First, we toasted two slices of bread on whatever was the medium toast setting. Then we immediately filled the rack to maximum capacity (four to nine slices) with more bread to observe how evenly it browned in different sized back-to-back batches. This helped us see if residual hot air affected the second round. We also timed how long it took to toast the bread on medium.

We also made personal frozen pizzas using a pizza preset if available. If there was no pizza preset, we set the temperature controls manually or used the broiler setting, depending on the instructions on the box. For the models lacking preheat functionality, we preheated each oven for five minutes. For this test, we also used any included baking sheets.

If the ovens were also marketed as air fryer–toaster oven combos, we attempted to air fry frozen tater tots and chicken tenders.

Ovens that performed well in early tests moved onto the fresh meat round, in which we roasted a chicken thigh and leg, coated simply in olive oil then seasoned with salt and pepper.

First and foremost, a toaster oven needs to make good toast, so we looked for models that toasted evenly—on both sides of the toast!—no matter where on the rack we put the bread. And because some ovens hold onto heat and don’t regulate their own temperature well, we made back-to-back rounds of toast.

Because most modern toaster ovens do so much more than toast, we tested the additional functionality and preset accuracy by cooking a variety of foods. We reheated frozen pizza, and looked for a crispy bottom, evenly melted cheese, and a brown (but not burnt) crust. We made cookies from frozen dough balls and looked for gooey insides, golden exteriors, and crispy edges. We even roasted chicken and looked for crispy, golden skin and cooked, but juicy meat.

All toaster ovens come with at least one rack, but we considered what other accessories came in the box, especially if certain presets required anything special. For example, if the oven had bake and roast functions, we wanted the oven to have baking sheets and roasting racks. Same goes for air-fry baskets. Also, it’s really nice to have at least one extra rack, no matter the presets.

Toaster ovens are not supposed to be complicated or confusing to use, so we looked for models with intuitive control panels and, ideally, backlit LCD digital displays. We also cleaned each one to see how hard or easy it was to actually get clean, and yes, that included removing and replacing the crumb tray.

Anything that’s going to take up semi-permanent residence on your counter needs to be worth however many square inches it takes up. So for the not-so-compact models, we considered whether they were functional and versatile enough to make us want to put our other countertop cookers in the donation pile.

I must preface this review by saying that if I judged this as simply a small oven and was not comparing it to actual toaster ovens, the Smeg probably would have fared better.

I really wanted to love this combination (“combi”) air fryer oven with a steam option from Smeg—especially because it looked so damn cute on my countertop and the display features a digital clock that doesn’t need to be reset every time you unplug it. On the pizza preset, it cooked a frozen pizza more evenly than my top pick Breville oven ever has on its pizza setting (though I admit I usually ignore the Breville’s rotate reminder so that’s partially my own fault).

Unfortunately, there were too many things that didn’t work for me. For starters, it’s much bulkier than the biggest Breville ovens, but not noitceably bigger on the inside (though this is something I could have lived with given how good it looks). But the real issue is that the control panel is a huge pain to use. It looks slick because it features only a backlit display and two button-knobs that don’t have any markings beyond “Start/Stop/Power” and “+/-/Set.” This setup makes finding a preset A Whole Thing, because you have to rotate through multiple tiers of settings to get to a specific one like pizza, fish, etc. And in order to know what setting you need, you have to consult the manual or quick-start guide—or just memorize the preset codes. For example: Pizza is P28. To get there, you have to use one knob to navigate to to the top tier setting “chef menu,” then select and navigate to the “bread, pizza, and pies” setting (indicated by a baguette icon), then navigate through the Ps to P28. The first time I tried to do this, I had such a hard time adjusting the time (which is apparently based on the weight of your pizza?), that I just let the timer run out and started it back up again until it looked perfectly cooked.

That is all to say that the control panel takes some getting used to and it’s not something I wanted to get used to—especially because adjusting the time and temp mid-cook is far too complicated compared to making the same adjustments on the Breville. And there’s no option to turn the convection fan on or off mid cook like you can on the Breville, either.

You can use this oven in manual mode and just select a time and temp, but given the knob situation, even that is more complicated than it should be—especially compared to using a Breville oven.

All of that said, if you like the look of a Smeg, want an oven with a steam function for baking, and don’t mind the technology learning curve, this may still be a good option for you. It’s just annoying to use. And about twice the price of the most expensive Breville ovens (none of which have a steam option).

Though the specific model of the Cuisinart Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryer we tested (TOA-60) is no longer available, you can still get a very similar model—and they all seem to share the features we disliked in the TOA-60. For starters, there’s the top-heavy, tank-like design with controls set above the door. The analog dial timer also made setting and tracking specific cooktimes a challenge and we found that this oven ran very hot, resulting in burnt toast and unevenly-cooked pizza.

This air-fryer oven from the maker of Instant Pot is compact and worked well as an air-fryer, but in our testing, it repeatedly turned out uneven toast. It also cooked a frozen pizza in half the expected time, but before the entire pizza reached the target temperature of 165ºF, the edges were close to burned. The model we tested came with one rack, a fryer basket, and one baking sheet (newer models also come with Rotisserie attachments) but the sheet pan was a tight fit for the oven and scratched the interior of the oven. The instruction manual also wasn’t very clear and for the price ($250 at the time of publishing) it just doesn’t feel like a smart purchase.

This 4-Slice Toaster Oven from Black+Decker toasted its first two slices of bread evenly and quickly. But it seemed to retain too much heat and lacked any functionality for regulating it. Because in the second round of testing, it burned the toast. Considering the low price, we wouldn’t totally disqualify it, but in addition to running hot and being inconsistent, we didn’t love the overall design or the control knobs.

The interface on the Oster Digital RapidCrisp Air Fryer Oven is simple and intuitive, but because there’s no preheat function, we had to manually wait for it to reach the target temperature (generally about three minutes) then add more time to the cook timer. There’s also no interior light, and for the price, that lack of a light, combined with the missing preheat feature, kept this one out of our top picks. It’s also kind of hard to clean. Performance-wise, the toast it turned out in the first round of testing was fine—as were the frozen pizza, baked goods, and even the roast chicken—but the more toast we made, the less consistent it was.