De'Longhi Distinta Flair 4 slot toaster, reheat, defrost, one-side bagel & 6 browning settings, matte metallic design, CTI4003.S, Silver

Product Information

We're a little (ok, a lot) obsessed with the Russell Hobbs Emma Bridgewater Polka Dot 2-Slice Toaster.

With this in mind, it isn’t very suitable for larger families who eat a lot of bread in the morning.The two sides can be operated independently, with different timer settings and the ability to defrost one side, and toast a bagel in others.

Covering all things appliance related, she regularly heads to Future's Test Facility in Reading to thoroughly put products through their paces. If you want to cook up breakfasts for the whole family you may be left waiting without a four-slice to make school runs that little bit smoother, which is where our top choice, the De'Longhi Ballerina really comes into its own. After a while, I decided that going to the owner’s manual was probably going to be my next best bet. We love the levers, which allow you to lift and look as your bread toasts, and the slider dial means you can adjust your level of toasting completely.

As part of our testing policy, we have hands-on experience with all of the products we recommend at Ideal Home. For couples and families, a four-slot or four-slice model is a better option – ensuring preparing toast for your brood at breakfast-time or simply serving up eggs on toast for two is an altogether speedier affair. As well as a decent variable control to give you your chosen perfect shade of brown, you should also look for defrost and keep warm functions. When you push down the lever there's no lift-to-look, but we did think the Russell Hobbs toasted evenly and were very happy with how it performed in testing.

We did enjoy the dial which sets the duration of toasting time with the De'Longhi Ballerina Toaster. Then you'll go crazy for this Attentiv (yup) toaster, which actually has Colour Sense technology to get the exact shade you want every time.

While it does cost more than the Morphy Richards Verve, which is our second choice, its design is noticeably more sturdy and the toast comes out with far fewer lines on the bread.