The Microwave for Geeks! (yes you) and everyone else who loves Hi-Tech appliances!

 Salton Inc is innovating the kitchen appliance market with products like their new Beyond® Microwave. This microwave includes a built in UPC Barcode scanning wand, you can scan products and the time and settings are entered automatically! This is quite the sweet geeky kitchen gadget.

Beyond Microwave Review

Provided By: Salton Inc
Retail Price: $150.00 - $250.00
Review Date:1/06/05
Written By: Rusty Newton

The Beyond Microwave is a new Hi-Tech appliance from
Salton Inc that promises to make your Microwaving experience
easier and smoother. With innovative features like a scanning
wand and network capability with their other appliances, Lets
see how it does.

(ALL THUMBNAILS WHEN CLICKED WILL BRING UP A
LARGER PHOTO)

In The Box:

 
Click on the thumbnails to zoom in. 

  First off after opening the box I saw that it is well packaged to prevent any type of shipping damage. Styrofoam, wrapped in plastic, tape holding any movable parts down, very good stuff.

  The graphic designs on the box are also quite good looking, the most impressive microwave box I have ever seen.

Little did it know I snapped a picture while it was undressing.

  Here some of the quality packaging and taping I was talking about...

  Also included was more than enough documentation and a quick-reference instruction sheet.

 
Ah.. Color coordination, very nice indeed.

  Now we will take a look at the general design compared to typical microwaves and then the best part, the Features!

 Design Aspects:

 
The static cling decal on the front of the microwave DOES
come off.  At first I thought it did not, which would have decreased
the value of its awesome looks.

The Beyond Microwave plugged in, so you can see the back lit
blue LCD.

  As you can see the Beyond Microwave is designed with a futuristic style in mind. The stainless steel, square straight edged shapes and blue back lit LCD all come together to form a microwave with aesthetic appeal that anyone could love.

Before we go further with the design here is the Tech Specifications:

• Scanning wand programs microwave to cook foods
  with a simple swipe of the package UPC code

• Over 4000 UPC codes preprogrammed at factory

• New UPC codes added automatically from Beyond Information Network [Home Hub and SANI Card required]

• Learn function allows users to program their own UPC codes

• Clock time and day of week set automatically by Home Hub [US
  Atomic Clock accurate]

• No installation or extra wires necessary

• Stainless steel front

• LCD with bright blue backlight

• .9 cu. ft. interior with carousel

• 850 watt output

• Size: 12”H x 20”W x 15.5”D, Weight: 37 lbs

  You may already be wondering about the "Home Hub and the SANI card" mentioned in the specifications. I will let you know all about that at the end of the review, first lets look at the rest of the design, features and the unique scanning wand.

Typical comparison:

  Since this is still just a Microwave, lets see how it compares to other typical microwaves.

  The Size of this Microwave falls into the "small" category by typical standards.

  The Interior space is .9 cu. ft. This is just above your average "small" microwave. It is good enough for anything us Geeks would want to cook, a large plate full of food, bowl of chinese food, random unhealthy microwaveable snacks that we all love. Some larger microwaves have anywhere from 1.4 to 2.2 cu ft of space, I don't really know what you would put in those microwaves...

   The Power Level is 850 watts. This is a perfect power level as the industry standard is at about 700watts and most recipes or microwaveable food instructions are based off a 700watt oven. 
 Therefore things will cook a little bit faster in this oven, but you wont have to change the settings much. For example with a 1,150 watt oven you might burn alot of things and find out you need to set it on low all the time, or %35 etc.. which is just scaling the power down. 
  As long as your microwave is between 650 - 850 watts things should cook correctly with the instructions.

  The Beyond Microwave also includes features like quick start buttons, where you push the number 1 on the control panel and it immediately starts up on hi power set for One minute. However I will only detail the unique features and main features that affect quality or performance in this review.

  On the NEXT page we will look at the Features and especially the Scanning Wand and its function. Then the always interesting conclusion.