The 4 Best 4-Slice Toasters - Fall 2024

The best 4-slice toaster we've tested is the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster. This model has some useful extra features that set it apart from cheaper options. It has four slots that are slightly wider, deeper, and longer than many toasters, including our cheaper picks below. They easily fit bagels or thickly sliced bread, and taller slices won't stick out of the top of the toaster. Its aluminum body gives it a premium look and sturdy feel, and it has an incredible toasting range, making anything from barely toasted to charred sandwich bread in a single cycle. Denser bread like multi-grain or rye, which takes longer to brown, gets properly toasted in one cycle. It toasts bread decently evenly, but unfortunately, some slots produce somewhat darker toast than others. It also produces darker toast on the second batch than the first, so you must adjust the setting for consistent results.

There are a few design features that you don't find on most toasters: it has cycle countdown indicators so you can tell when your toast will be ready. You can use 'Lift and Look' to lift the slots and check on your toast without interrupting the toasting cycle and the 'A Bit More' button to add some time to the end of a cycle. It has buttons to lift and raise the slots instead of levers.

If you want to pay less without completely forgoing premium touches, you might prefer the Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display. This toaster from Drew Barrymore's kitchenware brand 'Beautiful by Drew' is mainly available at Walmart. It has a modern look, with touch-activated buttons that light up only when the toaster is on. Unlike the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster, it comes in various pastel colors to suit your style. Its slots are wide and deep enough for thicker and taller slices. It's better than the previous pick at evenly browning the bread in every slot and on both sides. It's also more consistent batch after batch. Aside from the more typical bagel and frozen settings, it has a gluten-free setting, which adds a bit of time to the end of a toasting cycle to help brown denser bread.

However, unlike the Breville, it has only seven distinct shade settings. You can't set the dial between settings to fine-tune the cycle length. Unfortunately, none of the shade settings produces golden brown sandwich bread, so if that's what you want, you'll have to add time to the end of a lower setting or cancel a higher setting early. On the plus side, it includes cycle countdown indicators to tell how much time is left before your toast pops up.

The Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster TR4900SSD is the best budget 4-slice toaster we've tested. Unlike the previous picks, this inexpensive option has no modes other than the standard ones for bagels and frozen items like waffles. It lacks cycle countdown indicators, so there's no way of knowing how long it takes until your toast pops up. However, it's still made of metal rather than plastic and has a better toasting range than the Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display. The presets can produce anything from lightly toasted to charred sandwich bread in a single cycle. You won't have to run an extra cycle to toast denser breads properly.

It has dials that let you make small adjustments to the shade setting, so you're not limited to the seven marked settings. It tends to toast the inner face more than the outer face, but otherwise, it toasts bread very evenly, with each slot performing similarly. You might need to adjust the dial after the first batch to get consistent results since it tends to overcompensate for the machine heating up and makes lighter toast after the first batch.

For maximum versatility, consider a long-slot toaster like the Smeg 4-Slice Toaster. This high-end toaster has two slots that can each fit a couple of slices of sandwich bread side by side, so it has the same capacity as 4-slot toasters but can also fit longer slices of homemade or bakery bread. The slots are deeper than most toasters', so taller slices won't stick out the top. It performs similarly regardless of where you place the bread and doesn't start burning your toast after a few batches. It has settings for bagels and frozen items and a 'reheat' function for warming up cold toast or adding some time to the end of a cycle.

In one cycle, it can make anything from lightly toasted to dark brown toast from white sandwich bread. However, anything that takes longer, like denser bread and bagels, may need more than one cycle for proper browning. It doesn't tell you how much time remains in a cycle, which is disappointing for such an expensive toaster. While it also comes with a glossy, retro look that helps justify its high price, the Cuisinart Long Slot Toaster is another good option if you don't want to spend the money on a high-end toaster. It doesn't look as fancy, but it's much cheaper and performs similarly. However, you must manually raise the lever to grab even normal-sized toast without burning your fingers, which is annoying. Plus, its slots are quite shallow when pushed down, so taller slices can stick out the top.