The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is a small, single-basket option with a 2.4-quart capacity, available on the Canadian market. We tested this model in collaboration with Canada’s francophone public broadcaster, Radio-Canada. For more information, see their French-language recommendation article and video investigation on air fryers. This air fryer is a simple appliance with a rounded, egg-shaped design and just a temperature and time dial in terms of controls. As its name suggests, it has a retro style with silver accents.
Our Verdict
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is an okay option for air frying. By the time foods like onion rings, chicken nuggets, and cauliflower finish cooking, they're mostly crispy and nicely browned. That said, it cooks fairly slowly and leaves a significant portion of each batch undercooked. With just one fan speed and a narrow temperature range, this isn't a very versatile option either; it's not a good choice for baking or dehydrating and doesn't offer alternate cooking functions like grilling or broiling.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Cooks food somewhat slowly.
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Lacks versatility.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer isn't meant for cooking large batches of food. With a small 2.4-quart capacity, there's only enough room to serve one person comfortably. If you want to make multiple portions, you'll need to cook in several batches, and with its relatively slow cooking speed, it can take quite a while. Ultimately, it makes decent-quality fried food, so most of each batch comes out crispy, but a significant portion also remains undercooked. With a simple design, narrow temperature range, and only one fan speed, it's not a very versatile option, so you shouldn't use it for other applications like baking or dehydrating.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Cooks food somewhat slowly.
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Small capacity.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer delivers alright air frying performance. When you cook typically air-fried foods, like French fries, corndogs, or veggies, most of each batch comes out crispy and golden brown. Its basket has enough surface area to arrange items in a single layer, so air can circulate and crisp up your food. However, it takes a while to heat back up after you add food to the basket, and it tends to undershoot your chosen temperature throughout the cooking cycle. Combined with a slow maximum fan speed, this means it takes a while to reach a satisfactory result, and ultimately, this air fryer still leaves a significant portion of your food undercooked.
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Makes decent-quality fried food.
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Adequate cooking surface area for arranging food in one layer.
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Cooks food somewhat slowly.
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Takes a long time to reheat after opening the drawer to add food.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer preheats quickly but cooks food fairly slowly.
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Preheats quickly.
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Cooks food somewhat slowly.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer has a small 2.4-quart capacity, just enough for one person. Its basket has an adequate amount of surface area, so you can spread food out in one layer to help it crisp up more effectively.
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Adequate cooking surface area for arranging food in one layer.
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Small capacity.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is very compact, it won’t take up much space on your countertop, and it’s easy to store in a cupboard or on a shelf when you’re not using it.
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Compact size.
- 6.8 Air Frying
- 6.7 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 6.9 Frying Performance
- 6.6 Cooking Speed
- 6.7 Cooking Capacity
- 7.5 Size
Changelog
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This air fryer comes in 'White,' 'Black,' and 'Grey.' We tested the 'White' variant, and you can see the label for our unit.
If you encounter another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll update this review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is a small 2.4-quart model that, like the Beautiful 6qt Digital, stands out for its style. It has a distinctive vintage look but shares an egg-shaped design with other single-basket options like the Gotham Steel Air Fryer. Compared to other budget air fryers, it offers average performance. It won't give you results that are as crispy and well-browned as those of the Ninja Max XL AF161, for example, but it will do better than the Instant Vortex Plus 140-3088-01 or the thinkkitchen Luminate, which comes from the same manufacturer. Unfortunately, this air fryer lacks versatility. While higher-end models like the COSORI TurboBlaze can bake, broil, roast, reheat, dehydrate, and more, the Retro Air Fryer is best suited to just air-fry foods, doing a decent job for classics like chicken tenders and sweet potato fries. In short, there are definitely both budget and compact options that outperform this air fryer, but if you choose this one for its unique aesthetic, you can expect alright performance for simple air-fried snacks.
If you want more options to consider, see our recommendations for the best air fryers, the best small air fryers, and the best budget and cheap air fryers.
The Ninja AF101 is a better option for most people than the thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer. While these models are nearly the same size and perform very similarly when it comes to air frying, the Ninja cooks faster and offers more versatility. The thinkkitchen is limited to one fan speed and a narrow temperature range, making it unsuitable for baking and dehydrating. The Ninja, on the other hand, has a wider temperature range, and its fan speed can vary depending on the application. It also offers a handful of cooking modes, such as 'Roast' and 'Reheat.' If you plan to use your air fryer for various purposes, choose the Ninja, but if you only plan to cook classic air-fried treats like French fries, you might prefer the thinkkitchen.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is a better option than the Dash Compact. Cooking typically air-fried treats like onion rings, wings, and veggies with the thinkkitchen results in food that is mostly well-cooked and crispy. Conversely, the Dash over or undercooks more than half of each batch. The thinkkitchen also cooks faster. Neither option is particularly versatile; they both have narrow temperature ranges and only one fan speed, but the thinkkitchen maintains a slightly more stable temperature. This stability can help with delicate tasks like baking, so it will perform a bit better than the Dash if you choose to make the odd batch of cookies in your air fryer.
The thinkkitchen Luminate and the thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer are both small, fairly simple models from the Canadian kitchenware brand. Each model has its own strengths. While the Retro Air Fryer has a smaller capacity, its basket has almost as much surface area as the Luminate, so you can spread food out for the best possible results. Its air-frying performance is also better; the Retro Air Fryer leaves a larger portion of each batch crispy and golden brown. The Luminate, on the other hand, is more versatile. It has a wider temperature range, offers presets for various foods, and adds a 'Keep Warm' option. It also preheats faster, but once a cooking cycle starts, its temperature fluctuates a lot more than the Retro Air Fryer, making it tougher to follow recipes.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer is better than the Black+Decker ID1901-1BDC. While these are both small models with a similar design, the thinkkitchen does a much better job of air frying food. It can cook most of each batch to a crispy golden brown, while the Black+Decker under- or overcooks the vast majority of anything you try to cook with it. The thinkkitchen also cooks much faster, despite taking longer to heat back up after adding food to the basket. Neither option is very versatile, but the thinkkitchen maintains a somewhat more stable temperature throughout cooking cycles, so it's a better option for simple baking tasks, like making a few cookies.
The thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer performs better than the Proctor Silex 35055. Both air fryers are small-capacity units with a similar design: they have rounded bodies with two dials, one for temperature and one for time. However, the thinkkitchen cooks more of your food to a crispy golden brown while the Proctor Silex over or undercooks more than half of each batch.
The thinkkitchen also maintains a more stable temperature throughout the cooking process, which makes it easier to follow recipes. Plus, it preheats and cooks faster, too.
The Gotham Steel Air Fryer and the thinkkitchen Retro Air Fryer are similar models. They share a simple, egg-shaped design with dials for temperature and time settings. These air fryers are quite evenly matched, with the Gotham coming out ahead by a very narrow margin in most areas. In fact, they produce almost identical batches of air-fried food. That said, the Gotham reaches that result a bit sooner. On the other hand, the thinkkitchen maintains a more stable temperature, making recipes easier to follow. Neither option is very versatile, as they have narrow temperature ranges and fixed fan speeds, but if you only plan to cook classic air fryer options, they're both solid picks. Overall, these air fryers are so similar in terms of performance that your choice might come down to aesthetics.
Test Results
Its basket is just large enough to cook for one person, but it has more surface area inside than some similar-capacity air fryers, like the Proctor Silex 35055. This allows you to arrange food in a single layer for the best results.
This air fryer isn't very versatile. It has a narrow temperature range and only one fan speed, which limits what you can use it for. For example, its lowest temperature setting is too high for dehydrating or proofing dough. There are no presets available for alternate cooking methods or specific foods, but it does feature some suggested cooking settings around the time dial for easy reference:
- Fries: 392 °F, 15–20 minutes
- Ribs: 356 °F, 20–25 minutes
- Grilled Prawns: 320 °F, 15–20 minutes
- Cakes: 320 °F, 20–30 minutes
- Drumsticks: 356 °F, 20–25 minutes
- Beef Steaks: 356 °F, 10–20 minutes
- Grilled Fish: 320 °F, 15–20 minutes
This air fryer makes decent-quality fried food. Cooking classic air-fried treats like mozzarella sticks, wings, or Brussels sprouts makes most of your food crispy and well-browned. However, a large portion also remains undercooked and mushy.
This air fryer takes a long time to regain its heat after you open the drawer to add food. It tends to undershoot the set temperature throughout the cooking cycle and fluctuates quite a bit, so your food takes longer to finish cooking. This also makes it harder to follow precise recipes or cook more delicate foods, like fish.