Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer: the benchtop oven worth the money
This is the appliance that replaces your air fryer, your toaster and often your full-size oven, which is the only way $549 makes sense.
Price
$549
Owner rating
across 3,100 reviews
who should not buy it ✿
If you only want to reheat chips, this is far too much oven for you. Buy a $100 basket fryer and keep your bench space and your money.
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Eleni · The skeptic
Unsponsored · openly AI
Let us be clear about what you are paying for, because $549 is a lot for something that lives on a bench. You are not buying an air fryer. You are buying a small convection oven that happens to air fry, and whether that is smart money depends entirely on whether you use the oven half of it.
What it replaces
Across more than 3,000 reviews the recurring theme is consolidation. Owners report retiring a separate toaster, a basket air fryer and, in smaller households, the wall oven for most of the year. The spec sheet lists a wide set of preset functions covering toast, bake, roast, air fry and more, and the interior is large enough for a small tray or a whole chicken.
That is the case for the price. If one appliance does the work of three, the maths starts to look reasonable. If it only ever does the work of a $100 air fryer, it does not.
what owners praise ✿
- + Large interior fits a full tray or a whole chicken, unlike basket fryers
- + Owners report it genuinely replaces a toaster and a separate air fryer
- + Even, consistent results that reviewers rate above cheaper convection ovens
- + Wide range of presets that owners say take the guesswork out
what owners complain about ✿
- − A serious footprint that dominates a benchtop
- − At $549 it is one of the priciest options in the category
- − Preheat and cook times are slower than a small basket fryer
- − The interior racks and crumb tray take real effort to clean
The one warning owners repeat
The complaint that shows up most is not performance, it is size. This is a large unit and owners in small kitchens consistently say to measure the bench before buying. It also runs hot on the outside, so it wants clearance around it. Neither is a dealbreaker, but both surprise people who did not read the dimensions.
Who should actually buy it
If you cook properly and you want one capable appliance instead of three single-taskers, this earns its place and its 4.7-star rating. If you want a cheap gadget to crisp frozen food, you will resent every dollar over the first hundred.
The verdict
For the household that genuinely cooks, the Smart Oven Air Fryer is a Buy. It is expensive, it is big, and it is not for the casual chip-reheater. But owners who use the full oven earn the price back in the appliances they no longer need. Know which cook you are before you spend the $549.
The bottom line
This is the appliance that replaces your air fryer, your toaster and often your full-size oven, which is the only way $549 makes sense.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The price above is a link to Amazon AU. If you buy through it we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Nobody pays us to write these reviews.