GeoSmartPro Air Fryer Review: Not Quite Smart Enough

Value When Reviewed

$216.66

Greatest Costs Immediately: GeoSmartPro sensible air fryer

What are you able to add to an air fryer to encourage individuals to award it a few of their restricted kitchen countertop area? Some producers go for additional cooking strategies, corresponding to a rotisserie operate or grill. However that’s not the one solution to go.

After I was testing the GeoSmartPro, I discussed to a colleague that I used to be having points getting an air fryer related to my Wi-Fi.

Immediately, he responded: “Why does an air fryer must be on-line?”

It’s an affordable query, and one affordable reply can be: it doesn’t. Nevertheless it does create some extent of distinction between one equipment and rival fashions. Much less cynically, it opens up some new prospects, corresponding to distant operation, cooking alerts delivered to your cellphone, and in-app recipes with computerized cooking instances.

The GeoSmartPro isn’t the primary sensible air fryer we’ve examined. We’ve additionally appeared on the extra budget-friendly fashions, Xiaomi’s Mi Good Air Fryer and the Proscenic T21. However to get the GeoSmartPro’s sensible options, you’ll have to pay extra. So, are they price it?

Design & Construct

• 8-litre capability
• Touchscreen show
• Shake alert however no preserve heat setting

It’s odd to assume that an equipment as fashionable as an air fryer can have a conventional kind, nevertheless it does. Most unique air fryers had been cylindrical, with a single, pull-out drawer and that’s fairly near the GeoSmartPro’s construct.

It’s a squat, sizeable (39.9 x 30 x 30.5cm) equipment, with rounded-off edges and a shiny LED show on the entrance, above a single-drawer cooking area. The door has a glass panel and the oven has an inside mild, so you’ll be able to see how your meals is getting on.

It solely is available in black, like most air fryers, which implies it’ll really feel like a hulking countertop presence.

The GeoSmartPro has an 8-litre capability, which means that you should utilize it to make a family-sized portion of meals. You can even purchase equipment for it, together with silicone baking cups and a liner, and baking trays for truffles, though these add-ons can get dear.

Inside, it’s non-stick coated and comes with an aerated tray for the bottom, which can be positioned increased within the drawer for smaller parts of meals. Set-up is simple. You’ll simply want to connect the drawer deal with and wash and dry the inside of the cooking compartment. The basket and tray are dishwasher-safe, however as with all air fryers, we wouldn’t advocate placing them within the dishwasher too usually.

It’s managed by way of a touchscreen show with keys for time/temperature (which you then regulate by way of the + and – buttons), begin/pause, energy and a menu key. There are eight cooking preset icons however you’ll be able to’t select them by urgent on the icon itself – you’ll want to make use of the menu button and scroll by means of, which isn’t fairly as useful.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

It doesn’t have a preserve heat operate but when your meals must be turned over or shaken up midway by means of, it does beep to provide you with a warning to this.

If in case you have the sensible options enabled, it’ll even ship a textual content alert to your cellphone, though it’s verbose and weirdly translated: “Flip the pot to remind. The meals has been cooked for a time frame. Please affirm the cooking standing of the meals in time and switch the pot / facet of the meals moderately.”

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The alert might as simply have learn: “Shake”.

The air fryer has a loud beep everytime you press a button, or to let you already know when to shake or flip your meals, and a collection of 5 beeps when the cooking programme has completed. The beeps are loud sufficient to be heard from the following room, which is nice information once you’re within the subsequent room – a lot much less so once you’re standing proper subsequent to the equipment. There’s no choice to mute it.

App, Efficiency & Options

• Eight presets for various meals sorts
• In-app recipes may be hit and miss
• Doesn’t produce the crispiest outcomes

Many air fryers have presets corresponding to bake, roast, air fry, dehydrate – helpful, as they’re targeted on the cooking end result you need. The GeoSmartPro doesn’t. As an alternative, its presets specify meals sorts: hen leg, steak, fish, cake, pizza, sausage, chips, bacon.

The issue is deciding on a setting if you wish to cook dinner one thing that’s not specified on the above checklist. There’s some assist in the guide, which has a desk of prompt cooking instances and temperatures, nevertheless it’s fairly imprecise and never very complete.

That is the place its sensible recipe function ought to, in concept, turn out to be useful.

The GeoSmartPro app comprises 60 from-scratch recipes you’ll be able to browse and comply with. Most are easy dishes corresponding to baked potatoes, grilled cheese, egg toast or pita bread pizza, however just a few are extra difficult, like blended berry turnovers.

When you’ve ready the dish in response to directions, put it within the air fryer. Then press ‘Begin’ on the foot of the recipe web page within the app, and the proper cooking time and temperature shall be chosen.  

Good in concept. Issues begin to disintegrate, although, once you realise that a few of the recipes don’t contain an air fryer in any respect, just like the one for wild mushroom gravy, which requires use of a skillet, whisk and hob – however no air fryer. Mmm. Air fryer gravy. It’s mind-boggling that it’s there in any respect.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Clearly, we’d count on to see included recipes optimised for air fryer cooking. That’s why it’s additionally curious that a few of the recipes specify that you simply pre-heat the air fryer – when the GeoSmartPro has no pre-heat setting.

The sensible options don’t really feel effectively thought out or built-in usefully into its performance. And the recipes themselves are hit or miss.

The primary sensible recipe I attempted was for potato wedges – and it uncovered a key downside with the air fryer. I ready them exactly in response to the recipe and began the air fryer utilizing the app. Once they’d completed cooking, they appeared completely performed – however they weren’t crispy in any respect. The recipe prompt that for crispier outcomes, you must add one other 5-10 minutes of cooking time. So I did. 5 minutes later, the resultant wedges had been blistered and barely overdone – and nonetheless not crispy.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The following sensible recipe I attempted was for roast potatoes, once more utilizing the prompt time and temperature. The end result was the identical. They had been properly cooked, however not crunchy. In an effort to crisp them up, I cooked them for longer and ended up with one other non-delicious waste of potato.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

However if you happen to’re cooking meals with much less moisture content material, like a cheese toastie, you’ll get crispy, crunchy outcomes. Typical beige air fryer meals like nuggets and fries come out fairly effectively too. Simply don’t depend on the sensible recipes.

Value & Availability

The actual concern with the GeoSmartPro air fryer is its value. With an RRP of £189.99 and a day-to-day value of £169.99, it’s one of many costlier air fryers we’ve examined. You should buy it from Amazon, or direct from GeoSmartPro.

Whereas it has a big, 8-litre capability, it’s not wherever close to as big as an air fryer oven, neither is it multifunctional, neither is it dual-drawer – because the pricier fashions we’ve examined are. To see air fryers with these options and all of our prime suggestions, take a look at our round-up of the most effective air fryers we’ve examined.

Do you have to purchase the GeoSmartPro air fryer?

The GeoSmartPro is capacious and simple to make use of. Its sensible options can even show useful if you happen to’d like alerts to your cellphone when your meals is cooked, quite than listening out for a distant beep, otherwise you need the choice to set the air fryer going remotely. Keep in mind, although, that distant operation is proscribed in its usefulness by the truth that you must put the meals into the equipment within the first place – and it’s not a good suggestion to go away most issues at room temperature for very lengthy.

That leaves the sensible recipes, which aren’t actually as sensible as they need to be.

Altogether, it’s a bit too costly for what it presents, and in order for you one, we’d advocate ready for the worth to return down before you purchase.