Since you're potentially going all-in on one machine, there are a few functions you want it to perform and perform well. For this list, I took four main cooking functions into account: air fry, broil, bake and toast. These, along with roast, are the oven duties the average home cook will rely on most. Some of these cookers sport dehydrate, proof, pizza and other niche cooking functions, but most didn't, so I stuck to testing functions that were possible across all the hybrid ovens.

　　Cuisinart makes an affordable countertop oven with one of the fiercest air fryer functions of any I tested. Cuisinart

　　Air frying: This trendy term has nothing to do with frying but rather mimics the results of deep-frying using super hot, fast-moving convection air for food that's crispy outside and moist inside. Having an air fry function was the baseline criterion for consideration on this list. You can air fry lots of things, but chicken wings and french fries are two popular options, so I employed them for testing.

　　Broiling: I'm a big broiler person, especially for fish but also for things like mac and cheese, certain chicken recipes and anything else I want a crispy crust on top of. I find that ovens differ wildly in broiling ability so I wanted to see which of these ovens did it best.

　　Baking: Baking can mean a lot of things but when it comes to, let's say cookies and cupcakes, consistency is key. The sign of an oven that bakes well is simple: Will it hit the temperature you set it to and then stay there consistently throughout the bake?

　　Toasting: Like many people, I do a fair amount of toasting -- bagels, bread and the occasional Eggo -- and so I wanted to see how well, evenly and accurately (according to the oven presets) these machines could toast.

　　"What about roasting?" Not a bad question, but roasting is essentially baking at a higher temperature and is also a term generally just used to designate cooking foods with structure, including meat and vegetables. The tests I ran for baking -- temperature consistency and accuracy -- can be loosely applied to roasting so if an oven gets hot and stays hot, we can assume it's going to roast well too.

　　Try to picture what you'll be cooking in your air fryer oven and that will help you determine which size to buy. Models such as the Breville are large enough to fit a whole chicken while smaller models like the KitchenAid are better suited for cooking for two to three people at a time.

　　There is also the issue of how much space the oven takes up in your kitchen. Remember, these will likely live permanently on the counter. The Ninja Foodi oven is the most efficient oven on our list in terms of counter space since it flips up on a hinge and sits flat against the wall when not in use.

　　Spending more on an air-frying toaster will likely get you more special features and a sleeker interface but not necessarily better results. Premium models such as the $380 Breville Smart Oven Air are a joy to use, the Ninja and Cuisinart delivered equally delicious wings, fries and toast for about half the price.