This is still a dead-simple, no-frills rice cooker though. You get what you pay for: There is no alarm, timer, or digital interface, and fewer settings than you’ll get on something like our winning Zojirushi or some of the fancier Tiger models. In our most recent round of testing, the Hamilton Beach model edged it out by producing slightly better rice and having more helpful features, all while ringing in at practically half the price.

Zojirushi Pressure Induction Heating Rice Cooker & Warmer NW-JEC10

The Zojirushi NW-JEC10 is like if Apple made a rice cooker: It’s sleek, high-tech, and expensive. It’s the most expensive home rice cooker in the brand’s lineup, as a matter of fact. Of its host of features, the one that sets it apart from the other high-end models Zojirushi offers is the My Rice setting, which uses artificial intelligence to learn your preferred rice texture based on inputs you give it after cooking through each batch of rice. Commerce writer Wilder Davies has been testing the NW-JEC10 for over a year and has come around to the view that the My Rice functionality is no gimmick. He found that his batches of rice evolved for the better over time as he gave the machine more feedback (specifically, it will ask you to input whether the stickiness and firmness of the previous batch you made was “not enough,” “okay,” or “too much”). What’s more, this rice won its initial taste test with our staffers. But the difference in rice quality was not enough to merit the $750 price tag, hence our recommendation for the average rice eater remains the (nearly $450 cheaper) NP-HCC10.

Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer NS-TSC10A

This model is similar to our top pick in design and functionality, but rings in at about $100 cheaper. The main reason for that is likely that it lacks the induction heating capabilities of the NP-HCC10. While it produced good rice across all of our tests, it never quite achieved as perfectly textured results as our winner. Our testers found the rice to be a bit too soft across the board (though this could be remedied by adding a bit less water than the recommended amount). We did, however, appreciate the retractable cord—plus the silver-and-light gray design is rather chic.

Toshiba TRCS01 Rice Cooker

This model performed exceedingly well in our initial blind taste test, producing fluffy grains that won over our testers. We also loved its suite of programmable features, the way it gave us a timer countdown from the start of cooking as well as the option to delay cooking until later, its audible alarm, and its use of fuzzy logic to make minute temperature and time adjustments according to real time sensor feedback (something more typically seen in higher priced models). We found it easy to use, with helpful presets for a range of rice types and a Quick Rice function that worked well for grains like quinoa, farro, and polenta, and an included steamer basket.

But our long-term testing of this product revealed a major flaw: We found that the timer would repeatedly freeze (sometimes for 20 minutes or longer) while the machine continued to cook. This issue was particularly prevalent when using the Mixed Rice and Quick Rice settings. It’s worth noting that the timer function on a rice cooker is typically more of an approximation, and it’s not uncommon for it to change or stall momentarily—but not to this extent. It resulted in overcooked or even burned rice. It was not a consistent problem, but a problem nonetheless, and a big enough one to give us pause about recommending this model as our top budget pick.

Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker and Warmer NS-ZCC10

The Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 didn’t make as nicely textured and fluffy rice as our winning pick. It does include many of the features we loved in our winner at a lower price point, like the intuitive interface, sturdy inner pot, Keep Warm function, and array of presets. It also had some additional features our winner lacked, like a retractable cord and handles on the sides of the pot that allow you to lift it out from the cooker while it’s still hot. However, at over $240 at the time of publication, we just don’t think this cooker produced rice that merited the still-high price tag.

Toshiba TRSH01 Low-Carb Digital Programmable Multi-Functional Rice Cooker

This sleek model from Toshiba has an intuitive digital interface and eight different settings, including one for “low-carb” rice that uses a colander-like insert to drain away starchy water as the rice cooks (which Toshiba claims “can remove unhealthy digestive starch by up to 37% and increase healthy resistant starch by up to 34%”).