The Best Breville Smart Oven

The short answer

Buy the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900). It is for the cook who intends to keep one oven for a decade and wants the decision documented: it is the only model in the range whose published figures include a one-cubic-foot interior next to the 1,800-watt rating plate, with thirteen functions and the full exterior stated. If you bake and will never air fry, the Smart Oven Pro (BOV845) is the same chassis without the basket and with a published 120°F floor. The cheapest way into the range is the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact (BOV680), which is the budget pick and still carries the full 1,800 watts.

We have not cooked in any of them. Our rubric says so in those words. Every figure below is Breville's, from an instruction book or its own product page, and every one is cited.

The finding: across five ovens, the wattage never moves

Breville prints a rating line in its instruction books, which almost nobody in this category does, and reading all five together produces one unambiguous conclusion: every Breville oven in this catalog is rated 120 V ~ 60 Hz, 1,800 W — the Compact, the Pro, the Air Fryer, the Air Fryer Pro and the Joule. So the running cost is identical across the range, at 33.0¢ an hour at 18.34¢ per kWh, and spending more up the Breville range never buys you a cheaper oven to run. It buys cavity, function count, and documentation.

The second finding is about that documentation. Of the five, only the BOV900 and the BOV950 publish an interior volume — one cubic foot, both — and the BOV950 publishes the same exterior, the same weight, the same thirteen functions and the same 80–480°F range as the cheaper BOV900. The premium is the Joule app, Autopilot and voice control. Nothing about the heat changes, and we wrote that comparison up in full.

The range, as Breville publishes it

1. BOV900 Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro — for the ten-year buyer

Who it is for: the household making one purchase and wanting the most completely specified oven in the category. Breville publishes the rated wattage, the one-cubic-foot interior, the exterior dimensions and the element count in the same place — and no other brand here manages all four. A 14-inch pizza or a 9x13 pan goes in without diagonal gymnastics.

The cons. 21.4 inches wide is wider than most upper-cabinet clearances allow, and 17.3 inches deep is a lot of counter. Thirteen functions is more than most households use; the presets are the same elements at different set points. And at the current price it costs more than several cheaper ovens that reach the same temperatures. Our full review.

2. BOV845 Smart Oven Pro — for the baker

Who it is for: someone who bakes and will genuinely never air fry. This is the range with the marketing layer removed: ten functions, 1,800 watts on the product page, a real slow-cook function, and a published 120°F floor on Bake and Roast — a stated low end most ovens in this category never print, and the specification that matters for bread.

The cons. No Air Fry, Proof or Dehydrate preset — the three the BOV900 adds — so if any of them is on your list this is the wrong model in the range. No published interior volume either. Why the floor matters more than the ceiling for bread, and the BOV845-vs-BOV900 head-to-head.

3. BOV860 Smart Oven Air Fryer — for a normal counter

Who it is for: the cook who wants the Pro's electronics in a chassis that fits. 18.9 inches wide clears the depth problem that makes the Pro awkward on a standard 24-inch counter, with the same 1,800-watt rating line reproduced in its manual and eleven functions.

The cons. Breville's own product page quotes a relative claim — “up to 35% less power compared to a built-in oven” — and no absolute wattage; you have to open the manual for the number. No interior volume is published for this model, so you cannot compare its usable space to the Pro's cubic foot on paper. BOV860 against the BOV900.

4. BOV680 Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact — the budget pick

Who it is for: one or two people, and anyone who wants Breville's documentation at the lowest price in the range. It is the cheapest Breville here and still carries the full 1,800 watts, with a published 120–445°F range and a stated 1-to-4 slice toast capacity. The 120°F floor in a cavity this small is the unusual part.

The cons, which Breville does not hide. The manual's own note is an 11-inch pizza pan, with a 12-inch pan going in only with the rack in the upward orientation. 445°F is the published ceiling, below the 480°F the Joule reaches and the 500°F two cheaper ovens on this site publish. One-year warranty. The full review.

5. BOV950 Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro — for cooking from a phone

Who it is for: precisely the person who will use the app. It has the most complete published spec sheet on this site — power, interior, exterior, weight, range, capacity and a two-year warranty, all stated by Breville in one place — and an 80°F floor, the lowest published figure in our catalog.

The cons, and they are the reason it is fifth rather than first. Every mechanical figure Breville publishes for it is identical to the cheaper BOV900: same 1,800 W, same 21.4 x 17.3 x 12.7 inches, same cubic foot, same 38.89 lb, same thirteen functions. It is tied for the largest published footprint here. And the connected features need a phone — Breville specifies Bluetooth 4.0 and iOS 13 or Android 8 and later — so an oven bought for the app stops being one if the app stops. Our full review.

The honest summary

The Breville range is unusually easy to shop because Breville publishes so much, and the published figures give you a three-question decision. Do you air fry? If no, the BOV845. Do you need a cubic foot and a 9x13 pan? If yes, the BOV900. Is your counter under 20 inches of usable width? Then the BOV860 or the Compact. The Joule is the BOV900 plus software, which is a real product for the person who wants it and a price premium for everybody else — stated here because Breville's own spec sheets say it.

Element IQ, and what it actually is

Breville's differentiator is that the elements are driven independently rather than switched in banks, which is the mechanical fact behind the price. It is not a cooking claim we can verify — we have cooked in none of these — but the element count and the layout are published, which is more than the rest of the category offers. What the fan and the elements are actually doing.

Where Breville's documentation stops

Three of the five models publish no interior volume at all, and only two publish a temperature range. That is worth saying on a page recommending the brand for its paperwork: Breville is the best-documented maker in this category and still leaves the single most useful figure off three product pages. Where the number is missing, we quote the manual's fit claim instead and label it as that.

The circuit, before the model

1,800 watts is 15.0amps at 120 volts — the entire rating of a standard 15-amp branch circuit, and Breville recommends a dedicated circuit in its own instruction books. Every model in this range draws it. If the counter you are shopping for shares a circuit with a microwave or a kettle, that is the constraint to resolve first, and it may point you at a lower-wattage oven entirely.