If you want to spark a debate, ask an air fryer expert whether single or dual-zone air fryers are better. It's a divisive topic that's not yet been settled because both offer their own benefits. The only way to stop the experts from arguing is with the ultimate trump card: the Breville Halo Flexi Air Fryer.
A few months ago, Breville launched their latest model in the Halo Air Fryer range and they did something that nobody else has even come close to perfecting. Their air fryer, which looks like a mini oven, has two front doors. Open these and you have two zones, for baskets, crisper trays, baking trays, and whatever suits your fancy. You can split the zones, cook two different foods at once, and then have them ready at the same time. It's all the beauty of a dual-zone model.
When you want a roast chicken, or you want to give making an air fryer cake a try, you might think you're stuck, but you're not. The middle of the Halo Flexi slides out, making the whole air fryer one huge zone. The controls unite, giving you a single screen, single settings, and even cook across it all. It's incredibly versatile and it's easily one of the best air fryers I've ever used.
Specifications
Unboxing
Unboxing the Halo Flexi was actually a bit of a treat, and I don't say that lightly. The box isn't too big or too heavy, so I got it up onto the counter really easily. Inside the box was the main body of the air fryer, which was wrapped in plastic and cardboard. It would be great if everything was recyclable, but I can see the logic in keeping the Halo Flexi in perfect condition - maybe next time.
Breville cleverly packaged the Halo Flexi, so it looked like just one, simple air fryer, but as you open draws and doors, you see that there are lots of accessories included. This is why unboxing was such a treat. When I opened the doors to the main oven of the air fryer, I found two drawers, which were divided with a big piece of metal in the middle. These draws come with grippy handles that you can clip on and off the baskets, making them easy to store, but also easy to pick up, even when they're hot.
Underneath the main oven is a drop-down door. If you open this, you'll see that there are two trays, two wire frying baskets, and one large tray stored underneath. These are the accessories you'll use if you're air frying chicken breasts, mushrooms, or sausages, for example. They're great to have because let you tailor your air fryer to the kind of food that you're cooking, rather than giving everything generic blast of heat.
Often, when you have these accessories, they're a pain to store, which is why the drawer is so useful. I found it a bit fiddly to open at first (you have to be quite forceful), but you get the hang of it.
Who would it suit?
This is one of the most versatile air fryers on the market for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the one (that I promise I will stop talking about) is the fact that it can be used as a single-zone air fryer as well as a dual-basket one too. It's a great option for families, who might want to do chips and fish fingers one night and then a whole roast chicken on the weekend. In both instances, the Halo Flexi has you covered.
The second sense in which this is versatile is the eleven functions and pre-sets on offer. It's not unusual for an air fryer to have a number of different pre-sets these days, but anyone who knows their way around a kitchen will have found that not all air fryers actually deliver on all eleven functions. If you know you like to bake, roast, air fry, dehydrate, grill, and reheat, this is perfect for you. The Halo Flexi delivers good results across them all.
Even better, if you're a busy and forgetful cook, don't worry. You can set timers, pre-sets, delayed starts, and synchronised cooking, and every other feature you can think of. If you want to, you can select one of the ten digital presets for cooking food, or you can tweak the timings and temperatures for yourself. It's a busy person's dream.
So, it's versatile, beginner-friendly, competent, and relatively reasonably priced, what's the catch? I'm honestly not too sure. This has all the features of more premium air fryers, including viewing windows and smart technology. It's also not too big. Whilst I wouldn't fancy putting it in a galley kitchen, I reckon anyone who's willing to make space for their air fryer easily could make room for this. It's no bigger than a compost bin.
The only thing that I really wish Breville had done is made this a little more premium on the outside. There are a fair few plastic finishes and plastic casing, which make life easy for cleaning, but they do make me question the durability of the Halo Flex. Whilst I haven't found any complaints on the quality so far, this is very much a TBC aspect of the air fryer. We'll see what people have to do about the 1-year warranty.
What is it like to use?
I don't want to sound like an advert, because this really isn't a sponsored review, but this air fryer very much earns the 'halo' aspect of its name. It's a dream to use. The pre-sets for the different foods take all of the guesswork out of cooking, and the automatic shut-off, flip reminders, and split-settings are all easy to navigate.
To get started, all you need to do is plug the machine in and the touchscreen will light up with all of your options. The first thing you need to decide is whether you want to use one large zone or two zones (you can switch one of the two off if you just want one drawer).
The inside will then light up and then you'll have your time, temperature, and pre-sets looking at you. All the screen is touch-sensitive, so you can just tap whichever ones you want to use. I have a couple of qualms with the screen, even though it's mostly good. The first is that the touch screen doesn't always respond well to greasy fingerprints. Keep a cloth nearby, both for your hands and for the inevitable finger marks that will appear on the control panel.
The other frustration is that if you press the wrong icon, you can't really reset or 'go back', so you'll have to turn the air fryer off and on again. It's quick to light up and get working. I'm being picky, but it's always good to know these things.
Test 1: fish fingers and chips
You can't argue with fish fingers and chips as a quick and easy meal from the freezer. Arguably, it's what air fryers are made for, so I wanted to give the Halo Flexi a chance to nail the basics. Both of these foods are cooked from frozen, so it's important that the Halo Flexi can warm them right through and crisp them up without making them too dry or burnt.
To cook these, I used both drawers. For one drawer, I pressed the chip pre-heat function, which is easy enough. For the other, I pressed the frozen function, because that seemed to make the most sense. They both needed different temperatures and times, so I pressed the 'sync' button so that they would finish at the same time. After that, I pushed the baskets in, closed the doors, and set the air fryer running.
Halfway through my chip timer (18 minutes in total), I heard a beeping and the screen wash flashing at me to 'flip' my food. Experts generally recommend doing this anyway, so it's nice to have an explicit reminder from the Halo Flexi. I clicked the handle on the chip basket and shook the food around.
The way that you insert the handle is by squeezing it and then releasing it, letting it lock into place. This is simple and easy, but if you shake a heavy basket, you're likely to grip the handle harder. To me, this made the handle feel a little unsteady, but I never dropped it. Just don't get too vigorous with your chip shaking.
After twenty minutes, the Halo Flexi beeped again at me and the lights turned off. This was the indicator that the meal was ready to serve. Had I not been waiting with a plate (and some ketchup, sorry), the Halo Flexi would have kept them warm without overcooking them. It's smart like that.
When it came to the all-important taste test, the Halo Flexi really excelled. The chips were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and evenly golden brown. They could have had a couple of minutes less, but that's because I like softer chips. The fish fingers were crisp and crunchy on the outside, and flaky and tender on the outside. They were piping hot. I had to blow on them a few times before I had a mouthful, but they were brilliant.
Test 2: grilled vegetables
Whether you're making a summer salad or a traybake, a good air fryer should be able to grill vegetables almost as well as a barbecue outside. I chopped up courgette, onion, and pepper, set the Halo Flexi to grilled vegetables and let it work its magic.
Ten minutes later, all my vegetables were tender, hot, and speckled with lovely brown bubbles. The first time I tested this, I used the air fryer baskets, but then I used the grill tray to see whether that worked any better. There actually wasn't much between the results. The grill tray had a more even result, but you need something underneath to catch any small, stay pieces that might fall through.
Test 3: a bean bowl
After the great success of the grilled vegetables, I got a bit confident. I wanted to make a bean bowl testing out how well the Halo Flexi could cook onion, rice, beans, mushrooms, peppers, and chicken.
I started using one of the air fryer baskets, where I browned onion and garlic in the base for a few minutes with some spices and a touch of oil. Then, I pulled the tray out, added some rice and beans, and gave them all a mix (still in the air fryer basket). I put that back in the air fryer, shut the door and left it. On the other side of the air fryer, I used the light grills to cook chicken, mushrooms, and peppers. These needed 18 minutes, so I used the sync finish function to get my vegetables and meats heated at the same time that the rice and beans were. When they all finished, I poured everything into the air fryer basket and gave it a stir.
I don't want to brag, but it was a delicious meal. Even better, I only had a few things left to wash and they were all dishwasher-safe. Dreamy stuff.
Test 5: baking a cake
You'll see a lot of air fryer cakes online, because they're really easy, useful recipes to have. I wanted to test the large cooking zone and thought, what better test can I give the Halo Flexi than banana bread?
You don't need to adjust your mixture to make it wetter or dryer, just make your cake batter as if you were going to put it in the oven. Normally, my banana bread needs 40 minutes in my fan oven, so I wasn't sure how the Halo Flexi would cope. I put the tin of mixture in for twenty minutes at 180 °C to start with and kept an eye on it through the viewing window. When it beeped to let me know that everything was done, I peeped through and my banana bread looked surprisingly brown on top. I left it in the air fryer (turned off) for another ten minutes, before pulling it out and cutting a slice. To my shock, it was cooked right through. Just. I think it benefited from that final ten minutes, resting in the air fryer, but being able to halve the time that it takes for me to make banana bread in my oven is really formidable.
Test 6: roasting a chicken
Later on in the week, I thought I would test out roasting a chicken in the Halo Flexi, ready for roast dinners and, as you might be able to predict, this did a great job. The roast chicken that I chose was small (about enough for a family of four) and it cooked on 35 minutes. The skin on the outside was crisp and delicious and each slice was tender and juicy. It'll be perfect for my Sunday roasts.
Cleaning, storage, and maintenance
The good news about the Halo Flexi is that all the accessories are dishwasher safe, so you can just load them in and leave the dishwasher to do the rest of the work. The highest maintenance part of the whole model is the screen. When you touch all the different settings you'll leave fingerprints behind. If you have a cloth nearby, you'll be fine.
No air fryer is easy to store away, so I wouldn't recommend packing the Halo Flexi into any cupboards. It's neat and attractive enough to keep on the countertop. Whenever you want to use it, you can pull it out and use it. It's really the best way to do it.
How does it compare?
When I love an air fryer as much as this one, it inevitably comes in direct competition with our favourite air fryer of all time, the Ninja Foodi. Overall, I think the Ninja is a more durable air fryer. It feels solid and the drawers are much easier to grip onto and give a good shake. It's also quicker and hotter than the Halo Flexi, so it gives incredible results in much less time than the Halo Flexi.
Both models have lots of useful presets for baking, reheating, and roasting as well as dishwasher safe accessories. What's impressive about the Halo Flexi is the fact that it can transform into a single-zone model. You could squeeze a whole chicken into one of the drawers of the Ninja Foodi, but it's a much nicer fit in the Flexi, especially since you can make use of the viewing window to keep an eye on your cooking.
The other issues with the Ninja are that it's not touch screen and it's pretty huge too. The Halo Flexi's sensitive screen and relatively compact design remarkably beats the Ninja on that front. So,
The Ninja is much quicker and hotter than the Halo Flexi. Overall, the Halo Flexi has another 1.5L of space, in a more compact design and, at full price, it's £100 cheaper than the Ninja. So, if you don't mind a cheaper option that's a little less finessed with cooking (but still good) the Halo Flexi is a great option.
Should you buy it?
I love the Breville Halo Flexi. I think they've filled a gap in the market that no other air fryer company has and they've done it well. If you want an air fryer that can cover the functions of your oven, this is a great investment. It's perfect for families and versatile chefs, but if you need a speedy air fryer that will stand the test of time, it's worth checking out the options on Ninja's shelves.
How we test
At woman&home, we think that it's important to have rigorously tested every air fryer that we recommend to you. If we have your trust, it's important to keep it though honest, unsponsored reviews.
When it comes to air fryers, our tests start with research. As soon as we find an air fryer that we think you'll love, we call it into our test kitchen or our homes. Once we have it, we put it through a series of tests designed to replicate everyday use.
We'll make notes on everything from unboxing and first impressions to the kind of accessories that come with the air fryer. Then, we'll get started. We let you know what the air fryer is like to set up and then we'll let you know how well it cooks frozen fish fingers, frozen chips, Mediterranean vegetables, a roast chicken (if it can) as well as any other special features on offer. In the case of the Halo Flexi, we could make a cake as well as a bean bowl. We taste test, as well as measuring the time and temperature of all the food we make. It's important that an air fryer can cover a range of basics because that makes you much more likely to use yours.
After we're satisfied with our tests, we'll make notes on the value, versatility, and quality of the air fryer. We'll compare it to other models too, so you know exactly what you're investing in. There'll be no stone left unturned and no chip untested. We tell you everything we think it's important to know.
If you want to know more, you can read our page dedicated to how we test air fryers.
