Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900).

The Gavler Review.

Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro Review: An Oven That Also Air-Fries

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900) sits at rank three on our Best Air Fryers list with an 8.9. It answers a different question than every basket fryer on this list: not "how fast can this crisp fries" but "can this replace my toaster oven entirely." A 1-cubic-foot cavity, six Element IQ quartz elements, and 13 functions — including a genuine air-fry mode — make the case that it can. Two independent hands-on tests, months apart, reached the same conclusion from different angles: this is an excellent oven that also air-fries, not an air fryer that also happens to be an oven.

What it actually is

The BOV900 (also sold as BOV900BSS/BOV900BSSUSC) uses Breville's Element IQ system — six quartz heating elements under digital PID control — paired with a Super Convection mode that doubles as the air-fry function, using a mesh basket inside the full oven cavity rather than a separate drawer. Thirteen functions cover toast (up to nine slices), bagel, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, proof, air fry, reheat, cookies, slow cook, and dehydrate (up to four trays). The 1-cubic-foot cavity fits a 9-by-13 pan, a 12-cup muffin tin, a 5-quart Dutch oven, or a 14-pound turkey — dimensions no basket fryer on this list can match. It draws 1,800 watts and measures 17.5 by 21.5 by 12.7 inches, meaning it commands real counter space. Street price runs $399–449, occasionally discounted around holiday sales.

In use

Tom's Guide's Sharon Franke ran the BOV900 through a full lab battery and came away calling it, in the outlet's own words, an appliance that "can just about replace your full size oven for everyday cooking and serve as an auxiliary one when needed." Baking and roasting were the standout categories: "we were very impressed with the results of all our baking tests." Air-frying specifically was the one category where the oven format showed its limits: "results for these were good, but not exceedingly good as we've seen in dedicated air fryers" — a direct, measured admission that a basket-format fryer still wins on that specific task.

PureWow's Rachel Bowie ran an independent month-long test and reached a strikingly similar verdict from a different angle, opening with: "there's one word that I found best to describe the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro: Ambitious." On toasting — the BOV900's strongest single result across both reviews — Bowie wrote: "upon completion, the toast was delicately crisp and near cracker-like. I was impressed (as was my son)." On air-frying specifically, she flagged the same speed gap Tom's Guide measured: "my only complaint is that the air fryer setting automatically sets a recommended 18 minutes for optimal cooking, which is longer than it took in my stand-alone air fryer."

Cleanup is where Bowie's testing surfaced the sharpest trade-off, one the spec sheet doesn't mention: "if there's one main point of criticism I had with the Breville, it was related to the clean-up. There isn't a protective tray over the heat source at the bottom to catch any drippings... you're going to have to rely on some elbow grease versus simply popping out the liner and wiping it down." The air-fry basket itself compounds it: "the mesh tray is tricky to clean. Hand washing is recommended, but a sponge is easily shredded thanks to the fine grain." Her closing take balances both sides honestly: "what is continually impressive about the Breville is the fact that it's an appliance that really does feel like an actual oven replacement — on hot spring and summer days, it also doesn't overheat your whole kitchen."

Strengths

Element IQ and PID temperature control deliver oven-grade, evenly distributed heat that both independent reviewers singled out for toast and baked goods specifically — a result no basket fryer on this list is built to match. The 1-cubic-foot cavity is the real differentiator: a 14-pound turkey, a 9-by-13 pan, or a 5-quart Dutch oven simply doesn't fit in a basket. And unlike running a full-size oven, both testers noted it doesn't heat up the kitchen the way a conventional oven does — a real summer-cooking advantage.

Trade-offs — who should skip it

Skip this if fast, hands-off basket-style air frying is the main job — both Tom's Guide's lab data and PureWow's independent test agree air-fry mode runs slower and produces results a notch behind a dedicated basket fryer. Budget real cleanup time: there's no drip tray under the heat source and the mesh air-fry basket is hand-wash-only, a genuine step up in maintenance from a basket fryer's dishwasher-safe, liner-based design. And expect to give up real counter space — at 17.5 by 21.5 by 12.7 inches, this is the largest footprint on the list by a wide margin.

How it compares

Against the Cosori TurboBlaze 6.0-Quart (rank one on this list), the trade is exactly the one both reviews measured directly: the Cosori crisps faster and cleans up easier as a dedicated basket fryer, while the Breville adds an oven's worth of capability — baking, roasting a whole bird, nine-slice toast — that no basket format can touch. Against Breville's own smaller Smart Oven Air Fryer (BOV860) (rank eight on this list), the BOV900 is the same idea scaled up; the BOV860 is the pick if the 1-cubic-foot cavity is more oven than the counter has room for.

The Gavler verdict

An 8.9 for succeeding at the harder, more ambitious job: this is a genuine toaster-oven replacement that happens to air-fry well, not the reverse. Buy it when the air fryer has to replace a toaster oven — full-size baking, roasting, and nine-slice toast alongside the crisping. Buy a dedicated basket fryer like the rank-one Cosori TurboBlaze if all that's needed is a drawer that crisps fries fast and cleans up in one dishwasher cycle.

Common Questions

Is the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900) worth $400?

If it's replacing a toaster oven, yes — it bakes, roasts, and toasts as well as or better than dedicated countertop ovens, per both Tom's Guide and PureWow's hands-on testing, and adds a genuine air-fry mode on top. If all you want is a fast basket fryer for fries and wings, a dedicated basket model will out-crisp it and clean up faster.

Does the Breville BOV900 air-fry as well as a dedicated air fryer?

Not quite. Tom's Guide's lab testing found air-frying 'trails dedicated basket fryers,' and PureWow independently noted the recommended air-fry time (18 minutes) ran longer than her stand-alone basket fryer needed for the same food. The oven's real strength is toasting, baking, and roasting — air fry is a genuine bonus mode, not the headline act.

What's the hardest part of owning the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro?

Cleanup. PureWow's month-long test flagged that there's no protective tray over the heat source to catch drippings, so spills need real scrubbing rather than a liner swap, and the fine-mesh air-fry tray is hand-wash-only and easy to damage with anything but a soft sponge.