Toast aficionados, unite. There’s a smarter way to make toast.
The R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster, left, and Kalorik’s Vivid Touch Toaster, right.
When I was 16, I was in the back seat of my mom’s car. My older sister called shotgun, and a Midwest radio show played through the speakers. On this day, history was made, at least for the three of us. We didn’t win coveted concert tickets or a bucket of money, but instead we were introduced to an iconic song: Toast by Heywood Banks.
My mom, my sister and I immediately became obsessed with the silly, catchy tune. To this day, I know every single word, and it often pops into my head whenever I make toast.
“Take a piece of bread, put it in the slot. Push down the lever and the wires get hot, you get toast,” Banks sang, while drumming on an actual toaster slung around his neck.
This song stuck out to us not only because the lyrics are so dang clever, but because my sister and I have a bit of an affinity for toast, especially the kind smothered in butter, cinnamon and sugar. When I learned toasters were getting smarter, I thought, “Can toast get even better than it already is?” (Then the Toast song started playing in my head again.)
I tested two of the niftiest toasters on the market today to find out. The R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster has been the smart slot toaster of record, and we’ve even previously done a full review of an earlier version of the toaster. However, we have admittedly been slightly reluctant to recommend it to our readers due to its steep price tag.
Now, there’s another smart toaster that may be giving Revolution’s premium smart toaster a run for its money: Kalorik’s Vivid Touch Toaster. And, it’s less than half the price of the Revolution toaster. But can this copycat smart toaster hold its own during somewhat of a smart toaster showdown? I went to work to find out.
First impressions
The Vivid Touch Toaster is lighter, wider and shorter than the Revolution and offers a more traditional design with a manual lever in addition to the smart screen. The Revolution toaster has a handful more bells and whistles and a slightly larger screen.
Here’s how they stack up side by side:
Toasters compared
| Price | Warranty | Bread options | Toasting shades | Special features | Dimensions | |
| Revolution Toaster | $400 | 2 years | 40 | 7 | Wi-Fi connectivity, removable crumb tray, photo screensaver, weather forecast, cleaning notifications | 11.93″ L x 6.87″ W x 7.8″ H |
| Vivid Touch Toaster | $120 | 1 year | 20 | 6 | Auto-shutoff, removable crumb tray | 10.83″ D x 6.89″ W x 7.76″ H |
Toaster tests
I toasted white bread, multi-grain, brioche and a frozen bagel in both toasters to see how they each performed. With the Vivid toaster, you slide through the touchscreen to find which bread you want to toast, and there are six brownness levels, while the R180 Connect Plus has full pages that you can swipe between and seven brownness levels.
Although the R180 Connect Plus allows you to pick your choices a bit quicker, both are very easy to use and didn’t glitch at all during the tests. The R180 Connect has more options, including multiple pages of gluten-free choices.
Both toasters also allow users to choose “fresh,” “frozen” or “reheat” before toasting begins.
The Revolution toaster nailed the toast level
When toasting a frozen bagel, the R180 Connect Plus toaster was able to brown the bagel closely to the image it showed on the screen, and it worked significantly quicker than the Vivid Touch Toaster. It took the Vivid toaster 2 minutes and 55 seconds to toast, while the Revolution toaster completed it in 1 minute and 53 seconds, and it came out at a darker shade.
After the bagel halves cooled, I put them back in each toaster and toasted them again on level 1 to see how well the toasters reheated the bagel. They both produced a warm bagel half, but the R180 Connect Plus browned it slightly more, while the Vivid Touch Toaster still did not. However, there was still a bit of crispiness to the bagel despite the light color.
Similarly to the bagel, the Vivid toaster under-toasted multi-grain bread on level 3 as well, but it worked well on level 4.
With white bread made with sourdough, both toasters did well in achieving the brownness level displayed on the screens at level 3.
However, even though the Kalorik was under toasting most of the time on level 3, it somehow burned a small slice of brioche bread when set on the same level.
Overall, the Vivid toaster seemed to perform best on level 4, while I liked the performance of the R180 Connect Plus on level 3. (Anything about a level four on each toaster would have been considered burnt to me.)
The R180 Connect Plus toaster has a handful of more fun elements, like quirky toast screensavers and the ability to upload up to 24 personal photos that rotate on the screen while the toaster isn’t in use. I shamelessly took this as another opportunity to display my newly received wedding photos.
Wi-Fi connectivity allows the toaster to display the local weather and auto-set the time. On the other hand, the Vivid Touch Toaster still has everything you’d need in a toaster, including auto-shutoff and four language options (English, Mandarin, French and Spanish).
Final verdict
After using both toasters, I’ve realized that they both can produce great toast and other breakfast carbs, but it does take the Vivid Touch Toaster a bit longer (by a minute or two) to achieve the same results and it can be a bit more finicky when it comes to brownness levels, depending on what you’re toasting.
I personally prefer the design and user experience of the R180 Connect Plus toaster, especially since the screensaver option helps it blend into your kitchen, and the Wi-Fi connectivity makes it multi-purpose. Plus, using it feels a bit more like a luxury experience.
But needless to say, the price tag is nothing to scoff at. The question remains: Is any toaster actually worth $100 or more, even if it can tell the weather or work as a live picture frame, too? Ultimately, I always think the answer depends on how often you’ll use it.
At $400, the R180 Connect Plus is not the best pick for everyone, but if budget isn’t a concern and you’re looking for maximum toasting options, features, and an extremely sleek toaster that you plan to use every single day, then the R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster is the winner here.
Although I still consider Kalorik’s Vivid Touch Toaster a strong contender in the world of smart toasters — especially considering it’s less than half the price of the R180 Connect Plus toaster — it was less consistent in reaching the promised brownness levels shown on its screen. Plus, at $120, it still isn’t a budget pick by any means. That said, there was something about pushing down a classic toaster lever that just felt right during testing, but maybe that’s the “Toast” lyrics seeping into my head again.
