★ Best Pick
$25
Best Budget: The Hamilton Beach two-slice does the core job well at the lowest price: extra-wide slots that fit bagels and thick slices, a shade dial, and bagel and defrost settings. The trade-off is the plastic body, which is light and will not last as long as a die-cast machine — but at the entry price the cost-per-year still works out well for one or two people.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://pickly.blog/en/articles/best-toaster-2026/