The Breville Smart Oven Compact BOV670 is the best toaster oven under $200, bringing Breville's Element iQ even-heat system and 8 one-touch presets into a compact footprint. America's Test Kitchen has long made the Breville Smart Oven family its top pick, and the compact version delivers that even baking and toasting in a smaller cavity. It's the priciest pick here and lacks a true air-fry mode, but for everyday toast, bake, and roast it's the most polished.
Full review
Real-World Cooking Performance
The Breville Smart Oven Compact BOV670 brings the brand's defining feature down to a sub-$200, small-footprint machine: the Element iQ system. Five independent quartz heating elements are steered by sensors that move power to where the food needs it, which is why America's Test Kitchen, whose longtime top pick is the Breville Smart Oven family, found the Breville "aced all our tests, producing evenly baked cookies, golden brown pizza." That even-heat behavior is the single biggest reason the Breville sits at the top of this lineup.
Homes & Gardens, testing the air-fry-equipped sibling in the same Smart Oven line, reported it is "great at the basics and easy to use" and that it "excels at baking pizza, crisping fries, and browning a perfect slice of toast." On the compact BOV670 specifically, reviewers note the Toast and Bagel settings hold consistent color control across different breads, and the broiler heats quickly enough to crisp a top without scorching it.
Controls and Versatility
The BOV670 runs eight preset functions — Toast, Bagel, Bake, Broil, Pizza, Roast, Cookies, and Reheat — selected from a dial plus an LCD that shows temperature and time. The presets are not gimmicks: each tunes the element mix and convection behavior for the food type, so a pizza preset front-loads bottom heat for a crisp crust while the cookies preset favors gentle, even top-and-bottom baking.
Super convection reduces cook time by up to about 30% versus standard bake, useful in a compact cavity where preheating a full oven for a small job is wasteful. The 0.5-cubic-foot interior still swallows a 12-inch pizza, four slices of toast, or a roast chicken — generous for the footprint, though smaller than the Toshiba's six-slice cavity.
Build Quality and Design
Breville's build quality is the other reason it commands the top spot. The brushed-stainless body is solid, the door hinge is damped, and the controls feel precise rather than mushy. Circa AirFryer's hands-on review called it "a strong contender in the compact countertop oven category," crediting "the Element iQ system" for even cooking and "the thoughtful presets for convenience." The PID-style temperature control keeps the cavity closer to the set point than the mechanical-dial machines lower in this ranking, which is what separates a Breville from a budget oven in day-to-day use.
Where It Falls Short
Two limitations matter. First, price: at around $200 the BOV670 is the most expensive pick in this under-$200 category, and you can get a competent air-fryer toaster oven (the Cuisinart TOA-60 or Ninja SP101) for well under $150. Second, the BOV670 is a convection oven, not a basket air fryer — it crisps via fan-forced convection rather than a dedicated high-velocity air-fry mode, so fries and wings come out good but not as crisp as a true air fryer. The cavity is also smaller than the Toshiba's, and like all quartz-element ovens, a failed element is not a user-serviceable repair.
How It Compares to Alternatives
Against the Cuisinart TOA-60 and Ninja Foodi SP101, the Breville cooks more evenly and feels more premium but lacks their dedicated air-fry baskets and costs more. Against the Toshiba AC25CEW, it is far more even and better built but holds less food and costs roughly double. Against the Hamilton Beach 31156 — a toast-first 2-in-1 — the Breville is a full multi-function oven with presets and convection the Hamilton Beach simply doesn't have. If even baking and interface polish are your priorities, the Breville is the clear pick; if raw air-fry crisp or capacity-per-dollar matter more, look down the list.
Who It's Best For
Buy the BOV670 if you want the most even-baking, best-built toaster oven you can get under $200 and you value one-touch presets and a clean interface over a dedicated air-fry basket. It is ideal for someone who bakes cookies, roasts small dinners, and wants reliable toast in a compact footprint. Skip it if your main goal is crispy air-fried food (the Ninja SP101 or Cuisinart TOA-60), if you need to cook large batches (the Toshiba AC25CEW's six-slice cavity), or if you mostly just want fast toast plus occasional baking and would rather spend a third as much (the Hamilton Beach 31156).
Strengths
- +Element iQ sensors steer heat across 5 quartz elements for even baking — Breville's signature even-cook system
- +8 preset functions (Toast, Bagel, Bake, Broil, Pizza, Roast, Cookies, Reheat) on a clear dial-and-display interface
- +Compact 0.5 cu ft interior still fits a 12-inch pizza or 4-slice toast and a roast chicken
- +America's Test Kitchen ranks the Breville Smart Oven family as its longtime top pick
- +Super convection cuts cook time up to ~30% versus standard bake
Watch-outs
- −At ~$200 it's the priciest pick in this under-$200 lineup
- −No dedicated air-fry basket mode like the Cuisinart and Ninja picks
- −Smaller cavity than the Toshiba 6-slice for big-batch cooking
- −Quartz elements are not user-replaceable if one fails
How it compares
The most polished and most expensive pick. The Cuisinart TOA-60 and Ninja Foodi SP101 add a true air-fry basket for less money but cook less evenly; the Toshiba AC25CEW holds more food for far less; the Hamilton Beach 31156 is a simpler toast-first machine.
Who this is for
At a glance: buyers who want Breville's even-baking quality and one-touch presets in a compact footprint and will spend near the $200 ceiling.
Why you’d buy the Breville Smart Oven Compact BOV670
- Element iQ sensors steer heat across 5 quartz elements for even baking — Breville's signature even-cook system.
- 8 preset functions (Toast, Bagel, Bake, Broil, Pizza, Roast, Cookies, Reheat) on a clear dial-and-display interface.
- Compact 0.5 cu ft interior still fits a 12-inch pizza or 4-slice toast and a roast chicken.
Why you’d skip it
- At ~$200 it's the priciest pick in this under-$200 lineup.
- No dedicated air-fry basket mode like the Cuisinart and Ninja picks.
- Smaller cavity than the Toshiba 6-slice for big-batch cooking.
Rating sources
“Aced all our tests, producing evenly baked cookies, golden brown pizza.”
“Great at the basics and easy to use — it excels at baking pizza, crisping fries, and browning a perfect slice of toast.”
“The oven cooks perfectly every time and the food comes out tasting better than I have had for decades — 93% of owners highlighted the even cooking.”
Our 4.6 score is the average of these published ratings. 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.
