Napoleon Prestige Pro 665 Review: Is the 2026 Elite Worth the Price?

Napoleon gave the PRO series its first full refresh since 2019, and the 665 Elite is where every upgrade landed at once. We're an authorized Napoleon dealer — we sell this gas grill, we've run it, and this review covers what actually changed, what the smart features really do, and whether the $5,699 price is justified.

The short answer: for the cook who wants one machine that does everything, yes. The longer answer — including where the smart controls frustrated us and who should choose the smaller PRO 500 instead — is below.

Napoleon Prestige PRO 665 Elite

The Full Setup. Smoker box, probe cooking, five burners, and a sear station — a mini outdoor kitchen on a cart.

Primary Cook Surface: 665 sq in
Total Cook Surface: 1,000 sq in
Main Burners: 5 (60,000 BTU)
SIZZLE ZONE Infrared: 16,000 BTU
Rear Rotisserie: 18,000 BTU infrared

Electric Smoker Box: Standard
Probes: 3 wired + wireless
Warranty: Limited Lifetime
Price: $5,699

Shop the PRO 665 Elite →

Watch It Run

Before we break everything down in writing, here's the full hands-on walkthrough — the smoker box test, the smart mode setup, and the sear that closes the argument.

What the 2026 Refresh Actually Changed

This is the first PRO series overhaul since 2019, and it's not a badge refresh — nearly every change fixes something owners and dealers actually complained about on the old model. Here's the previous generation next to the 2026 665 Elite, side by side:

The firebox is the change that matters most — the old welded steel tub is gone, and the seamless aluminum construction the 500-size units always had is now on the 665 too. Napoleon builds these in Barrie, Ontario, and backs them with a limited lifetime warranty — the same quality story that anchors the whole Napoleon Prestige family.

Full Specs: Stainless Steel Build, Numbers, and Dimensions

Everything below is confirmed from Napoleon's current product documentation for the PRO665VXRSIBPSS. The construction is 304-grade stainless steel throughout the hood, shelves, and cabinet, over that seamless aluminum firebox.

At 76.5 inches wide and 410 pounds, plan for this to live where you install it. The leveling feet handle uneven patio surfaces, but this is a permanent piece of outdoor cooking equipment, not something you wheel into the garage every fall.

One Grill, Three Cooking Stations

The reason the 665 Elite earns its flagship position isn't any single feature — it's that you can run a smoke program, a low-and-slow indirect cook, and a screaming-hot sear at the same time without any station interfering with another. Here's each system, and what it's actually like to use.

Standard on the 665 Elite

The Electric Smoker Box — Gimmick or Legit?

We went in skeptical. Add-on smoke features are usually the definition of an unnecessary upsell. This one isn't. An electric coil sits in a dedicated box in the hood — load wood chips, start a smoke cycle from the control screen, and it pumps out genuinely heavy smoke with zero babysitting. No chip tray balanced over a flame, no lifting the lid to check whether anything is actually burning.

Keep expectations honest: it doesn't raise firebox temperature, so you'll still run at least one main tube during a smoke session, and Napoleon isn't claiming it replaces an offset. But most smoke flavor locks in during the first 30 to 45 minutes of a cook anyway — exactly the window this box covers effortlessly. A half load of chips ran roughly a full cycle in our test.

One buying note: it comes standard here and is only an option on the PRO 500. If the smoker matters to you, that alone settles the size question.

The Best Feature, and It's Not Close

SIZZLE ZONE Infrared Sear Station

Almost nothing on a cart offers a true infrared side sear station, and it's the most underrated thing about this machine. The ceramic infrared burner reaches around 1,800°F — the kind of heat that locks a crust onto a steak in a couple of minutes per side. Even thin cuts come off with a deep sear and a juicy center, which standard open flame simply can't replicate.

For 2026 Napoleon lowered the element so wind affects it less, added a two-position high/low cooking grate, and fitted a wind guard. Those three small changes turn a fair-weather feature into an everyday one.

Because the sear station lives outside the hood, running it flat-out never overheats your main cooking area. Steaks out here, sides and indirect work in there — nothing fights for space or temperature.

Heat Management

Firebox, Wave Grates, and Flame Tamers

The stainless flame tamers under the grates remain one of the best flare-up systems in the industry — grease diverts and incinerates instead of igniting, and the tamers shield the burner tubes from drippings. The 2026 versions add small hole cutouts on the front tamers, which appears aimed at correcting the front-of-box cool spot nearly every cooker in this category exhibits. Combined with the new aluminum tub, evenness across the box is the best this platform has ever measured.

The 9.5mm Wave rod grates are thick, patented, and honest-to-goodness functional — more contact surface, and vegetables don't slip through. Gold standard? We'd call them very good and distinctive rather than category-defining. Napoleon's double-lined LIFT EASE lid rounds out the hood: heavy, well-insulated, and easy to raise one-handed.

A worthwhile add from the accessory catalog: the cast skillet. The box is wide enough to run the skillet beside a cooking grate, giving you a griddle section, a grate section, and the sear station all at once — three genuinely different cooking surfaces on one cart.

Cart and Storage

The Cabinet Is Where the 665 Pulls Away

The cabinet layout is the clearest separation between this and its smaller sibling. Two soft-close drawers, vertical storage racks, interior cabinet lighting, and an enclosed bay for the propane tank (this unit also converts to natural gas). Front and back are fully closed off — no critters getting in, nothing visible from the patio.

The redesigned drip management is the sleeper feature: the full-width tray funnels everything to a removable cup, entirely enclosed, entirely slide-out. Nobody likes a dirty cooker, and this system means cleanup takes minutes. The 500 doesn't get this — one more reason the bigger cabinet is more than just extra inches.

Smart Controls, Probes, and Included Accessories: The Honest Take

This is where most reviews go soft. We won't. The smart system on the 665 Elite is genuinely the most capable in the category — and it still has the same fundamental problem every connected cooker has.

What it does well: unlike earlier "connected" cookers that just read temperatures and sent notifications, this system actually modulates the gas. Set 520°F in direct mode or up to roughly 380°F in indirect mode, and after you light it, the unit holds that target through lid openings and weather like an oven would. The internal box probe is new, three wired meat probes are included and plug in below the control panel, wireless probes are supported, and the smoker box runs from the same screen. The display itself is the most intuitive we've used on any cooker — big, colorful, and readable in daylight. The LED knobs glow red when a tube is lit and cycle through admittedly fun color modes when it's not.

The saving grace — and the design decision we respect most: a single switch drops the entire system into traditional manual operation. Lighting and probes stay live, the auto-modulation gets out of your way, and you cook like it's any well-built premium cooker. Tech-forward buyers get a system that finally controls the flame; traditionalists get a clean off-ramp. Both are first-class citizens here, and that's rarer than it should be.

Is the Price Justified? Buy It If, Skip It If

Either way you land, you're getting the same construction quality and the same warranty — the decision is capability and footprint, not build. That's a good problem to have.

How It Stacks Up Against the Competition

Shoppers cross-shopping at this level usually have two or three brands on the list. Here's the short version of where the 665 Elite stands — with links to our full head-to-head breakdowns.

Consumer Questions, Answered

What is the difference between Napoleon Prestige and Prestige Pro?

The PRO tier adds heavier 9.5mm grates, upgraded fireboxes, larger storage, and the flagship feature set on top of the standard Prestige platform. We break down every difference, model by model, in our Prestige 500 vs. PRO 500 comparison.

How is the 665 different from the PRO 500?

A fifth main tube, 265 more square inches of cooking space, the standard electric smoker box, the enclosed drip system, and the bigger drawer cabinet — for $1,850 more. Our full PRO 500 vs. 665 breakdown settles the size question in detail.

Are Napoleon grills as good as Weber?

At the entry level it's a fair fight. At the premium level, Napoleon's infrared technology, firebox construction, and included rotisserie outclass Weber's equivalent tiers. Our complete brand review covers the whole lineup honestly, weak points included.

Are Napoleon grills worth the money?

If you'll use what you're paying for — infrared searing, rotisserie, the smoker — yes, and the lifetime warranty makes the math easier. If you'd only ever run the main tubes on medium, a great value pick from a lower tier serves you better. Honest answer: it depends on how you cook.

Is there a built-in version of the 665?

Napoleon offers built-in head configurations across the PRO series for outdoor island projects. If that's your build, start with the full Napoleon collection and confirm cutout dimensions against your island plans before ordering.

What do owners on Reddit and the forums say?

The consensus tracks our experience: the sear station and build get consistent praise, the smart mode learning curve gets consistent complaints, and long-term owners report the flame tamer system genuinely prevents flare-ups. The recurring debate — whether the jump from Prestige to PRO is worth it — usually ends with the PRO buyers saying they'd do it again.

Final Verdict: Worth It?

It isn't for everyone. The smart mode demands patience up front, the footprint demands space, and the cost demands that you'll actually use the sear station, the smoker, and the rotisserie. But that's exactly who this machine was built for — the cook who wants a complete station, not just a bigger box of flame.

If that's you, buy it and don't look back. If you're still weighing size or brand, our Napoleon collection is the place to compare the whole family side by side.

Reviewed by the BBQ Kitchen Pros team — authorized Napoleon dealer. Questions before you buy? Call or text us and talk to a person who has actually cooked on this unit.