Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer review

You’re buying an air fryer because you love crispy food, so the one you select should be able to deliver a lot of crunch. In our tests, the moderately priced Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt consistently did a great job of browning and crisping a variety of foods. With digital controls and nonstick dishwasher-safe baskets, it is also easy to use. It connects to an app, making it extra convenient for anyone who is comfortable with technology.

There are some things we don’t like about the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer, including its somewhat sluggish touch controls. And it’s not great for toasting. But as you’ll see in our Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer review, this is one of the best air fryers around. 

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Price and availability

The Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt CS358 is available direct from Cosori for $139.99. It is only available in black.

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Design

The Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt won’t win any design awards but in all fairness, we can’t think of any air fryer that will. It's a big black box with a protruding handle for removing the cooking basket and comes with a smooth digital control panel. The buttons for the various functions are small and the preprogrammed settings are indicated by little icons, such as a carrot for vegetables and a fish for seafood. When it’s not operating, the display goes to sleep, for a less cluttered look. 

Approximately a 12-inch square, this is not a small appliance and it will take up some space on your kitchen countertop, as well as in a cabinet or closet if you don’t opt to keep it permanently on the counter. However, it is average in size for an air fryer.

It needs space to vent as well bear in mind, which is a sure way to help make your air fryer last longer. 

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Cooking performance

To get best results when air frying in the Cosori, the company suggests you preheat the fryer. Unlike many air fryers, the Cosori does not automatically go into a preheat mode when you program a time or temperature or select a preset setting. Rather, you press the preheat pad and then set the cooking temperature and the timer for 3 to 5 minutes; in the manual it suggests preheat times for various temperatures. Although this is an extra step, you do know how long the preheat will take and after cooking, you can easily add more time if need be without waiting for the fryer to preheat again.

After the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer is preheated, you place food in the basket and press the appropriate buttons. You can program in your own cooking temperatures and times or select one of the preset settings which suggest temps and times and then press start. You also have the option of customizing the presets so food routinely comes out to your personal preferences. For best results, it’s recommended that you shake or turn over your food halfway through cooking; the Corsori conveniently beeps and flashes SHAKE when half the cooking time’s elapsed; you can turn off the notification if for some reason you don’t want to be bothered by the alert.   

Although the basket has a 5.8-quart capacity, you can’t cook that amount of food at once. You could load up the basket with an item like French fries and after an extended cooking time with multiple interruptions to toss and turn the fries, hope to get good results, but you can’t pile in pieces of chicken or fish on top of each other and expect a decent outcome. For the most part, you’re limited to either about a pound of food or the footprint of the bottom of the basket which is a 9-inch square. You get better crisping if you leave some room between food pieces for air to circulate.

We cooked a range of ingredients in this air fryer, being sure not to use anything which could be considered an air fryer mistake. There is no roast setting and no instructions for roasting a whole chicken in this air fryer. However, there is a picture of a whole roast chicken on the air fryer page on the company’s website and many air fryers do give instructions for roasting a whole bird. Therefore, we roasted a three-pound chicken. After a quick preheat, in just 40 minutes it came out beautifully golden brown with a crackling skin everywhere but on the bottom. However, in our extensive experience, chickens inevitably come out with pale flabby bottoms in a conventional oven unless they’re roasted on a spit or turned during roasting. The chicken was moist and delectable. Unlike roasting in an oven, there was no smoking and no spatters to clean off of the oven walls. We can’t think of an easier way to roast a chicken. 

We also cooked four 4-ounce hamburgers in the Cosori. After a 5 minute preheat, they cooked in 10 minutes. Browning was better on the second side and was equivalent to the type of coloring you get from broiling, rather than the deep brown crusty exterior you get from grilling or even pan frying. But once again, there was no smoke and there were no greasy splatters on the cooktop or pan to clean up. 

The Cosori is the only air fryer that has a toast setting that’s not also a toaster oven. We tried it out, using 2 slices of white sandwich bread. It took eight minutes on the default setting and toasted unevenly. And in some spots, the Cosori actually browned and crisped the bread all the way through. Don’t expect this appliance to replace your toaster. We’d only recommend toasting in a pinch. 

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Ease of use and cleaning

Programming the digital control panel on the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer is completely intuitive. However, the buttons can be just a tad sluggish to respond and when you’re setting a time and go from a default of 20 minutes down to 5, it can be tedious unless you hold your finger down on the button continuously. There’s an outer basket and an inner basket. To separate the two baskets for cleaning, you need to slide the cover back and press a button which can be slightly tricky. 

During cooking, the exterior of the Cosori doesn’t get so hot that it’s likely to cause burns. The highest temp we measured was 128°F on one side. The handle and the controls remain at about room temperature. As it operates, the air fryer has a noise level of 65.3dB, which is equivalent to normal room conversation.  

Both baskets are coated with a nonstick finish which makes them easy to clean by hand, but you can also pop them in the dishwasher. If you want to give your air fryer a more thorough clean, you should check out our guide on how to clean an air fryer. 

With this air fryer, you get a thorough, easy-to-understand user manual. Also included is a soft-cover cookbook with 66 very appealing recipes and cooking charts.

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Wi-Fi and digital assistants

If you download the company’s Vesync app, you can connect the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer to the WiFi. This lets you program the air fryer from your phone as well as select recipes from the app. When you pick a recipe, it will set the temperature and time on the air fryer automatically. 

We found the air fryer easy to connect to the WiFi and the app intuitive to use in terms of programming. Once you’ve accessed the app, it is a little easier to program the fryer than on the machine itself as it spells things out very clearly. It gives you the choice to turn off the preheat and to determine whether or not you want a reminder to shake your food and, if so, at what stage. 

However, for safety reasons, you can’t start the fryer remotely. Because of this, once the fryer is preheated, it doesn’t automatically start cooking and you don’t get a notice to press the start button again. All in all, we saw minimal benefit to the app, especially considering it’s not difficult to program the machine itself. 

Once the WiFi is connected, you can give the fryer voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant as well. 

Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt review: Verdict

We think the Cosori Smart Wifi Air Fryer 5.8qt is the best air fryer you can buy quite simply because it's the best at browning and crisping food regardless of what you choose to prepare and hey. And that’s the main reason you’re in the market for an air fryer. 

The buttons don’t respond super quickly to your touch, but we’re talking about a task that takes seconds, not minutes, so the inconvenience is minimal. Not only does the Cosori “fry” with at most a tablespoon of fat, it keeps any drips, spatters and fumes totally contained within the appliance and the baskets are easy to remove and clean, making it a super convenient way to cook. 

If you like technology, you’ll appreciate the ability to monitor this appliance and search for recipes from your smartphone and give it orders with a digital assistant.