Breville

Breville Eye Q Toaster

The Breville Eye Q is a smart toaster that uses optical sensors to monitor browning and automatically adjust toasting time for consistent results.

### Overview

Powered by Sensability™ Technology, the Eye Q Auto is the first toaster to toast by colour, not time — stopping precisely at your chosen shade. A ten-year development process was necessary to perfect Breville's patent-protected Eye Q Optic Sensor technology, making this a genuinely novel leap in a category that hadn't meaningfully changed in a century. It monitors bread colour using optic sensors to deliver consistent results across seven shade presets.

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### Standout Features

- **Eye Q Optic Sensors:** Track colour in real time, 10 times a second, and stop when your chosen shade is reached — consistent, effortless, and precise. - **Sourdough Mode:** Programmed specifically for artisanal breads, it takes into account thicker slices, crustier crusts, and denser bread to automatically stop the toasting process early to avoid burnt crusts. - **Crumpet/Bagel Mode:** Encompasses crumpets, bagels, and English muffins, providing additional heat on one side to perfectly toast specialty items. - **Automatic Lift & Lower:** The bread is raised and lowered by a whisper-quiet motor, eliminating the traditional spring-loaded pop and the startling sound that comes with it. - **Timer Mode:** Switched on by double pressing the main button, it allows you to toast things that don't change colour, or to warm something up for a specific amount of time. - **Easy Cleaning:** Designed for mess-free toasting with a non-stick ceramic-coated top that prevents baked-on crumbs, plus a catch-all crumb tray.

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### Who It's For

This toaster is best suited to bread enthusiasts who regularly work with a variety of loaves — sourdough, rye, brioche, bagels — and want consistent results without babysitting the appliance. Unlike other toasters, because it bases its cooking on colour rather than time, it won't burn or overcook the second (or third or fourth) batch of slices. It's also a strong fit for households where different people want different toast shades, since the four-slice model comes with two sets of settings to accommodate a household's different shade preferences.

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### Important Considerations

- **Premium price:** Priced at $299.95 / £249.95 for the two-slice and $399.95 / £349.95 for the four-slice model (AU$469 / AU$629 respectively) — it's the smartest toaster around, but it isn't cheap by any means — probably triple the price you'd expect to pay for a toaster. - **Limited availability:** US and UK availability of the Eye Q has been delayed, so buyers outside Australia should confirm current availability before purchasing. - **Sensor coverage caveat:** The optical sensors only assess browning levels on one side of the toast and replicate this across slices, which some testers found led to inconsistent results with irregularly shaped sourdough. - **Size:** If you opt for the 4-slice model, be wary of countertop space — measuring 12.9 x 12.4 x 7.5 in and weighing 12.5 lbs, it takes up more room than comparable models.

Key features

• Eye Q optical sensors for perfect toast
• smart toaster

Optical sensors take the guesswork out of toast — a genuinely useful upgrade over a simple timer dial.