Philips Dual Basket Airfryer 3000 Series

Verdict

The Philips Dual Basket Airfryer 3000 series is a decent dual-basket air fryer. It looks good and offered reasonable cooking performance across a range of food, although is bettered by options in its price bracket that offer more functions and a less restrictive top temperature.

Introduction

In the marketing blurb for its latest air fryer, Philips proudly proclaims that it is the inventor of the air fryer. As such the new Philips Dual Basket Airfryer 3000 Series arrives with some weighty expectations.

As the brand originally behind the much-loved appliance that has kicked-started a revolution, its latest option arrives with some fanfare: a 9-litre dual basket option similar to the Ninja AF400UK and Cosori 8.5L XL Dual Zone Air Fryer with a similarly weighty £179.99 price.

Design and Features

• Modern looks with rose gold accented handles
• Asymmetric baskets are a useful addition
• Control panel isn’t the most legible

The Dual Basket Air Fryer 3000 Series is one of the better-looking dual basket air fryers I’ve seen recently with a sleek chassis, complete with rounded corners for extra flair. It also has a pleasant two-tone colourway with a dark blue frame and rose-gold handles on the baskets, which offer a little more compared to the sea of black and grey boxes from other manufacturers.

The 9-litre capacity on offer across two baskets allows for a lot of food to be cooked, although the baskets themselves are asymmetric. The right basket is actually 6 litres in capacity, and is good for cooking an entire chicken for instance, while the smaller basket is 3 litres, and can be used for veg to go along with the chicken, for instance.

The larger option also has its crisper plate integrated into the basket as a separate tray of sorts, like the Sharp 5.5L Air Fryer does. In the smaller basket, it is has a more conventional crisper, with a small handle to take it out.

The crisper plate in the larger basket is thick and solid, justifying its price, although the one in the smaller basket feels flimsy for an air fryer at this price. With this in mind, the baskets have a pleasant weight to them, too, while the unit itself is quite compact relative to its larger capacity.

The control panel is quite basic, offering simplistic means of setting the temperature and time with pictures to denote different presets. As opposed to being an air fryer that offers different functions, the Philips Airfryer 3000 Series Dual Basket offers a range of presets for types of food you might wish to cook, such as chicken, meat, fish and chips. This is more akin to a more affordable air fryer, as opposed to one at this price. You do at least get options for syncing cooking and a reminder for shaking the basket halfway through.

This is not the easiest air fryer to use either, with you having to select a basket and then select a preset before changing the time and temperature. On-the-fly changes while cooking are possible, although making changes isn’t as simple as with the competition. In addition, the backlight of the control panel isn’t the brightest, meaning if you place this air fryer next to a window, it isn’t the most legible.

In addition, the Airfryer 3000 Series Dual Basket only comes with a maximum temperature of 200°C, which feels restrictive if you’re after crispier results. This comes especially as some of Ninja’s options can go up to 240°C, which can result in much crispier output for chips and battered or breaded food.

There isn’t much in the way of guidance provided in the box, with no real manual. However, Philips provides the HomeID app, which offers a range of recipes for their different products, including the Airfryer 3000 Series Dual Basket. There are lots to pick from, including everything from a Salmon Wellington to Triple Chocolate Cookies. The HomeID doesn’t offer any smart control of the air fryer, though.

Performance

• Reasonably consistent cooking
• Max temperature of 200 degrees proved quite restrictive at times

In my time with the Philips Airfryer 3000 Series Dual Basket, I cooked a range of different types of food to best gauge how well it performs. It does a reasonable job of cooking everything from fish to sausages, and more conventional air fryer food, even in spite of its limiting top-end temperature.

For my first test, I cooked some breaded chicken at 200°C for 12 minutes, and it came out reasonably crispy and hot in the middle. As for haddock fishcakes, these were cooked in 13 minutes at 200°C and while crispy, they weren’t as well-cooked as in the Ninja AF180UK.

The triple-cooked oven chips cooked in 15 minutes at 200°C on the ‘frozen chips’ setting, being shaken halfway through, thanks to the built-in reminder. They were reasonably consistent in their cooking and were quite crispy, although not as crispy as other air fryers I’ve tested. Alongside these chips, I cooked some battered shrimp in the other basket for 10 minutes at 180°C using the sync cook function. I changed the temperature after the first five minutes on the shrimp, as they needed the extra 20 degrees of heat to turn out quite crispy.

Away from the typically ‘beige’ food that air fryers are most known for, the Philips Airfryer 3000 Series Dual Basket did a solid job of cooking some chicken sausages at 200°C for 15 minutes in the smaller basket. These usually take between 10 and 12 minutes in other air fryers, so Philips’ option was a little slow off the mark.

I also reheated some smoked salmon fillets at 180°C for 6 minutes, with the timing adjusted from the air fryer’s fish preset. It came out with good colour and reasonably well cooked through.

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