Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster Review: Easy Controls, but How’s the Toast?

I don’t want to read a manual before making breakfast. I want to put bread in the toaster, choose a setting, and get on with my morning. The Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster looked simple enough to try without instructions, so I unboxed it and put it straight to work with two slices of homemade bread.

What Is It?

The Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster is a two-slot toaster with a brushed aluminum housing and a touch screen on the front. Its slots are wide enough for bagel halves, and a small pictogram beside them shows which way to face the cut sides. I didn’t have bagels on hand for this test, so toast was on the menu.

What’s Included?

Inside the box are the toaster, a power cord, a user manual, and a thank-you note. Once I removed the packaging and the protective film from the display, there was little else to do before plugging it in.

Design and Features

The glossy touch screen dominates the front of the Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster, while the lever sits on the side. Decorative grooves on the back and a plastic base sit underneath. The cord tucks into a channel on the bottom, which is handy if you don’t want extra cable sitting on the counter.

There’s also a slide-out crumb tray. It’s a small detail, but I appreciate not having to turn a toaster upside down to shake out the crumbs.

Setup and Touch Screen

Plugging in the Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster lights up the touch screen. It offers settings for bread, bagels, waffles, pastries, and English muffins, along with defrost and reheat options. I chose bread, selected darkness level three, and pushed down the lever. No manual required!

One limitation is that both slots share the same darkness setting. If one person wants barely toasted bread and another wants a much darker slice, you’ll need to toast them separately.

Once the toast was down, the display counted down the remaining time. That’s more useful than guessing when breakfast will be ready. During the roughly two-minute first cycle, I could feel heat coming from the top, but the sides and back remained cool to my touch. I’d still keep my hands away from the top while it’s running.

How Did the Toast Turn Out?

At level three, neither side of my homemade bread was especially brown. If that’s how you like your toast, you might be done. I wanted more color, so I flipped the slices and ran them through again at level four.

The second pass did the trick. The toast came out nicely browned and ready to eat. Because I flipped the bread and used a higher setting, this test doesn’t tell me exactly what level four would do in a single cycle. It does tell me that level three was too light for my preference with this bread.

See It In Action

Final Thoughts

The Keenstone 2 Slice Toaster is easy to figure out without opening the manual. I like the countdown, the clearly labeled food settings, the cord channel, and the removable crumb tray. The shared darkness setting is less flexible than having independent controls, and my first batch needed another round to reach the color I wanted.

If you want a straightforward two-slice toaster with a touch screen that tells you how much time is left, this one is worth considering. Just be prepared to experiment with the darkness setting for your favorite bread.

The Keenstone 2 Slice Touch Screen Toaster retails for $59.99; it is available from Amazon.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample.

What I Like: Easy-to-use touch screen; Visible countdown; Slide-out crumb tray

What Needs Improvement: Both slots must use the same darkness setting; Level three left my homemade bread too light