Browning controls are a slider, from 1-5 and anywhere in between. These apparently translate to 12 different levels of browning. The strip of lights above the give a visual indicator of how much time is left. Slots are an impressive 4cm wide, narrowing to less than 2cm to grip toast. The Crumpet/Fruit Loaf button seems to be equivalent to everyone else’s bagel button. Has Sage done focus groups and decided that crumpets and fruit loaf are more popular? It heats just the middle elements. Above this are four buttons: A Bit More, Crumpet/Fruit Loaf that promises extra heat to the middle elements, Frozen, Cancel. There’s no button for reheating toast. Sage the 'A Bit More' Toaster 4 Slice BTA730UK - Brushed Stainless Steel: Elevate Your Breakfast with Perfectly Toasted Bread Every Time! The Sage has a boxy design in brushed stainless steel. The lines are clean and a bit industrial. It looks like it means business.

The Sage Smart Toast looks simple yet sophisticated with its solid brushed stainless steel design. Unlike other humongous, premium toasters, it's reasonably light and doesn’t take up heaps of kitchen counter space. Toast took 2 minutes 40 seconds and was cooked perfectly, very even. The vertical slice was great too, with less than 1cm at the top only slightly underdone. Toast texture was perfect: crisp on the outside but not dried out I’ll keep this chapter relatively short because everything was pretty much a great success with this toaster. First and foremost, it toasted everything very evenly across the slice, though the inner heating elements do seem to be a bit hotter because one side of the bread was a little more browned than the other. Nevertheless, I call that a bonus because it gave me a choice of which side to butter.While it does seem like a steep price to pay, The Smart Toast's quality, reliability and impressive capabilities mean it should probably save you more money in the long-run. SAGE SMART TOAST REVIEW: DESIGN AND BUILD I toasted one slice of white bread vertically and one horizontally to test evenness, on a middling browning setting of 3. The second button in line is for toasting crumpets, fruit loaf and hot cross buns, and it does this by providing more heat energy to the inner elements. Simply place the crumpet or bun with its inside facing inwards – as per the markings etched on the divider in dirty great typeface – and it will toast the inner side of the crumpet more than the outer crusty side. This is a great thing since toasting buns and crumpets can often result in the drier crusty side toasting too much. Finally, the third button from the left is for toasting frozen bread and it does what it says on the tin – pop in a frozen slice and it will gently warm it up before toasting it.

The best two-slot toaster we’ve tested is the KitchenAid Artisan, but it’s very pricey. If you’re open to the idea of a four-slot toaster than the Dualit and Hotpoint are our favourites, or maybe the Morphy Richards Rose Gold Toaster if you’re on a budget. Verdict You can push the lever up at any time to inspect, without halting toasting, and there’s a high lift for reaching small stuff.

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For those who are fussy about their toasting results, you’ll definitely love the Sage Smart Toast. Firstly, and most importantly, it makes perfect, evenly-toasted bread every time. Result! Perhaps the more exciting features (and what you’re paying for) are the five auto features designed to make toasting a breeze. The buttons are self-explanatory, so you won’t have to decipher complicated symbols.