Verdict

Pros

• Love-or-loathe-it design
• Fingerprint free
• Grippy feet

Cons

• Pricey
• Love-or-loathe-it design
• Slightly uneven toasting

What is the De’Longhi Distinta 4 Slot Toaster?

The De’Longhi Distinta 4 Slot Toaster is a large, chunky-looking toaster with a love-or-loathe-it design. Cooking controls are limited and the browning is a bit uneven, but it’s good enough at the job so really you’ll be making your buying decision based on its styling more than anything.

De’Longhi Distinta 4 Slot Toaster – Design and Features

Love it or loathe it, at least you won’t find the De’Longhi’s design boring. The styling is so overengineered that the controls look less like a toaster and more like the dashboard of a vintage car.

It has a brushed metal exterior that doesn’t end up covered in fingerprints and then chrome on top around the slots.

There’s a cable tidy on the underside but you’re unlikely to use it because the cable is so short – if you’re plugging in to the right then you get 70cm, but 60cm to the left and a measly 50cm at the back.

It has four slots, each measuring 14 x 15 x 3cm. But it fitted a 3cm doorstep with ease.

There are two crumb trays accessed at the back and the toaster’s feet have excellent grip: there’s no danger of the De’Longhi slipping around as you use it.

De’Longhi Distinta 4 Slot Toaster – What’s it like to use?

The De’Longhi’s browning controls are numbered 1 to 6. These are controlled with a knob and displayed on a dial. It clicks from one number to the next and there don’t seem to be any in-between settings. There are two sets of controls: one for each pair of slots.

There are also buttons for bagel, defrosting/toasting bread straight from frozen and for reheating toast that’s gone cold. And there’s a cancel button that stops toasting – which means that you can lift the levers at the front to lift the toast and inspect progress.

The toast from the De’Longhi was fairly evenly browned. The back of the machine toasts slightly less than the front and sometimes one side of a slice turned out slightly browner than the other. But the end results were never uneven enough to be considered a problem.

The bagel setting was OK: results were fairly even, with one end browner than the other. But it wasn’t a patch on the Dualit Brushed Architect Four-Slice Toaster’s excellent bagel setting which leaves the undersides warm but beautifully soft.

Also the De’Longhi’s lever doesn’t pop the toast up terribly high: you can only just reach a crumpet when it’s pushed up.

Should I buy the De’Longhi Distinta 4 Slot Toaster?

Maybe. It’s pricey, the browning controls are limited and I found the results a bit uneven… but they were good enough. So if you love its unusual design then knock yourself out.

If you’d like the very best results from a four-slice toaster I’d recommend the Dualit Brushed Architect Four-Slice Toaster, which is cheaper than the De’Longhi. And if you’d just like a bargain then the Hotpoint TT44EAX0 won’t disappoint.

Verdict

Good but not great at doing the job, you’d buy this toaster if you love its looks.

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