Breville Mini Smart Oven Review And Complete Guide

In this Breville BOV450XL review, we explore whether this extremely compact oven lives up to the hype.

Who Should Get The Breville Mini 450XL ?

• If your kitchen counter has lack of space to accommodate a large conventional oven.

• You want a backup oven to make quick recipes without using your main oven.

• If you want to cook a variety of foods at a time. The 3 rack system is perfect for cooking on a large volume

• You're an individual who lives in an apartment with a limited counterspace.

• You don't require a lot of cooking functions and dials. You only make toasts or bake frozen pizza occasionally

• If you want a small oven that heats up very fast and cooks evenly

See here how it compares to other best selling 4-slice toaster oven in this range.

Key Specifications:

Before going to reveal our research and findings about this mini smart oven, let's take a look at its key specifications:

Dimensions: 14.25 x 16 x 8.5 inches

Weight: 15.2 Pounds

Number of cooking functions: 8 

Convection Baking: No

Air Frying: No

Number Of Rack Position: 3

Removable Crumb Tray: Yes

Accessories: 10 x 10 inch Baking Pan

Latest Price: See Current Pricing on Amazon

Breaking Down the Breville BOV450XL Smart Oven:

Here are some of our favorite features of the Breville Mini Smart 4 Slice Toaster Oven:

Smart Cooking Process:

There’s no doubt that the Breville Mini has earned the trust of buyers due to its straight forward controls and exceptional cooking process. The interface is well designed and intuitive compared to other toaster ovens.

The Breville Mini oven provides a precision with its smart presets for most of your baking foods including, toasts, bagels, pizza etc.  Therefore, you won’t have to push and turn a knob and have to think about which mode it is in every time. 

All you have to do is, select your desired setting by the knob and then this smart oven will assume the type of food you want to cook. It will also show you the required cooking time. This enables you to get consistent results every time. And the LED changes from orange to blue when the cooking process is complete.

Another cool thing is that, there’s a setting to tell your oven the number of bread slices you want to toast, how dark you want them. You only have to set this function with the clearly-marked push buttons.

Because of this unique feature, this oven has earned overwhelming reputation from the majority of people. According to reviewers and users, this is one of the best countertop oven for baking bread available in the market right now.

Though you might have to play around with the settings at first, user reviews indicate that it’s quite straightforward. 

Reliable Cooking Performance:

The Breville BOV450XL uses 4-quartzs system combined with Element IQ technology for even heat distribution. Breville’s Smart Oven sensors deliver optimal performance by managing and maintaining heat throughout the oven.

Users and reviewers have successfully made toast, roast veggies, salmon steaks, and even baked chicken breasts. According to some reviewers, this is one of the best toaster oven that evenly cooks frozen pizza.

You can also make one-time adjustments seamlessly. There’s no need for complicated settings or a bunch of knobs. Also, the display changes color to update your cooking progress.

Need a bit more time for your food to cook well? This Breville unit has “a bit more” button that lets you add 30 seconds more time to your cooking time. And with the settings listed at the front, you can set the rack at the ideal height of what you’re cooking.

Easy to Maintain:

Besides being easy to use, this unit offers seamless cleaning. A common challenge with ovens is not being able to get rid of food crumbs after use. This is not the case with the Breville Mini.

The included pull out crumb tray is a hit among customers. It allows for you to easily collect crumbs or pieces that may fall off when baking or grilling.

The crumb tray comes out seamlessly and there are no spaces for crumbs to fall through. Even the sheet pan that comes with this unit is removable and washable. Talking about

Element IQ Heating System:

Breville’s range of smart ovens uses a heating system known as Element IQ technology, which heats the elements based on the cooking function you choose. It determines how Breville’s Smart ovens quickly and evenly cook food.

The quartz heating elements located below and above the food transfer heat efficiently and with great speed. The fast heating system takes about 10 minutes to reach the required temperature. If you change a cooking function, the Element IQ will automatically adjust its settings to your changes.

What’s more, Element IQ will remember your changes and continue to provide heat based on the changes until you change the settings again. This enables consistent results with your cooking.

Multi-Function:

The compact size notwithstanding, the Breville Mini gives you 8 pre-programmed cooking functions such as bake, reheat, toast, bagel, broil, cookies, roast, and pizza. User reviews indicate that the Mini Smart oven delivers scrumptious baked goods almost like those from the full-sized counter top ovens. Cookies come out crunchy and fluffy; chicken drumsticks have crispy skins and soft meat.

Besides, you can do everything through the function dial. With 3 racks at different heights, it lets you adjust cooking position for toasting, baking, and broiling. 

All you’ve got to do is pick a mode, and adjust the temperature and duration through the temperature and time button. And with the LCD, you can seamlessly calculate the temperature and time.

Extremely Compact:

One of the aspects that buyers emphasized most in the reviews is the nice small profile of this oven. As a reputable brand in toaster ovens, Breville has an entire line “Mini Smart ovens” that have gained the trust of foodies and chefs. Their minimal footprint is perfect for extremely small kitchens and cramped countertops, and the BOV450XL is no exception.

Whether you want to make chicken breasts, pies, roasted vegetables, or salmon steaks, the BOV450XL delivers. It’s perfect for making a variety of meals for one or two people. Despite the compact size, the interior holds 4 slices of toast, 6 cup muffin tray and up to 11-inch pizza.

Other Great Features:

Besides the minimal footprint and highly effective heating, the BOV450XL features non stick coating interior. This enables seamless cleaning since food doesn’t stick or burn into the cooking pan.

We also like the LCD display that give you access to the functions such as the countdown timer, so you can see when it’s time to put the food in to bake.

Another aspect of the Breville Mini Smart that have garnered attention is the built-in timer that beeps and automatically turn off when your baking is done.

Finally, we love the minimalist and aesthetically pleasing design which complements any kitchen counter top.

Accessories:

The Breville BOV450XL toaster oven comes with only a 10 x 10 inch Enamel Baking Pan. You can bake cakes, and roast chicken with this pan. The pan comes out smoothly and it's washable. However, you can buy additional accessories to use with this oven. It  easily fits a 9” square baking pan, 6 cup muffin tin, 9” loaf pan etc.

What We Like About This Toaster Oven:

The Breville BOV450XL is a handy, multifunctional kitchen helper that delivers consistent result every time. 

But should you buy it?

• Ultra-Compact design: The 4-slice capacity is perfect for cooking for one or two and takes less counter space than ever.

• “A little more” button: This button comes in handy when you need more time for your cooking. It eliminates the need to start the cooking process over again.

• Smart Heating Technology: 1800 Watts of power and Element IQ to quickly heat and maintain temperature till the end of the cooking process.

• Easy to clean: Removable crumb tray and non-stick interior enables seamless cleaning.

• LCD: You’ll get quick access to functions and monitor your cooking process in real time.

• Versatile: More than a toaster; it bakes, broils, reheat, roasts, and makes pizza.

• Built-In Timer: With the Breville Mini Smart, monitoring the time remaining on the toast cycle.

• Snowflakes button: We like the snowflake button that tells the oven that what you’re putting in is frozen. It automatically adjusts the heating to cook the meal efficiently.

What We Don't Like About This Mini Oven:

Breville Mini Smart Oven vs. Breville Compact Smart Oven (650XL):

The Breville BOV450XL mini oven and Breville BOV650XL are similar in design, size, heating technology, and offer the same 8 cooking functions. They also both feature 1800 Watts of voltage and hold 4 slices of toast.

Like the Mini, the Compact too has Element IQ to add a layer of intelligence to heating. The only difference is the interior. The Compact is 0.6 cubic feet and holds a 12-inch pizza, while the Mini 0.45 cubic feet and can accommodate up to 11-inch pizza. 

Therefore, The Breville BOV450XL would be ideal for 2-3 people and the Breville BOV650XL compact is ideal for family serving. The Compact is also pricier than the mini.

If you have more counter space and want a little bit more interior capacity, we suggest you go for the Breville BOV650XL.

Frequently Asked Questions:

In Conclusion:

The Breville Mini Smart offers advanced heating system, multiple functions, and settings to select the perfect level of brown for your toasts.

All these amazing features combine with 1800 watts for fast heating to make the Breville Mini Smart a “pint sized” powerhouse.

However, despite the oven being able to maintain temperature throughout the bake cycle, users have cited instances where it doesn’t toast evenly. In addition, though this could help save money on takeouts, it’s not meant for cooking large amounts of food.

If you’re looking to own one of these “smart minis”, but don’t want to sacrifice counter space for a glorified toaster, the BOV450XL is definitely worth a try.

N.B: If you're looking for something more budget friendly options, then feel free to check out our updated review of the 7 best toaster ovens under $100.