Panasonic - NN-SV79MS 1.4 Cu. Ft. Countertop Microwave Oven with Inverter Technology and Alexa compatibility - Stainless Steel

Perfect size with good power and super quiet! Love it!

I love this Panasonic 1.4 cu. ft. countertop microwave. Before I get into the actual review of the microwave, I have to give 2 thumbs up to their customer service department. I had a slight issue with this microwave, but they were extremely helpful in helping me resolve my issue. Out of the box, you will notice how light this microwave is. This is important since it is a countertop and most likely you will move it when you reconfigure your counter space. Second, I love the design of this microwave. It looks very high tech and just has a very slick design to it with the stainless steel. Heating and cooking: It does a marvelous job at both. I thought I would miss not having numbers on the pad, but the way this microwave is designed, heating and cooking foods just got much easier. The Quick 30 second button makes choosing a time limit very easy. You can choose the power and time with the microwave button along with the main knob. We do alot of popcorn bags in my house, so the Popcorn button was a must when choosing a new microwave. This microwave produces very will popped bags. The main reason why I got this Panasonic is the inverter technology. This technology allows your food to be evenly heated throughout. No more cold spots! Alexa feature: This Panasonic countertop microwave comes with over 100 Alexa commands. This feature is very easy to set up. You will just need the Alexa app on your phone. It took me approximately 2 minutes to get this feature set up and it is well worth it. My wife and I are constantly shuttling our kids to activities and those really busy days it is so nice to program the microwave with the help of Alexa. I can tell it to start warming up my food at a certain time and length. When I walk in the door, our food is ready to be eaten. It has been a true time saver! Overall, I am highly satisfied with this Panasonic microwave. It looks nice, does a great job of heating my food and it has great tech features. If you are in the market for a new microwave, I highly recommend this Panasonic.

TLDR; Inverter technology allows the microwave to cook at a steady, constant power level. When using any of the automated modes (auto cook, auto defrost, reheat), its built-in sensor technology senses steam and moisture and will make adjustments to time and power level. Alexa integration surprisingly makes using this microwave a lot easier than pushing buttons on the microwave. You still can be old skool and specify a cook time and power level, if you choose. I’ve always been a fan of inverter microwaves and every time I encounter one that is not (at work, at a friends house, etc), I get a bit triggered because I know I’m going to either have unevenly heated or over-nuked food somehow. For those not familiar with inverter microwaves, the best example I can think of right now is your oven at home. When you cook anything in your oven, you set a specific temperature, say 350 degrees, and you confidently put your food in to bake. This is the behavior of an inverter microwave when power levels are set. Now imagine if you could only set your oven to the max setting (500 degrees maybe?) and had to sit there and turn the oven on and off to get as close to a 350 degree temp as possible. This is your conventional microwave when power levels are set. And if you haven’t noticed already, your conventional microwave will cycle on and off to achieve the set power level. As you can imagine, steady, constant heat is what we always strive for when cooking anything, whether you’re on a stovetop, grilling in the backyard, baking in the oven or even using the sous vide. Panasonic has been innovating and improving on inverter technology for the last 30 years. So the microwave, yeah? The NV-SV79MS Inverter Microwave has been the best microwave I have ever used to date, mainly because of its automation from both a sensor cooking perspective as well as a smart home perspective. First, in combination with its inverter technology, sensor cooking allows the unit to decide how to adjust time and power levels to achieve that perfectly heated, cooked food. For instance, if you’ve ever cooked oatmeal in the microwave, you’ve probably had lava overflows or sat in front of the microwave to make sure it doesn’t overflow. With the NV-SV79MS, you simply turn the main knob to the Oatmeal preset, press start and walk away. In all my testing thus far, I have not been able to get my typical oatmeal bowl to overflow. What’s even sweeter is now I can cook two bowls together and I'll still come out with perfect oatmeal bowls every time. Along with the oatmeal preset, there are a total of 20 preset options from coffee to frozen entrée to melting butter. Panasonic doesn’t want you to go traditional with time-based usage and rather have you trust them to use their presets. Along with the presets is the defroster mode called Turbo Defrost. Using the same techniques, it utilizes the inverter technology and sensor cooking to make sure your defrost is perfect. The only thing you need to specify is the weight so that it has a baseline to start from. Most important thing to remember is that the microwave is not cycling on and off; it’s providing constant level power to ensure an even defrost. The NV-SV79MS can still be used like a traditional microwave in that you can set a specific time and power level. It even has a “Quick 30” seconds if you’re just looking for a quick nuke, and a few pushes of this button will add an additional 30 seconds of time. For us traditional users, we know this is our go-to method of using a microwave and it’s still on the unit if you choose to use it. Last thing I want to touch on is Alexa integration and how surprised I was with it. The best way I can describe its use is like having a person at your home who knows how to use the microwave, and you telling this person what you want to heat. Alexa will set up the microwave for your specific request instead of you having to press the buttons on the unit. I feel that Turbo Defrosting will be the best use of Alexa, as you can specify weight and product (3 lbs of ground beef, for example). So you would say, “Alexa, defrost 3 pounds of ground beef” and it’s off to the races. In the same fashion, you can also tell Alexa to reheat a cup of coffee, an ounce or more of dessert, or pizza with no quantity specification. There is a whole page and a half of commands found in the manual. But let’s not forget that we can even tell Alexa to microwave for X minutes and Y seconds at power level 5, if you need to do that. Alexa setup was very easy and can be done in the Alexa app on your phone as it will automatically detect the presence of the NV-SV79MS. I keep an Echo Dot in the kitchen to utilize the Alexa commands with ease.