Cosori VeSync Pro II Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer Review

Our reviewer was sent a free sample of the Cosori VeSync Pro II Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer so she could put it to the test in her kitchen. Keep reading for our full product review.

Air fryers are a popular kitchen appliance for a reason. While they promise to fry your favorite foods quickly—think French fries, burgers, fried chicken wings, and more—many of them have promptly received upgraded features to make cooking even easier. That’s why I was intrigued by the Cosori VeSync Pro II Smart 5.8-Quart Air Fryer, which uses an app to cook food at a precise time and temperature for a perfect meal every time.

I’ve used a lot of different air fryers, including a previous Cosori model, so I knew exactly what I was going to cook when the Cosori VeSync Pro II Air Fryer arrived. I had plenty of frozen snacks, wings, grilled cheese, and a bag of potatoes on hand. Then, when I opened the app, I planned even more meals. After plenty of air frying, I know what this air fryer can do.

Keep reading for my honest review.

Design: Good enough for counter life

This air fryer is a petite version with a footprint about the same size as an electric pressure cooker or slow cooker, but it’s still got plenty of space for cooking in its 5.8-quart basket. The matte black surfaces thwart fingerprints and smudges, while the touch panel has a shiny surface. It’s not a statement piece, but it will look good sitting on the counter.

Like other air fryers, this has a double-basket design with a perforated basket sitting inside a solid one. This allows airflow all around the food, while liquids drip off into the solid basket for easy cleanup. The large front handle is easy to grab; a sliding tab covers the basket release, making it less likely the baskets will come apart accidentally. Moving the tab and pressing the release is simple, though, so it’s easy to separate the baskets when that’s the goal.

The touch panel has presets for a variety of foods, along with a digital display of chosen temperature and remaining time.

Performance: It fries

This air fryer performed as well as the previous Cosori air fryer I tested as far as its basic tasks but with one huge difference—the app. The recipes in the app include things like prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, chicken satay, stuffed French toast, blackened catfish, and much more. I chose a few simple recipes, like grilled cheese and potato wedges, and the recipes produced great results.

But that’s not the only use for the app. When I wanted to cook burgers, I typed “burgers” into the search and found a recipe for turkey burgers. I used the settings for that recipe to cook my beef burgers along with some onions tucked next to the burgers. When the time was up, I topped the burgers with cheese and let it melt with just the residual heat. It worked perfectly.

An online recipe for air-fried cannoli was a surprising success. When I wanted to cook wings, I used my own spice mix with the app’s settings for dry-rubbed wings. They emerged perfectly cooked and crisp.

When I cooked frozen breaded shrimp, I used the oven-cooking instructions on the bag but checked the shrimp regularly during cooking since air fryers tend to cook faster. They cooked well in less time with a crunchy brown exterior. Frozen fish filets and frozen potatoes were equally as successful.

Setup Process: Connect and go

In order to use the app, the air fryer needs the VeSync app installed. Since I already used that app for some smart plugs, the setup was even easier. As soon as I opened the app with the air fryer plugged in, the app recognized the fryer, it offered to create an icon just for the fryer (which saves a couple of clicks versus going through the VeSync app), and it was ready to cook. It also offered to sync with Google Home, which I don’t have. I wondered why it didn’t mention Alexa, which I do have, so I said, “Alexa turn on the air fryer,” and it sprung to life. Well, that was certainly easy.

Before the first use, it’s suggested that the fryer be run empty through a preheat cycle and a steak cooking cycle. This familiarizes the user with the fryer and also burns off any manufacturing residue. Unlike other appliances I’ve used, I didn’t notice a burning odor when this was first turned on.

Features: The app is the boss

This air fryer has the usual suspects when it comes to preset buttons, including steak, poultry, fish shrimp, bacon, frozen foods, French fries, vegetables, toast, and bake. When it comes to manual settings, there’s preheat, keep warm, and the ability to set manual time and temperature.

Overall, it was very intuitive. The icons were recognizable, and the manual settings were similar to other digital appliances. The thing that wasn’t obvious was the switch between F and C. That requires pressing the time/temp button for 3 seconds, but this shouldn’t be needed very often.

At the halfway point in cooking, “shake” appears on the screen, and the fryer beeps for foods that should be rearranged or flipped. The shake feature can be turned on or off with a button, or the beeping can simply be ignored if shaking isn’t required for a particular recipe.

When cooking is done, the keep-warm setting can be turned on to keep the food at a safe serving temperature for 1 to 60 minutes.

While the app can set up a recipe with temperature and time, the cook still needs to push the start button to actually turn the heat on. However, asking Alexa to preheat the fryer will turn it on to the specified temperature. It can also be set for a particular time and temperature, and it can be turned off remotely just as easily.

Besides controlling the fryer with the app or a voice assistant, a smart feature I particularly liked was the warning that the basket wasn’t fully inserted. That was great when I quickly shook the basket mid-cook and accidentally left it ajar. And of course, the app notifies when the air frying is finished.

A recipe booklet that came with the air fryer had recipes that were also in the app. While that’s a bit redundant, it might be handy to have on hand. While the app doesn’t have a vast number of recipes, it’s a good range of foods, and it’s easy enough to modify recipes with different spices and flavors to personalize them. It’s possible the app will be updated in the future with more recipes, which would make it even better.

One downside of the easy voice control is that it would be possible to turn on the fryer and then ignore it, which could be problematic if it’s tucked under cabinets or somewhere else where the heat may be a problem. It’s best to keep the fryer unplugged unless it’s actually ready to be used to avoid any issues.

Cleaning: Nonstick makes it simple

Both the perforated basket and the outer basket have a nonstick coating, so nothing stuck—not even drippy melted cheese or burned sauce. Hand washing was simple, but the baskets are dishwasher safe if preferred. The baskets fit rather awkwardly in my dishwasher and took a lot of space, so after one try I decided that hand washing made a whole lot more sense.

For easier cleaning when cooking foods that might drip a lot, the outer basket can be lined with foil to collect the drippings.

Price: Just a little more

Coming in at roughly $150, this air fryer is slightly more expensive than average, and it’s also more expensive than the same-sized Cosori air fryer without smart controls. While the preset buttons are great, I appreciated the included recipes and the ability to search for similar foods to hone in on exactly the right time and temperature for a wider variety of foods.

While this is slightly more expensive than many air fryers, there are plenty of air fryers in this price range, so it’s still a reasonable price.

Competition: Cosori VeSync Pro II Air Fryer vs. Instant Vortex 5.7-Quart Air Fryer

There’s no doubt about it, everything Instant Pot makes becomes a best seller, and the Instant Vortex 5.7-Quart Air Fryer is no exception. It’s less expensive than the Cosori I reviewed, and the controls are much simpler with no presets at all. It’s great for anyone who appreciates that simplicity and who tends to ignore presets.

The Cosori, on the other hand, makes cooking easier. From the ability to preheat the fryer with a voice assistant to the app with recipes to the open-basket warning, this fryer makes cooking much much easier. While it’s more expensive than the Instant Pot model, the added features are worth it. The Cosori is my choice.