100 years after pop-up toasters debuted, Breville might finally have improved on the original design with the high-tech and pricey Eye Q

Date:
Mon, 13 Oct 2025 06:43:38 +0000

Description:
The Breville Eye Q is aptly named as it uses an optical sensor to see the color of your toast before judging it ready.

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Toaster design hasn't really changed in the 100 years since the pop-up
version was first introduced. Theyre still built around temperature sensors and timers despite the explosion of bread varieties available today. And
that means the standard toaster doesn't necessarily cook fruit breads or sourdoughs as it would the plain white slice.

Breville the makers of some of the best coffee machines reckons its come up with a solution in the form of the Breville Eye Q, the Australian brands new toaster that uses a proprietary optical sensor that judges your toasts doneness by the color of the bread. In other words, it uses sight to achieve the perfect toast.

According to Breville, the sensor monitors the slice(s) up to 10 times a second and, once your preferred level of toasting is done, the bread will be raised smoothly rather than popped up. (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

Furthermore, unlike other toasters, because its basing its cooking on color rather than time, it wont burn or overcook the second (or third or fourth) batch of slices you put into the Eye Q. This can happen in standard toasters because the elements are already heated and toasting begins as soon as the slices are lowered into the slots.

There are seven settings shades to choose from, but you can also opt for a
bit more color if you arent happy with the result (a feature already
available on Brevilles existing toasters). The brand says you might need to experiment a little initially to find what your perfect preference might be, but the promise is that your toast whether thats white, multigrain, sourdough, raisin, rye or a bagel, crumpet or other non-standard type of
bread will never burn. Keep an eye on that expensive toast

Breville told me it took the companys engineers 10 years to make this toaster and they nearly gave up about five years ago due to the high cost of the tech at the time. The embedded optical sensors still make this a premium product at $299.95 / 249.95 / AU$399.95 for the two-slice and $399.95 / 349.95 / AU$599.95 for the four-slice model its undeniably priced for toast connoisseurs if such people exist.

However, the use of an optical sensor in a toaster is certainly revolutionary and, interestingly, the Eye Q uses just a single pair set into one side of
the two-slice toaster, not both as Id expected. This is because Breville says their research shows most users will be toasting the same kind of bread in both slots, so the sensor only needs to monitor one slice as the rest of the tech ensures even heating throughout. You can see the green sensor light blinking in the video clip below.

Moreover, Breville says that if both walls had sensors, the toasters
footprint would increase, and single-wall design allows the Eye Q to be
barely bigger than most other standard two- or four-slice models.

If you want to toast a single slice, Breville has thoughtfully marked the
slot where you need to place it. If you make the mistake of using the other one, you wont get the results you want and the toast will likely be slightly underdone.

For artisanal breads, the Eye Q sensor has also been programmed to feature a special Sourdough Mode. This takes into account the thicker slices, crustier crusts and denser bread of such loaves, and automatically increases the browning time. To make sure the outside of the toaster has a clean,
minimalist look, this functionality is available via a long press of the main control button.

The traditional defrost/reheat button has been replaced by a Time Mode switched on by double pressing the main button that allows users to set a time to warm up foods like pies and pastries. A life-saving feature

If youve ever danced with death by sticking a knife or other utensil into
your toaster to free a stuck slice (there are an estimated 700
toaster-related deaths every year), Breville has fixed that with the Eye Q too. Not only are the slots slightly wider than the standard toaster, but the bread guides automatically (and smoothly) slide down on the press of the main control button. When your toast is ready, they rise at the same speed and
seem to be placed higher within the machine, so even shorter artisanal slices can still be plucked out easily.

Cleaning it has also been made easy. The top of the toaster is a non-stick ceramic-coated material that angles towards the interior, so you just brush crumbs into the slots where they get collected into the Eye Qs Catch-All
Crumb Tray. Unlike other crumb trays in standard toasters, which only cover a narrow section along the bottom of the appliance, the Catch-All offers full coverage, so practically all bits and pieces fall onto it for cleaning out. (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar) No more burnt toast

So how does it stack up in real world testing? Well, full disclaimer first:
Im pretty much the perfect market for the Eye Q, as I stopped using my
toaster a long time ago. I got tired of having to keep an eye on the bread as the slices would invariably come out overdone for me. And if I stepped away, chances were my smoke alarm would go off. So my old toaster generally just sits on a shelf and gets used perhaps once a year when I treat myself to a crumpet.

I'm not going to say the Eye Q is the next best invention after sliced bread, but I now want to have toast every morning mostly because I cant stop watching the slices drop down into the toaster and rise up again (see the video clip below). Ive used it for seven days at the time of writing and my first time using it was experimentation with sourdough.

I like it very lightly toasted, but even at the second setting, the crust was overdone. The subsequent slices were perfect at the first setting for me. Plain white bread toasts beautifully for me at the third setting. Raisin
toast wasnt burnt at all. Im a toast convert now!

As fantastic as the toaster is, its high price will likely keep it out of reach for all but the most devoted of toast lovers. The Eye Q is available to buy right now in Australia in four colorways Black Truffle, Sea Salt, Stainless Steel and Noir (which replaces a white strip on the bottom of the Black Truffle to dark grey) directly from Breville and authorized retailers. US and UK availability of the Eye Q is still to be confirmed, although Breville says it will be on shelves before the end of the year. You might
also like... Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal review : quick cold brew, more flavor, less mess Breville Oracle Touch vs Breville Barista Touch: how to choose the right bean-to-cup coffee maker for you I blended everything but
the kitchen sink with the Breville Paradice 9 food processor heres how it fared



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/home/small-appliances/100-years-after-pop-up-toaster s-debuted-breville-might-finally-have-improved-on-the-original-design-with-the -high-tech-and-pricey-eye-q


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