Best Philips Air Fryers of 2026

Six point two liters is the entire argument. That is the size that takes a tray of drumsticks in one layer instead of two, and it is why this is the pick for a household of four. The 2,000-watt element is the most powerful of the four here, which matters once the basket is full and the hot air has more food to get around.

The basket floor is where we think Philips earned the money. It has a raised starfish pattern that lets air travel under the food as well as over it, and the QuickClean nonstick coating on top releases stuck-on bits with a wipe rather than a scrub. Cleaning is the chore that decides how often a machine like this gets used, and this one asks very little. Wings and roasted vegetables come out crisp without pale patches, and the seven presets are a convenience rather than a necessity — time and temperature are easy to set without them.

The trade is counter. Fifteen inches square and 14 inches tall is a real claim on a small kitchen, and unlike the compact models this one does not tuck into the gap beside the sink. It needs open space behind it, too, because that is where the exhaust pushes hot air. If you have the corner, the capacity is worth the real estate; if you don't, no amount of wattage makes up for an appliance that ends up living in a closet.

A window in an air fryer sounds like a gimmick until you have opened the drawer three times to check whether the fries are done. The 2000 Series puts glass in the drawer front and a light inside, so browning is something you watch rather than guess at — and every look you don't take is heat you don't lose.

The pan is the largest of the four at 6.6 quarts, rated for about 28 ounces of fries, eight drumsticks, or roughly the same weight in vegetables. The number that matters is not the volume but the layer: food piled deep steams, food spread out crisps, so a big pan is only a gift if it lets you spread things out. Thirteen cooking functions run from air frying through baking and reheating, and the touchscreen carries nine presets if setting a temperature every single time is a chore.

We rank it behind the two picks above on track record rather than on results. This is the newest model here by a wide margin, so the experience behind it is a fraction of what the Avance and the Essential XL carry, and for a machine you'll run several nights a week that history counts for something. What is there reads well: even browning, quiet running, a coated pan that wipes clean. Eight drumsticks is dinner for two or three people, not five, which is worth knowing before you buy the biggest number on the page.

One dial is the whole interface. No presets, no screen, no menu to page through at six in the evening — turn the knob to the temperature, twist the timer, walk away. In a kitchen where several people use the air fryer with different levels of patience for gadgets, that directness is the entire reason to choose this one, and it is also what we noticed first about it.

It cooks properly, too. The compact basket is right for one or two people, and fries, wings, and reheated leftovers come out crisp with little or no oil. The 1,425-watt element is modest next to the XL models, so a tightly packed basket is slower going, but nothing we cooked came out pale or limp. It weighs 12 pounds, light enough to pull off a shelf one-handed, which counts if your air fryer lives in a cabinet rather than on the counter.

Against the Avance at the same money, this is the plainer machine: no keep-warm setting, no presets, and a basket that asks for a soak where the Avance just wipes out. That is a real difference over a year of weeknight dinners. What you get in exchange is a machine with one moving part in the interface and nothing to learn, which for some cooks is worth more than a screen.