De’Longhi Distinta toaster review

De’Longhi make some lovely-looking kitchen kit and the Distinta toaster is no exception. Pictured here in its copper finish, it’s both matt and metallic at the same time, so it looks sleek but doesn’t pick up fingerprints easily. As with previous De’Longhi models I’ve seen, it’s pretty large, even for a side-by-side, four-slice toaster, with it tapering outwards as it goes down.

Design

The front is somewhat cluttered with controls, but it’s got more or less every feature you could wish for. Alongside the separate browning controls for each pair of slots, which are controlled by a small stick below each dial window, you’ll find an array of buttons down the centre with cancel, reheat and defrost modes, plus a bagel setting for when you only want to toast something on one side. The levers are nicely finished with chrome tops and the action is nice and crisp, but it’s nothing to get excited about.

See all our top toasters for 2016 here

The controls are nice and stiff, so shouldn’t get knocked accidentally. However, I found the best setting for thick white sliced bread was around 3.5, which meant I had to place the dial between settings to get the required result. This isn’t hard to do, but when the dials only turn in 90-degree increments, it doesn’t feel like it was designed to work this way.

There’s a little additional lift at the top to help get out smaller items, but it’s only around 10mm. Including that, our typical slice of toast protruded a respectable 58mm. Smaller items, such as a crumpet, will only stick out by a mere 13mm, though, and there are better toasters around if you regularly heat such smaller treats. Speaking of lift, there’s no lift-and-peek feature here, so you can’t check on the progress of your toast.

Toasting

Making two slices of perfect toast using thick white-sliced Hovis took a little longer than I’d expect at two minutes and 42 seconds, using also a slightly above-average 0.038kWh. The results were reasonably even across multiple efforts, but too often I noticed that different sides weren’t quite balanced, leading to one side being more toasted than the other. The toast itself was still tasty stuff, but I did notice that certain bites were less crispy than others.

The slots are well-sized with a good length, width and depth, so you should be able to get some chunky breads in. However, a four-slot design like this isn’t as flexible as a model with two long slots, which can then take a whole pitta lying down or a whole slice from the middle of a big round loaf.

Round the back are two stainless steel crumb trays which slot firmly into place. I prefer the convenience of a front crumb tray but most modern designs have rear ones for cleaner lines. Underneath is the usual space for keeping your cable neat and tidy, and the cable itself is a standard 65cm long.

Conclusion

The De’Longhi Distinta looks great and it’s not a bad toaster, but a number of small issues add up to tarnish it in my eyes. There isn’t great access to smaller items, it’s not the quickest or the most power efficient, the controls are little fiddly and the toasting isn’t brilliantly even either. It’s not critically flawed in any respect, but unless you love the look, there are better toasters to buy for this much money. Buy Now from Amazon.