Cosori Turbo Blaze 6L

It's funny how the air fryer revolution has reached the furthest corners of even the less tech-savvy community. Some technologies, some products, are forever niche, but saving energy, improving quality and above all buying a kitchen product that was cheap from the start resonated so directly with the widest consumer base that air fryers quickly became a fixture.

And now there is competition, and Cosori is going for it with both marketing and ambitious promises. The latest Turbo Blaze 6L claims to cook food up to 46% faster than a conventional air fryer. These are big words, and we've put them to the test.

First of all, the Cosori Turbo Blaze is a lot more attractive than the average air fryer. The matt grey surface made of rather distinctive metal seems more robust than most, and even though the body itself is "only" six litres, the whole mechanism is more tactile and responsive. The same can be said for the controls - no, there's no exciting colour LCD display here, but everything feels solidly made and you're never in doubt about what the buttons do or how to start cooking. In other words, Cosori has mastered materials, design and user interface.

However, it must be said that Cosori could easily have added more smart control options than are actually here. Yes, the display is clear and all the buttons on the slightly rounded surface are visible from any angle, but perhaps an app of some kind that could unlock more granular control would have done wonders.

The reason Cosori even claims such speed is that they use an energy-efficient DC motor, meaning direct current instead of alternating current. The idea is that the almost 1800W reaches full power faster, thus reducing the payback time considerably. Is it always 46%? It's hard to say, but if you take French fries as an example, we recorded a time difference of about five minutes between this and Xiaomi's latest air fryer, 13 minutes compared to 19 minutes. It's a little noisier though, it's pretty obvious that the increased power is noticeable, but whether it was fish & chips, homemade granola, or something as simple as burger buns, we got the desired surface and cooking speed with the Cosori, so it works.

Yes, you could argue that six litres is a little small, especially if you're cooking for a family of four, but the build quality, power and the smooth way you clean it, it's easy to overlook the lack of smarter controls. £100 isn't nothing, but it's cheaper than a Ninja Max Pro, and is apparently better.