Similar to the Breville Smart Oven, but in a smaller, more compact design, this 1800-watt oven offers exceptional cooking convenience while taking up less space on the counter. The unit's 3/5-cubic-foot nonstick interior can accommodate a 12-inch pizza or four slices of bread at a time, while its push-button and turn-knob control panel makes it easy to program. Turn the control dial to select the function--options include Toast, Bagel, Bake, Roast, Broil, Pizza, Cookies, and Reheat. The oven's Element IQ "smart" sensor technology puts the power where it's needed most to ensure energy-efficient operation. For each of the eight pre-set functions, Element IQ automatically adjusts the power and calculates the cooking time. The time and temperature for the pre-set programs can also be manually adjusted to accommodate individual preferences--the oven will even remember the new settings for next time.

Use the second control dial for setting the time (from one minute up to two hours) and for adjusting the temperature (from 120 to 450 degrees F), as well as for selecting the number of slices and for setting the toast shade, from light to dark. The control panel also offers a large start/cancel button, a defrost button for frozen foods, and a temperature-conversion button for recipes with cooking temperatures in Celsius. The oven's easy-to-read backlit LCD screen shows the current function, temperature, and adjustments made--plus it illuminates orange to indicate preheating and cooking, then blue to indicate the end of the cooking cycle. Other highlights include a tempered-glass door, three rack positions, and a front-access removable crumb tray for quick cleanup. Accessories include a 10-by-10-inch enamel baking pan and a 10-by-10-inch enamel broil rack. Attractively housed in coated steel with a strikingly modern design, the countertop oven measures 16-1/2 by 14-1/4 by 10 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.

A smaller version of the popular Breville Smart Oven. This 1800 watt countertop oven has smart features, but takes up less space. Independent heating elements put the power where it's needed most. Elements adjust automatically for each of the eight preset functions to deliver the right cooking temperature at the right time. The Oven remembers personal preferences as well. Includes a temperature conversion button for foreign recipes with cooking temperature in Celsius, as well as a frozen foods defrost button. Accessories included with oven: one 10-inch by 10-inch enamel baking pan and one 10-inch by 10-inch enamel broil rack.

By Ron Lockhart "BocaBoy"

Breville is right to call this a Smart Oven rather than a toaster oven. In a nutshell, you use the middle dial to choose what it is you're cooking and the bottom dial to instruct the oven how you expect it to come out, and it does the rest. It is very handsome looking in our kitchen and easy to use and keep clean. Toast comes out perfect, and the "frozen" button adds just the right amount of time to reheat a frozen bagel or waffle. It's not deep enough to do more than a slice or two of pizza, or maybe some appetizers, so you'll need to consider a larger oven if that's your goal. One very neat feature is that the top servers as a plate warmer, allowing me to keep items warm without having to put them into an oven.

One thing I wish it had is a rack that comes forward when the door opens. You need either an oven mitt or a utensil to slide the rack out to get the item inside. The plus side of this design is that the rack can be placed in 3 different heights in the oven, depending on what you're preparing. I also found that the detents on the bottom selection dial, the one that allows the user to choose darkness and the number of slices, is not well delineated. In other words, I would have expected the dial to have a bit more resistance and a clear "click" or detent as it changed each increment. Nonetheless, the control performs perfectly, so my criticism might be a bit picayune.

We've owned this for a couple months now, and I feel good about buying it. All in all, I'd purchase this item again and feel that I got my money's worth.

By rramstad

A week prior to purchasing this toaster our sturdy little 10 yr old Black&Decker toaster oven started tripping the GFI and sending sparks out of the outlet. As I flung the B&D out the window, I assumed I could replace it with the same unit, but a newer version. No luck. The B&D styling was awful and the reviews worse. So began the research into a new make of toaster. I like a small footprint, intuitive functionality and generally smart design in my appliances. Ultimately, what I hoped came closest was this Breville. I was hung up on price for a while, easily $100 more than I wanted to spend. The Breville was larger than the B&D in depth and height. I wasn't thrilled about that, but as it turns out it doesn't feel overly large. The controls are simple to use and adjust.

As far as cooking and toasting goes, so far it's been great. We've had this unit for about 2 months and it's a work horse in our house. It is used primarily for toasting and reheating. It is an excellent toaster. I particularly appreciate that if you've made a round of toast and are making another it adjusts the toasting time to account for the heat already caused by the earlier toasting. I broiled some asparagus in it the other day and that worked out alright. I didn't get the char I had hoped, but as an alternative to heating up a huge oven for a single serving, it was great.

This toaster is excellent and I am really pleased I decided to buy it. If you are waffling on price, I understand, but it will be worth it. The packaging it came in was really solid and good too. This is another sign to me that the people who designed this really considered the whole thing, soup to nuts.

By Dee Fish

Have owned the 650XL for 9 months now and can recommend it highly -- high quality product and in my opinion well worth the high price. Everything is robustly built with one exception -- the two knobs on front panel are plastic and a bit flimsy compared to the solid overall construction -- not a problem per se, just inconsistent with the overall quality.

Does indeed do a great job on toast, bagels, muffins but it would be hard to justify the cost if that's all you use it for. We've found it to be an "80/20" substitute (and MUCH faster, presumably more energy efficient) vs. using the stove oven -- anything that physically fits we now do in the Breville -- the "smart" features, somewhat to my surprise, work extremely well -- I have rarely had to adjust the settings to compensate for the preprogramming.

A big part of what we use the Breville for is pizza -- it can handle all but the largest frozen pizzas (up to 12"). One tip I can offer is to start the pizza on the Breville non-stick pizza tray and let it bake for about 5 minutes until cheese melts. It is then easy to slip the pizza off the round tray onto the wire rack -- this ensures that you don't get shredded cheese pieces on the heating elements but also gives you a nice crisp crust.

It is true that the wire racks come all the way out without a stop or ridge to warn you, so we have learned to be careful about this -- on the other hand we've turned it to an advantage by slipping the wire rack with food all the way out and allowing, for example, pizza to cool off for a minute right on the wire rack, which we put on a heat-safe surface.

The unit overall does throw off a fair amount of heat, so leaving adequate space at sides and back is a consideration. One nice feature is that the handle has the effect of propping the door up level with the bottom of the oven opening when the door is open -- no reliance on hinges to support the open door and a good backup for those times when you unintentionally pull a wire rack all the way out.

Make sure you check electrical service for the circuit you'll be plugging into -- both Breville ovens are high wattage devices and you may have blown fuses if you run your oven, the coffee maker, and something else all at once off the same outlet.

We also had one amusing defect -- I thought the LCD display had a very slight flaw until I looked closely and found that it was actually a tiny gnat that apparently got trapped in one of the LCD display layers (a few thousand years from now, some archaeologist will probably value this perfectly preserved specimen from the 21st century).