I just tested the Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster — and it’s a winner

The Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster is a minimalist and sophisticated looking appliance that’s covered in a brushed aluminum body. It features four-slice toasting for anything from plain bread, bagels, and English muffins to frozen pancakes and waffles.

i tested the Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster, and it’s one of the best I’ve reviewed, thanks to its handy lift and look feature, customizable alarm and smartly designed plug. But it’s not perfect. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Price and availability

The Breville four-slice model is available for $99 from Amazon, with an original list price of $149. You can also find it in Best Buy for $99. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Design

When designing a four-slice toaster, the choice is to go either short and thick or long and slim. Breville however, chose the latter — at 16.1 inches wide by 7.6 inches high and 8.1 inches deep at a minimal 5.5 pounds. And while the longer footprint takes up more counter space (roughly the length of an average toaster oven), this toaster is versatile. It accommodates not only two regular slices in a single slot but single slices of specialty breads that might be longer than traditional breads.

Typically, rye breads and special larger bakes either must be toasted twice from both directions or cut in half to toast, but the Breville accommodates those longer length foods just fine.

Image 1 of 4

The toaster’s easy-to-use slide setting bar glows a bright orange LED indicator extending to wherever you set the browning control. Each lamp advances one-half setting with the last two lamps at a dimmer shade. As the toast cooks, the lamps dynamically count down to the low end of the setting bar, getting shorter and shorter, so you can see exactly where your toast is in the cooking process.

While there are five main settings, the slider and LED lamps indicate at least 12 separate settings available if you want to place the slider in between settings. Just a few seconds before the toast automatically pops up, the Cancel button starts to blink, alerting you that your toast is ready and then makes a short beeping sound as it pops up. 

Four buttons at the top of the settings bar light up bright blue to clearly indicate A Bit More, Bagel, or Frozen settings. You simply push to activate any of the settings or push again to deactivate them, regardless of whether toast is currently in process. A Cancel button at the right glows red like the setting lamps, in case you want to wait on your toast.

The bread descends into the unit like most toasters, with a mechanical lever. Even before the toast pops up, however, a “Look and Lift” feature lets you survey your toast’s shade without interfering with the toasting cycle. Although, I found with smaller items, the lift was not high enough to see much of anything.

Just in case you’re challenged on how to load a bagel into the slot, the Breville has an embossed instruction right at the top telling you exactly how to position your bagel to shade on one side and warm on the other.

The Breville was toasty to the touch, but not excessively hot as to cause injury. Measured from both the front and side during and right after toasting, exterior temperatures ranged from 79 to 120 degrees in the front and 81 to 112 degrees on the side, depending on the setting and toasting time. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Performance

Unlike some four-toast competitors like the KitchenAid and Cuisinart, the Breville does not allow you to toast at different levels. There’s one long slot for each two slices, so if someone wants a darker slice, they can use the A Bit More button to give the toast an extra 30 seconds or so of cooking time, or just change the shade setting with the slider for a second go.

Image 1 of 3

The toast we cooked was more or less consistent with our expectations based on the setting, though there were some variations. Toasting shade was consistent with settings in almost all cases in terms of brownness and evenness. Toast at low settings looked extremely light while medium and high settings were appropriately brown. The Breville is consistent between slices and settings with both two and four slices toasted, yielding nearly the same results.

Bagel tests were similarly accurate with both browness and evenness at the levels expected for light and medium settings. The Frozen setting did not toast our waffles to a similar browning level, even with extra time given for toasting from the freezer. Instead, the results were consistently a shade lighter than expected. That should not be a problem since it’s easy to compensate with a slightly higher setting for bread, English muffins, and pancakes and waffles that go into the toaster directly from the freezer. 

One possible downside with a long two-toast slot is that it may not be big enough for some larger specialty sliced breads to load upright and side-by-side. In this case, loading two at a time next to each other in the slot may cause some overlap and toasting gaps. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Ease of use and cleaning

The Breville couldn’t be any easier to use as all of the controls are lit, and the shade timer dynamically counts down. The A Bit More button lets you add a minimum amount of extra toasting to your bread if your original setting is not high enough. 

The cleaning tray integrates so well into the sleek design that it may be hard to spot at first glance — you may have to just watch the instructional video to figure out where. Hint: It’s on the bottom side opposite the toast lever. A small ledge right underneath the toaster easily pulls the cleaning tray out so you can empty the crumbs.

If in doubt, the Breville comes with a comprehensive manual that goes into great detail about the toaster structure and function, complete with illustrations and instructions. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Special features

Not every toaster has special features, but the Breville does. The toaster is equipped with an unusual Assist plug attached to its moderate 35-inch cord. The grounded three-prong plug is designed with a generous finger hole that makes it easy to both plug and remove the plug from the wall socket without risking damage to the cord or your hand. It is the only toaster we tested with this kind of plug, which protects it from users who tend to yank rather than gently pry the plug loose.

Breville also lets you adjust the volume of the Toast Ready alert. The default is pretty loud, so if you want to let the kids sleep while you make breakfast, you can use a combination of the Cancel button and the Bagel, Frozen, or A Bit More buttons to raise, lower, or mute the alert. 

Breville Bit More 4-Slice Toaster review: Verdict

The Breville is a sleek and stylish addition to any kitchen and will give you the toast you ask for evenly and consistently. Although, you might have to allot extra time for the defrosting feature to get the proper shade. 

The A Bit More control made things easy to get toast shading just right. Cool extras such as the safety plug and the alarm signal adjustment make the Breville a friendly item for the whole family. And if you’re not concerned about separate controls for the four-slice feature, the Breville is a fine choice. 

More from Tom's Guide

• Best toaster ovens
• Best air fryers
• Best juicers