6 Best Microwave for a Dorm Room

Two hundred watts doesn’t sound like much until you’re the one standing in front of the oven at midnight. The Toshiba’s 900-watt output is the only one in this group above 700, and the gap shows up on exactly the food a 700-watt oven is worst at: a dense bowl of leftovers, a burrito, anything you’d rather not reheat twice.

We think it’s the one to stretch for if the microwave will do real cooking rather than reheating. It’s also the roomiest oven here — 0.9 cubic feet behind a 10.6-inch turntable, enough for a full dinner plate with space around it — and the stainless front is the best-looking thing in this group after the retro Frigidaire.

The costs are physical. At 24.9 pounds it’s the heaviest oven here, which is worth knowing on the third floor of a building with no elevator, and its 18.7-inch width needs a wider shelf than the 0.7-cubic-foot picks. Its 1,400-watt input is also the biggest draw in the group, so if the room shares one circuit with a mini fridge and an electric kettle, that’s a conversation to have before move-in.

The detail we keep coming back to is the turntable. Ten and a half inches of glass is the difference between a plate that sits flat and one that scrapes the door as it turns, and only the GE here gives you more. Add defrost by weight and a mute function and this is the most capable oven in the group — you’re paying for capability, not for the badge.

Stainless in a dorm room is a small gamble — the finish shows every fingerprint — but the Farberware is the one here that looks like it belongs in a kitchen rather than a hotel room. The better reason we rank it this high is inside: a 10.6-inch turntable that only the Toshiba matches and the GE beats, so a full dinner plate sits flat instead of scraping.

Ten power levels and multi-stage cooking are more control than most students will ever use; the six one-touch keys for popcorn, potato, pizza, vegetables, beverage and a dinner plate are the part that earns its keep. The interior light and the clear LED display matter more than they sound — you can see whether the plate is turning without opening the door and dumping the heat.

Where it gives ground is noise. The end-of-cycle chime is a loud one, and a loud chime carries in a single room; if you’re reheating after your roommate has gone to bed, that’s the moment the mute keys on the COMFEE’ and the Toshiba look like the better buy. Otherwise there is very little between you and a hot plate.

The Chefman is the least expensive oven here, and it’s also the shortest — 9.53 inches tall, which happens to be the number that matters if the microwave has to slide under a shelf or into a cubby built into a desk. That combination is why it’s the budget pick rather than just the cheap one.

We’re pleasantly surprised by how little the saving costs you in features: 10 power levels, six presets covering popcorn, pizza, beverages, vegetables, potatoes and leftovers, express keys that start cooking on a number press, and a mute button that kills the beeps. What the money doesn’t buy is speed. Seven hundred watts is the floor of this group, so the express keys are a starting point rather than a finish line.

The child safety lock is the one design decision we question. It lives on the door handle — you pull up on the top edge of the handle to get in — so the safety latch is part of the same motion as opening the door, and it’s the least intuitive entry in this group. It’s a real safeguard and we’re glad it’s there; we just notice it every time our hands are full.

Most dorm microwaves are a black box you learn to ignore. This one isn’t: the white cabinet with rose-gold trim is the only oven here anybody will comment on, and in a room where the microwave sits in view of the bed, that’s worth more than it would be in a kitchen.

It’s also the lightest oven in the group at 14.5 pounds, which is the spec that matters on move-in day and again in May — it’s the one you can carry up three flights without a second pair of hands. Light and good-looking is the whole argument, and it’s a stronger one in a dorm than it sounds.

Underneath the paint it’s a 700-watt, 0.7-cubic-foot oven with five power levels and eight auto menus — the fewest power levels here, which matters less than it sounds when most dorm cooking is full power or defrost. The door is the quirk: it stays latched until you press stop. That’s a safety interlock rather than a fault, and it becomes routine within a day, but it is an extra press every single time.

The width is the number to take seriously. At 18.9 inches this is the widest cabinet here, and it’s also the tallest at 11.52 inches, so a shelf that swallows the COMFEE’ will not necessarily swallow this one. Measure the gap before you fall for it.

At the top of this group’s price range sits a 700-watt, 0.7-cubic-foot microwave, which sounds like a poor deal until you notice the one thing GE does that nobody else here bothers with: it tells you how much air the cabinet needs. Three inches on each side and above, one inch at the rear, nothing blocking the base. If the oven is going into a cubby built into a dorm desk, that’s the difference between a vent that works and an oven that overheats.

The hardware is respectable. The 10.75-inch turntable is the widest circle here, 10 power levels and four convenience settings cover the usual foods, and manual and auto defrost are both there for frozen dinners. It runs quietly, too, and in a room with a bunk bed that’s worth more than a preset you’ll never press.

We think the premium is hard to justify for most students. The GE is 700 watts at money the Toshiba undercuts with 900 watts and more interior room, and the one thing it clearly wins is the plate circle. What the extra buys is a stated one-year replacement warranty, worth something in a building where nobody can repair anything. For most students, though, the money goes further down this list.