The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster is a premium toaster with two long slots and an aluminum body. It uses buttons instead of levers to push your bread down, and comes equipped with a handful of extra features. The 'A Bit More' preset adds some time to the end of a toasting cycle, and 'Lift and Look' lets you check toasting progress without hitting cancel. It also has a cycle countdown indicator to tell you when your toast will be ready.
Our Verdict
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster delivers decent performance for everyday use. It's a long-slot toaster with two roomy slots, so there's space for longer or thicker slices that don't fit in a standard toaster. This model also offers a range of convenience features: the 'Bagel' button toasts on just one side, 'Lift and Look' lets you check on your toast without canceling the cycle, the 'A Bit More' button adds a little extra toasting time, and the cycle countdown indicator shows you when it's time to start buttering. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer very good toasting performance. It browns the surface of each slice evenly, but toasts one side significantly more than the other, and gives you different results from each slot. Your toast takes a fairly long time to pop back up, which leaves your baked good somewhat dry. It leaves a lot of crumbs on your counter, too.
Browns surfaces evenly.
Large capacity.
Offers many convenience features, including one-sided toasting.
Toasts somewhat slowly, which leaves food a little dry.
Inconsistent performance between slots.
Requires you to clean counters after every use.
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster provides mediocre performance for toast. It browns the surface of each slice very evenly, but one side comes out a lot darker than the other. You get different results with each slot, too. It toasts fairly slowly compared to other models, and the extra toasting time leaves your bread a bit dry.
Browns surfaces evenly.
Toasts somewhat slowly, which leaves food a little dry.
Leaves one side darker than the other.
Inconsistent performance between slots.
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster is a decent option for bagels. This model has a button for bagels that disables one set of heating elements for one-sided toasting, so you can brown the inside of a bagel or bun, while leaving the outside mostly untoasted. However, its toasting performance is mediocre. While it toasts the surface of a bagel evenly, it works slowly and delivers different results from each slot. By the time your bagel pops back up, it's fairly dry.
Browns surfaces evenly.
Offers one-sided toasting.
Toasts somewhat slowly, which leaves food a little dry.
Inconsistent performance between slots.
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster doesn't contain crumbs well. It has a long, narrow crumb tray, and plenty of crumbs and seeds fall past it on either side. You have to clean your counter every time you use the toaster to keep things tidy.
Requires you to clean counters after every use.
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster is fairly large, which makes sense given its capacity. It's about as wide as a standard 2-slice toaster, but as a long-slot toaster, it sticks out pretty far on your counter.
Large, bulky design.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Oct 30, 2026:
We mentioned the Breville the Eye Q 870 Auto 4 Slice in the Crumb Management box for users who want a toaster that leaves fewer crumbs on the counter.
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Updated Oct 22, 2026:
We've included a link to the GE 2-Slice G9TMA2SSPSS in the Toasting Evenness section for users seeking more even toast.
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Updated Jul 13, 2026:
We've updated the text in this review to match Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Jul 13, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 1.2, which adds three new test boxes: Size, One-Sided Toasting, and Moisture Retention. We also updated the Usage and Performance Usages at the top of the review to reflect the new tests and provide clearer buying guidance for users. You can read more in the Changelog.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster comes in 'Brushed Stainless Steel.' See the label for our unit. The manufacturer also makes the Breville Die-Cast 2-Slice Smart Toaster, which has two standard-length slots, and the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster, which has four standard-length slots, and which we've tested separately.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Toaster Comparisons
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster is a long-slot toaster with two slots. It's part of the same lineup as the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster; both models are made of cast aluminum and use buttons rather than levers to lower the slots, giving them a premium feel. As with other models from Breville, like the Breville the 'A Bit More' 2 Slice, this toaster comes with a few less common quality-of-life features. Along with buttons for frozen foods and bagels, you'll find 'Lift and Look,' which lets you raise the slots mid-cycle to check on your toast, 'A Bit More,' which increases the timer a little, and a cycle countdown indicator that shows when your toast will be ready.
However, it doesn't offer very good toasting performance. The option to toast on one side only makes it a decent choice for bagels, but it toasts less evenly than the Smeg 4-Slice TSF02, another high-end long-slot model, and more slowly than the bella 4-Slice Slim, a much cheaper long-slot option. If you like this toaster's design and features, you may prefer the aforementioned Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster. It's not a long-slot model, so it won't fit extra-long slices of focaccia or sourdough, but it provides significantly better overall performance.
If you're looking for other kinds of toasters, check out our recommendations for the best 2-slice toasters, the best 4-slice toasters, and the best toasters.
The Breville the 'A Bit More' 4 Slice is a better choice than the Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster. Both of these long-slot toasters offer plenty of capacity for a variety of bread types, and lots of quality-of-life features to make everyday toasting more convenient. However, the 'A Bit More' 4 Slice toasts faster and more evenly, leaving each side more similarly toasted and providing more consistent toasting slot-to-slot. It also contains crumbs better, making it easier to keep your counters tidy.
The Breville the Eye Q 850 Auto 2 Slice is a better toaster than the Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster for most people. The main advantage of the Eye Q is that it toasts faster, which also helps prevent your toast from drying out before it reaches a golden-brown shade. It also leaves far fewer crumbs on your counter, so you don't have to clean up after it as often. That said, the Die-Cast Smart Toaster is a long-slot model, so you may still prefer it if you often toast long slices of homemade or bakery bread.
The Dash Clear View Long Slot delivers better toasting performance than the Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster, but the Breville offers some quality-of-life features that may sway you. Get the Dash if your priority is toast that's evenly browned on the outside and soft on the inside. It's also better at toasting a bagel on one side only. If you need more capacity or are more interested in high-end quality-of-life features, consider the Breville. While the Dash has a glass panel that lets you keep an eye on your bread as it toasts, it doesn't have a cycle countdown indicator like the Breville. The Breville also includes a 'Lift and Look' button, which raises the slots mid-cycle so you can check toasting progress away from the glow of the heating elements, and the 'A Bit More' button, which adds a little time to the end of a toasting cycle.
The Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster is a better choice than the bella 4-Slice Slim. When it comes to toasting performance, both models offer similar benefits and drawbacks. They can both toast the surface of a slice of bread evenly, but they leave one side much darker than the other. They also toast somewhat slowly, drying out baked goods in the process. Where the Breville comes out ahead is its range of features. Unlike with the bella, you can toast just one side of a bagel or bun. It also includes a cycle countdown indicator and a couple of additional features: 'Lift and Look' lets you lift the slots to check on your toast mid-cycle, and the 'A Bit More' button adds a little extra time to the cycle if your toast is looking too pale.
Test Results
This toaster has a cycle countdown indicator, which isn't always a guarantee for many toasters, and lets you keep tabs on when your toast will pop up. The bars of LED lights display a countdown for each pair of slots so you can see how long is left before your toast is ready. You also get a button for the 'A Bit More' setting, which you can press before, after, or even during a cycle to add a little more toasting time to a preset, and 'Lift and Look', which lifts the slot so you can see if your toast is ready without interrupting the cycle. The shade setting slider has five distinct presets, but you can choose half increments if you want to adjust your toast's doneness with precision.
This toaster leaves a lot of crumbs on your counter. If you're interested in a Breville toaster that does a better job of containing them until you empty the crumb tray, try the Breville the Eye Q 870 Auto 4 Slice.
This toaster has disappointing toasting evenness, leaving noticeable dark stripes and pale patches across your bread. Browning also varies between slots and between the two sides of each slice. For more consistent results, consider the GE 2-Slice G9TMA2SSPSS, which produces more evenly browned toast.
