It didn’t have many features, but it was small enough to fit just about anywhere.

Gadget Warehouse Friday, Friday April 30^th, 2010 Netcast 1080 

Features include door & door latches!Back in 1998 manufacturers jumped the “tiny microwave” bandwagon. The idea was to make small microwaves ideal for the office, dorm or RV. I had, and still use, the SAMSUNG Junior. It’s small: 11" wide X 12" deep and 13" high. And those are the outside dimensions! The interior is too small for a turntable, but it did come with heavy-duty glass dish at the bottom of the oven compartment. It’s just big enough to cook one frozen dinner. At 500 watts, it’s not very powerful. By comparison today’s microwave ovens range from about 900 to 1200 watts. Because of the low 500-watt power, there are no power settings. You would never cook anything that I can think of at less than 500 watts. There’s no glass door, so you can’t look inside and there’s no interior light. It also has a minimum amount of controls, just six buttons. You could tell it was aimed at the college dorm market because the three cooking buttons are: POPCORN / SOUP / BEVERAGE. The electronic timer only goes up to 15 minutes. There’s a minute button & a 5 second button, and you use them to set the cooking time. Then there’s a stop/reset button. Those are all the controls. It did have a nice child-safe feature. By holding the Clear/Off button for 3 seconds it would lock out all the buttons. To restore them, hold the Clear/Off button again for three seconds. I found this microwave was ideal for my small boat where both power and space are a problem. I’ve heard people liked them for RV’s and tiny apartments too. It retailed for about $89.99. Although almost all those tiny microwaves have disappeared, including this one, Sharp still makes the Half Pint. But “small” commands a “big” price. It retails for about $150! You can get a bigger, much more powerful microwave for under $100. The higher price for the small unit most likely is because they don’t sell many of them. 

Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1080.