Cuisinart TOB-40N vs Ninja Foodi XL Pro Toaster Oven Side-by-Side Comparison
Medium-sized Cuisinart TOB-40N vs large Ninja Foodi XL Pro Toaster Oven. A one-sided fight with all the points going over to the best large toaster oven.
Specifications
Design
The Cuisinart TOB-40N has a simple design but with some nice attention to detail. To accommodate its spacious interior, the oven uses 1800 W.
The Ninja DT201 shows a high build quality in all of its design features from the exterior and interior to the included accessories. What stood out to us the most was the powerful convection system and the number of heating elements. We couldn’t confirm the accuracy of the Ninja’s claim that it had ‘up to ten times the convection power’ of a traditional full-size convection oven, though.
Usability Comparison
The Cuisinart TOB-40N doesn’t offer much in terms of ease of use. While the control panel is simple, not having a timer means you’ll need an external timer when using this oven. The oven posed no difficulties in cleaning but nothing to help either.
The straightforward control panel on the Ninja DT201 allowed for easy adjusting and readjusting of the cooking settings. Moreover, the informative display combined with distinguished buttons removed all of the guesswork when it came to operating the oven.
The oven’s practical cooking functions shined all the more in combination with the 2-level even cooking feature. The oven’s interior could be improved with a coating for easier cleaning, though.
Performance Test
The Cuisinart TOB-40N performed well in making toast and whole roasted chicken despite not having a convection system. However, the lack of convection resulted in uneven surface colors on our test dishes.
Even though the oven runs on 1800 W, it wasn’t able to produce a good result in baking french fries. This made the oven pale in comparison to our top picks.
The Ninja DT201 performed differently on each of our tests but even at its worst, it still gave good results. We were most impressed with the oven’s ability to quickly reach and maintain its temperature despite the large cooking chamber. This could be attributed to the oven’s high power output, powerful convection system, and a total of 5 heating elements.
With these factors, you don’t even need to turn food during cooking, especially if you incorporate the air fryer basket. Interestingly, this was one of the few units where we felt increasing the food amounts would lead to even better results.
Overall Scores
Pros & Cons
- Spacious and non-stick interior
- Auto-slide rack
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Slide-out crumb tray
- Cool-touch door handle
- Stay-on feature
- High power output
- Straightforward and informative control panel
- Tailored cooking functions
- Family-sized capacity
- Tray-level suggestions
- Sturdy construction
- Well-designed accessories
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Cool-touch door handle
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
- No safety mechanism for the door
- Faulty interior light upon received
Conclusion
Between the medium-sized Cuisinart TOB-40N and the large Ninja Foodi XL Pro DT201, it was a one-sided fight with all the points going over to the Ninja.
As an analog model, it’s understandable that the Cuisinart has lower scores in usability due to its lack of convenient features including precise temperature control, timer, and presets. This isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to design though.
The Cuisinart is made of durable material and has rear buffers as well as a slide-out crumb tray. These features allowed it to score similarly to the Ninja in terms of exterior. Nonetheless, the lack of interior lighting and a convection system prevented it from garnering an equal design score.
Performance-wise, the Cuisinart held up decent performances in toasting bread and roasting chicken at around 7/10. However, the Ninja simply outshined the Cuisinart with a higher power output and its convection system. Moreover, the Cuisinart showed weaknesses in those two aspects with its low score in the fries test.
The Cuisinart managed to keep up with the Ninja in terms of making pizza, but both scores weren’t actually high. It was more of a limitation on the tested food instead of the Ninja’s performance. This is besides the fact that the Ninja can deliver excellent performance with up to double the amount of food compared to the Cuisinart.
Behind the Comparison
Alan Nguyen is a writer and product reviewer at HealthyKitchen101. His major in English language teaching taught him to present concise information. In addition to his cooking hobby, he values the practical aspects of household appliances.
Tuyet Pham is an award-winning Saigonese chef passionate about delicious and healthful foods. At HealthyKitchen101, she develops recipes and collaborates with our Research, Testing, and Review lab to evaluate the performance of cooking appliances. Her assessments add a strong authoritative voice to our product scoring process.
Lap is Head of the Research, Testing, and Review Team (RTR Team) at HealthyKitchen101.com, where he directs and supervises the testing of kitchen gadgets and appliances.
