The Breville 'A Bit More' 2-Slice Toaster offers premium features like extra-wide slots, a lift-and-look mechanism, and LED progress indicators that enhance usability. Reviewers praised its stainless steel build quality and smart functions that prevent uneven toasting. While it delivers on precision and convenience, its 2-slice capacity may be limiting for larger families, and its price is higher than standard models.
Full review
Even browning with consistent unevenness
The Breville 'A Bit More' 2-Slice Toaster delivers consistent results across multiple toasting cycles, though it exhibits a recurring pattern of uneven heating that affects one corner of each slice. Reviewers noted that while the toaster achieves good overall browning, one corner consistently remains lighter in color compared to the rest of the slice. This issue was present in every test cycle, indicating it's a design characteristic rather than a defect. The medium setting produces appealing golden coloration with a satisfying crunch, but the unevenness becomes more pronounced on the dark setting, where one corner retains a dark gold hue instead of achieving full dark brown coloring. Despite this inconsistency, the toaster maintains its performance reliability, allowing users to count on the same browning pattern each time.
Bagel setting performs reliably with minor flaws
The dedicated bagel setting on the Breville 'A Bit More' excels in creating the ideal contrast between a crispy, golden interior and a warm, soft exterior. This feature works by reducing power to specific heating elements, toasting the cut side while gently warming the outer crust. The toaster handles both fresh and day-old bagels well, reviving slightly stale bagels to near-fresh quality. The bagel setting is particularly effective with thicker, New York-style bagels, which can be challenging for toasters with shorter slots. However, the same slight unevenness observed with regular bread appears here too, though it is less noticeable given the irregular surface of bagels. The toaster accommodates these heartier breakfast options without issue, though extremely thick artisanal bagels might still require careful positioning.
Frozen waffle performance with dedicated setting
The Breville 'A Bit More' includes a dedicated frozen setting that adjusts the toasting cycle to account for the additional moisture and cold temperature of frozen items. This feature proves particularly useful for frozen waffles, which present a unique challenge for toasters aiming to achieve a crispy exterior while ensuring the interior is thoroughly heated. The toaster's frozen setting successfully delivers results that meet these requirements, though it takes longer to complete compared to other toasters tested. The performance on frozen items is consistent, with the toaster achieving medium brownness in just over three minutes, demonstrating its ability to handle the complexities of frozen food preparation.
Lift and Look feature offers practical advantage
The standout 'Lift and Look' feature allows users to check their toast mid-cycle without interrupting the heating process, which is considered a game-changer for those who prefer their toast just right. This functionality is particularly appreciated by users who want to avoid over-toasting or under-toasting their bread. The feature works by nudging the lever slightly so that the bread pokes out of the slots, giving a preview of the toasting progress. Additionally, there is a 'High Lift' mode that lets users manually push the lever even higher after it pops up at the end of the toasting process, protecting fingers from burns when retrieving hot items. This thoughtful design element enhances user experience and safety during the toasting process.
Speed and efficiency in standard toasting
In terms of speed, the Breville 'A Bit More' sits slightly above average among toasters tested. A standard room-temperature slice of bread toasted to medium level (3 on the temperature slider) took two minutes and ten seconds, while a bagel reached the same toast level in an identical amount of time. These times are consistent with typical toaster performance, though not particularly fast compared to some high-end models. The toaster's performance is notably slower with frozen items, which take longer to heat through than regular bread. Despite this, the overall efficiency remains acceptable for most users, especially considering the quality of results achieved.
Design and user interface appeal
The Breville 'A Bit More' features a sleek, brushed stainless steel design that suits modern and streamlined kitchens. The overall appearance is polished with user-friendly controls that take the guesswork out of anything toaster-related. The toaster has two long slots running parallel along the top, accommodating various bread products including standard slices, unusually shaped bread, bagels, English muffins, and frozen waffles. The interface is straightforward, with each button clearly marked with a word: 'Bagel,' 'Frozen,' 'Cancel,' and 'A Bit More.' The latter, which gives the toaster its name, adds just enough time post-toast to bring the bread to the next level of brownness, eliminating the need for constant monitoring or re-toasting.
Performance variations across toasting levels
The toaster's performance varies across different toasting levels, with the light setting barely changing the color of bread, even when using level 2. However, the medium setting produces appealing golden coloration with a satisfying crunch, while the dark setting achieves rich, dark brown coloring that serious toast lovers crave. The light setting, however, struggles to deliver the desired gently toasted result that many toasters find difficult to achieve on their lowest settings. The medium setting is where the Breville begins to show its strengths, offering good control over toasting preferences. The consistent results across multiple cycles, despite the unevenness, make it a reliable choice for those who value predictable performance over perfect uniformity.
Strengths
- +Stainless steel construction with fingerprint-resistant finish
- +Extra wide slots accommodate thick slices and bagels
- +Lift-and-look feature allows monitoring toast progress without interrupting cycle
- +LED progress indicator and browning control lever for precise toasting
- +Automatic pop-up function for early cancellation of toasting cycle
Watch-outs
- −2-slice model may not suffice for larger households
- −Higher price point compared to basic toasters
How it compares
Unlike the Breville BTA720XL Bit More Toaster, which has a more complex 12-browning setting system, the A Bit More model focuses on simplicity with a single browning control lever and LED indicator. While both offer lift-and-look features, the A Bit More's stainless steel construction and fingerprint-resistant finish set it apart from the BTA720XL's more basic design. Compared to the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore toaster, it lacks the touchscreen interface but provides more robust build quality.
Rating sources
“If you have the budget and the counter space, we highly recommend investing in the Breville "A Bit More" Toaster.”
Our 4.4 score is the average of the 2 scored reviews above; 6 more reviewed it without printing a score and are not in the average. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
