Philips Viva Collection HD4928/01 2100-Watt Induction Cooktop, Soft Touch Button with Crystal Glass (Black)

FIRST.. a note: Amazon needs an hour to upload my 5min video, so i dont know if it will appear in my review. I bet many of us have many useful and practical suggestions for Amazon, but they do not seem to care.
SECOND .. Small heads up: a) This cooktop can handle only cookware with base dia (actual flat contact with induction plate) of 12CM to 20CM. b) Stir frying is always better with open flame i.e gas/wok/high flame outdoor burners etc. Saute on this cooktop will be just OK. c) Cooktime, heat transfer, temperature control all depend more on the cookware you use on this. The economical ones on Amazon wont give you best results. d) Do not leave cookware on the stovetop, remove after cooking(heat and weight issues). You can utilise the residual heat on the plate to warm up ghee or butter in any flat bottom dish after you turn power on cooktop off. Turn off mains only after fan has stopped and residual heat light goes off.e) If you like soups, like me, slow cook for 1hr (not possible on gas) to extract max flavor.

THIRD..the REVIEW: It starts with a big thanks to the manufacturer,seller,delivery agency,Amazon and all those anonymous support staff who made it possible for my new baby to be delivered home. RetailEZ , tyvm. I look for your name now and will pay extra to get same item from you than from others. Last time, i ordered an oven to arrive 2days before a kid’s birthday, they did not deliver it even though it reached the local delivery point and I was a PRIME member at the time. This time, i’m very happy.
About the cooktop… 2100W is very good. You need all the power you can get to try to make good stir fry on induction. Used 1200W earlier ocassions, stuff just gets boiled with hardly any caramelization. Preset MENUs… excellent. Manual, slow cook and pressure cook tried out, work awesome. SLOW COOK and Pause features are a dream for those who like to slow braise. NOISE LEVELs….decently low. good volume of indicator sounds and tolerable induction sound even at highest power. CLEANING… easy to wipe clean, liquids do not get into electronic or hard to clean crevices. A simple soft absorbent cloth kepty handy will go a long way to keep baby’s face nice n shiny. EASE of USE… controls are simple. IF in doubt, just press MANUAL, then adjust power/temperature with +/- buttons, standby like with gas stove. 2 or 3 times of cooking and you will get the hang of it. VALUE for MONEY… If this is the same Philips company that made my mixie, this cooktop will probably run till parts reach the end of their useful life. I’ll be happy if i can use this for five years and save up to buy the next new tech cooktop that comes along.
SUMMARY: Just buy it. This review is after 3 days use. But i have used induction cooktops a lot. I would recommend this one to my friends.
p.s: Video did not upload. Used to wonder why videos are so short in reviews, now i know. Anyways, it was a 5 minute video demo on a litre of water boiling in Amazons Solimo 3 litre dutch oven with induction base, it took 4.5 minutes to raise 24degC water to a bubbling boil.ty an good day.

Great cooktop. It’s the first time I’m trying induction. Packaged well enough to prevent damage/breakage of glass top, though had expected more protective packaging. Was delivered the very next morning (had ordered it the night before from Cloudtail), as I have subscribed to Prime. Very quick delivery.

About the product itself: Worked well from the very first second. Works perfectly with steel and induction base utensils. If the size or material (experimented with other dishes) is not right, it does not start up but warns you with a constant beeping, till you take the item off and restart with the correct cookware. Very happy with the product (been using for a day), heats milk in a jiffy (about 2 minutes on 1000 w), made tea using a steel tea vessel and cheese sandwiches using an induction base pan. Doesn’t scorch the pan, easy fast cooking, easy to use. Kitchen doesn’t heat up the way it does with a gas cooktop and easy on arms since it is faster (the main reasons I intended to try induction). Need to try making normal Indian meals including rotis (need to buy an appropriate tawa for roti and dosa). Saves a lot of time. I will update at a later point after using for a while. However, extremely happy and thrilled with it for now. Wondering why I didn’t buy it much earlier (no, actually, I do know: it’s cause we were afraid it would use too much electricity and our bill would go sky high through the roof)! Need to see what my electricity bill looks like after a month of use, but from the reviews on amazon and on the internet, induction cooking is supposed to be energy efficient, so hopefully will not be high. I will update on this as well later. Cord is long enough (for my purposes a little too long actually). Very light and portable, easy to move around the kitchen. Had expected it to be heavy, but it’s surprisingly not. A little higher than expected from the base of the kitchen slab though due to the small raised knobs/legs, but guess the space is needed for the fan to cool off the cooktop.

Adds a cool tech look to my kitchen too 🙂 Now I feel I have a fully equipped kitchen!

Slight noise from the fan, but that is fine as it actually helps you to know it is on and working.

All in all a great purchase at almost 50% of it’s actual price, really worth it.

Update:1 day later, made methi rotis and boiled potatoes for alu raita. The methi rotis came out very well, well cooked through in less time than on gas. First heating of the tawa takes a little time (about 1 roti) to really heat up, but after that you can make them pretty fast, without as as much perspiration as in gas cooktop. What a blessing. I had the kitchen fan on, too (which could not be used with flame as it would waver). I played music and danced (literally) to Coldplay while making rotis (believe me first time ever). Used the roti/dosa button to regulate the temp etc and all was easy.

Potatoes were boiled using my Pigeon induction cooker (at last found one more use for it) 🙂 As others have commented before, the Pressure Cook button seems not to work well (at least for Indian conditions?). After 15 minutes steam was still not coming out of the cooker. So gave up, returned to (by now familiar) Manual button. In 10 minutes my potatoes were ready (after 3 whistles). Cooled them and made delicious, cool alu raita to go with the rotis. Looking forward to making more dishes on this cooktop. I’m only keeping fingers crossed now that it continues to work well for months / years more as some other reviewers pointed out issues at a later stage (sometimes electronic products do get problems). But can still get it repaired or replaced I suppose. Otherwise, well, we buy mobiles and other stuff for quite a few thousands without regrets, why can’t we spend less than a quarter of that for kitchen gadgets, which make cooking in an Indian kitchen during the hot summer months especially, a pleasure? Worth the risk. And Philips is a reputed brand, so here’s hoping the products do last for years.