The Breville the Eye Q 850 Auto 2 Slice is a high-end toaster that uses optical sensors to toast baked goods to your chosen shade, automatically adding more time for frozen items or denser types of bread. It offers one-sided toasting and includes an option to add a little extra time to the toasting cycle. Instead of a typical lever, this toaster lowers your bread and begins toasting when you hit the Start button.
Our Verdict
The Breville Eye Q 850 delivers very good performance for day-to-day use. This model lets you choose between a few different modes: the default mode uses optical sensors to track the color of your toast as it darkens; the timer mode works, like most toasters, by counting down the toasting time; and the sourdough mode accounts for the air pockets in sourdough bread. In the default mode, the toaster automatically adds extra time for frozen items. There's a Bagel button that starts one-sided toasting, and another that adds a little extra toasting time. This toaster offers enough capacity for most baked goods, but the slots are narrow, so you may have trouble fitting thickly sliced bread. The surface of each slice toasts decently evenly, but leaves one side darker than the other and gives you different results from each slot. It's exceptionally good at containing crumbs, so you don't have to clean them off your counter very often.
Toasts quickly, preventing baked goods from drying out.
Includes one-sided toasting for bagels.
Requires very infrequent cleaning of countertops.
Feature-rich, with options for frozen items, sourdough, and bagels.
Doesn't toast very evenly; leaves one side much darker.
Narrow slots don't provide much room for thickly sliced baked goods.
The Breville Eye Q 850 is a decent option for making toast. It works quickly and leaves toast soft and moist in the center. However, it doesn't brown bread very evenly. While each side comes out decently even, one side winds up much darker than the other, and you get different results from each slot.
Toasts quickly, preventing baked goods from drying out.
Doesn't toast very evenly; leaves one side much darker.
The Breville Eye Q 850 is a good choice for toasting bagels. Pressing the Bagel button starts one-sided toasting, leaving the outside of your bagel mostly untoasted while the inside browns. It toasts quickly, which helps prevent your bagel from drying out and keeps it moist in the middle. However, it doesn't toast particularly evenly. Each surface browns decently uniformly, but one half of your bagel comes out much darker than the other, and you get different results from each slot.
Toasts quickly, preventing baked goods from drying out.
Includes one-sided toasting for bagels.
Doesn't toast very evenly; leaves one side much darker.
The Breville Eye Q 850 contains crumbs remarkably well, making it very easy to keep your counters clean. Even after repeated toasting, only a couple of crumbs fall past the crumb tray.
Requires very infrequent cleaning of countertops.
The Breville Eye Q 850 is a small toaster, thanks to its 2-slot design. However, it's bulkier than many other 2-slot models, so it takes up more counter space than many toasters with a similar capacity.
As a 2-slot toaster, it's quite compact.
Bulkier than many other 2-slot toasters.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Breville Eye Q 850 comes in two colors: Noir Launch Edition and Brushed Stainless Steel. We tested the Noir Launch Edition variant. See the label for our unit.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update this review.
Popular Toaster Comparisons
The Breville Eye Q 850 is a premium 2-slot toaster. Similar to other Breville toasters, the Eye Q includes some features not typically seen in other brands. For example, it lowers your bread with the push of a button instead of using a lever, and it includes an option to add a little extra toasting time to the end of a cycle, just like the Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster. However, there's also a new feature for the Eye Q lineup: optical sensors. This toaster, along with the Breville the Eye Q 870 Auto 4 Slice, uses optical sensors to track the color of your bread as it browns, whether you're toasting slices of white bread, sourdough, or frozen rye. Using its sensor mode, this toaster can produce a wide range of shades.
Unfortunately, it doesn't toast as evenly as models that rely on simple timers like the Breville the 'A Bit More' 2 Slice or the Smeg 2-Slice TSF01, so each slice has darker and lighter areas. That said, it toasts faster than most Breville toasters, including the 'A Bit More' 2 Slice. The fast toasting speed is welcome when you want a quick snack, and it also helps keep your toast from drying out. It's also better at containing crumbs than other high-end toasters, like the Dualit 2 Slice NewGen Classic, so you rarely need to clean up after it.
Wondering what else we recommend? See our picks for the best toaster, the best 2-slice toasters, and the best toaster brands.
The Breville the Eye Q 850 Auto 2 Slice and the Breville the 'A Bit More' 2 Slice are both good options, but they have different strengths to consider. The Eye Q toasts faster, which helps bread retain moisture, so it stays soft and moist in the center. This model is also much better at containing crumbs, so you don't have to clean them off your counter very often. The 'A Bit More' toasts more evenly, so each slice is uniformly browned on both sides, regardless of which slot you use. It's also better at toasting only one side of a bagel.
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 Breville the Eye Q 850 Auto 2 Slice and the Dualit 2 Slice NewGen Classic both deliver very good toasting performance, but the Dualit is a better choice for most people. The Dualit toasts more evenly, leaving each slice more uniformly browned on both sides. It's better at toasting only one side of a bagel or English muffin, too. The Dualit also toasts faster, though only a bit. That said, the Breville leaves fewer crumbs on your counter and offers more features, including automatic toasting with optical sensors that track the color of your toast.
The Breville the Eye Q 850 Auto 2 Slice and the Cuisinart SimpliTouch XL 2-Slice both provide very good performance, but they have different strengths. The Cuisinart toasts exceptionally evenly, leaving each slice very evenly browned on both sides. It's also better at toasting a bagel or English muffin on only one side. The Breville toasts faster, which helps prevent your toast from drying out and leaves fewer crumbs on your counter after toasting.
Test Results
While this toaster is quite compact, it's larger than most 2-slice toasters, so it's worth double-checking the dimensions if you're short on space.
This 2-slot toaster offers a decent capacity. The slots are long and deep but very narrow, so thickly cut sourdough and chunky bagels may not fit.
This model offers plenty of features, but some of them operate a bit differently than those on a standard toaster, thanks to the optical sensor used to detect browning levels.
The Start/Stop button lets you choose between using the optical sensor, a timer mode, and a mode specifically for sourdough bread, which the brand says accounts for the extra air pockets.
The sensor mode is the default option, which lights up green when you press the Start button. To switch to timer mode, double-press the Start button; it will light up red. To toast sourdough bread, press and hold the Start button until it turns blue.
When using the sensor mode, the toaster automatically detects your toast's color and pops back up when it reaches your chosen shade. According to the manual, frozen items will be toasted longer automatically, so you don't need to use a defrost mode. The timer mode works like that of most toasters: you choose between seven shade settings, and the toaster pops your bread back up after the corresponding amount of time.
There's also a bagel mode that turns off one set of burners, so only the inside face toasts, and a button that adds a little more time to a toasting cycle.
This toaster contains crumbs exceptionally well. Only a couple of crumbs make it past the crumb tray, even after repeated toasting.
There's an internal storage compartment for the cord. To hide the cord, you can feed it into an opening on the underside of the toaster.
Your bread doesn't toast very evenly in this toaster. It browns each side of your toast decently evenly, but one side comes out a lot darker than the other, and you get different results in each slot.
Using the bagel setting, this model does a great job browning on one side only. The outside face stays mostly untoasted, browning just a little bit, while the inside toasts.
Your toast stays moist and soft in the center while it browns on the outside.
Toasting doesn't take long. However, because this model uses optical sensors to optimize toasting time based on how dark your bread is, toasting time varies depending on what kind of bread or baked goods you're toasting.
