At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- 8 presets
- Dishwasher-safe parts
- Two drawers
- Excellent for homemade chips
Cons
- Limited cooking space
- Large worktop footprint
- Can be difficult to set
Our Verdict
While other air fryers offer similar cooking flexibility and family sized capacity, the Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer brings more to the table. This includes a stylish exterior, faultless cooking performance and a robust build quality. However, ease of use for all has been overlooked, meaning that it’s better for those familiar with air fryers, rather than novices.
Best Prices Today: Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer
While Philips might be late to the party with its first dual-basket air fryer, the 3000 Series, it’s been worth the wait. As well as two differently sized drawers (six and three litres), both with the brand’s Rapid Air Technology for evenly cooked food, plenty of attention has been paid to the exterior, with touchscreen controls and a smart grey finish accented with silver or gold drawer handles, meaning that there’s no need to hide it away.
This, plus eight presets, copy and sync functions and even a reminder to shake, is sure to make it doubly appealing for air fryer fans.
Design and Build
- Two drawers: 3L and 6L
- 42 x 31 x 38cm
- Matt grey body with metallic features
If the thing that’s been putting you off buying a bigger air fryer is that so many of the larger ones are unattractive black lumps, Philips has come to your rescue. The 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer is still sizeable at about 42cm wide, 31cm tall and 38cm deep, but it’s been designed with aesthetics in mind. Instead of black, you’ll find matt grey with metallic details, topped with a glossy touchscreen, which only shows on/off when not in use.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Inside, the design is practical: the base of each drawer features swirls that help the heat to penetrate food rather than just circulate around it. There are two drawers: a smaller three litre with a crisper plate, and a six litre that has a crisper with sides: the downside of this is that it limits the capacity. Both drawers and inserts are dishwasher safe.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
The air fryer has eight presets. Many are specific rather than general, such as frozen potato, fresh fries, whole fish, and meat chops, although there’s also a handy reheat setting. In addition, you can sync the drawers so they finish cooking at the same time, copy so both drawers have the same setting, and add a shake reminder, so it’ll alert you halfway through cooking to turn or shake food. This is a default on some settings.
The temperature range is wide – while it doesn’t go higher than 200°C, it dips as low as 40°C so you can dehydrate and make yoghurt.
Performance and Features
- Companion app
- Confusing on-appliance settings
- Drawers not as spacious as you would hope
For all of this air fryer’s capabilities, what lets it down is the instructions for getting the most out of it. There isn’t a printed copy in the box, and the downloadable version isn’t ideal. For example, there’s no explanation for setting its ‘copy’ function. We had to try different patterns before we discovered it: drawer 1 – copy – setting, drawer 2 – copy.
Presumably, the aim is to nudge you towards its companion app, which means having a device in the kitchen – something not everyone will want to do. The other confusing aspect of ‘copy’ is that food cooks faster in the smaller drawer, so its time is always less and not actually copied.
While setting one drawer’s time and temperature is straightforward enough, we found that beyond that, you’ll need the manual until you familiarise yourself with the appliance.
This is partly because some buttons are represented by icons, and they’re small. We found it difficult to make them out at a glance, plus, in bright daylight, the whole display can be dim. Other functions are poorly named: for example, to sync both drawers, the icon is referred to as ‘Time’ – easily confused with the time buttons for altering duration.
Its smaller drawer is compact, and best suited to snacks and sides. This was clear when cooking hash browns – we were only able to fit four in flat. However, we did like that there was a dedicated preset for frozen potato, which ran for 25 minutes at 200°C. After the time had elapsed, the hash browns were beautifully brown and crisp while still being soft inside.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
The other drawer, while significantly larger, can be snug depending on what you’re cooking. There’s less surface space than some single six-litre air fryers: we were just able to fit in four chicken legs overlapping.
There’s more tall space though: its makers say it can accommodate a 1.5kg chicken. We used the chicken drumsticks setting to cook the legs, raising the duration from 25 minutes to 28 minutes as they had thicker parts. They emerged with golden crispy skin, evenly cooked through to the bone and tender.
Next, we made fresh chips using peeled, chipped, soaked and dried potato pieces tossed in oil. The fresh fries preset came in handy: it ran for longer than some at 32 minutes, and a lower temperature of 180°C rather than a typical 200°C.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
However, this worked brilliantly: the chips were some of the crispiest we’ve been able to produce in an air fryer, and while there were a few pale pieces that lurked underneath the pile, generally, the results were consistent. The shake alert was a default for this preset, however, we would have liked the noise to be louder – it could be easily missed if you were in another room.
Price and Availability
Its UK price is the same as the latest Ninja Foodi Max Dual-Drawer , which has a very similar feature set, including a sync function, and the same capacity, although split between two evenly-sized drawers. For ease of use, we think the Ninja has the Philips beat, but style-wise, the Philips definitely wins. But there are cheaper two basket models than either of these, such as Sharp’s dual drawer model , which is available for around £125.
For more recommendations, have a look at our round-ups of the best air fryers of all types and brands, the best Ninja air fryers , and for more capacity, the best air fryer ovens .
Should you buy the Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer?
Philips has a reputation for creating reliable, durable and effective air fryers, and the 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer is no exception. We were delighted with its cooking performance for a variety of foods and that the drawers and inserts could be popped in the dishwasher afterwards. However, it’s not the easiest to use: by not providing proper instruction or clarity for some features, it’s less suitable for those new to air frying, as well as those who prefer not to take their mobile phone into the kitchen.
Lack of guidance aside, if you’ve been getting by with a smaller model, or one that performs poorly, this dual-drawer dynamo is sure to shake up your air frying routine.
Best Prices Today: Philips 3000 Series Dual Basket Airfryer
Author: Rachel Ogden, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Rachel Ogden specialises in reviews of home appliances, from kitchen gadgets to smart home tech. She’s a UK-based freelance journalist with more than 24 years’ experience and has written for publications including Ideal Home, BBC Good Food, The Sunday Telegraph and The Evening Standard.
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