Morphy Richards Illumination Toaster review: “evenly browned without faff”

Price at time of testing: £65 | Check price at Morphy Richards, Amazon or Currys

My verdict

There are few things more likely to trigger a 7.42am meltdown than a two-slice toaster in a four-person household.

We’d been using a Russell Hobbs Inspire two-slice toaster for the past couple of years and, to be fair, it was fine. But children grow. Appetites grow. Expectations grow. Suddenly you’re refereeing an argument about whose toast is “more done”.

My kettle and toaster set sitting nicely atop my kitchen worktop (ignore the dishes, please)

Toast is still my parenting secret weapon. Put it on toast and they’ll try it. Even now, at five and four, they’ll happily sit down with a slice and a weak decaf tea like tiny Yorkshire pensioners. So when we upgraded to the Morphy Richards Illumination four-slice toaster in white, it wasn’t really about the look of it. It was about capacity and keeping the peace.

It’s no wider than our old toaster, even with the extra slots, but it is deeper. That said, it doesn’t feel like it’s eaten the whole worktop. It sits neatly next to the bread bin, glows softly when it’s on, and mostly just gets on with the job. All I need now is a bread maker to complete the perfect toast trifecta. 

I'm fond of Morphy Richards' newest branding and design

How I tested the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster

Along with the Morphy Richards Illumination Kettle, we used it like a normal family toaster for a few weeks: rushed school mornings, snacks and the occasional “fine, put it on toast” tea.

We tried white bread, wholemeal sourdough, frozen bread and a few bagels to see how even the browning was, and whether all four slots behaved the same on the same setting. We also used defrost and reheat to check they were actually useful, not just decorative buttons.

I've also emptied the crumb tray a few times, checked how stable it felt on the worktop and noted how easy it was to fish out smaller bits without sacrificing fingerprints. Then we decided if it felt worth the money compared with other mid-range four-slice toasters.

The toaster arrives neatly packaged and little setup is required

How well does the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster perform?

It makes very good toast. Bagels too, although I’ve learnt the hard way that setting four can take a bagel from “golden” to “why have I done this” fairly quickly. Three is my safer lunch option.

Which? gave it five stars for browning coverage and that matches what I've found. Toast comes up evenly golden, without pale stripes or scorched edges. Both sides brown properly and, crucially, if you’re using the same setting across all four slots, all four slices pop up together. That alone cuts down on sibling politics.

There are seven browning settings on a simple dial, plus reheat and defrost. No baffling extras, so you don’t need to read a manual before breakfast. Defrost is genuinely handy if you’re a freezer-bread household and the reheat setting warms toast without nudging it into charcoal territory.

I'm a lover of white appliances due to our kitchen's design and this looks lovely on our worktop

It takes standard sliced bread and taller toastie slices easily. It’s less keen on very thick, breadmaker-style slices, so if you’re regularly cutting chunky homemade slabs, you might find it a squeeze.

It’s not the fastest. We found it takes about three minutes to do four slices. In real life, that’s been fine and it gives me time to do something useful like empty the dishwasher. But if your mornings are always a sprint, it’s worth knowing it’s not a speed machine.

I love that it's not too wide - though it is deeper than our previous toaster

Is the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster durable? Built to last? 

It feels solid. The painted finish looks clean and modern without being shouty and the toaster stays put on the worktop rather than skittering about when you push the lever down. The controls don’t feel flimsy and the lever works smoothly. After daily use, nothing’s started to feel temperamental or fragile.

The main annoyance is there’s no lift-and-look and no extra lift for smaller things. You can get crumpets and smaller slices out, but you do need to watch your fingers.

The crumb tray slides out easily and doesn’t chuck crumbs everywhere, which sounds basic, but honestly, not all toasters manage it.

The blue light shown above - it's an unnecessary feature IMO, but a nice design touch

Is the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster easy to use? 

Yes. The dial’s simple, the buttons are clearly labelled and there’s no digital display to interpret before caffeine.

The instruction leaflet is very bare-bones, but I’m not sure most people are reading toaster instructions unless something’s gone wrong.

You can’t run the slots independently, which does limit flexibility a bit. You also can’t put the second pair of slots down unless the first pair are down. A weird feature that confused my DH at first (you mean, we have to use the left side if we only want to use two slots?), but one we can live with.

For us, the big win is simply being able to do four slices at once. It’s a much better fit for our house now than a two-slice model.

As for its design - I can appreciate that the blue light is a nice touch. But lets not overthink it. Whoever's out there claiming that lights on appliances offer any sort of therapeutic effect (I'm looking at you, Russell Hobbs and your Calm Kettle) clearly have too much time on their hands IMO. Then again, not every person in the UK isn't as rushed as I am on a morning.

But this is Mumsnet, I'm a mum and on a weekday morning - I'm not stood still long enough to appreciate any level of light therapy. If anything, the light is purely practical as it's a handy way of clocking from across the room whether the toast is still on.

Et voilà. Nicely toasted wholemeal sourdough, alongside my perfectly crisp bagel.

Is the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster worth the price? 

With an RRP of £65 (or an RRP of £120 if you buy the kettle and toaster set), it sits in the mid-range bracket for a four-slice toaster. Given the even browning, reliable results and family-friendly capacity, it feels like fair value. It’s not packed with premium extras such as bagel mode or countdown timers, but it does the fundamentals well. 

Final verdict: is the Morphy Richards Illumination toaster the one for you? 

If you’re making toast for more than one person at a time and you want it evenly browned without faff, this is a very good option. It’s not the quickest and it’s not packed with features, but it toasts well, it’s easy to live with and it feels dependable. In our house, that’s basically a five-star review.

About the author

Rebecca Roberts (aka Beccy) is our resident lifestyle expert with a practical focus on sleep, wellness and everyday comfort. She’s equally at home tackling frank, NSFW‑adjacent topics as she is road‑testing kitchen appliances, mattresses and vacuums that work for real parents. A former editor of LJMU’s Looprevil Press, she cut her teeth in journalism in 2010, earned a post‑grad diploma in Journalism and later led editorial at ExpatWoman in Dubai before joining Mumsnet. As a mum of two, she writes with the time‑poor, sleep‑deprived in mind - honest product reviews, realistic routines and products that make parents’ lives easier.

When she’s not at her desk, she’s probably product‑testing with her two helpers, corralling a PTA or walking her two dogs up and down country lanes.

About Mumsnet reviews

All Mumsnet product reviews are written by real parents after weeks of hands-on testing. We never accept payment for coverage, and our verdicts are independent and honest. We may earn a small commission through affiliate links, which helps fund our work - but it never influences our opinions.

All prices are correct at the time of writing.

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