LG Studio LSWS305ST 30-Inch Single Electric Wall Oven Review

Aside from extremely accurate temperature regulation, a touchscreen that's actually intuitive, a slew of useful cook modes, and a 4.7-cu.-ft. cavity, sale prices under $1,700 make this an amazing deal.

Design & Usability

A touch screen full of options

If the LSWS305ST doesn’t draw you in with its bright stainless steel, perhaps its LCD touchscreen controls will do the trick. It’s pretty unusual (and just plain cool) to see an LCD touchscreen on a wall oven. Yes, you'll have to wash and dry your hands if you get messy in the kitchen, but the controls themselves are easy-to-read and pretty simple.

In fact, an LCD is about the only way to access many of the available cook modes. You can Bake, Broil, and Roast, but you can also Convection Bake, Convection Roast, and Proof/Warm. There’s also a Crisp Convection mode that LG claims will crisp the surfaces of your food, and Healthier Roast option meant for low-fat cooking. A Gourmet Recipe Bank puts 100 auto-cook recipes at your fingertips, and there’s also a pyrolytic Self Clean cycle, included broil pan, and a meat probe.

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Your eye may be drawn to the bright blue interior of the oven, and LG makes the most of the space with two standard racks and one gliding rack, plus a recessed 8-pass broiler. The broiler has your standard high/medium/low broil options, but you can also choose whether to operate the entire broiler or just the center.

Performance

The key is consistency

This is a fantastic oven, and our real world bake tests are proof. We tried out the standard bake setting with a sheet of cookies, as well as with two cakes sitting side-by-side. Cookies browned almost perfectly evenly, but proved just slightly darker on the bottoms toward the rear of the cavity. Cakes followed suit, emerging very even, but slightly darker on bottom where they neared the rear of the cavity. That indicates a minor hot spot caused by poor air circulation.

When we used convection, cookies showed a slightly larger difference in browning when we compared their tops and bottoms, and the cookies at the rear of the cookie sheet were even darker than they were with standard bake. Cakes showed a much greater variation in browning throughout each individual cake than we saw using standard bake—but the two cakes at least mirrored one another.

Regardless, while the convection results were hardly bad, we see no reason to bother using this setting when the standard bake setting is so good. Why mess with near-perfection?

That's also true for preheating. Using the Standard Bake setting, the oven hit 350°F in 10 minutes 45 seconds—but Convection Bake took about twice as long. The broiler preheated in a quick 5 minutes 40 seconds.

Warranty

This LG oven comes with a 2 year warranty covering parts and labor for any aspect of the oven found to be defective.

Conclusion

Bakes like a dream

There’s a lot to like about the LSW305ST: special features, good looks, and a relatively affordable price.

When it comes down to it, the purpose of an oven is to cook food. And this one executes the task really, really well. Our bake tests aren’t easy, but the LSW305ST managed to bake cakes and cookies as evenly as we could dare hope for. It’s a little disappointing that the convection bake mode is so slow to preheat and proved less successful in our bake tests, but the solution is quite simple: Use standard bake. With such great results, why bother adding convection to the mix?

That said, if you want to try a more specialized bake mode, the LSW305ST has a bunch to choose from, which is great for those who really value their options. There are perhaps prettier ovens to be had, but this one is nice enough to look at, albeit a bit plain. Plus, there’s that cool touchscreen to play with.

We don’t mean to gush, but the data really speaks for itself.