The door slides open by a push button, which gives it a lower profile, but it’s less effective than a handle. Analog users will find program instructions at the top of the frame inside the door. Six program buttons give you quick access to common settings from warming a plate of food to cooking vegetables, along with reheating and defrosting settings.

Once up and running, the GE Smart can scan barcodes for many packaged foods (although likely not for everything in your freezer) to set cooking time and power accordingly, and recognize voice commands from Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa.īut more importantly, the GE Smart was a good performer even when used without the smart features. We were using the microwave via a downloadable app in under 10 minutes. And it is one of the smallest and least expensive microwaves available with truly smart features - perhaps the smartest among them is that it alerts you to your mistake if you try to start it before you’ve placed your food inside. It’s got a clearly laid-out interface and sensible design. The GE Smart Countertop Microwave is a neat little choice if you’re looking for a smaller microwave oven with practical touches. Got more room in your kitchen? The Toshiba microwave is also available as a 1.3-cubic-foot smart model that works with Alexa as well as in a 1.6-cubic-foot inverter model if you really need a lot of space.īest compact microwave: GE Smart Countertop Microwave The interior and door were easy to wipe down after our exploding butter test, and the turntable has a small lip that kept butter from pooling underneath. And it took three minutes for the frozen burrito to get hot - more in line with the smaller microwaves in the 900W range - and we lost some beans being lost out the sides in the process. It’s a bit louder than the quietest models we tested - you can still easily have a conversation while it’s running, but you’ll know that someone is making popcorn. We only had minor complaints about the Toshiba’s performance.

The settings were reasonably accurate as well, thoroughly cooking a half-pound potato in slightly under seven minutes and evenly popping popcorn with only a dozen unpopped kernels left in the bowl. The interior light was best in class, clearly illuminating a bowl of soup well enough for us to judge that it was warm enough for kids at one minute and ready for the rest of us 15 seconds later.

There’s a button to soften or melt chocolate or butter as well as a keypad for express cooking (pressing 1 starts the microwave for one minute.). The microwave has six preprogrammed settings (popcorn, potato, rice, veggie, frozen pizza and frozen entrée), two defrost settings and sensor cooking. And it offers you the option to turn off the display when you’re not using the microwave or mute the beeps when you are cooking. At 1.2 cubic feet and 1,100W, it was right in the middle of all of the models we tested for size and power. The tapered handle feels sturdy and is plated to match the face (it’s available in stainless steel or black stainless steel) of the microwave. The Toshiba’s rounded, sedate design keeps it from looking too boxy or flashy. The understated Toshiba EM131A5C-BS Countertop Microwave, with even heating and solid performance that equaled that of pricier models, is a strong candidate to join the cast of your kitchen appliances. Microwaves are like supporting actors you want them to be there to do the job without having to think about how hard they’re working. Your CNN account Log in to your CNN account

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