Ooni Karu 12: One-Minute Review

The Ooni Karu 12 is a wood/charcoal-fired pizza oven that is an affordable entry point for anyone looking to start out making pizza at home. 

The Karu 12 won’t lock you into a particular fuel type straightaway either, like many other budget-friendly offerings do, since Ooni has a gas conversion kit for the oven that you can buy at any time for an additional $100 / £90 / AU$189. This flexibility is critical for anyone who isn’t sure if they want the ease-of-use from gas-powered pizza ovens or the traditional smoky flavor of a wood-fired offering. It also makes it easy to swap between the two for anyone who might want to try both. 

The dual-fuel equation isn’t the only thing this pizza oven has going for it – it’s also got a sleek looking pressed metal exterior and a cordierite baking stone capable of getting above 752°F / 400°C for perfectly cooked pizza bases in minutes. 

There’s enough insulation to mean it’s only about five minutes to reheat the stone between pizzas, but the package also only weighs 26.4lbs / 12kg, has foldable legs and a detachable chimney to make it extremely portable if you want to take it camping. 

You will want to leave some room in the budget for accessories like the infrared thermometer and a pizza peel since sliding loaded pizzas and getting the correct temperature can seem impossibly difficult for novices. Even with a number of accessories tacked on, this unit is great value. 

Ooni Karu 12: Price

• Available since 2020
• $299 / £299 / AU$649

The Ooni Karu 12 is one of the more affordable options of the Ooni range. At just $299 / £299 / AU$649, it’s actually one of the best-value portable pizza ovens from any brand. 

For this you get the basic Ooni Karu wood and charcoal burning pizza oven with a stone base and chimney. If you plan to leave the pizza oven in your backyard and are happy to use wood or charcoal to make all your pizzas, then this is all you’ll need, but if you're new to pizza-making, it's much easier to start on gas. 

For a more convenient cooking arrangement, the Karu 12 Gas attachment will set you back $100 / £90 / AU$189. If you’re new to pizza ovens this is an essential feature, since it makes the unit much easier to control, but the faster and easier gas heating is convenient for frequent users too. 

For portability you’ll want the $40 / £40 / AU$80 Ooni Karu 12 Carry Cover, which seals the little kit up to make it easy to transport.

The units are also available to buy in bundles with things like a pizza peel, remote thermometer and official cookbook, all of which make a big difference to the quality of pizza you’ll be able to make. 

• Value score: 5/5

Ooni Karu 12 specs

Ooni Karu 12 review: Design and features

• Stylish steel design
• Foldable legs 
• Made for 12-inch pizza

There’s a lot to like about the design across a bunch of available pizza ovens, so it’s got some tough competition. Still, the Karu 12 is definitely one of the most stylish-looking ones around... and it's actually even more charming to look at in person. But it isn’t just the sleek Airstream-like press studs and polished steel that’s great about the Ooni Karu 12, it’s also really cleverly designed. 

The foldable legs are tall enough to keep this oven elevated off combustible surfaces without adding a heap of unnecessary bulk, and the chimney is easily detachable for compact storage and portability. The 13.2-inch cooking surface is perfect for medium sized 12-inch pizzas and the pizza stone carries enough thermal mass to cook pizza well when heated to 752°F / 400°C. 

The design offers the potential to swap out the wood box for a gas attachment that connects to a standard LPG tank so you can heat the oven at the flick of a switch. While you might lose some authenticity and smokey flavor by ditching the wood, you trade this for a much faster setup and easier-to-manage temperature control. The gas heating is a massive bonus for novice pizza makers.

When using this oven as a wood or coal pizza oven, the top hatch makes it easy to add fuel and a chimney baffle gives you some control over how hot the oven gets, but it’s not a perfect science, so expect to spend some time working out when to add fuel to ensure your oven is hot enough.

Ooni also has a wide range of reasonably priced accessories, many of which make the pizza-making experience significantly easier and more rewarding.

• Design score: 4.5/5
• Features score: 5/5

Ooni Karu 12 review: Performance

• Easy gas-fired pizza
• Cook 5 pizzas in 30 mins
• Decent wood-fired capabilities

If you’re new to pizza making I’d strongly recommend the gas attachment for the Karu 12. There are a number of challenges you’re going to need to overcome to make great pizza, including everything from getting the dough right to making sure your raw pizza doesn’t stick to the peel, so adding complexity to the cooking process is better left to when you've got a bit more experience. 

Even with the Karu 12 gas cooking attachment you’ll still have to ensure you wait the full 20 minutes to get your baking stone up to at least 752°F / 400°C, then turn the burner down when you insert the pizza to allow the toppings and base to cook at the same rate. It will take you a couple of attempts to get a feel for this balance but the temperature gauge means it’s a manageable process for beginners to learn. 

While it definitely can cook a pizza in 60 seconds, you’ll need some skill to spin it for even cooking in that timeframe. In practice, it’s probably closer to two minutes for your average home cook, which really is impressive when you're first doing it. What is a bit more of an inconvenience is that it’ll take at least that long and probably closer to five minutes to reheat the stone to the perfect temperature, so you’re looking at an output of one pizza every 5-7 minutes. This makes it great for making up to around four or five pizzas for 4-6 people, but you’ll need to look at an oven with more thermal mass if you want professional output.

For those that want to venture into the wood-fired realm, you’ll need a bit more patience and skill to load the firebox up in a way to get the temperature right for each pizza. Basically this entails loading new hardwood into the box before each pizza to make the oven flash to as close to the 752°F / 400°C temperature as possible. With the coal and hardwood I was using, I was only able to get the oven to around 650°F / 350°C and it quickly drops when you have to take the front door off to spin the pizza, so it’s hard to get the base cooked.

If you’re a traditionalist with a bit of time and determination, then it’s a capable wood-fired unit, but gas will offer much better results for anyone new to pizza making.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Ooni Karu 12?

Buy it if...

Don’t buy it if...

Also consider...

How I tested the Ooni Karu 12

• Test pizzas = 20 
• Wood and Gas
• Used a range of Ooni accessories 

I used the Ooni Karu 12 over a few weeks making over 20 pizzas for friends and family. I used both the gas and wood-fired options across multiple sessions and was able to test out a wide range of Ooni accessories, from the pizza peel to the infrared thermometer. 

I also packed the Karu 12 away in the waterproof carry case (sold separately) after each use to test the ease of packing for portability. 

I used recipes from both the Ooni Cooking With Fire cookbook (which is good for pizza dough recipes, kneading techniques and oven tips) and other online recipes and cookbooks. 

Read more about how we test

[First reviewed July 2023]

Orange Box: Two-minute review

Perhaps one of the most literal gadget names that’s ever found its way onto a released product, the Orange Box does what it says on the tin – it’s a giant orange box (unless you opt for the black version). As an added bonus, it plays music.

The first wireless speaker from the legendary UK guitar amp company Orange, this device could have been one of the best Bluetooth speakers if music quality was the only factor we judged by. Unfortunately, it isn’t, and as you’ll find from this Orange Box review, the speaker loses points in a multitude of ways.

Before we get onto the speaker’s criticisms, we do need to reiterate that the Orange Box has absolutely top of the line audio quality that stays true to its renowned hippy guitar amp heritage. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this wasn’t a consumer-grade music toy thanks to its in-depth audio features, sound customization and many drivers. 

The Orange Box loses points for… basically every other reason you’d consider buying a portable Bluetooth speaker for instead of, say, a static or wired alternative. It’s one of the more expensive devices in its field we’ve tested, it misses out on a few arguably-staple features and, most egregiously of all, it’s so big and heavy that it drops the ball on the ‘portable’ factor – literally. 

So, is the Orange Box the best-in-class Bluetooth speaker for general music fans looking for a sound system for romps in nature or around the house? No, but it does offer features that may appeal to certain music fans.

Orange Box review: Price and release date

• Released in June 2023
• Officially priced at $299 / £275

The Orange Box went on sale in early June 2023, and it didn’t hit the shelves alone, as the Orange Box-L accompanied it. That speaker is bigger, more expensive and, crucially, requires mains power, so it’s not worth comparing them further.

The Orange Box is available to purchase directly through the Orange site for $299 / £275 (roughly AU$450). However, at the time of review, it’s not actually available to buy from that many retailers apart from Amazon in the UK.

If you winced at that price, you’re not alone as this is one of the most expensive Bluetooth speakers on the market. Our top-rated speaker, the Sonos Roam, for example, only costs $179 / £179 / AU$299, and there's only a handful that cost as much as the Orange Box in our entire list of the best Bluetooth speakers.

Unlike some budget speakers, you do get some extras though. It comes with a carry strap, charging cable and 3.5mm-3.5mm aux cord, but you’re going to have to pay extra for the speaker’s carry bag. The official Orange website puts this at $64 (roughly £50 / AU$100), though this accessory is optional.

Orange Box review: Specs

Orange Box review: Features

• Pairing is quick after the first time
• 15-hour battery life
• Aux input for wired audio

You’ll find Bluetooth 5.0 on this 50 watt Orange Box – while that’s admittedly not the newest standard of wireless connectivity, we managed to wander quite far from the speaker before the connection stuttered.

According to Orange, the speaker has a 15-hour battery life, and from our testing, we’d concur. That’s a little north of what you’ll find on some rivals, though with the size of the speaker, you’d expect it to have a nice big battery!

Charging is done via a cable included in the box. The lack of a USB-C charging input may put off modern tech fans who are used to these being in almost any gadget, including in many speakers, but an arguably more annoying absence is that of a USB output so that you can charge your phone from the box. Again, this is a popular feature for people who may use their speaker outdoors.

You also don’t need to download some random app from the Play or App Store to use the Orange Box – phew! When we paired our phone for the first time it did take a little while, but after that using the speaker was easy, and we could simply flip the power switch to pump out some rock music.

The presence of an aux cord in the box, and a nice prominent input for it on the speaker, lets you play the classic ‘pass-the-aux’ party game (well, as long as you still own a phone or digital audio player with a 3.5mm headphone jack).

• Features score: 3.5/5

Orange Box: Design

• Distinctive 'Orange' design
• Heavy, with a large body
• No waterproof rating

The Orange Box riffs on the classic design of Orange guitar amps. It has the same vibrant orange casing (it also comes in black), distinctive pale mesh with gold Orange logo, and even dials and knobs on the top that you might end up ignoring in favor of the volume dial.

Of course, this speaker isn’t as big as most Orange amps, but it’s cute to see the classic rock design shrunk down to a pint-sized music machine. Well, ‘shrunk’ may be the wrong word – compared to an amp, the Orange Box is small. But compared to nearly all portable Bluetooth speakers, this is a beast.

The Orange Box measures 28 x 17.5 x 7 cm and weighs a whopping 3kg – despite the presence of an attachable strap to carry the speaker with, it’s certainly not a lightweight device. It’s fine resting on a table at a party, but you’re going to get arm ache if you try to take this to a park for a picnic or to a field for camping. Perhaps if you’re a bodybuilder or looking to save money on a gym membership this is a great-sounding alternative though. It's worth mentioning that this isn't the heaviest or biggest Bluetooth speaker in the world, but just because there are worse offenders doesn't make these issues forgivable.

Given that one of the major selling points of a Bluetooth speaker is its portability, the size and weight of the Orange Box will likely put off potential buyers who like to slip a speaker in their bag before a day out. Another reason you might avoid taking the Orange Box outdoors is its lack of waterproofing, or IP rating, so it won't be your pool party pal.

On the top of the Orange Box, there’s a wide plethora of buttons, dials and light indicators. In full, there’s a power switch, a big ‘on’ light, a smaller ‘charging’ light, three dials for volume, treble and bass, an overload light (more on this later), a 3.5mm input, and a Bluetooth pairing button and light. The only other port is on the back, and it’s a DC IN for charging the device.

• Design score: 3/5

Orange Box review: Sound quality

The Orange Box may be heavy on your wallet and heavy in your hands but it’s definitely also heavy on the bass... if you want it to be. The speaker offers great customization over your sound experience, and fantastic overall quality.

The customization comes from two of the dials that we’ve mentioned, the bass and treble ones, letting you easily twiddle down the treble or boost up the bass if the song you’re listening to calls for it. Few speakers give you this level of control over your tune, and we absolutely made the most of it.

Music quality overall is excellent too. This comes down to the fact that the Orange Box uses both class D and class AB analog amplifiers, and to fast forward you through a heap of unnecessary tech jargon, this basically means it can offer both punchy basses and natural-sounding higher notes. So far, there's only two Bluetooth speakers that offer that and that's two Orange speakers.

Basically, it offers the best of both worlds, so you can skip from something with distinctive bass like REM’s Orange Crush to a more treble-friendly song like Zach Bryan’s Something in the Orange without either sounding off and then you can embrace an older song like Nat King Cole’s Orange Colored Sky or Johnny Cash’s Orange Blossom Special without any whiplash there either.

Going hand-in-hand with this and the useful dials is the presence of both a bass driver and two high-frequency drivers. We tried to find a genre of music that didn’t sound as great on the Orange Box, but with its versatility, our mission was a failure (and we tested songs that didn’t have ‘orange’ in the title!). We even tested the speaker for movie audio and it sounded great there too.

If you’ve been holding your breath to find out what the aforementioned overload light does, well you really should breathe because it’s not that exciting. It lets you know when the speaker is being worked too hard, which is certainly useful for the longevity of the speaker, but it requires you to actively check the speaker to notice it’s on. Suffice to say, if we’re chilling with some tunes on, we’re not constantly checking to see which lights are or aren’t on. 

• Sound quality: 4.5/5

Orange Box review: Value

We won’t mince words: the Orange Box isn’t a value option if you’re looking for cheap and portable audio.

The speaker does deliver great sound, and if you want a great-sounding Bluetooth speaker without cost being a concern, it’ll perhaps be a good choice – as long as you don’t plan to take it outdoors or on long walks. 

If you’re looking for a cheap speaker, or a portable one, there are options for half the price that’ll be better for you.

• Value score: 3/5

Should I buy the Orange Box?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Orange Box review: Also consider