Sometimes it takes 2 or more tries to lock down the lever to start toasting. The cord is very stiff. The toaster does make great toast when you can lock the lever down.
For purposes of toasting it does that. The side that faces the middle toasts much darker than the side that faces the outside. Very hard to get a brown toast on the outside without almost burning the side facing inside. The bagel function makes no sense as that should shut off the heaters on one side, usually the middle but that is not the case. The “bagel” function is essentially useless. If you have a bagel with cheese on th stop you are about to have a mess. But it is a toaster and it works. The other functions we have not used.
We have a new Cuisinart Two Slice toaster. We always wonder why it toasts mainly on one side.We keep wondering are we doing something wrong. I don't think so.
It looks in the pic like the cable can be stored, but there is no cable reel. You can try to wind it around tabs on the bottom, but the plug is too wide leading to the toaster not standing straight when stored. This is far worse than the previous cheaper brand I had. Second, the toasting is not consistent; either it does not sandwich the slices consistently centered between the heating elements, or something else is going on, but the brown-ness is inconsistent, and often one side is far browner than the other side. Overall a less than mediocre toaster as compared to the 10 year old cheapo brand I had before.