Ninja Foodi XL Pro vs Black and Decker 4 Slice Toaster Oven Side-by-Side Comparison

• Model: DT201
• Warranty: 1 year
• User Manual
• Baking Rack x 2
• Baking Pan x 2
• Broiling Rack
• Removable Crumb Tray
• Air Fryer Basket

The Ninja toaster oven arrived firmly positioned between two foam pads inside an eye-catching package. Its seven included accessories were also fitted nicely in carton boxes. The oven came with a separate user manual, a tips and tricks sheet, and a recipe booklet.

• Model: TO1760SS
• Warranty: 2 years (US and Canada only)
• User Manual
• Baking Rack
• Baking Pan
• Removable Crumb Tray

The Black+Decker toaster oven is simply positioned with two foam pads inside the packaging. To the same degree, its two accessories are wrapped in a carton sheet and duct-taped to the oven. There is a simple user manual inside the box.

The Ninja has many ventilation holes on its casing, especially at the back and on the bottom, to accommodate its extremely powerful convection system. A unique design choice that stood out to us was the fact that the control panel was located on the oven’s cool-touch door handle.

Most ovens situate their control panel on the casing, thus adding to the oven’s footprint. By combining the control panel with the door handle, the oven can also maximize space for its cooking chamber.

You don’t need to worry about the handle slamming to the ground or countertop since the door hinge does a great job of keeping the door firmly in place. While it doesn’t have tray-level indicators on its glass door, the digital display does show the recommended tray level for every function.

Our measurements of the oven’s footprints were 16.93" x 20.28" x 13.34" which jived closely with the manufacturer’s 17.09" x 20.22" x 13.34". For these measurements, we also took into account the door handle and rear buffer.

The oven has a buffer on its backside to prevent it from being pushed too close to the wall. The feature could be a bit longer, in our opinion. We do need to mention that the bulky shape of the oven and its lack of carrying handles may make it difficult to move around.

The Black+Decker has a basic stainless steel casing and a back buffer to prevent the oven from getting too close to the wall. Our measurements of 15.55" x 11.61" x 8.86" showed a slight difference in the length and height of the oven compared to the manufacturer’s 16.9" x 11.63" x 9.07", but that wasn’t an issue. The large cool-touch door handle provides a good grip.

When plugged in, the On/Off switch will light up. You then press it to turn on the oven and its digital display. The door handle is black while the digital display is white, creating good color contrasts.

The control panel includes two buttons to adjust cooking functions, two for time, two for temperature, a light toggle, a Start/Stop button, and the ‘2-level’ button.

The ‘2-level’ button is unique to this Ninja. It suggests the best rack levels for cooking two trays of food at the same time. This even allows you to roast a tray of meat and a tray of vegetables at the same time. Everything is explained in detail in the Ninja recipe booklet.

The Black+Decker has 3 control dials, one each for temperature, functions, and timer. The oven will start running when you turn the timer dial and the indicator light glows red.

• Air Fry (250°F–450°F)
• Whole Roast (250°F–450°F)
• Air Roast (250°F–450°F)
• Bake (180°F–450°F)
• Dehydrate (85°F–200°F)
• Pizza (180°F–450°F)
• Bagel (level 1-7, 1-9 slices)
• Toast (level 1-7, 1-9 slices)
• Broil (HI or LO)
• Reheat (100°F–450°F)

Each cooking function on the Ninja has its own temperature range to match the function’s purpose. What’s special about this model is that each function deploys a specific convection level and a specific number of heating elements, each tailored to the dishes stated in the recipe booklet.

Whole Roast, for example, uses a high fan speed and the rear convection heat source to provide rotisserie-style results. Air Roast uses the maximum fan speed and the rear convection heat source to quickly cook food for a crispy outside and juicy inside.

Air Fry also uses the maximum fan speed and the rear convection heat source to cook food as quickly as possible for the crispiest results. Pizza uses the rear convection heat source but a low fan speed to avoid drying the pizza crust and toppings too much.

Bake operates the same way as Pizza. The same goes for Dehydrate, which has a lower temperature range for removing moisture from foods.

The remaining cooking functions don’t deploy the convection fan. Broil activates the top heating elements on the high setting to provide top-down heat for a crispy finish. On the other hand, Reheat activates the top and bottom heating elements on the high setting.

Toast also activates the top and bottom heating elements but on the medium setting to quickly and evenly brown both sides of your bread. Bagel, however, activates the top heating elements on the medium setting and the bottom heating elements on the high setting. This is because the recipe book instructs you to place the bagel slices cut-side up.

• Toast
• Bake
• Broil
• Warm

The Black+Decker serves the three basic functions of a toaster oven: Toast, Bake, and Broil. If you know your way around the kitchen, Bake and Broil are all the functions you’ll need.

The Warm function maintains the oven at around 150°F, which is the common lowest temperature for most analog ovens. However, that’s a bit higher than most digital ovens’ warm function, which maintains around 100°F–-120°F.

The best aspects of the DT201 are its convection system and heating elements. Together, these two systems are designed to eliminate the need for rotating your pans or flipping foods halfway through cooking, a fact that we confirmed with our performance tests.

The convection fan provides airflow of up to 130 CFM (cubic feet per minute). Such a powerful convection system would usually be very noisy but thanks to the door’s tight seal, it wasn’t a problem.

The Ninja has three quartz heating elements on top and two on the bottom; most other similarly-sized units have four in total. What really separates this oven from the rest, however, is its third heat source in the rear, right where the convection fan sits. This nichrome heating element surrounds the convection fan cavity to properly and consistently heat the airflow.

The quartz heating elements heat food directly using infrared light, so airflow isn’t always important. Meanwhile, nichrome heating elements heat up the air around them, so their effectiveness can be improved with the help of convection systems.

The cooking chamber has four tray levels with engraved numbers 1-4 from the bottom up. It also has a coating but it’s not 100% non-stick, so it may be prone to stubborn stains.

Of course, an oven like this won’t lack an interior light. While this oven isn’t designed to accommodate a rotisserie kit, its performance showed that it could provide the same results.

The TO1760SS has only one tray level, while most other same-sized units, including the Mueller MT-175, have at least two. Moreover, it doesn’t have an interior light or a convection system: two common weaknesses of small toaster ovens.

The oven has two quartz heating elements, which may not distribute heat as evenly as four or more will do. Nonetheless, they are easier to clean and more energy-efficient than the more common nichrome variety. However, if grease splashes onto the heating elements while cooking, it’ll leave permanent stains.

These heating elements use infrared light to cook, which makes the process quicker. They cool down faster too, but are not as durable.

The Ninja has the largest cooking chamber out of all the toaster ovens we’ve reviewed so far, measuring around 30.82 liters. While the manufacturer didn’t state a specific capacity, this unit could comfortably accommodate a 12-pound turkey.

Each rack level can also fit nine slices of toast or a 12-inch pizza. With the 2-level even cooking feature, you can roast a 5 lb whole chicken and a tray of vegetables at the same time.

The Black+Decker has a standard capacity for a small oven—10 liters, 4 slices of toast, a 9-inch pizza, and barely enough for a 3 lb chicken. This was one of the rare occasions where the cooking chamber’s volume that we measured matched the manufacturer’s stated capacity.

The power cord is roughly 38 inches — plenty for household use. Unfortunately, the oven doesn’t have a storage place for the cord. The rear buffer is also not designed to wrap the cord around.

The power cord has a good length for household use—roughly 25.59". However, the oven doesn’t have any storage space for it.

The Ninja comes with two baking racks which fit perfectly with the rail guides to prevent accidents when moving food in or out.

The baking rack fits perfectly with the guide, which helps prevent accidents when placing food in the oven.

The Ninja comes with two baking pans to make the most out of its capacity. They are designed to be smaller than the baking racks and too short to reach the upper guide rail.

They have an enamel coating which is non-stick and easy to clean. Note that citric acid from citrusy fruits can damage this coating.

The baking pan rests on the supports of the baking rack, which saves a bit of space in the cooking chamber. However, this means the pan will be shorter in length than the rack.

The pan does the job of catching any meat juices and drippings. This helps prevent any mess and the risk of fire from dirty heating elements. However, it doesn’t have a good coating and thus sustained some stubborn stains after our Whole Roasted Chicken test.

The broiling rack is designed to fit nicely onto the baking pans and also has an enamel coating. It has grooves and ridges which can give your roast dish that grill-like appearance. The holes at the bottom allow grease to drain from the food onto the baking pan below.

Crumbs can be quite a hassle to clean up, but the removable crumb tray makes it easier to remove them from the oven’s floor. Nonetheless, be careful, as some crumbs may still fall to the bottom of the oven as you take the tray out of the oven.

The removable crumb tray is a useful accessory for cleaning up pesky crumbs. The tray also fits perfectly with the oven’s shape so as to minimize crumbs falling onto the oven’s floor when you take it out.

The air fryer basket fits with the guide rails, unlike many other toaster ovens that have a basket which fits inside the baking pan,e.g., the Cuisinart TOA-60. Of course, you’ll still need to place a baking pan below to catch drippings. However, this design choice, combined with its fishnet structure, allows for plenty of space and maximizes heat circulation around the food.

The Ninja’s casing is made of durable and thick stainless steel which gives the oven good heat insulation. Thus, during our tests, the oven’s exterior only got hot to the touch after cooking for a long time at a high temperature (>400°F).

The digital display has a good color contrast which makes it easy to see—an advantage compared to the Instant Omni Plus 18L. Its buttons are highly responsive and very sturdy. All of the accessories are designed well to fit their purposes and make the most out of the oven’s capacity.

Unfortunately, possibly due to uneven metal expansion, the pans that we received bent when heated. Even though they flattened out again once they cooled, this was still a manufacturing flaw.

Moreover, the light button seemed to be broken when we received the oven. We could sometimes turn the light on and sometimes not. Nonetheless, we deemed these flaws to be specific to our particular unit, so we didn’t deduct too many points in terms of build quality.

The Black+Decker has a sturdy build and is made from durable stainless steel. The dials turn smoothly and are polished for aesthetics and easy cleaning.

The oven, equipped with a tamper-resistant screw to prevent removal of the outer cover, contains no user-serviceable parts. This means you need to refer service to qualified service personnel if an issue crops up and not attempt self-repair.