Steam and cooking smells go straight down instead of drifting across the room with this Hotpoint induction hob, which has a venting hood built into the black glass surface. There's no separate extractor to fit on the wall above, so the hob can sit in an island and you keep the sightlines clear. Fry a fillet of fish on a Friday night and the odours get pulled away as you cook, rather than lingering until morning.

Induction heats the pan itself rather than the glass beneath it, so the surface around your pan stays cooler and the heat goes where you want it. The 4 zones are handled by slider touch controls at the front: run a finger along to pick the exact heat level, and tap Boost when you want a pan of water at a rolling boil quickly. FlexiZone joins 2 zones into one long area, which suits a griddle pan or an oval casserole dish.

LiquidProtection switches the hob off if it spots liquid on the control panel, so a pan boiling over can't nudge your settings mid-cook. The LED display keeps a residual heat indicator lit on any zone that's still warm after you've finished, and there's a timer to count down while the rice simmers. Carbon filters in the hood catch odours before the air goes back into the kitchen.