They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the truth is that many of us do when buying appliances – and there's nothing wrong with that, as long as a product's function is on par with its form.
But if your shiny new purchase turns out to be all beauty and no brains, your dopamine high will turn to disappointment faster than you can say "can I get a refund?"
To save you from wasting your money (and time) on a product that's just a pretty face, we've compiled a list of products from our reviews that don't live up to their looks.
If you want to find appliances that are as effective as they are eye-catching, join CHOICE to access all our detailed reviews across 200+ product categories.
Dyson wasn't on the right track with these headphones.
Dyson OnTrac headphones
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 69%
- Price: $799
If you buy these aesthetically-pleasing but expensive headphones, you might just end up hearing sad bank account noises.
Yes, they look the business, but CHOICE audio enthusiast Peter Zaluzny was disappointed when he reviewed the Dyson OnTrac headphones.
"At $799 you'd hope they'd stand out from the pack a little more and in many ways, they don't," he says.
"The OnTracs are quite flat and lacking the dynamics, excitement and personality that make a truly great pair of headphones."
No joke: headphones with air purification. Image: Dyson.
These aren't Dyson's first foray into the audio world.
But they're certainly more successful than the Dyson Zone Absolute+ headphones that double as a personal air purifier.
They were such a strange concept that Dyson actually had to clarify that they weren't an April Fool's joke when they were released in 2023.
(Not surprisingly, they're no longer being made.)
$439 is a lot of dough for this lukewarm toaster.
Bugatti Volo Toaster
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 56%
- Price: $439 (white); approx $700 (gold)
The eye-watering price of this unusual designer toaster isn't even the most outrageous thing about it.
It's terrible doing the only job you'd buy it for: toasting bread.
One slice, two slices, multigrain, frozen bread – you name it, the Volo sucks at it. It couldn't even turn out evenly-toasted bread, or deliver consistent results from one cycle to the next.
It's terrible doing the only job you'd buy it for: toasting bread
What's even more embarrassing is that a $7.50 Kmart toaster scored higher on every single performance test our experts put it through.
You could buy 58 Anko toasters for the price of a Volo – or just spend $431.50 less and get properly-browned toast.
The gold version retails for around $700.
If you thought $400 was too much to pay for a toaster, you might want to sit down: there's a gold version that sells for upwards of $700.
And if you really want to be the toast of the town in Europe, you could buy the Bugatti Volo in a denim, embossed gold or 'newspaper' finish for a cool €900.
The highest-ranked toasters in our review cost less than $200; you'll get change from $100 for most of them.
Rather than dropping hundreds of dollars on the Bugatti Volo, buy one of the best toasters from our reviews and treat yourself to a few weeks' worth of cafe coffees or fancy pastries.
The Bugatti toaster comes in a range of finishes, including denim. Fancy a €900 joaster, anyone?
Dyson air purifiers
Dyson Big+Quiet Formaldehyde BP03 air purifier
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 63%
- Price: $1499
Looking more like a speaker or table lamp than an air purifier, the Dyson Big+Quiet Formaldehyde air purifier continues in the Dyson tradition of being stylish and pricey.
It's the second-most expensive product in our air purifiers review, but does it live up to the hype? Not quite.
While it does do well in terms of purifying the air of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), its performance on other indoor air pollutants is sadly lacking. (We use acetone as a VOC for our testing, so we can't speak to how well this Dyson performs on formaldehyde specifically.)
Our experts rated it as only "OK" for removing dust and smoke from the air, scoring its performance just 64%.
Nearly all of the air purifiers recommended by our experts cost less than the Big+Quiet, and three of them cost less than the cheapest Dyson air purifier we've tested.
Despite these disappointing results, it's actually the best of a bad bunch: the other three Dyson air purifiers we've tested scored 47% and lower in our tests, despite their high price tags ranging from $899 to $1149.
This $1149 Dyson won't blow you away either.
Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 45%
- Price: $1149
Dyson Purifier Cool TP07
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 47%
- Price: $949
Dyson Purifier Hot + Cool Gen 1 HP10
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 42%
- Price: $899
And despite being the most expensive products in our pedestal and tower fan reviews, these three models couldn't hold a candle to products costing as little as a tenth of the price.
A CHOICE membership could save you from spending too much on a fancy Dyson air purifier that doesn't do a good job.
Instead of buying a $1499 Dyson, you could take out a CHOICE membership for $83.95, buy an air purifier recommended by CHOICE experts for less than half the price and come out hundreds of dollars ahead – that's nothing to be sneezed at!
Plus, you'd have access to more than 200 other reviews to help you buy better for all your other purchases.
The good-looking but lukewarm fridges
Pretty, but pretty average performance: this Smeg fridge fails to impress.
Smeg FAB32RPB5AU
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 43%
- Price: $4290
This Smeg fridge seems to turn up every time we write about overpriced and underperforming luxury-brand products, so we won't labour the point.
In short: it comes from a long line of Smeg fridges that cost a small fortune but bomb out in our testing, including another $4000 retro number that we affectionately refer to as the "worst fridge ever".
This one is not much better: all beauty and no brains.
This fancy fridge costs as much as an overseas holiday.
Miele KF 2981 Vi French-door fridge
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 68%
- Price: $18,150
No, that's not a typo: this fridge costs $18K.
For that price, you'd expect it to have just about every feature under the sun, and it does: smart connectivity, an in-built ice maker, LED panel that allows all manner of adjustments and settings.
And for a super-slick kitchen, it has a Push2open function that allows the cabinet to be flush-fitted and not require door handles.
Miele claims that its drawers ensure food stays fresh for up to three times longer than other fridges, but our testing didn't support that claim. Our experts rated it at just 56% for temperature stability, which plays a major role in keeping your food fresh.
You could buy nine of our top-scoring French door fridges for one of these mediocre Mieles
None of its scores were terrible, but none were especially great, either. For the price, you'd expect nothing short of perfection, but the KF 2981 Vi falls well short of even being rated as "good" by our experts.
You could buy nine of our top-scoring extra large French door fridges for one of these mediocre Mieles.
If your fridge budget is as much as what most people would spend on an international holiday, you're probably better off selecting from our list of the best French-door fridges and pocketing the extra cash for your country club membership, or whatever rich people spend their money on.
Coffee machines
A home espresso machine is one appliance that'll be a permanent fixture on your kitchen bench, so taste is important – both in terms of the coffee it produces and its aesthetics.
But good looks don't always mean good coffee.
These machines have style in spades but will leave you bitterly disappointed.
Breville The Oracle semi-automatic espresso machine.
Breville The Oracle BES980 semi-automatic espresso machine
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 60%
- Price: $2499
Breville makes some great semi-automatic coffee machines – but this isn't one of them. All the buttons, knobs and digital displays in the world couldn't save this machine.
Very ordinary coffee for a very steep price
Our experts rated its espresso efforts just 45% on our taste test – the second lowest score of all the manual and semi-automatic espresso machines in our review.
That's a very ordinary coffee for a very steep price.
Breville Nespresso Vertuo Creatista capsule espresso machine.
Breville Nespresso Vertuo Creatista BVE850 capsule espresso machine
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 60%
- Price: $1099
This shiny number might look sweet on your bench, but it could leave you with a bitter brew.
Capsule and pod machines don't tend to make espresso to the same standard as manual and semi-automatic machines, but this one wasn't great even for a capsule machine.
Our experts rated it just 50% on our taste test – the same score as another Breville Nespresso machine that costs just $219. That extra $880 might buy you some nice kitchen bench bling, but it won't buy you a better coffee.
Miele MilkPerfection automatic espresso machine.
Miele CM6360 MilkPerfection
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 68%
- Price: $2499
Now, $2499 isn't actually wildly expensive for a fully automatic coffee machine – some cost more than $4000 – but it is a lot of money for one that doesn't produce great coffee.
Some automatic machines we tested scored 80% and above on our taste test, but a number of them cost at least $1000 less than this Miele.
Five of the six automatic espresso machines recommended by our experts are cheaper than this model
In fact, five of the six automatic espresso machines recommended by our experts are cheaper than this model, so if you choose wisely you can save both time and money on your morning coffee without having to sacrifice style.
This 65-inch Samsung TV isn't a pretty picture.
Samsung QA65QN85DBWXXY 65-inch LCD TV
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 69%
- Price: $2199
The second lowest-scoring TV of its size, this Samsung is large but definitely not in charge.
It's not the most expensive of the bunch (the most expensive 65-inch TV we've tested costs $4299) but it's well and truly overpriced.
HD picture quality? Ho-hum. Standard def picture quality? Ordinary. Sound quality? Not much better. Remote? Not great.
It's pretty much the equivalent of a straight-to-VHS movie in the nineties
The big picture? Considering that five of the 65-inch TVs our experts recommend cost around the same or less than this Samsung, it's pretty much the equivalent of a straight-to-VHS movie in the nineties.
Check our list of the best budget TVs for better performance but less money, or learn about whether a Samsung or LG TV is the better choice. But whatever you do, don't bother with this B-grade telly.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
