceptable compared to other toaster ovens. Compared to Breville's other toaster ovens, its performance in other areas is decent but less impressive. It can't toast as evenly or quickly as the Breville the Mini Smart Oven BOV450XL, and its temperature is less stable than the Breville the Smart Oven BOV800XL. It doesn't offer as much versatility as the Breville the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro (Toaster Oven) either; its temperature range is more limited, and its broiler and fan are less powerful. Still, if you like Breville appliances and want a toaster oven with good air-frying performance, it's a decent choice.
If you're curious what we recommend, see our picks for the best toaster ovens, the best small toaster ovens, and the best air fryer/toaster ovens.
The Breville the Smart Oven BOV800XL is a better toaster oven than the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact for most people. The Smart Oven BOV800XL toasts more evenly and slightly faster. It's also a better choice for baking, since its stable temperature reduces the likelihood of drying out your cookies and cakes. Versatility is also a strong point for the Smart Oven BOV800XL, thanks to its wide temperature range and powerful broiler. Plus, it has a larger capacity, so there's room for a wider variety of dishes. That said, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact is better at air frying; it leaves more of your food crispy and finishes cooking faster.
The Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro BOV900BSS is a better toaster oven than the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact for most people. It has a larger internal capacity, and it's significantly more versatile, allowing you to prepare a wider range of foods. The Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro BOV900BSS also maintains a more stable temperature, which is handy for baking foods evenly and following recipes accurately. It also toasts more evenly with four slices, though its performance suffers at maximum capacity, and it toasts very slowly. The Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact preheats and toasts faster, so you may still prefer it if speed is a priority.
The Breville the Mini Smart Oven BOV450XL and the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact are both decent toaster ovens, but they have different strengths, so you may prefer one over the other depending on your preferred cooking methods. When it comes to toasting, the Mini Smart Oven comes out ahead, toasting faster and more evenly. It also preheats faster and maintains a more stable temperature, so it's less likely to dry out your baked goods, and it's better for quickly reheating leftovers. The Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact, however, is a much better choice for air frying. It leaves most of your food crispy and finishes cooking faster. It's easier to clean, too.
The Typhur Sync Oven is a better toaster oven than the Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact. It toasts more evenly with four slices of bread and at maximum capacity. The Typhur also preheats more quickly and maintains a more stable temperature, so it's a better choice for evenly baked muffins or brownies and for quickly reheating leftovers. It's more versatile, too, thanks to a wider range of temperature settings and a more powerful fan motor and broiler.
Test Results
Although this toaster oven offers alright temperature stability overall, Breville's 'Element iQ' system can lead to deviations from your selected temperature. This feature is meant to maintain a more stable, accurate temperature by using an algorithm to deliver the right amount of power to each individual element. Compared to most toaster ovens, Breville ovens with Element iQ experience fewer temperature fluctuations, but they can also land on a temperature that's very different from what you set.
In this case, when we set the toaster oven to 350 °F, it didn't reach that temperature at all. When we raised the temperature to 400 °F, it initially reached 350 °F, then quickly dropped to 300 °F and stayed there for the rest of the cooking cycle. This can make it tricky to follow recipes accurately, and depending on what you're making, it can lead to your food burning or drying out before the cooking process finishes.