Breville’s Eye Q Uses an Optic Sensor for Flawless Toast. Here’s My Review

It may not seem like much, but a slice of toast is often the subtle touch a meal needs — one reason toasters remain a mainstay in many kitchens, even in the age of air fryers and toaster ovens. While it’s certainly a more convenient option than making toast in a pan, it’s not always easy to lock in your preferred doneness. Toasters typically monitor doneness in two ways: time and temperature.

That said, most people use one method, but few toasters use a third: visual doneness. Enter the recently launched Breville Eye Q 850 Auto Toaster. It uses a pulsing internal sensor to watch the color of the bread as it toasts, only finishing when it hits the perfect result, at least in theory. I put the theory to the test over the last month with a sample from Breville to see if this $300 high-tech toaster lives up to its promise. While I generally think it does, I noticed a few things that are worth considering. Let’s dig in.

Breville Eye Q 850

What makes the Breville Eye Q Auto Toaster different?

At first glance, the Breville Eye Q Auto Toaster looks like any other high-end toaster — my test sample featured a matte black brushed stainless steel case and a ceramic top portion. But the real magic happens when you start the toast cycle. The Eye Q lowers the bread, and a green light inside the toaster begins to flash. This Eye Q Optic Sensor reminds me of something you’d see on fitness trackers, but instead of tracking a pulse, it monitors the bread’s visual doneness.

The sensor is only in the left-side slot, so you can toast a single slice, which I think is very helpful. Importantly, the toaster won’t run without something inside, which is a great safety feature. Like most premium toasters, this Breville unit uses a motorized lift to lower and raise your bread. It won’t pop up with a spring-loaded mechanism as on a typical toaster. It will, however, play a little chime at the beginning and end of each toasting cycle — the volume is adjustable, so you can turn it off or up depending on your needs.

Five buttons on the unit start/stop the toasting process, adjust the doneness, toggle bagel and English muffin modes, and trigger a feature called A Bit More. Most notably, the start button selects the operation: One press toasts normal bread, a long press does the same for sourdough, and two presses switch on the timer mode for things like Pop-Tarts.

I’m a huge fan of the power cord storage slot on the bottom of the unit, which holds the cord when you need to put the toaster away. This saves you from having to wrangle the cord another way. The crumb tray is completely removable, making the Breville Eye Q Auto Toaster fairly easy to clean out. However, the tray isn’t dishwasher safe, so you’ll need to wipe off the old crumbs with a cloth instead. I doubt there’s much else to say about the tech in this toaster without digging into its performance, so let’s jump into my tests.

My time with the Breville Eye Q

Unlike an air fryer, a toaster isn’t a particularly versatile kitchen appliance. It makes toast, more toast, and the occasional Pop-Tart or frozen waffle. So this simplifies my testing, allowing me to focus on a few different types of bread — white, brown and sourdough — in addition to Pop-Tarts and frozen French toast (something I’ve long used my toaster to reheat).

I had a few problems with most of what I toasted. Aside from the darkest setting being a bit much for my usual preference, both white bread and sourdough turned out well across all of the doneness settings. I really liked the results for the sourdough using the corresponding setting, which was nice and crisp, despite not showing as much visual browning. I’m confident that the Eye Q Auto Toaster is perfectly suited for light-colored breads. 

However, dark brown bread threw a curveball. The lowest setting was way too crispy, and I had to cancel the toasting on the second-lowest after smoke appeared. I’d previously tested some of the same dark bread in the toaster without issues, so it’s possible my continuous toasting session somehow threw off the accuracy for darker bread. I can’t say whether this would be a long-term issue, but it’s something to watch out for.

Beyond my tests with sliced bread, Pop-Tarts showed that the Timer Mode requires a little more attention and experimentation to get the results you want. At one point, I accidentally used the Auto Mode on Pop-Tarts, and they came out overdone, but not burned, so it’s probably best to stick to the timer or a low setting for toaster pastries. Reheating frozen French Toast went fairly smoothly, but I set the timer too short and had to retoast until the center was nice and hot. I imagine the experience would be similar for frozen waffles.

Should you buy the Breville Eye Q Auto Toaster?

I’ll say it outright: the Breville Eye Q Auto Toaster is a fantastic toaster, but the $300 price tag is out of reach for budget-conscious households. If you want a more affordable standalone toaster, I recommend something like the $40 Cuisinart CPT-122, which has been a reliable workhorse in my home for years.

Similarly, you might check out the Breville BTA720XL, a solid mid-range model for around $110, despite being Breville’s most affordable option. That said, if you use a toaster daily and can afford something in the premium category, it’s worth considering, especially compared with the disappointing $450 Revolution Cooking R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster.