Smart Toaster Showdown: I Tested the $400 Revolution Toaster and a $120 Knockoff

My love affair with toast started really kicked into gear when I was 16 and first heard the catchy song Toast by Heywood Banks on family road trip. We all loved the tune just as much as the classic breakfast food and hummed it in unison all the way to the nearest diner. 

For lovers of toast, nailing that particular golden-brown shade is everything, and modern smart toasters take the guesswork out of making perfect toast every time. These high-tech toasters may seem like a frivolous kitchen addition, but if getting that hue right is important to you, a smart toaster can be a worthy splurge.

Kalorik's Vivid Touch Toaster still features a traditional toaster lever. 

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I tested two smart toasters at two very different prices to see which is the better buy in 2025. The R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster has been the smart slot toaster of record. CNET reviewed 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. 

There's another smart toaster giving Revolution's premium machine a run for its money: Kalorik's Vivid Touch Toaster. This model is less than half the price of the Revolution toaster. But can this copycat smart toaster hold its own during a head-to-head 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:

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.

The bright screen on the R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster makes the screen easy to see and use.

Revolution

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 Vivid Touch Toaster has a slightly smaller screen, but it is still large enough to easily see your options.

Kalorik/Amazon

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. 

After two rounds in each toaster, only one bagel half reached the promised brownness level.

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Similarly to the bagel, the Vivid toaster under-toasted multi-grain bread on level 3 as well, but it worked well on level 4. 

The R180 Connect Plus toaster nailed the brownness level on multi-grain bread.

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With white bread made with sourdough, both toasters did well in achieving the brownness level displayed on the screens at level 3. 

The R180 Connect Plus worked slightly faster, but both produced great white toast.

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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. 

Brioche toast made by Kalorik's Vivid Touch Toaster, left, and brioche toast made by Revolution's toaster, right.

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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.) 

White bread made with the Kalorik's Vivid Touch Toaster on level 4 was an ideal toasted level.

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Features

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. 

The Vivid Touch Toaster screen can't be personalized like the Revolution toaster's.

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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.

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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.