Breville Combi Wave BMO870 Review (2026)

Best for apartment and small home cooks without room for separate microwave, toaster oven, and air fryer, who cook varied meals for one to three people. Pure reheat households should save money with the Panasonic SN686S.

As a microwave, it offers smart cook, reheat, and defrost with sensor logic and gentle power for foods like butter and chocolate. Fast Combi blends microwave speed with convection browning, so a chicken roasts faster with better skin than either mode alone.

Air fry mode handles fries, wings, and vegetables in the included pan. Capacity is snack and side sized, not family batch sized.

The dial plus screen interface is powerful and, owners agree, takes a week to learn. The soft close door and muted tones are daily pleasures no spec sheet conveys.

At 20.4 x 18.5 inches and 32 lb, it claims real counter territory, and the trivet and pan need a storage plan.

Against the Panasonic NN-SN686S, the Breville matches 1.2 cubic foot microwave duty with slightly lower microwave wattage on paper, then adds convection and air fry the Panasonic lacks entirely. Against the Panasonic HomeChef NN-CD87KS, the Breville offers a more refined interface and soft close door, while the HomeChef adds broiling and inverter microwaving in an even larger body.

Choose the Combi Wave for polish and combi roasting; choose HomeChef for broil and inverter range.

Ownership space planning matters more here than with a microwave-only model. The Combi Wave is large and deep on the counter at 20.4 x 18.5 inches and 32 lb, and owners flag that the trivet and air fry pan need a storage plan of their own rather than living loose in a drawer.

Cleanup also widens beyond a microwave wipe down. Roasting and air frying leave more surfaces to clean after cooking, as the comparison with the Panasonic notes, and fatty foods need attention inside the cavity. Set against that, owners praise how the soft close door and quieter operation feel in daily use, and most accept the menu learning curve after the first week.

The Combi Wave only justifies its premium tier and deeper footprint when the convection and air fry modes replace real work elsewhere. Households that roast a chicken, crisp fries, and reheat leftovers in the same week use all three systems as intended.

If those extra modes would sit idle, the owners who praise the soft close door and reheat quality are still buying a microwave, just a larger and more complex one than the job requires.