An air fryer that costs less than some gym shorts and connects to your phone may sounds a bit gimmicky. But the Proscenic T22 is small, efficient and surprisingly useful, says Laurence McJannet.
Chinese brand Proscenic is better known for making robot vacuum cleaners. So it should be no surprise to learn that its new air fryer, like its predecessor the T21, can be controlled remotely from your mobile phone. But is that its only selling point? Or is this compact cooker actually a smart way to cook healthy meals at home?
Men’s Fitness verdict
The T22 would make a great addition to most kitchens with a limited amount of counter space. Its presets let you cook most types of food with little oil and the remote control function is so useful.- Can bake, roast and grill a wide range of food
- Browns food evenly with handy ‘shake’ alert
- Small footprint
- Can’t crisp food up quite like an oven
- There’s no preset for frozen food
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Proscenic T22 dimensions
The Proscenic T22 is a little more compact than the company’s first foray into air fryers. At just 36.1cm high with a footprint of 27.1cm x 30.6cm, it can be kept in the corner of a kitchen worktop without taking up too much valuable real estate. However, that small footprint means its internal capacity has been reduced from the T21’s already meagre 5.5 litres – to just 5 litres. So this is not the machine for you if you plan to cook regularly for a family of five. But for one or two people, that should be plenty of space.
I found set-up and pairing with the app fairly straight-forward. Operation on the T22 is one of the simplest I’ve used. There are 11 presets for cooking everything from chicken, shrimp and bacon to fries, toast and vegetables. Each one has its own predefined temperature and cooking duration. So far, so simple.
I thought the app integration would be a bit gimmicky but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Google or Alexa voice command feature is really handy. Especially when your hands are busy preparing or cooking other ingredients. And being able to monitor and control cooking from another room with my phone was nothing short of game changing.
Proscenic T22 performance
One of the health benefits of using an air frying over other methods of cooking – particularly deep frying – is the ability to cook with much less oil. The T21 was supposed to use just 20% of oil used to deep-fry food; the T22 cuts that down to just 10%. It may have a limited capacity but I found it useful cooking salmon steaks and sweet potatoes with just a tiny amount of spray oil. It will do a decent job of fries (although there’s no dedicated frozen food programme). I just adding a couple of minutes to the standard fries cooking time, with nice, crispy results.
The shake reminder is really useful to ensuring your fries or similar loose food is cooked evenly. I struggled to get chicken cuts to brown evenly and cook with a crispy skin while staying moist and succulent. But I reckon that may come with practice. In the meantime I can build up my repertoire of meals to cook in the T22 with the help of the 100-plus recipes on the app.
The air fryer can keep meals warm for a couple of hours, and be set on a timer for just short of four hours. The front plate stays hot for a while after cooking so I’d suggest setting the unit back a bit if you have room. That way you should avoid getting scolded by accidental contact.
There’s a little noise during use, which is to be expected, but the Proscenic T22 is one of the quieter air fryers I’ve used. It’s certainly not too loud as to make using voice commands difficult.
Should you buy the Proscenic T22 Air Fryer?
Given that the T22 is now half its original retail price and that its WiFi remote control is an extremely useful feature, there’s probably room in most kitchens for this diminutive appliance. It may lack some for the finesse of larger air fryers, but it’s still useful for cooking a wide range of dishes for one or two people, and offers a cheaper, quicker and often healthier way to cook your favourite food.
