Toast with full control

Toast can be a battle at my house. Everyone likes it just a little different--and if their toast isn't perfect, I'll be getting an earful. The Philips HD2618 Toaster offers a little more control of the toasting process, though, making it possible to get bread to the right level of toastiness--and avoid plenty of whining. It offers an LCD display with a digital countdown timer that gives you all the warning you need to get bread out before it crisps too far. The toaster uses a full 1,200 watts of power to speed up breakfast--as if the fact that it's large enough to hold multiple slices of bread in one go didn't speed things up enough. It even offers a one-side toasting option, allowing you to toast bagels easily.

In addition to the HD2618 Toaster's power and controls, the casing has been updated. The toaster's housing is anodized aluminum: it's rust-resistant, scratch proof and even resists fingerprints from toastmakers both big and small. Clean up is just a matter of wiping down the toaster and occasionally emptying the removable crumb tray--it's nonstick to make cleanup even easier. It doesn't hurt, either, that the HD2618 Toaster looks like something straight out of the future, either.