Breville Aurora Toaster review

Strong designs and bright colours make most of the toasters we see stand out, but the basic four-slot, dual-control setup is pretty consistent – a bit like two toasters stuck together. The Breville Aurora is a little different, yes it comes in red, cream and black, but all these only use a single set of controls.

If you just want two slices then you simply put them in the right-hand slots and press down the lever, starting the timer. If you want two additional slices then these go in the left-hand slots and again you press them down to start. There’s only one browning control on the front, which controls both slots at once. This means you won’t have a timer if you add a second pair of slices while the first pair is toasting, and you can’t set up his-and-hers timers, where each of you has one pair of slots set to your own tastes. There’s no bagel mode either, just defrost and reheat modes.

On the plus side, the toaster does include lift-and-look, so you can check your toast mid-cycle without resetting the timer just by lifting the lever. It’s very handy for those who use a variety of breads and other items and like to hover by the toaster to make sure they’re done just right. If you use the same sliced bread everyday then you really should have the timer set up right anyway.

The slots aren’t that deep but they are very long at 140mm. This means the vast majority of bread will lie down in the last and you won’t get an untoasted top section. At 35mm they’re reasonably wide and the levers give you an extra lift so getting smaller items out of the toaster isn’t a major problem.

Our toasting tests showed good consistency from one side to the other on both slices, however there was a larger than usual pale area along the edge of both slices on one side. The toast was crisp across the surface but some other toasters do better when it comes to edge-to-edge browning. The crumb trays are the usual shallow examples, accessed from the rear.

The Breville Aurora does look smart thanks to its streamlined controls, and if you only need four slices very occasionally then its not a huge drawback. However, it does little to make up for what is certainly a deficiency and its toast isn’t good enough to compensate, so there are far better choices available, such as the Philips Toaster HD2647.