Toshiba EM925A5A Review
Pros: Easy to use, relatively inexpensive, excellent with prepared frozen items
Cons: Struggled to defrost the ground turkey
Manufacturer: Toshiba
Our Verdict
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 This Product
Toshiba EM925A5A | |||||
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| Awards |  |  | |||
| Price | $95 List | $112 List | $100 List $99.99 at Amazon | $100 List | $75 List $74.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Easy to use, relatively inexpensive, excellent with prepared frozen items | Excellent with packaged frozen foods, compact, very easy to use | Good at reheating, does well with premade frozen foods | Good at defrosting meat | Inexpensive, smart home integration, compact |
| Cons | Struggled to defrost the ground turkey | So-so with mixed leftovers | Didn't defrost frozen turkey well | Not the most convenient to use, heating performance could be better | Low power, Echo device required for some functions |
| Bottom Line | This product had mixed results overall, failing to distinguish it all that much from other products | For those with limited kitchen space, this is the best compact model we tested | This larger product did decently well but we don't think it quite matches the performance of the top-tier models | This product pairs average results with an average price in our minds, failing to stand out from the competition | This compact model is a great value and features smart home integration |
| Rating Categories | Toshiba EM925A5A | Kenmore 70929 | BLACK+DECKER EM031MB11 | Panasonic NN-SB458S | AmazonBasics Microw... |
| Heating (40%) | |||||
| Frozen Foods (30%) | |||||
| Defrosting (20%) | |||||
| Ease Of Use (10%) | |||||
| Specs | Toshiba EM925A5A | Kenmore 70929 | BLACK+DECKER EM031MB11 | Panasonic NN-SB458S | AmazonBasics Microw... |
| Watts | 900 | 900 | 1000 | 900 | 700 |
| Cubic Feet | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Dimensions | 19 "2 x 15.9" x 11.5" | 14.5" x 17.7" x 11" | 20.2" x 15.6" x 12.1" | 19.1" x 11.5" x 14.8" | 17.3" x 10.1" x 14.1" |
| Turntable Diameter | 10.6" | 11.2" | 12.4" | 10.6" | 10" |
| Internal Dimentions | 12.3" x 13.7" x 8.7" | 9.3" x 12.4" x 13.6" | 13.9" x 14.5" x 9.1" | 12.4"x 13.9" x 8.1" | 10.9" x 6.9" x 10" |
| Child lock | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Toshiba EM925A5A is on the smaller side for these appliances, so it could be a more attractive option if you live in a smaller space. However, it still isn't the most compact option out there.
Performance Comparison
Likes
This product gave its relatively best set of results with the Hot Pocket and the small frozen burrito in our prepared frozen foods metric. It did an impeccable job heating the burrito, with the left, right, and center areas only varying by an average difference of 1°F and all three measurements were well above the requisite serving temperature listed by the package.
This microwave did equally well with the Hot Pocket, though our judges did notice that the right side was just a tiny bit crispier than the left. Unfortunately, that about sums it up for overall top-tier performances when it comes to this product. It did well in other tests but never really placed at the top.
The Toshiba EM925A5A did heat our control volume of water fairly quickly in our time trial speed test, increasing the temperature almost 90°F after being heated for 45 seconds. It also did decently well in our leftovers assessment, though the breakfast sausages were significantly hotter than the green beans or potatoes.
It also effectively heated up the canned soup to the proper serving temperature upon following the reheating directions. We like that the Toshiba EM925A5A has all the typical convenience features, like one-touch buttons and an auto-start +30 seconds button.
It has decent lighting, doesn't easily slide around on a countertop, and the popcorn preset performed fairly well in our tests. It didn't burn any, though a few areas were a little overcooked, and most of the kernels were popped.
Dislikes
Regrettably, we found that the Toshiba EM925A5A doesn't seem to heat up all that evenly, at least based on our heat map test. There were very distinctive patterns burned into the marshmallow fluff, with some areas being completely uncooked while other sections were fully blackened.
This microwave also did very poorly when it came to heating up the pizza, with the crusts and centers remaining cool while the rest of the pizza was piping hot. It delivered similar results with the single-serving frozen lasagna, with the right side remaining much cooler than the left or center.
However, it was in our defrosting metric where we found the performance of the EM925A5A to be the most disappointing. This product not only failed to defrost the majority of the pound of ground turkey we placed in it, but it also cooked a small section. We were only able to scrape less than 7ounces off the block after the defrosting cycle, with the reminder still far too frozen to break apart.
Value
In our minds, the EM925A5A isn't really a great bargain buy. It offers typical performance at what we feel is a typical price.
Conclusion
The Toshiba EM925A5A is a so-so microwave that does alright but isn't really anything for us to be excited about. It had a few very poor results that were partially offset by some top-tier scores but not enough to merit an award or an enthusiastic recommendation from us.
— David Wise and Austin Palmer